THE DANGERS OF MIXING LAW AND GRACE

THE DANGERS OF MIXING LAW AND GRACE

Hello all,

It is like mixing oil and water and all one gets is a mess!

For the true Christian, “For by GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves (works): IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD: Not of works (following OT laws and traditions), lest any man should boast.

And NOBODY can be “saved” at all unless God, Himself, chooses that man (or woman). “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath send me draw him: and I will raise him up at the LAST DAY.” God does the choosing, and God does all the necessary work for us after He has drawn us. No amount of self-effort will make us “better Christians”….it will only cause us to fall from grace.

John 16:13…Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear; that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” No man, who is under the grace of God, needs to be led by any other “man”. This is what is called “the blind leading the blind”….and both will fall “into the ditch”….Matthew 15:14. Each of us, individually, have the “work” to grow in grace and maturity by studying for ourselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. This is “Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory”….Col.1:27. And this is what Jesus meant when He said, “The kingdom of God is WITHIN you.”…Luke 17:21.

Yet, Christians “go to church” to learn from Pastors what they should DO, and how they should believe. When, in fact, God tells us to learn for ourselves what He will teach us….not “men”.

We can now see the great “falling away” happening before our eyes. Christians are truly FALLING FROM GRACE in order to incorporate the laws of the OT into their worship. This is like a slap in the face to God, Who sent Jesus Christ to take away the sin of the world:

John 1:29….”The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the SIN OF THE WORLD.’ ”

Jesus Christ did it all for everyone for all time…..past, present, and future. “It is finished”!! (Words of Jesus just before “giving up the Ghost”).

To fall back into keeping of OT laws and traditions is falling from the grace given to us by God. God has already done everything to save mankind. Mankind can DO nothing. And to try to DO anything, is telling God that what Jesus did was insufficient to them.

“Paul warns against setting aside the grace that comes from Christ. Those who do have nullified, or run away from, the grace that comes through His blood and attempted instead to justify themselves by the works of the Law. The purpose of Paul’s letter to the Galatians was to warn against the Judaizers because they attempted to lure born-again Christians back to justification through the Law, which is impossible (Galatians 2:16). He reminds them of the freedom they have in Christ: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).”

Those who attempt this mixing almost completely IGNORE the Book of Galatians, which is mainly specific teachings on how the new “church” was falling back into Judaism after having been saved by grace.

Galatians 5:4…”Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Galatians 3:3…”Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (doing the works of the law as part of salvation)

Also, in Colossians 2:16-17…”Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: (vs.17) Which are a SHADOW of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

So, why all the arguing about which day to worship, or if one should eat certain foods (or not eat them)? And why pay so much heed to celebrating the Feasts of God now? They were just a blueprint (shadow) of God’s plan….and not meant to be observed as a tradition by those who are under grace. Those who are saved by grace are in the “body of Christ”….and everything has already been done by God. The only “work” we have to do concerns ourselves….to grow in grace and maturity by studying what God has to tell us. And this will be done through the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

The following study presents the dangers of mixing the Law with Grace in a simple to understand and concise way.

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Link of article or video : [url]http://www.phildrysdale.com/2014/03/the-danger-of-balancing-grace/[/url]

The Danger of Balancing Grace

I frequently get accused of being one of those “hyper-grace” people.

I have to confess I do find grace rather hyper. The apostle Paul did too.

Romans 5:20 says “where sin abounds (pleonazõ), grace hyper-abounds (hyperperisseuõ).”

Paul’s description of grace was hyper. In fact, he heard a lot of the same objections to grace as we see today!

I have to confess. I totally understand people’s reservations with grace. It’s a scary thing if you don’t fully understand what it is. Which it seems most people don’t.

However, trying to bring balance to grace is not a good solution. Rather, it’s about the worst thing you can do.

Changing grace to suit us is not the answer.

The answer is to educate ourselves in the truths of the gospel until we can see grace as the solution.

So today I want to briefly talk about why trying to balance grace is so dangerous. The importance of believing in the gift of righteousness

Here is the deal. Grace is scary!

But only when coupled with one key misunderstanding of the gospel.

Romans 5-8 explains the key to walking in grace is understanding your sinful-self died and you are now righteous.

As we believe this, grace becomes a powerful force to enable us walk in the righteousness we’ve been given.

If we don’t believe this then grace loses any effectiveness it has.

We just end up letting “sinners” do what they want to do – sin.

Teaching grace and extending grace has to be complete.

We can’t release a partial grace that leaves people in their sin.

We must teach a grace that makes us righteous. Not by our efforts to change but by Jesus’ work in us to make us righteous!

In my experience every pastor who preaches against hyper-grace has a common incorrect belief. They believe on one level or another that Christians are sinners.

This makes grace as it’s preached in the Bible a risky proposition.

Imagine you are leading hundreds of people. Now imagine that the Bible presents grace as something we should teach.

This grace says that we must believe in those we lead that they will
behave perfectly righteous without any of the rules or laws. But just because of who they are in Christ.

If you think they are all sinners you are going to have a heart attack at the prospect.

You need some rules to help make sure they behave. To make sure these sinners don’t sin! You can’t just trust God to keep them from sinning!

The result is we try to “balance” an extreme message. The problem is that balancing the message isn’t the answer.

Despite how much people try – balancing grace doesn’t work. In fact, it makes things worse! And here’s why…

Grace + Law = Law

Trying to balance out grace is impossible. It can’t be done!

Grace in it’s very nature is an all or nothing.

When we change the all… it becomes nothing!

Paul talks about this in most of his epistles but nowhere with as
strong an emphasis as his letter to the Galatians.

In it he states (in Gal 5:4) that just by getting circumcised, nothing more, you fall from grace back under the law.

Just one rule ruined grace and made the whole system of belief the same as being under the law.

You see there are two systems you live under.

1) Grace – allowing God to work in and through you, simply following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

Or

2) Law – attempting to what’s right or wrong.

It is physically impossible for you to be living both!

To mix them puts you firmly in the law camp.

But just the bad parts of the law!

What’s funny about this is you aren’t even living fully in the law either!

The insistence on balancing grace means you don’t get to enjoy the benefits of grace or the law.

Yes, while we are not under the law (not in the slightest), those who were under the law did have benefits. If one perfectly fulfilled the law without a single error there were blessings you would come under.

But we don’t put ourselves under the blessings of the law, because we have mingled a little grace with the law.

So we fail to do the law perfectly.

Instead we put ourselves back under the curse of the law.

The law requires any man who lives with law to adhere to it perfectly or they place themselves under wrath!

So by “balancing grace” we remove ourselves from grace and place ourselves under the curse of the law!

We live in a terrible in-between place. This is why the book of Revelations tells us it’s better to be hot (grace) or cold (law) than lukewarm (a bit of grace and a bit of law).
What’s my point?

My point is this:

If you try to balance grace – you receive none of the benefits of grace and only the negative parts of the law.
You end up with no grace at all and a partial law.

Balanced grace = sloppy law!

Grace = no law at all.

What’s the role of the law in the New Covenant?

Many people wonder what I think about the law. As I continue to relentlessly preach grace they seem to jump to the conclusion that I hate the law and that I believe the law is no longer relevant.

Let me address this concern by saying this – I think the same thing the apostles thought about the law.

Here are just a few verses that describe what they thought of the law, as recorded throughout the New Testament. I encourage you to take time and go through them, check them in context, I have, and I am very confident of what the New Testament writers had to say about the law. I know it’s a relatively long list but it’s well worth it.

As a disclaimer, if this list makes you angry, please hear me out to the end. I actually love the law and so did the writers of the NT – so long as it remains in its rightful place!

What’s the Role of The Law in the New Covenant

What the NT authors had to say:

The law is an unbearable yoke. (Acts 15:10)
Romans

The law reveals sin but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20)

If the law worked then faith would be irrelevant. (Romans 4:14)
The law brings wrath upon those who follow it. (Romans 4:15)

The purpose of the law was to increase sin. (Romans 5:20)

Christians are not under the law. (Romans 6:14)

Christians have been delivered from the law. (Romans 7:1-6)

The law is good, perfect and holy but cannot help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12)

The law which promises life only brings death through sin. (Romans 7:10)

The law makes you sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:13)

The law is weak. (Romans 8:2-3)

The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)
2 Corinthians

The law is a ministry of death. (2 Corinthians 3:7)

The law is a ministry of condemnation. (2 Corinthians 3:9)

The law has no glory at all in comparison with the New Covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:10)

The law is fading away. (2 Corinthians 3:11)

Anywhere the law is preached it produces a mind-hardening and a heart-hardening veil. (2 Corinthians 3:14-15)

The law justifies nobody. (Galatians 2:16)

Christians are dead to the law. (Galatians 2:19)

The law frustrates grace. (Galatians 2:21)

To go back to the law after embracing faith is “stupid”. (Galatians 3:1)

The law curses all who practice it and fail to do it perfectly. (Galatians 3:10)

The law has nothing to do with faith. (Galatians 3:11-12)

The law was a curse that Christ redeemed us from. (Galatians 3:13)

The law functioned in God’s purpose as a temporary covenant from Moses till John the Baptist announced Christ. (Galatians 3:16 & 19, also see… Matthew 11:12-13, Luke 16:16)

If the law worked God would have used it to save us. (Galatians 3:21)

The law was our prison. (Galatians 3:23)

The law makes you a slave like Hagar. (Galatians 4:24)

Christ has abolished the law which was a wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:15)

Paul considered everything the law gained him as “skybalon” which is Greek for “poop”. (Philippians 3:4-8)

The law is only good if used in the right context. (1 Timothy 1:8)

It was made for the unrighteous but not for the righteous.
(1 Timothy 1:9-10)
The law is weak, useless and makes nothing perfect.
(Hebrews 7:18-19)

(As a side – that’s some fighting talk – no wonder the author of Hebrews remains anonymous to this day!)

God has found fault with it and created a better covenant, enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:7-8)

It is obsolete, growing old and ready to vanish. (Hebrews 8:13)

It is only a shadow of good things to come and will never make someone perfect. (Hebrews 10:1)

But… but… the Old Testament

Let’s not kid ourselves, even in the Old Testament the Mosaic Covenant was one that had five times more curses than blessings. There are 13 verses of blessing described (Deuteronomy 28:1-13) and 65 verses of curses (Deuteronomy 27:15-26, 28:16-68).

People lived constantly under the awareness of both the severity of the law and their inability to fulfill it! The law was always more of a curse than a blessing to those who were under it! That was its very purpose – to show just how much trouble they were in!

They knew they were to celebrate the law because it was God-given, but they never ultimately had a revelation of why it was given.

It was given to a people who wanted to do things their own way, as a way to show them they couldn’t! It showed them the standard of God’s holiness was far beyond anything they could ever hope to achieve themselves. This law was required and yet at the same time wholly impossible to obey. It was meant to drive them to grace and mercy and that grace and mercy could only come through the One who did the impossible by fulfilling the law.
The law made things worse

I know personally when I have a sin in my life I have a tendency to want to deal with it using law. When I see a sin, I think “what law can fix the problem here?” Or “what structure can I implement in my life to stop me from sinning?”

The problem is, that this is an Old Covenant way of thinking. The law is not applied to control sin, actually in both Romans 5:20 and 1 Corinthians 15:56 Paul explains to us how the law actually makes sin worse! Wherever there is law, sin starts to run rampant! It throws gasoline on the flames! That’s what the much misunderstood passage Romans 7 is all about, many think it’s about a sinful nature, actually it’s about the law stirring up sin!

But Jesus came to fulfill the law, not do away with it!

I hear this argument a LOT when I talk about this stuff, let me ask you a hypothetical question:

Let’s say you have a mortgage for $500,000 owed to the bank. Now imagine that a rich man comes along and pays that mortgage off in full. He gets his receipt of the payment and you receive written notice of the mortgage being paid in full.

Now suppose the first of the month comes round and you get your monthly bill, from the bank, demanding your $2000 monthly repayment.

What are you going to do?

You are going to go straight to the bank with your piece of paper saying that the contract you had with the bank has been paid in full! You would be crazy to keep paying according to the old, fulfilled contract.

Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:17-20 that it is imperative that the standard of the law remains. Because if that standard is not left for those who do not believe in Him people will not realize their inability to do it! To put it in another way, the law must be there otherwise nobody will realize they need grace!

Jesus paid your debt in full. He fulfilled the law. In fact Paul says that the law was nailed to the cross with Him! (Col 2:14)

OK, but just the ceremonial law right?

This is where it gets complex and I want to make it as simple as possible for us all.

You see, a lot of people try to break up the law, into either two, ceremonial and moral, or three parts, ceremonial, civil and moral. I often hear people explain that it was the ceremonial law that was nailed to the cross.

This is a nice idea we use to try keep a hold of as much of the law as we possibly can, while doing away with some. The problem is the Bible doesn’t break up the law as nice and neat as that, in fact it doesn’t break up the law at all.

However, I’m not going to argue about whether or not the law is broken up into sections, let’s just go straight for the jugular.

Paul explains that the “law” which is no longer relevant in the believer’s life is the law which is “written and engraved on stones” in 2 Corinthians 3:7.
Which law does that sound like? The ceremonial law? The civil law? Obviously this is the Ten Commandments Paul is talking about, they were the only laws to be engraved in stone.

Paul isn’t being vague here and wants everyone to know that when he says that the law is no longer applicable in the Christian’s life he means the whole package it came in!

If you feel a need to divide the law up, that’s fine, just so long as you know the whole thing was fulfilled in Christ and the whole thing is for the unbeliever not the believer (1 Timothy 1:9).

So you are saying I should go sin as much as I like?

In short, sinners sin, saints don’t. If you think God made you righteous so you could keep on sinning then you’ve completely missed the point that He made you righteous. Righteous people find it hard to sin. If you think I’m saying you cannot sin as a Christian I again refer you to the above articles!

So what are you saying?

Firstly let me say this, I’m not saying we tear out the first half of our Bible and never read it again. It is still the Bible and God still uses it to teach us and direct us. The Spirit of God helps us divide the scriptures so we understand how to read them in light of the New Covenant. God’s grace is just as present in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. However this article is not about the Bible,
it’s about the law.

So, secondly, I’m not saying you should never read the law or that the law should no longer exist either. We can find in the law loads of things that speak of who God is and teach us the grace and mercy of God. Not only that, but without understanding the law, our sin and the consequences of them, we will never fully be able to celebrate the freedom that God’s grace has brought us into!

We must however be able to divide correctly who the law is for. It is for unbelievers not believers. It is imperative that we understand this, those who put themselves back under the law put themselves right back under a curse. In fact it says if you do so, you are “severed from Christ”, pretty scary language if you ask me! (Galatians 5:4)

It is so important to understand that the law is good, it is perfect, it is holy (Romans 7:7-12), but most importantly it’s essential that we remember that it has a purpose. That purpose is to lead people to the end of themselves, it is there to push people, until they give up on the law and choose to rely on God’s gift of grace!

The law will never save anyone, nor will it make them a better person, whether they are a believer or unbeliever. It is simply there to show us how lost we are without grace.

The law is a mirror, but nobody ever uses the mirror to clean themselves. The purpose of a mirror is to show you your dirty face – not to clean it – you need Jesus to clean that dirty face.
Another reformation

The church is in desperate need for another reformation. For too long we have straddled the fence of the New and Old Covenant. A bit of grace here, a bit of law there. But the truth is that a little leaven ruins the whole bread. We don’t mix grace and law. Grace + Law = Law. The only way to drink grace is undiluted.

Let’s make it a priority to keep the law in its rightful context, as a tool to lead people to the end of themselves.

We must stop teaching the law as if it were a list of rules for us to follow, they are not a list of helpful moral guidelines which we are supposed to focus on trying to keep. It absolutely devastates me that the first thing children learn when they go to church is the ten commandments! Did we not read 2 Corinthians 3:14-15?

“But their minds were hardened. For to this day when they read the Old Covenant that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts”

What are we doing to our children? To ourselves?

The truth is we have been set free from the law, and our lives in grace will look better than those of any person trying to keep the law. Because we are not cleaned from the outside, we are cleaned from the inside. We have become a new creation.

Have you ever thought about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? If Adam and Eve didn’t have knowledge of good and evil then how did they please God?

The truth is that God has never wanted the human race to do life constantly trying to figure out if things are good and evil. He’s made us righteous so that everything we would do is good.

You see the biggest hinderance to us doing good is our knowledge of good and evil! If we were willing to put aside our desire to do good and avoid evil, and instead just follow God’s voice, we would see the most incredible changes in our lives.

What might happen if we trusted that Christ in us is good at His job and that the Holy Spirit, actually produces the fruit of the Spirit and not us?

The only thing a believer needs, to live a holy life, is to remain conscious of the fact that God has fully accepted them as His son or daughter, making them a new creation and one with Him, filled with the Holy Spirit. Forever. Amen.

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God does not think as we do, nor vice versa. With God, the “spiritual” things are the reality; and the “natural” things are what will pass away. But we have to “see” what the natural is before we can understand their spiritual results. That’s the reason the examples were given to us in the OT. They were “natural guidelines” for coming “spiritual realities”. But, to understand this, we must develop “spiritual” ears to “hear” what the Spirit saith unto the churches (people). Once we understand the spiritual, we can leave the “natural” examples where they belong…in the past.

I Cor. 2:14…”But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

If you understand these things, but someone accuses you of being “foolish” in your understanding, now you know why they don’t understand. They still think in “natural” terms and have no understanding, yet, of the “spiritual”, which is learned through growing in GRACE through faith. Doing the works of the law will keep you limited to only understanding the natural.

II Tim.2:15…”Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” But it also goes on to say, (vs.16) “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” Listening to “men” (usually those who have been educated in a seminary by other “men”) rather than studying the word of God by yourself.

The Lord knows who are his (vs.19), and we don’t need other “men” to tell us whether or not we are “saved” by what we do, or don’t, DO.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

IDENTIFYING THE TWO “BEASTS” OF REVELATION

IDENTIFYING THE TWO “BEASTS” OF REVELATION

Hello all,

It is so interesting to me that the Lord has placed it on my heart to focus on the anti-Christ and the False prophet, when I already feel strongly about who they are. I have been researching more into this, the past few days, and finding even more information that is confirming what I already believe.

That being said, I have found, in researching this, that most believe that the Pope is the False Prophet and Obama is the anti-Christ. For some reason most see the anti-Christ as a political figure and the False Prophet as a religious figure…must be the word “Prophet” that leads to this conclusion. But, I think is is important to realize that the anti-Christ will be both.

Although the anti-Christ is actually the most powerful religious and political figure this world has ever known, and has always existed in the office of Pope, this most recent Pope is the head of both, as he is the religious head and the political head at the same time as he is both the White and Black Pope! So he fulfills the complete description of what the anti-Christ of the Bible is to be. Obama is not a religious figure, and therefore lacks this most important quality. Although his religion, Islam, definitely plays a crucial role.

Anti-Christ has to be a religious figure because the word itself means “in place of Christ” and Christ was not a political figure, even though the Jews feared Him as such. In the case of the Pope, he is a religious figure, and especially with the Pope we have now, who is also a political figure as a Jesuit. So let’s take a look at that first.

Pope Frances is the anti-Christ

There are two beasts, one from the “sea” and one from the “earth”. Beasts in the Bible represent “governments”. The anti-Christ is the beast from the “sea”, and the word “sea” in the Bible represents “masses of society, the people”, so we have a government rising out of the society of the masses, and not only that when we consider the government of the Vatican, we also have a city thrown into the mix. A “holy” city, and cities in the Bible represents “religious governments”. When we pull back the curtain on this religious city we find the Jesuits, that are very much ruling the leaders of this world, thus making them rulers over all kings and princes and presidents and all political power!

Now let’s look at the religion of the anti-Christ as described in Dan. 11: 36-37.

Daniel 11:36–37
36 . . . And he will exalt and magnify himself above every god , and above the God of gods will speak marvelous things. . . .

37 And above the god of his fathers he will not recognize, and above the desire of women, and above every god he will not recognize, for above every he will magnify himself.

First Aspect of his religion:

The Antichrist will speak marvelous things against the God of gods (v. 36).

He will revive the lies first told by Satan in the Garden of Eden.
The same lie will surface again when the Antichrist begins his campaign to destroy all vestiges of true religion, revering the God of heaven.

Don’t we see Pope Francis doing just that!! Including all false religions in a peace process and warning against fundamental Bible believing Christians as if they are the only religious people that are dangerous and need to be done away with! To the world of deceived people the Pope is representing Christianity, but Catholic is anything but Christian…it is Babylon! So we have Zionist False Jews, and Muslims and Babylon all in agreement with each other and against Christians!! (more on this later).

Second Aspect of his religion:

Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers (v. 37).

Meaning that the Antichrist will lift himself above every god. And that is exactly what the Pope does in declaring to be God on earth, as representing Christ in the flesh. King of kings and lord of lords he declares himself to be, and in reality in a worldly sense, he is, as he rules every aspect of life in the material realm as “prince of this world”. For his father is none other than the Dragon, Satan, and Satan has no regard for God whatsoever!! The fathers of this “church” has been based on the lie that the disciples of Christ, as Peter, was foundation of this false religion, and surely the Pope has no regard of them.

Third Aspect of his Religion:

He will not regard the desire of women (v. 37)

I won’t go into this much other than to say that there in enmity between his seedline and the seedline of the woman (Eve) that led to Christ crushing his head at the Cross. He hates women, as the Beasts hates the woman, even mystery Babylon that rides the beast.
This Pope is also a pedophile and a sodomite, and does not desire women, even sexually. And, most importantly, he especially hates the Bride of Christ.

Fourth Aspect of His Religion

He will honor a god of forces (v. 38)

(Not a God of Love)

God of forces…Jesuit forceful warriors maim and kill.

It is clear that the title “god of forces” for the anti-Christ’s sole deity must be a veiled reference to none other than Satan. He honors the god of Death and Hell. As a Jesuit he honors the force that rules the world by wars and deception, that controls every aspect of secular society. Forcing all to take his mark via the governments of the world.

Fifth Aspect of His Religion

He will exalt himself above all gods (v. 37).

Not only will he present himself as a god to be worshiped, he will, in the last stage of his career, forbid his subjects from worshiping any other god except presumably his own, Satan. We know this is true, as we see how he is deceiving the whole world by coming across as a man of peace and a humble servant of God. He is beloved by 2/3’s of the world’s population, and they are under his spell, as he causes craft (witchcraft) to increase and prosper.

Is Pope Francis from the Merovingian Bloodline?

In researching this article I came across a post from 5Doves that was put on a few months ago by a person named Day. I thought it very interesting and timely and a good source of information for what I am conveying here. Not only that, there have been so many others talking about this bloodline and how it relates to the anti-Christ especially on this site the past few weeks! I am including all the sites where Day got information about this, just in case anyone wants to research this further.

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Day (17 March 2013)
“Pope Francis: Descendant of A Legendary European Bloodline ?”

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2013/day317.htm

Pope Francis: Descendant of A Legendary European Bloodline ?

PLEASE NOTE: This purely speculative post will be the most meaningful to those with some degree of familiarity with the Merovingian bloodline and early history of Europe, including Charlemagne, the First Holy Roman Emperor.

The choice of the name FRANCIS is tremendously interesting:

Francis = Franks = Merovingians = Clovis = European Adoption of Christian (Roman) Orthodoxy = Charles Martel = Pepin = Donation of Pepin=Papal States=-Charlemagne =First Holy Roman Emperor=King of Jerusalem = Historical Influences of the Merovingian Bloodline= Power and Expectations of the Present-Day Merovingian Bloodline.

See short history of Franks at:
http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westeurope/Franks.html

Pope Francis is descended from people of the Asti region of the Piedmont. His great-grandfather was also named Francis…does this family link go back to the Franks ?

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-francis-feted-italian-ancestral-village-122200942.html I

The geographical area of Asti, Piedmont, Italy, was near to/and or compromising parts of the Papal States, which gave the Popes temporal rule on earth. Given to the Pope by the Donation of Pipen:

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Pepin

IS IT POSSIBLE that Pope Francis may even descend from the legendary Frankish Merovingian bloodline, which ERRONEOUSLY claimed to descend from JESUS, but nonetheless, is undeniably a bloodline of import in the history of the world?

Link of article or video : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merovingian_dynasty

main page of above link:

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_merovingios.htm#menu

Note 2: Again, a disclaimer is necessary: the belief that the Merovingian bloodline descends from Christ is an affront to our Lord Jesus and blasphemous. With that disclaimer stated, it is a historical fact that a bloodline by the name Merovingian existed, did greatly influence world history and may through its descendents, continue to influence world events today. I do not endorse any of the sources/links sited; they are simply for general, secular informational purposes.

Finally, some subscribe to the theory that the Merovingian bloodline will rule the world through their descendant who will be known as either 1) the Antichrist or 2) The False Prophet

http://www.bibliotecapleyadesnet/merovingians/merovingian_dynasty/merovingian_dynasty.htm

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That would be the icing on the cake to prove that Francis is the anti-Christ!!

Two thirds of the World

I want to get into how Pope Francis has 2/3 rd of the world in adoring him as the sum of Catholics, Muslims and Jews that are under his spell. This relates to a post I did a month or so ago about the number of the beast. I will add it on to this thread so as not to make this too long. But, that study spoke of the number of people who worship the beast having to do with his number 666. In it it talks about the number 1,000 and how Christ was one man in a thousand leaving 999 as the rest of the world. Therefore if 2/3rds of the world worships the beast, that would make the number 666, as each third equals 333. I thought this was an interesting take on that number, and maybe another aspect of the beast.

By contrast, one third of mankind in the world today believe that Christ was crucified, died and was resurrected from the dead. This number represents the one third tried my fire and refined as pure gold!! I also wrote a article about this and will add it to this thread also, if I can find it.

The following article speaks about how the Muslims are adoring the Pope and playing right into his hands. I think this is even more proof that this Pope is the anti-Christ, and shows us how the whole world is wondering after the beast. And how can anyone fight against this most powerful man in the world?

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The Vatican Makes Itself The Seat Of The Antichrist, And Pope Francis Has Muslim Prayers Declared Within The Vatican For The First Time In Its History

Link of article or video : http://www.shoebat.com/…/vatican-makes-seat-antichrist-pope-francis

By Theodore Shoebat

The Vatican has made itself the seat of the Antichrist, because for the first time in its history it will be having Islamic prayers declared from its premises, a measure planned and organized by Pope Francis himself.

Islam is the religion of the Antichrist, and for the Vatican to do this makes it a seat, or harborer, of the Antichrist religion. Faithful Catholics should be up in arms about this!

The Vatican has stated that the prayers would be a “pause in politics”, but the entire procession will naturally be political because Islam is political, and additionally, the event is being conducted “to rekindle the desire for Israeli-Palestinian peace at the political and popular level”, a blatantly political move.

A Middle East report stated:

For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Francis issued the invitation to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit last week to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority.

I do not write this to attack Catholics, but to warn them of the Antichrist spirit that has entered the Vatican. What is happening in the Vatican is actually a fulfillment of what Pope Leo XIII actually warned about, in 1846, that the Vatican will one day become the seat of Antichrist:

Rome will lose the faith and become the Seat of the Antichrist… the Church will be in eclipse.

Pope Leo XIII also wrote:

In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter… they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety…

Faithful Catholics are going to have to make the choice to trust a pope like Leo XIII or Francis.

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The False Prophet

Next to the Pope, Obama pales in comparison as a candidate for being the anti-Christ!! But, everyday we see more and more the possibility that he is the False Prophet. I have felt this way for a long time now, but it is recently that I think we are seeing proof.

Rev 13:11
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

Rev 13:12
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

The False Prophet as the second beast, comes out of the “earth” and “earth” in the Bible represents:
Strong’s G1093

the earth as opposed to the heavens

the inhabited earth, the abode of men and animals

a country, land enclosed within fixed boundaries, a tract of land, territory, region
The False Prophet will aid the Pope (the anti-Christ) in bringing the second largest religion, Islam, into the fold of the coming One World Religion. Being a Muslim, Obama has influence over, and has showed support of his fellow Muslims. He openly worships the (false) Prophet Muhammad and declares Allah to be his god. This is what the Pope wants, to bring in all religions that do not worship Christ, and Obama is helping him with this.

Also, Obama hates Christians and will join the Pope in his passion to rid the world of them. Obama will carry out the orders from the satanically controlled Pope, as the Pope is much more powerful than the president of a dying nation. In fact he already has done the Jesuit bidding and has taken this once great nation down the final path to ruin…and he did it with pride and purpose…adding and abetting the anti-Christ.

To conclude, there is no doubt in my mind that Poe Francis is the anti-Christ, and Obama is the False Prophet and not the other way around. I think more and more people are beginning to see this as time goes on and we see world events unfold. Just the videos and commentaries on this site alone, seem to be showing how true this is. I thought it interesting for the Lord to place this on my heart at a time so many others are dealing with the same issue.

It is coming together only because the Lord is allowing Satan to be loosed from the bottomless pit for a short time. He and his demons can now directly possess people as they did before Christ came. There is no protection from this possession other than being in Christ. Satan was limited all those years and could not attack people spiritually anymore, but now he can and will. Evil has become personal, up close and in your face…and it is only going to get worse before Christ comes.

Cling to Christ, and hold fast to your crown of salvation, stand firm with the Sword of God, His holy Word, to combat evil in all corners of life!! This is it! Why we are here during this time. May the Lord bless and protect each one of you, all His children of the narrow way.

Agape!

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

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(As promised here is the article about the number of the beast in relation to 2/3rds of the populous)

Just want to add this article and study about the number of the beast that I promised to include on this thread…

The author of this study gives three different Bible verses about the 2/3rds and the 1/3 of mankind, in reference as to who will be cast out and who will be saved. Whom in the end days will worship the anti-Christ and who will worship the Lord.

The most telling verse is the last one he sites:
Zechariah 13:8-9

“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

The other verses explains the ratio of one out of one thousand and how 666 represents the 2/3rds that will cut off. This relates directly to the 2/3rds of the population of false religions that will follow the Pope and his one world religion. This could not happen without Islam on board, and that is where the False Prophet Obama comes in.

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AN INTERESTING LOOK AT THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

http://www.biblicaleschatology.blogspot.com

Hello all,

The following short study about the “number of the beast” is very unique, as I have never seen one that comes to the conclusions presented here. I am not saying this is the only way to look at this number and it’s meaning, but I think it is a good addition to all the other concepts about this mysterious number.

What I find most interesting is how “one third” is used to define the number of God’s people that are refined through the fire, and how 2 thirds represent the unsaved. Could this mean something? Could the number 666 represent the 2/3 of mankind that will belong to the beast?

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WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST?

The Number of the Beast

Revelation 13:18

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man (Literal: it is man’s number); and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

This is a number that is of great concern to all those in the charismatic movement. They are in great fear for everything that resembles the number 666. Please turn in your Bibles to the prophecy of Ecclesiastes. Here in Ecclesiastes 7:27 the preacher gets busy counting to find the account of his sins.

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28

Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account (= the reckoning) Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: One man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Only One man among a thousand has he found for the reckoning which his soul seeks.

What does His soul seek?

The forgiveness of sins is the obvious answer.

Who is this one man?

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who enters the reckoning which his soul seeks. And He is one man among a thousand. 999 are remaining. Please turn in your Bibles to the prophecy of Job, Job 33:23. In this passage Elihu is speaking to Job about how man can be righteous before God. Elihu is not one of the three unfriendly friends of Job. Elihu is much more on the side of Job.

Job 33:23-24

If there be a Messenger with him, an interpreter, One among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness (if there is any): Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.

Who is this Messenger, One among a thousand, who can show unto man his uprightness, if there is any?

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who can show us our uprightness, or the absence of it. All those who are upright in the sight of God are those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has paid the ransom, so that we do not have to go down to the Pit. And Christ is one among a thousand. There are 999 remaining.

Now let’s finally turn to the prophecy of Zechariah, Zechariah 13:8. The context in this passage of Zechariah is the binding of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the crucifixion that followed. God says here in:

Zechariah 13:8-9

“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

Remember the 999 remaining symbolically represent the entire human race, Christ excluded. One third of them will call on Christ’s Name, and Christ will say, “It is My people”. But two thirds shall be cut off and die. Two thirds of 999 is 666. This number 666 is symbolically the number of men belonging to the beast, for they represent all the non-elect.

Revelation 13:18 begins with “Here is wisdom”.

Let us not become wise in our own deceit, but let us realize what God shows us here. We must be grateful to God for showing us these, for it is only by grace that we can obtain wisdom.
AMEN.

By Alfred Chompff

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We know that this number 666 is the number associated with the Antichrist and that it is also associated with man. Could it also represent the number of man, as in the number of mankind that will follow the beast as opposed to the number saved by the Lord? We know that the Way is narrow and only a few will find it, as opposed to the wide way that most will follow.

I know this is not an earth shattering revelation by any means, I just thought it was a good addition to what we already know about this number.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

A JEW SPEAKS OUT ( Jesus was NOT a Jew!!)

A JEW SPEAKS OUT ( Jesus was NOT a Jew!!)

Hello all,

Every Christian on the planet should read this article, as most have been greatly deceived on this issue, and mostly due to their pastors leading them astray! By assuming that Jesus was a Jew changes everything and has those who call themselves Christians believing another gospel entirely!! This is crucial, this is important and this is truth that every believer need to be very clear on!!

So, take the time to read this article and really absorb what is being said by Jewish people, themselves, (who became true Israel in Christ) about this truth. It is rather a long article, but everyone should be able to find 20 minutes to prove that what they have been taught by the churches is a most dangerous and deadly lie.

Judaism is a religion based on the Babylonian Talmud!! It is not a race, nationality or blood line!! Jesus was a Judean, from the Tribe of Judea, not a Jew! The Pharisee made a RELIGION of the TRUTH, and these were called Jews. Jesus hated the Pharisee because they did what Cain had done, made of the truth a religion, and therefore these Jews were of their father, Satan. That is why the Jews killed Christ, because He came to bring the Truth and destroy their religion…their livlihood and their power.

What is happening in the world today is directly related to this “BIG LIE’…so do yourself a favor and get clear on this, as you will understand so much more when you understand this. I do not want to offend anyone, but as this author points out:

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
Gal 4:16

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http://www.israelect.com/reference/JackMohr/jm072.htm/p>

A JEW SPEAKS OUT!

(A brief summary of Dr. Benjamin Freedman’s book FACTS ARE FACTS. Must reading for every concerned Christian.)
by Brig. Gen. Jack Mohr C.P.D.L.
National Defense Coordinator
Civilian Emergency Defense System

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

Many Christians are utterly confused by what is happening in the world today. Much of this confusion is coming from the pulpits, where many pastors have departed from preaching the “whole counsel of the Word of God,” and have been led astray in their seminaries and Bible Schools, to depend on the teachings of men such as Dr. Schofield and others.

There is probably no area where this is more evident than in modern church teaching regarding a people we today call “Jews” and who have been held up to most Christians, as being the “Chosen People of God, the People of the Book.”

An honest study of the teachings of Judaism, and especially their holy book The Babylonian Talmud will reveal that they are the most deadly enemies of God, His Christ, and the Christian church. They have advanced far in their plan to destroy Christian civilization and the freedom it has brought to the world, because of their aid from the Christian church.

This booklet was not written to make you hate the Jews. It was prayerfully prepared, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, to show you the truth. I will not attempt to change your mind about the Jews; that is not my task. I am a “watchman on the walls of Israel-America.” My task is to warn you of dangers we face. What you do with this warning will be between you and God. Some day you will be required to answer for what you learn in this booklet. There will be no excuses then! So if you want the truth – READ ON! If you are afraid to know the truth, stop reading right now, for you are going to be tremendously disturbed!

The historical facts revealed in this booklet provide incontestable proofs that their continued suppression will be harmful to the security of America, the peace of the world, the welfare of humanity, the progress of Civilization and the cause of Jesus Christ and His Coming Kingdom.

Most of the information you read will not come from the author, but from an original source, a Jew, who during his lifetime, spent a personal fortune of over $2-million to bring these frightening facts to the attention of the American people. This man was not a Jewish American, whose loyalty was to the “bastard state of the Israeli” in Palestine. He was an American Jew, who had been converted to Christianity and who loved Jesus Christ and the United States of America. Laboring under almost unbelievable odds, hated by his own people, vilified by Christians who should have known better, Dr. Benjamin Freedman literally “burned himself out”, materially and physically, to warn Christians and this nation of the danger posed by his own people, the Jews.

In October 1954, from his office on Park Avenue, New York City, Dr. Freedman wrote a long letter to Dr. David Goldstein, a Jew who had been converted to Catholicism, but who by his writings and speeches, was for all intents and purposes, still a Jew. This letter was printed in a small book titled FACTS ARE FACTS. Very few Christians have ever read it.

Because of its length, and much repetition, I have picked out the high-points of this unusual book. I ask that as you read, pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten you to the truth it contains. Then armed with these truths, go out in God’s strength, to do battle with those who would destroy everything you say you love as a Christian.

As you read, keep in mind Galatians 4:16 – “Am I to become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”

After a rather lengthy introduction, in which he explains the purpose of his letter to Dr. Goldstein, Dr. Freedman gets into the meat of his message.

You assuredly subscribe to that sound and sensible sentiment, that “it is better to light one candle, than to sit in the darkness.” There have been many instances where I have failed over the past thirty years. I still live in hope that one day, one of these candles will burst into flame like a long smoldering spark and start a conflagration that will sweep across this nation like a prairie fire and illuminate vast new horizons for the first time.

It has been correctly contended for thousands of years, that in the end, truth will always prevail. We realize that truth in action can prove itself a dynamic force of unlimited power. But Truth has no self-starter. Truth cannot get off dead-center unless a worthy apostle of Truth gives it a little push to overcome inertia. Without that start, Truth will stand still or often “die aborning.”

On the other hand, Truth has many times been “blacked out” by repeated contradictory and conflicting untruth, repeated over and over again. World’s history supplies many sober testimonies to this truth. This form of Treason to Truth is treachery to mankind.

We are living in the “Zero Hour” for the Christian faith. No institution in modern society can long survive if its structure is not erected on the foundation of Truth. The Christian faith began on the solid foundation of its Founder. To survive, it must remain on that foundation. The deterioration, disintegration, and final destruction of Christian faith, will be accelerated in direct ratio to the distortion and misrepresentation which is allowed to become the substitute for Truth. Truth is absolute! It can never be relative! Truth either exists, or it does not! There can be no degrees of Truth! To be half-true, is as incredible as to be half-honest, or half-loyal!

The history of the world for the past several centuries and current events at home and abroad, confirm the existence of a conspiracy to destroy Christian Civilization. The world-wide plot of these diabolical conspirators has been implemented while most Christians have been asleep. The Christian clergy seem to be more ignorant and indifferent to this plot than other Christians. They seem to bury their heads in the sands of indifference and ignorance like the legendary ostrich. This ignorance and indifference has dealt a severe blow to the Christian faith, from which it may never recover.

WHO ARE THESE ENEMIES?

It is important that we pin-point the enemies who are making war on the Christian faith. The souls of millions of Christians are uneasy about the state of the Christian faith today. The Christian clergy are primarily, if not solely responsible for the internal forces within the Christian faith, which are fighting against its best interests. We can no longer pussy-foot with the truth, because we find that it hurts someone we know or like.

At this late hour, there is very little time left to mend our fences. “Beating around the bush,” will get us nowhere. The courageous alone will endure the present crisis. Both figuratively and literally, there will be live heroes and dead cowards when the dust of this secular conflict settles. The Christian faith is the only anchor to windward, against universal barbarism. The enemies of Christianity have already shown us the savage methods they will adopt if they are victorious.

The confusion of the average Christian comes from the action of the clergy. Confusion creates doubt! Doubt brings loss of confidence! Loss of confidence brings loss of interest!
There need be no confusion in the minds of Christians concerning the fundamentals of the faith. It would not exist if the clergy were not “aiding and abetting” their own worst enemies. Many clergymen are their allies, without realizing it, while others have become deliberate “male prostitutes” to their cause.

The utterance by the clergy which confuses Christians the most, is constantly repeated from the pulpit and on the written page, this is that “Jesus was a Jew!” This is not only a misrepresentation, but a distortion of incontestable historic facts. Yet it is uttered by the clergy on the slightest pretext. They utter it without provocation. They appear to be “trigger happy” to utter it! They never miss an opportunity to proclaim it to their congregations.

The only way the clergy can get out of this mess they have brought on themselves, is to resort to “telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” This is the only formula which will allow them to regain the full confidence of their flocks.

Without fear of contradiction based on fact, the most competent, and best qualified authorities today, will have to admit that Jesus was not a self-styled Jew. During His lifetime, He was known as a JUDEAN, by His contemporaries, HE WAS NEVER CALLED A JEW!!!

Except for a few of His followers, all Judeans detested His teachings. With the exception of the traitor Judas, none of His disciples were JUDEANS, they were all from Nazareth, in the Israel nation. Jesus said of Judas, that he was a “devil”, (John 6:70 – John 8:44 ).

When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, there was no racial, religious, or political group, anywhere in the world which was known as “Jews.”

In the 4th Century Latin Vulgate translation of the New Testament, Jesus was referred to by the Genitive Plural IUDEAEUS. In the Rheims Douai Version, the word “Jew” does not appear. In the original King James 1611 Version the word JUDEAN, was used. (In John 4:22, where Jesus spoke with the woman at the well of Samaria, the words in the present King James Version make little or no sense: “for salvation is of the Jews.” What intelligent Christian would believe that salvation came through any nation, or religion? We know this is untrue. But in the original 1611 Version of the King James Bible this verse reads: “But salvation cometh out of Judea.” This makes sense, for this is where Jesus came from and it was, foretold in prophecy).

When the word JEW was first introduced into the English language, its only meaning by implication, inference or innuendo was JUDEAN. But during the 19th and 2Oth Centuries, a well-organized, well-financed international pressure group of Jews created a “secondary meaning” for the word, among English speaking peoples. This secondary meaning has no more relationship to the word JEW as used in the 18th century, than the original meaning of the word CAMEL, an animal, has to CAMEL, a cigarette; or IVORY, a tusk of an animal, bears to IVORY a type of soap.
The generally accepted secondary meaning of JEW today is made up of four almost universal theories.

(1) JEW – a person who today believes in a form of religion known as Judaism;
(2) JEW – a person who claims to belong to a racial group associated with ancient Semites;
(3) JEW – a person who is directly descended from the patriarch Abraham; and,
(4) JEW – a person blessed by Divine intentional design with certain superior cultural characteristics denied to other racial, religious and national groups.

The acceptance of this “secondary” meaning is what has confused most Christians. More and more of them are beginning to realize that they have been “brainwashed” into believing such phrases that JESUS WAS A JEW! AND JUDEO-CHRISTIAN, to the point where it now approaches psychosis.

The time has come when our clergy better wake up and tell their people the truth. They may not yet feel the resentment of their people, because of their un-truths, but that time will come and it will be a bitter pill for these so-called “men of God” to swallow.

More and more intelligent, informed Christians, who have been studying the Bible and history for themselves, are challenging the assertion that Jesus was a member of a religious group in Judea who practiced Pharisaism, or Judaism. They also know that the people who now call themselves JEWS, are not the people of the Book – not the descendants of Abraham.

The resentment of the people at the “lack of guts” in the clergy to tell the truth is deepening. (I predict a day soon, when the clergy will be held accountable by their people, for their treason against God, their race and their country. As this condition expands, the clergy will find to their sorrow, that “ignorance is not bliss,” neither is “wisdom folly.”

As Christians learn how self-styled JEWS have spent millions of dollars to manufacture the “Jewish myth” for Christian consumption and that they have done this both for economic and political advantage, you will see a tremendous explosion against the Jews. Right thinking Jewish leaders are worried about this, since they see it coming. The unfortunate thing is that many of the “little Jews,” the ones you and I rub shoulders with in everyday life, the man who owns the corner delicatessen store, most of who know little about what is happening at International level, these are the ones who are always hurt the worst.

To say that Christianity and Judaism have the same roots is nothing but outright blasphemy. Jesus abhorred and denounced the form of religion practiced in Judea in His day. His pet peeve was with the Pharisee, who were the exponents of Judaism. Most Christian ministers learn this during their seminary days, but few ever tell this to their people.

The eminent Jew, Rabbi Louis Finklestein, head of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, often referred to as “THE VATICAN OF JUDAISM”, in the foreword to his First Edition of THE PHARISEES, THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THEIR FAITH, page 21, says: “…Judaism…Pharisaism became Talmudism, Talmudism became Medieval Rabbinism, and Medieval Rabbinism became Modern Rabbinism. But throughout these changes in name. .the spirit of the ancient Pharisees survives, unaltered. From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy, Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharaism has wandered… this demonstrates the enduring importance which is attached to Pharaism as a religious movement.

These were the same men to whom our Lord said: Matthew 23:15 – “…ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

The religion of Pharaiasm practiced in Judea during the time of Jesus was a religious practice based exclusively on the Talmud. (It was not based on Mosaic law, as most Christians believe. Our Lord told us this when he criticized the Pharisees in John 5:46, saying to them: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” The TALMUD today virtually exercises totalitarian control over the lives of every so-called Jew, whether they are aware of it or not. Jewish authorities extend their control far beyond that of spiritual matters.

The role the TALMUD plays in Judaism is officially stated by Rabbi Morris N. Keitzer, the Director of Interreligious Activities of North American Jewish Commission. In an article in LOOK magazine, June 17, 1952, he states: “The TALMUD consists of 63 books of legal, ethical and historical writings of the ancient rabbis. It was edited five centuries after the birth of Jesus. It is a compendium of law and lore. It is the legal code which forms the basis of Jewish religious law and it is the textbook used in the training of rabbis.”

WHAT IS THE TALMUD?

In his book HISTORY OF THE TALMUD, Michael Redkinson states on page 70 – “Here is the source from whence Jesus of Nazareth drew the teachings which enabled him to revolutionize the world.” (This of course is an old Jewish trick, to call Jesus a “revolutionary.” It leads us to this question – “Do we as Christians know what the TALMUD teaches?” Could this be what Jesus alluded to in Matthew 15:6 when He said – “Thus have ye (the Pharisee) made the commandments of God of none effect by your traditions,” and a second witness given in Mark 7:8 – “Howbeit in vain do they (the Pharisee) worship me (God), teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold to the traditions of men.”

Stimulated by this statement from an eminent Jewish rabbi, every Christian, especially every pastor, should take time to investigate whether this is true. Ask yourself: “What do I know about the TALMUD?”

From the birth of Jesus to the present, there has never been recorded a more vicious, vile and libelous blasphemy against Jesus and Christians, than you will find in the pages of these 63 volumes. The TALMUD reviles Christ and Christians in unbelievably foul, obscene, indecent, lewd and vile language. (Please excuse their use in this article. They are all direct quotes from the TALMUD.)

In 1935, the first International hierarchy of so-called Jews, for the first time in history published an official, unabridged English translation of the whole TALMUD. It was probably done because many of the younger Jews could not read Hebrew, the language in which it was written.

This translation was known as the SONCINO EDITION of the TALMUD and it immediately became a “two-edged sword”. For while it taught millions of younger Jews, the teachings of Judaism, it also enabled Christians, for the first time, to learn what the TALMUD actually taught about their Founder and their religion.

(Here Dr. Freedman makes numerous quotes from the TALMUD. I will only give a few and I ask you to pardon the language used. It is not mine, but comes directly from this Jewish book. It is from this veritable “sewer of filth” that so-called Jews are taught and which their leaders have “brainwashed” Christians into believing that the teachings of Christianity come ).

In the Volume SANHEDRIN, 55b – “A maiden three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coitus (sexual intercourse) and if her deceased husband’s brother cohabits with her, she becomes his. The penalty of adultery may be incurred through her; if she defiles him with whom she has connection, so that he in turn defiles that upon which he lies. As a garment which has been laid upon by a person afflicted with gonorrhea.”

SANHEDRIN 69b – “If a woman sported lewdly with her young son (a minor), and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her, would this render her unfit for the priesthood?” Rabbi Beth Hillel declares in answer: “the connection by a boy of nine years and a day is a real connection; while that of a boy of less than eight years is not.” (While the Levitical law states that a woman who becomes a harlot may not marry into the priesthood, Rabbi Hillel says that if the son was eight or under, he is not yet a man and as a result it does not so disqualify her.)

YEBAMOUTH, 63a – “What is meant by the Scriptural text: ‘This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh?'” (Genesis 2:23) Rabbi Eleazer savs: “This teaches that Adam had intercourse with every beast and animal in the Garden of Eden, but found no satisfaction until he cohabited with Eve.” (This I believe is enough of this filth, which can be found in thousands of TALMUDIC passages, to give you a general idea of its vileness – ED.)

To the average Christian, the word TALMUD has no meaning, or if it does, it is associated with the Bible of Judaism. (Very few Christians have ever seen the TALMUD, much less read it, because this foul book pronounces a death penalty on any “goyim” (non-Jew) who reads it and any Jew who helps him obtain access to it. Many Christians seem to think that the TALMUD is some sort of a Jewish spiritual manual.

How many Christians know that a large majority of so-called Jews have no connection with lineal descendants from the tribes of Israel or Judah? Not even many ministers know this. At least 90% or more of the people we know as Jews are descendants of a Turco-Mongolian people known as Khazars and are not Semites at all.

What mysterious power has kept this from the Christian world for centuries? The origin of the Khazars and the Khazar Kingdom are historical facts, yet very few students of history know anything about their connections to modern Jewry.

The Khazar Kingdom in southern Russia in the 8th Century A.D. was the largest nation in Europe. It covered an area approximately 1-million miles square and was inhabited for the most part by the Khazar people who were an Asiatic-Mongoloid people. They are classified by modern anthropologists as Turco Finnish. They were a very war-like people who had been driven Westward out of Asia.

They were pagans in their religion, which was a combination of phallic and idol worship. The vile forms of sexual excesses indulged in by the Khazars had produced a degree of moral degeneracy which even the Khazar, King, could not stomach. In the 7th Century, King Bulan decided to abolish this immoral religion and make one of the “monotheistic” religions the new State religion. After a historical session with representatives of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, he selected Talmudism as his State religion.

The King invited large numbers of rabbis to come to the kingdom and teach his people the new religion. After this, no one but a so-called Jew could be king. The ideologies of the TALMUD became the axis of political. cultural, economic and social attitudes. This change is graphically’ described in Volume IV, of the Jewish Encyclopaedia.

When King Bulan converted to Judaism, he decreed that the Hebrew alphabet would become the alphabet of the Khazar language. The adoption of the Hebrew alphabet had no racial, political or religious significance. While most of the nations of Western Europe adopted Latin as their alphabet, the Khazar language became known as YIDDISH. For at least six centuries the Jews of Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Rumania and Hungary’ referred to their common language as YIDDISH and it is used extensively today throughout the Jewish world. Yiddish is not a German dialect, as many believe, although it did borrow many German words.

The descendants of the Khazars, which make up at least 90% of modern day Judaism, are a product of Talmudism and it may come as a surprise to many’ Christians, that they have no connection with Abraham. (When I first began to air this information, an irate Christian woman from Dallas wrote to me and said: “Everyone knows that the Jews are blood descendants of Abraham; the Bible says this and that’s that.” But the Bible does not say this and when I wrote and asked her if Sammy Davis, Jr., the Black singer was a descendant of Abraham, she got very upset.

In 1951, when President Truman was presented with a set of the TALMUD, he was quoted by Jewish sources as saying: ”the book I read the most is the TALMUD which contains sound reasoning and good philosophy.” Yet these were the teachings condemned by our Lord.

WHAT DOES THE TALMUD TEACH REGARDING CHRISTIANITY?

The Rev. I. B. Prantis, Professor of Hebrew at the Imperial Ecclesiastical Academy in old St. Petersburg, Russia, and probably the worlds greatest “non-Jewish” authority on the TALMUD, wrote a devastating book titled THE TALMUD UNMASKED – The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians. The Jews used millions of dollars to suppress this book. Here are some of the references Dr. Prantis used, taken directly from the TALMUD:

SANHEDRIN, 67a – “Jesus is referred to as the son of Pandria, a Roman soldier.”

KALLAH, lb (18b) – “Jesus was the illegitimate child of a Jewish prostitute and was conceived during menstruation.”

SCHABBATH, 104b – “Jesus is called a fool.”

SANHEDRIN, 103 – “This passage suggests that Jesus had corrupt morals.”

SANHEDRIN, 107b – “This says that Jesus corrupted, deceived and destroyed Israel.”

ZOHAR, 111(282) – “Jesus died like a beast and was buried in a dung heap.”

ABODAH ZARAH (6a) – “Jesus promoted the false teaching of worshiping on the first day of the week.”

TALMUD TEACHINGS REGARDING CHRISTIANS:

HILKOTH MAAKHALOTH – “Jews must not associate with Christians since they are idol worshipers.

ABHODAH ZARAH (22a) – “Do not associate with Christians since they shed blood.”

ORACH CHAIIM (20, a) – “Christians disguise themselves to kill Jews.”

ABHODAH ZARAH (15b, 22a) – “This passage suggests that Christians have sexual relations with animals.”

KERITHUTH (6b, p.78) – “Jews are called men; Christians are not men.”

MAKKOTH (7b) – “A Jew is innocent of murder if he intended to kill a Christian.”

MIDRASCH TALPIOTH (225) – “Christians were created to minister to Jews.”

SANHEDRIN (74b) – “The sexual intercourse of a Christian is like that of an animal.”

ZOHAR (II, Mb) – “Christian birthrate must be diminished materially.”

(Could this have anything to do with the fact that in America, most of the doctors running the Abortion Clinics are Jews? – ED.)

ROSCH HASCHANACH (I 7a) – “The souls of all non-Jews go to hell.”

SCABBATH (I 16a) – “Talmudists agree that Christian books, such as the Bible should be burned.”

SANHEDRIN 58b – “To strike a Jew is like slappmg God in the face.”

CHAGIGAH, 15b – “A Jew is to be considered good, no matter what sins he may commit.”

ZOHAR (I, 25b) – “The Jew who does good to a Christian will never rise from the dead.”

IORE DEA (148) – “Always hide your hatred of Christians.”

BABHA BATHRA (54b) – “Christian property belongs to the first Jew claiming it.”

BABHA KAMA (I 13b) – “It is permitted to deceive Christians.”

BABHA KAMA (I 13a) – “A Jew may lie in court to condemn a Christian.”

ZOHAR (I, 60a) – “Jews must always try and deceive Christians.”

HILKKOTH AKUM (X, I) – “Do not save a Christian in danger of death.”

SANHEDRIN (59a) – “Even the best of the goyim should be killed.”

ZOHAR (II, 43a) – “Extermination of Christians is a necessary sacrifice.”

These are but a few of thousands of like references.

When you hear the term “Judeo-Christian” used from the pulpit, what does the speaker mean? Is he referring to ancient Pharaism? to Talmudism? or to so-called “Judaism.” In view of the facts which have been presented, how can there be a “Judeo-Christian” anything? It is as unrealistic as to say something is ”hot-cold,” ”wet-dry”, “healthy-sick,” or “happy-sad.” These words are “antonyms,” not “synonyms.”

Yet this idea of ours being a “Judeo-Christian” culture has been carried to such extremes, that there are Institutes for the study of Judeo-Christianity in some of our leading Universities. It would make much better Christians out of congregations, if ministers would try and sell “Jesus Christ”, rather than a monstrosity called “Judeo-Christianity.”

Along with this term, we also find the horrible ”trigger word,” of ”Anti-Semitic”. It is nothing but a smear word which makes little sense, since by no stretch of the imagination are the Jews of today, Semites. Yet when any Jew feels that he has been opposed, offended, or exposed for any reason, he immediately trots out the word “anti-Semite.” (In some churches, to be an anti-Semite, is worse than being an apostate. When the Jews in 1946, were unable to disprove Dr. Freedman’s allegations regarding their illegal entry into Palestine, they literally spent millions of dollars smearing him as the world’s Number One anti-Semite, thereby trying to discredit him in the eyes of the brainwashed public. Until the time when he began to expose Jewry for what it was, he was considered to be a “little saint”, but when he disagreed, they did everything within their power to destroy him.

Christian clergy who use the term “anti-Semite” against those who are trying to expose the evils of International Jewry, should know better. They show their ignorance of the English language by using this word. Today, this Jewish phobia against criticism of any kind, has become one of the world’s most intolerable forms of persecution.

It should give any Christian in particular, or any decent person for that matter, who sees our nation’s morals crumbling, and our standards in the fields of politics, economics and religion crumble, something to think about. The moral standards of any nation are the crucible in which the nation’s character is refined and molded. The end product can never be better than the ingredients used.

While America has much for which to be proud, she also has many sources of shame. A correct diagnosis of our nation’s rapid disintegration in all walks of life will reveal the cause, which is primarily of an economic nature: (1) Make more money; and, (2) Have more fun. When we look at all the evils which have descended on America, they have an economic root and we can understand what the Apostle Paul meant when he said: “The love of MONEY is the root of ALL evil,” (Emphasis added) (1st Timothy 6:10). How many Americans do you know who include in their daily duties, service, sacrifice and prayer in the defense of this nation against its enemies?

With very few exceptions, this generation seem to regard everything as secondary to their accountability to unborn generations. (Our thinking is wrapped up in the words of the beer ad: “You only go around once in life; so live with gusto.”

The guidance and control of America has gravitated by default into the hands of those least worthy of trusteeship. One of their most notable achievements, has been in the making of “male prostitutes” who do their dirty work for them.

A “male prostitute” is a male who offers the facilities of his anatomy from the neck up, to anyone who is willing to pay the price, exactly as a female prostitute of the same species offers her body from the waist down for an asking price. Thousands of these “pseudo-Christian” “male prostitutes” are circulating in all walks of life, pandering evil propaganda for monetary profit and political power.

Nowhere are they more prevalent than in Christian work. Look at the electronic evangelists for instance, almost to a man, they back the Jewish enemies of Christ and the church, even though many know that the so-called Jews are not the people of the Bible. They know that if they tell the truth, they will be cut off the TV airways, so they prostitute themselves for a few million dollars.

(It reminds me of the story told of the English Bishop who was attending a dress party of English Lords and Ladies. He was approached by a haughty English beauty and in the course of their conversation he said: “Would you go to bed with a stranger for a million pounds?” When she replied in the affirmative he asked: “Would you go to bed with a man for five pounds?” To which she haughtily replied: “Of course not. Do you think that I’m a prostitute?” The prelate replied: “We’ve already established that, my dear. Now we are negotiating the price.”).

The corroding effect of this subtle intrigue is slowly but surely disintegrating the moral fiber of America. This danger to our Christian faith cannot be overestimated. This peril to our nation cannot and must not be underestimated.

The International “crime of all crimes” was committed in Palestine in 1948, almost totally as a result of American interference, at the behest of world Zionists in New York. Today, although we know we have been wrong, we still side with the aggressors. As a result, the Arab world, which once admired us and look to us for guidance, has come to hate us and the foundation has been laid for World War III.

Our government has become a “male prostitute” for world Zionism and the blackest page of American history is now in the writing. (This crime has been aided and abetted by the ministers of America, who trumpet the falsehood that since the Jews are God’s Chosen People, we must back them in all their endeavors. We have completely forgotten the warning of 2nd Chronicles 19:2, which clearly states: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord; therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord?”

Today, the blood of American boys is being mingled with that of innocent Lebanese women and children, as they are sacrificed on the altar of world Zionism. It was our clergy who urged this slaughter, as they hammered away day after day, sermon after sermon, ad nauseam, the false theme; “The Jews are God’s chosen people and we must support them. The return of the Jews is the major sign of Christ’s soon return.”

I hope and pray that He comes back soon. It will be necessary for the preservation of humanity. But the Jews are not the sign of that return, since they are not the Chosen People and never have been. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap,” (Galatians 6:7).

Soon, very soon, my Christian friends, you are going to see the hate of the anti-Christ’s you have supported, as it is unleashed against Christian America. The signs are already there if you look for them. To whom will you flee for refuge then? There is not going to be a Rapture, as you have been told, which will spirit you out of the midst of this evil time. Where will you go for refuge?

If Christianity is but the “carbon copy” of Judaism as we have been told, then why would any intelligent person want to change from Judaism to Christianity? You pastors who tell your people that we are a Judeo-Christian culture, why would you have them turn from the Original?

This falsehood is a Jewish subterfuge and deep down inside you know this is true. Yet you still speak what you know is a lie, because you do not have the courage to “buck the popular tide.” Shame on you! What will you tell the Almighty, when you stand before his Judgment throne and answer for what you have done to the American people? Some of you have spread the lie that the Christian Church is nothing but the Jewish Church glorified. What a travesty of the truth.

The Jews who convert to Christianity do not regard Jesus as a Jew who converted to Christianity, why should you preach this rot? The Christian church was on earth centuries before there were any people called “Jews.” Acts 7:38, speaks of the “church in the wilderness,” that my friends, was a Christian church. The Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians l0:1 speaks about Israel passing out of Egypt, into the wilderness, in vs 3, 4, he says: “And did ALL eat the same SPIRITUAL meat and did ALL drink the same SPIRITUAL drink, for they drank of that SPIRITUAL ROCK, that followed (was to come) them: and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST JESUS.”

These people were not Jews. They were not followers of the religion called Judaism. They were Christians. I realize they were not called Christians until almost 1500 years later, when they were first called by that name at Antioch (Acts 11:26). But they were Christians nevertheless. They looked forward to the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ. We today look back on this sacrifice. But we are all members of the same church and it is and has never been a Jewish church.

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I hope this opened some eyes and helped those who were wanting to understand this truth to finally do so. The Jews are NOT God’s chosen people!!! How could the enemies of God be His chosen people? This lie is huge, and almost all churches teach this…how horrible is that?? Being a Jew is following a religion, the religion of the antiChrist!! Religion is the opposite of Truth, and Christ is the Truth, so why would God choose Jews as His chosen people? Does that make any sense whatsoever?!!

After Christ was killed and rose from the dead, there were those who had been religious Jews that wanted to make of the New Covenant a “religion”. That is what Paul fought so passionately against, as that is the same thing that happened with the Old Covenant! Today, we see that this is happening again to Christianity, it has become a religion based on the traditions of man, and not the Truth and Spirit of God!! Surely this is Satan’s most successful and deadly deception.

The Lord is calling His people to come out of this delusion for the hour is getting late. False prophets abound and there are a multitude of wolves in sheep’s clothing!! Let us not be blinded to this truth any longer, and let us be set free to see clearly how Satan is trying to deceive the whole world with this, the biggest of lies.

It will be the religious Christians that will fight against those whom uphold the Truth, and kill them in the name of God, because religion will reign supreme. There is nothing new under the sun, as the Tree of Knowledge is religion and it all started in the garden and has been around ever since! The Tree of Life is the truth, and we must eat of that to be saved!

In the Love and Light of our Holy Lord and Savior,

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

 

 

 

HOW DID JESUS CHRIST FULFILL THE LAW?

HOW DID JESUS CHRIST FULFILL THE LAW?

Hello all,

The Law and the Ten Commandments have not been done away with. I feel that many misunderstand just what it means that Jesus “fulfilled” the Law. The Law has not changed, it has come to “spiritual” fulfillment in Christ. What has changed is how one obeys these commandments and laws, instead of obeying physical laws in the flesh, we now obey them spiritually in Christ.

I have tried to convey this many times and in many ways and still I feel I have failed to make this clear. Therefore, I would like to present a study that does justice to what I have been unable to do. I hope this will clear up any concern that I am throwing out the Law or the Ten Commandments, or that I am teaching others to do so.

We have freedom from condemnation for not being able to keep the Old Testament laws because now if we are in Christ we are able to keep them spiritually as He lives in us, and we have His Spirit via the Holy Spirit. We are not free to just do any old thing, and not free to sin and be morally corrupt, heaven forbid!

The Law came to a spiritual fullness in that it is no longer about just a physical obedience, but about obeying with our hearts and minds. What was once thou shall not commit murder is now thou shall not even think about committing murder, nor harbor hatred in our hearts.

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http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/faq/oldlaw.html

The Law and How it is

Fulfilled in Christ

-by Tony Warren

One of the questions frequently asked is, “Doesn’t Christianity do away with a lot of the laws of the Old Testament?” How did Christ fulfill the law? For example observing the Old Testament Sabbath (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) which is part of the 10 commandments, and laws such as eating Kosher meats. The question is, “why has Christianity abandoned these laws, despite the fact that Jesus said that He had not come to destroy or abolish the law?” How did Christ fulfill the law?

This is indeed a good question. If Christ said He came not to destroy the law, why don’t we still observe the Old Testament laws? The answer is, we do! We continue to observe those laws in Christ who fulfilled (completed) them. When we consider all of scripture, in context, it is clear that Jesus spoke of his death as insuring that the law was satisfied and has no more condemnation over us.

Matthew 5:17

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

It is true that Christ did not come to destroy or abolish the law and Prophets. Every jot and tittle (or last letter) of the law is still in effect, but Jesus makes it very clear that what He came to do, was to FULFILL or satisfy them for us.

Fulfill: ful.fil’, v.i.-fulfilled, fulfilling. [a compound of full and fill; O.E. fullfyllan.]

(1) To accomplish or to carry into effect, as a Prophecy or a Promise; (2) to satisfy or meet the requirements; (3) to bring to a finish or completion; (4) to bring the conditions of a law to realization; (5)to bring to a consummation.

-ful.fil.er, n.–ful.fill.ment, ful.fil.ment, An act of fulfilling; condition of being accomplished.

By fulfilling the law Christ satisfied all its requirements in our stead. In other words, the ‘required’ obedience to such laws are accomplished in Him. Therefore, “in Christ” do we keep all the law faithfully, and cannot be accused. In this way, we can no longer be judged by any of the everlasting laws, because those laws having been satisfied, we are now under the Grace of God. So that in the Spirit of Christ, the law does not condemn us.

1st Corinthians 15:56

“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

How did Christ fulfill the law? Except Christ had atoned for our sins, satisfying the law, we would stand guilty before God of the whole. But because He has in our stead satisfied all the law, there is now no condemnation.

Romans 8:1-2

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The law stands, but it cannot condemn the saints because we are made free from the law in Christ Jesus, in whose righteousness we now stand. We are dead to the law only in the sense that Christ died redeeming us from the consequences of it, not Because there is no law left for the unsaved. For that would mean no one was guilty by law of anything before God. And so clearly New Testament Christianity doesn’t do away with the Old Testament laws, they stand in the revelation that the Messiah came to fulfill or satisfy what was required, that those laws will not now condemn us. He brought the law to completion, having stood as a substitute for us, that the strength of sin (the law) would not condemn us.

An example would be the Old Testament seventh day Sabbath, which was a type or shadow that looked forward to our true “Rest” in the Messiah, wherein we cease from our own works. That everlasting law to keep that Sabbath of Rest is fulfilled or satisfied in Christ. It is through His works that we have and will enter into rest, and cease from the requirement of our works. Without the good works, we would have been condemned by the law, but because of Christ Jesus and His good works, we rest from the requirement of works in Him. The Old Testament rest of the Sabbath looked forward to this saving Grace, wherein we cease from works. Therefore, it being fulfilled or completed, we would no more rest on the seventh day Sabbath as we would sacrifice a Lamb on an altar, or put blood on our door posts. And for the exact same reasons. Namely, those everlasting laws have not be abrogated, they are fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ and His shed blood. Those ceremonial laws were shadows of Christ, who has now come fulfilling them. We can’t arbitrarily take one law of sacrificing a Lamb and say we must keep this one, while discarding all the other Old Testament laws which God clearly said were also everlasting laws. We have to keep the whole law, or else keep none. With men this is impossible, but with God it is.

James 2:10

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

In other words, if we’re going to keep old testament laws, then we better make sure we keep all of them, including all implied laws of adultery by thought and murder by hate. Which of course is impossible, except in Christ. What christian do you know today who claims to follow the Old Testament law is going to Jerusalem three times a year? Because that is the law of God. What christian follows the law of splashing blood on the door posts? That also is the law of God. But you see, there are some groups who want to pick and choose (depending upon their traditions) what Old Testament laws they want to keep, and which ones they exclude themselves from. But the law isn’t a salad bar where we take what we want, and leave the rest. If we are indebted to one law, we’re indebted to all the laws. Thank God Christ fulfilled “all” the law, and that includes the law of God’s Sabbath rest. This is illustrated for us in passages like Hebrews 4:1-11. That true rest is of the Kingdom of God. We keep the everlasting Sabbath by being in Christ, our true Sabbath of Rest. Our completion (7) of the sojourn, is in Him. The seventh day Sabbath was a shadow looking forward to Him. And with the coming of Christ (the True), the shadow preceding this Real is passed away. The requirement of the Old Testament law is then satisfied. ie., Christ came not to do away with the law, but to satisfy it. He came to bring the conditions of the law into completion. ..to fulfill it!

Likewise, the laws concerning unclean meats which were an illustration that nothing unclean was to come unto the children of Israel, was completed in Christ. With the New Testament, that veil of mystery concerning it has been lifted for us. “The Old Testament concealed is the New Testament revealed!” If one does not accept the authority of the New Testament, then the Old Testament is still concealed to them. The fact is, the Gentiles “were” seen as heathen Dogs and Swine, the animals deemed unclean. Those Old Testament laws illustrated that the Children of God were not to mingle themselves with them. Jesus himself used that very same idioms for Gentiles in the book of Mark:

Mark 7:27

“But Jesus said unto her, Let the Children first be filled, for it is not meet to take the Children’s bread, and cast it unto dogs.”

God told the Children of Israel that the Heathen nations that they possessed were “unclean” and they were not to mingle with them. The Gentiles were generally unsaved, and God was using the unclean animals as a “type” whereof the Children of Israel were not to partake of their doctrines and traditions, but separate themselves from them. They were not to partake of these people’s meats. This is why the unclean meats were let down unto Peter three times (3, signifying God’s Purpose) to signify that the Gentiles were now cleaned to be included as Children of God. It is explained in Acts 10:28.

Acts 10:28

“And He said unto them, ye know that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation, But God Hath Showed Me that I should not call any man common or Unclean!”

Of course, if one is not born of God from above and doesn’t accept the revelation of the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, then these words of God ring hollow. But the Truth is, the Gentiles were “generally” the unsaved, and as such were pictured by God as the unclean Dogs and Swine. But God hath cleansed them also, and they were no longer to be considered unclean. Again, this is seen when Jesus talks about the unsaved and unrepentant in passages such as Matthew chapter six:

Matthew 7:6

“Give not that which is Holy unto the Dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before Swine, lest they trample them under foot, and turn again and rend you.”

These are types of unsaved people, and they are spoken of as these unclean animals. God knows what he is doing and saying, even when we do not. This isn’t incidental or coincidental language. It’s God breathed and divinely significant. The law of unclean animals is not done away with, it is “still” kept in Christ, because it pertained to the separation of God’s people from the heathen. The difference now is that Christ has made the unclean gentiles, Clean. And those cleansed by Christ cannot be called common, as they now come into the Covenant Olive Tree as branches of the Israel of God. We see this again in verses such as Acts 11:6-9 where Peter sees a basket of unclean meats, and will not eat, but God corrects him saying, what He has Cleansed, don’t call it common or unclean. Then it is explained that this illustrated that salvation was not only to the physical nation of Israel, but was to go to the Gentile people as well. This is not speculative teachings about unclean meats, it is what God has written there. It’s not what goes into the mouth that makes one unclean, it’s what comes out of it. Out of the Gentiles came the unclean meats or doctrines. But now they are as the unclean meats, made clean by God. The Gentiles would now also come with the word of God. And what God has now cleansed, call that not unclean.

How did Christ fulfill the law? He has satisfied it in that we keep this Kosher laws, not in the Old Testament ceremonial rejecting of some meats, but in the New Testament fulfillment of realized significations. The law of clean and unclean meats is fulfilled (kept) by Christ making clean what was unclean. What literal meat we eat does not defile us, it is what spiritual meats we eat that defile us.

Matthew 15:11

“not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

Eating swine does not defile a Christian, eating, and repeating the doctrines of carnality does. Just as Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:11-12). He was not talking about “bad bread” that they may have baked, He was talking about their doctrines. Unless we understand these Spiritual truths, we miss the whole point of eating clean and unclean things. The law is intact, but the unclean has been made clean by Christ so that there is no transgression of the law concerning it.

So once again we see that Christianity does not teach that the law is done away with, it teaches that the law is fulfilled in Christ. The coming of Jesus makes it lawful to eat the meats that the Old Testament law forbade, because that law’s requirements are satisfied in the cleansing of Christ. We are not transgressing the law because God has cleansed what was before unclean. And we cannot now call the meat God has cleansed, common or unclean. For we know it’s not about meats for the belly, it’s about unclean men and their doctrines. Just as we know it’s not about slaughtered lambs (clean animals) and their blood on a door post, it’s about Christ and his shed blood on our building. The very same principle of “types” applies. As the Old Testament law of sacrifice clearly talked about animals, but applied to Christ. So the Old Testament laws of unclean meats applied to people. Just as the Old Testament law saying we had to go to Jerusalem three times a year referred to going to literal Jerusalem, but applied to the purpose (3) of our communion with Christ, our true Holy City. As the law where we couldn’t plant two different kinds of seed in a field, or the law of circumcision, and so on and so forth. They are all not done away with, but fulfilled in Christ who they shadowed. They all looked forward to the Coming of Christ. Circumcision is still required, but it is those who are circumcised in Heart by Christ, the fulfillment of that Old Testament everlasting law. These are the true Children of God, not those circumcised in the flesh. So why would we want to put ourselves back under the “BONDAGE” of the law, when Christ has fulfilled or satisfied it, that it does not condemn us? For it is self evident that those who rely on observing the Old Testament law are still under the curse, for it is written:

Galatians 3:10

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them”

Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Not their own, but the faith of Christ in satisfying the law. For any law based on man’s feeble faith, is based on man’s works of obedience. And by the works of the law, shall no one on earth ever be saved. Except in the faith of Christ, in His completed work.

Galatians 2:16

“knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be Saved!”

By the finished or completed work of Christ we are saved, not the works of our obeying the law. In Him, we have our rest from our works. If we could keep the Old Testament law ourselves, we wouldn’t need Christ. But no man could. And so Christ went to the cross and redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, and that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

If we are truly saved, we are not condemned by the laws that God gave to Israel. Jesus took care of that–it was the whole point of His life, death and resurrection. If His atonement was sufficient (and it was) then the Old Testament law holds no condemnation for us. Jesus Himself told us very clearly in Matthew chapter 22:

Matthew 22:37-40

“..Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, thy shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.

If you Love God with all your heart and mind, that Love will manifest itself in your faithfulness to His Holy Word, and the surrender of your will to his will. Thus you will love your neighbor and you will work toward His salvation, your desire being that he experience that same Salvation that you have. This is the Christian charity, the agape love of God and neighbor.

Upon these commandments hang all the law. The love in the faith of Christ, wherein He first loved us. The Love wherein the law has been fulfilled, satisfied and accomplished in Him.

May the Lord who is rich in mercy, give us all the understanding of His most Holy word.

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Let me just repeat this one simple statement to sum up what I most want to convey, that Mr. Warren did so well.

” By fulfilling the law Christ satisfied all its requirements in our stead. In other words, the ‘required’ obedience to such laws are accomplished in Him. Therefore, “in Christ” do we keep all the law faithfully, and cannot be accused. In this way, we can no longer be judged by any of the everlasting laws, because those laws having been satisfied, we are now under the Grace of God. So that in the Spirit of Christ, the law does not condemn us.”

We are not free from the Law in Christ,we are free from condemnation. If we are truly His we will keep the Law as He fulfilled it.

Amen?

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

 

 

 

THE GREAT DIVIDE: FLESH VS SPIRIT

THE GREAT DIVIDE: FLESH VS SPIRIT

Hello all,

When we are born again we become one in Spirit with Jesus. Our spirit is joined to His and this makes us a new creation. Yet, we still have this earthy flesh vessel that we dwell in, and therefore as long as we are in this world there will be a divide between spirit and flesh, and between the old man and the new creation. Our spirits are alive in Christ, but any part of us not of spirit is dead. There is nothing of value in us outside of Christ, nothing!

God gave us Christ. God does not give us all things, He gave us all things in giving us Christ, because all things are in Christ. Our personal relationship with Christ is what the Christian walk is all about, our experiencing Christ, and knowing Him. Because all is in Christ, nothing else will qualify as a way to God. Not the traditions of men, law keeping, religious piety, the keeping of days, or any other theology or philosophy.

Knowing Christ, by progressive revelation of Him, set us free from looking to ourselves to develop a Christian character. Actually knowing Christ has nothing to do with us at all! For we are to give up our lives and our control of our lives to Him. This means that there is great warfare going on inside of each Christian, and why judgment begins at the house of God. And as such we will lose many battles to win the war, and count everything else as loss to gain Him.

The following study is all about the battle between flesh and Spirit that every follower of Christ must be engaged in, by having total and complete faith in Him, until we are like Him when we see Him.

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http://www.goodnewsarticles.com/flesh.htm

Flesh vs. Spirit

By David A. DePra

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Rom 8:9)

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Gal 5:16-17)

To grasp the distinction of the flesh vs. the Spirit, as it is related in these verses, it is necessary to lay down some foundational Truth on the subject.

First, Christianity is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) Paul affirmed, “We have this Treasure in earthen vessels.” (II Cor.4:7) Now note: CHRIST is the Treasure Who is in us – WE are the earthen vessel. The two are distinct as to identity – despite the oneness in spirit.

Here we have the basis for the FLESH — which is of man — verses the Spirit – which is of Christ – BOTH of which are in every saved person.

But also note: The indwelling of Christ does not obliterate the earthen vessel, or natural man. No. Christ dwells IN the earthen vessel. The earthen vessel continues to exist. So we must see this: Yes, “Christ is in us.” But even while He is in us, He is OTHER THAN us – other than the earthen vessel. Again — the distinction.

This distinction is affirmed in such statements by Paul as, “I travail until Christ be formed in you.” This is NOT a plea for self-realization. Rather, it is a plea to know the Christ who is IN each one. Paul also said, “It pleased God to reveal Christ IN ME.” This is not a knowledge of ONESELF, or of merely facts about Christ. It is a realization of Christ Himself – the Christ who dwells in each of us.

But how does Christ dwell in a person? Well, when we are saved, we become one with Christ in spirit – that is, His Spirit is united with our human spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (I Cor. 6:17)

So we are ONE with Christ in spirit. We do not become Christ, nor become, “a little version of Christ.” No. Our human spirit becomes one with His Spirit. But even while He lives in a oneness with us in our spirit, He is still the Treasure and we remain the earthen vessel. He is that Spirit and our natural man remains the flesh. That distinction remains.

Christ in Us is ALL

There are some great ramifications of this Truth of, “Christ in us.” For example, it means that salvation isn’t merely something God does TO us. Nope. Neither has God given us a THING called, “eternal life.” No. Rather, God has given us Christ — IN WHOM there is all life. The presence of Christ in us is the presence of LIFE in us. If Christ is in us, we are ALIVE eternally. HE IS our life.

In addition, “Christ in us,” means that God has not merely declared us righteous in a legal sense. No. Rather, He has given us Christ — WHO IS our righteousness – to dwell IN US. (I Cor. 1:30) Thus, Christ contains ALL righteousness. And Christ is IN US.

So we have this division or distinction: We have Christ, who holds ALL that is of God. And we have us, in whom there is nothing of God. And yet CHRIST DWELLS IN US. This is why Christ is God’s gift of grace. He brings ALL. We are merely the recipients.

It is essential to see this distinction between the Christ who dwells in us – who holds ALL that is of God – it is essential to see the distinction between HIM and ourselves – who are merely natural and of the flesh. Unless we do see that distinction, we are liable to be looking at ourselves and expecting to find what can only be found in Christ. This error has caused many to try to be righteous in themselves, and upon failing, to come under condemnation.

If Christ dwells in us – Christ crucified and raised – and if He holds all that is of God, then our faith, confidence, and stand before God, is never to be based on anything about ourselves. It is to be upon Christ – yes, upon what He has done – but upon the Person of Christ who, right now, lives in us.

So Christ in us is distinct from ourselves – we are not Him. We are united with Him in our spirit – this is the new creation – but all that is outside of that, and of the flesh and natural, is NOT Christ. So why do we put our faith in that which is NOT of Christ? Why do we look at that which is OUTSIDE of Christ and based our relationship with God upon it? That is not only futile, but it is a deception.

Now, of course the problem here ought to be obvious: The reason why we look at ourselves, and base our faith upon ourselves, is because most of us have not had Christ revealed IN US. He is not been formed IN US. We don’t know Him. So really, we look to ourselves because it is all we can do – we simply do this by default. It comes natural.

Thus, we must come to SEE JESUS – in an inward way.

Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. (Eph 1:15-18)

A Division

The presence of Christ in a person creates a division between soul and spirit, that is, flesh and spirit. Before Christ dwells within, there is no division – we are totally of the flesh. But when we are united with Christ in spirit, we become is a new creation IN HIM. This creates the division between what is IN Christ, and what is outside of Him.

Christ brings ALL that is of God to us through our oneness with Him. Contrast this over and against the idea that God gives us THINGS. No. God gives us Christ – IN WHOM are all things. As Paul put it, “In Him dwells all the fullness of Godhood. You are (therefore) complete IN HIM.” (Col. 2:9-10) The vital Truth to see here is that every aspect of the Christian experience has its source in the Christ who is in us – and therefore we can only experience what God intends if Christ is unfolded to us. The Christian walk is an experiencing of CHRIST.

Now, this is especially important because we are warned in the second chapter of Colossians against seeking the things of God from other sources. Paul states, “In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge — and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” (Col. 2:3-4) Clever words won’t do it. Philosophy or logic, or empty deceit based upon the tradition of men, won’t do it. Mandated religious humility, or the keeping of days, or of laws, will not do it. Only the progressive unfolding of Christ by inner revelation will do. ALL is in Christ.

So it is vital to see that Christ – the Christ who dwells in our spirit – it is vital to see that His very Person is the source of all that is of God. It is essential to see that Christianity is NOT a matter of God giving us things, or of God giving us experiences, or of God making us to know things, or of God doing things to us to make us better people. No. Christianity is a matter of experiencing and knowing CHRIST.

But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Cor. 1:30)

If we would only realize this Truth it would set us free from looking at ourselves and trying to find evidence of Christianity. It would set us free from thinking that Christianity is a matter of God making us better people, or of God bringing out the best in us. No. Christianity sets US ASIDE through the Cross. This is about LEAVING OURSELVES ALONE and growing to know and experience Christ.

Let’s lay this out in even more clear terms: In Christ is ALL that is of God – and Christ is IN US. We could draw a circle around Christ and say that He contains ALL that is of God. But note that this would mean that everything OUTSIDE of that circle – everything outside of Christ – carries NOTHING that is of God. And our natural man or flesh is most assuredly OUTSIDE of that circle.

What I am saying is this: In Christ is ALL that is of God. Outside of Christ there is nothing that is of God. Thus, our oneness with Christ in the Spirit is the new man, or new creation. Everything outside of that is the natural, or old man. Christ is the only SOURCE of that which is of God. Everything outside of Christ is dead.
Now, can we see a tremendous division here? We have our union with Christ – the Christ who dwells in us and carries all that is of God, and we have everything, including our natural makeup, which is OUTSIDE of that. This is the division of soul vs. spirit. It is the division of flesh vs. spirit. And it is vital that we see it.

A Common Error

If all that is of God is found in Christ, and not in us, then it ought to be obvious that looking for something in ourselves that is of value is going to be a dead end. Yet because we don’t realize this, most of us continue to look for something in our flesh and our natural man that resembles Christ. We seek out some scrap of evidence in ourselves that we are good.

But there is no good. There is NOTHING of value outside of Christ. We have seen the distinction – there is Christ in us by virtue of oneness with Him in spirit, and there is everything that is outside of Him. All that is of value is found IN HIM. Nothing of value is outside of Him – and our natural makeup is most certainly outside of Him. And yet we continue to put our faith in our natural makeup. We continue to become upset and confused because our flesh is not behaving or acting like a Christian. It never will. All that is of value is found in Christ, not in that which is outside of Him.

Our natural man is supposed to be brought under the power of the Spirit. But this is only possible through knowing Christ and through faith. Yet that is quite different than saying that our natural man is to be made LIKE Christ. No. The body is dead because of sin and the spirit is life because of HIS righteousness. This is the state of man in this age.

Confidence in the flesh is what most of us seek – we may not call it that, but that is what we are doing. It takes quite an upheaval for God to break that – God usually has to show us that our flesh carries NOTHING in which to be confident. This requires failure by experience. It means that your very basis for functioning needs to be dismantled and broken – so that you can be free to put all confidence or faith in Christ alone. This will seem like great warfare. It is.

The living Christ who dwells in us must be the sole object of our faith. That means that everything that is OUTSIDE of the Christ who is in us must never be the object of our faith. We must never look to ourselves, to our natural man, or to anything else about ourselves – there is no value there.

Flesh vs. Spirit

Now, all of that is preliminary to our understanding of Paul’s statement to the Galatians. He said, “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.” Note the word, “contrary.” This is quite revealing. What it tells us is that our FLESH is not simply, “other than,” Christ in us, and not merely, “outside,” of Christ who is in us by the Spirit – no. The flesh is actually CONTRARY to Christ.

Contrary how? Contrary by nature – which is to say that the flesh is contrary to Spirit of Christ by very constitution. The flesh CANNOT function in harmony with the Spirit of God. It is not a matter of wanting to, or of not wanting to. It cannot. That which is born of flesh IS flesh, and that which is born of Spirit IS Spirit. The difference is really that of LIFE vs. DEATH.

Now, once we realize this, it exposes all the more as utter folly any attempt on our part to find something in ourselves of value. It shows how futile it is to place any confidence at all in ourselves – to look to our obedience, or to our ability to function like Christ. The flesh has NO value. Only Christ has value.

“Confidence in our flesh,” is not usually something people realize they are seeking. Actually, you will DEFAULT to that if you haven’t been exposed as empty without Christ. Any attempt to have confidence in the flesh is the result of being deceived – it is the result of not seeing the Truth about the flesh. You aren’t at the end of yourself yet. Christ is yet to be fully revealed in you, and so your faith simply defaults to what, “comes natural.” You seek to anchor yourself IN yourself – and most Christian people will do this thinking it is true faith in Christ.

Note again – our flesh is CONTRARY to Christ. That means that our flesh is a LIE, for Christ is the Truth. Our flesh can function and react in ways that are utterly contrary to the Truth – and this might upset us. It is possible to know the Truth, and want to walk in it, but for a time for your flesh to be running contrary to Christ. This does not mean that you are not a Christian. Indeed, the fact that you have some awareness to what is going on proves that Christ has opened your eyes. But it is then that we must by-pass all of that and put faith in Christ.

Some of us think that if we put faith in Christ that this ought to make all the reactions of the flesh go away. No. Putting faith in Christ simply aligns us with a greater power, and the Truth. The flesh – emotions and our soul life – this may continue reacting contrary to the Truth. Thus, we must put faith in Christ if everything else about us is presently contrary to Him. We must keep faith in Christ if NOTHING changes. This isn’t a religious exercise. It is a stand in the Truth.

God wants to MAKE US TRUE – which will require the exposure of all that is false about us, that is, it requires that the lie of our flesh be brought out into the open, not just in theory, but as to function. We will have to experience some of the terrible corruption, and frankly, wickedness of it, so that we might see the Truth, confess the Truth, and finally put our faith solely in Christ.
We are here talking about what must happen for Christ to become our life. God has to make it impossible for us to any longer be at home in the flesh. What used to be normal must become intolerable. Sure. The flesh is CONTRARY to Christ. Thus, if life in the flesh seemed NORMAL – but is really CONTRARY to Christ – then all the seemed normal in the flesh must be disrupted and exposed as utterly ABNORMAL.

This isn’t a game, or religion. It is a matter of God MAKING US TRUE – which is what seeing and embracing the Truth will do. We cannot learn any of this except through actual experience. We have to see – and it is progressive – we have to see just how contrary to Christ our flesh, the SELF, really is. It is the only way to be set free.

We must get this settled: If our flesh is contrary to the Spirit, then the ONLY POSSIBLE PATH of coming into the Truth in Christ is that the power and the illusion of the flesh be exposed. And then we have to learn what it means to take our faith completely off of ourselves and anchor it in Christ.

It is an incredibly simple fact – we have to get our faith ENTIRELY OFF of anything about ourselves. We have to have our faith solely in Christ. Our faith has to remain solely in Christ to the disregard of whether we are able to obey God in conduct, and to the disregard of how we feel. All that is outside of Christ is DEAD. And we have to treat it that way. WE are dead, but our life is hid WITH CHRIST IN GOD.

Reduction

Now, everything I have said is the Truth. But the question is HOW we can come to put all of our faith in Christ? How do we come to have an inner revelation of Christ to where we can actually see and know the Truth about these matters? There is only one method: It is the work of the Cross.
If you are born from above, you already have ALL of Christ dwelling in you. And in Christ, is the fullness of God – indeed, in Him is all that is of God. That is why Paul is able to say, “You are complete in Him.” That is utter. God has wrapped up all that He has, and all that He is, in Christ. Anyone who says you need more is teaching error. That is the error against which Colossians warns.

But if we already have all that God intends IN CHRIST – how do we come to experience Him and know Him? Well, God must deal with what is hindering this. He must remove what hinders us, not so He can ADD more of Christ to us, but so that we might be able to see and know the Christ who is already within us.

And what hinders us? Well, all that is NOT of Christ, that is, the flesh. If the flesh is contrary to Christ, then, by definition, the flesh is hindering Christ and fighting against the life of Christ in us. God must therefore bring the flesh into line with the Truth – it must be brought under the power of the Cross.

Here we must touch on the purpose of God. Many are teaching that it is the will of God to make us like Jesus. That is not correct – especially the way in which most who teach that mean it. Most Christian people think that God wants to take all that is outside of Christ and make it like Christ – that God wants to make our flesh look like Jesus. No. What God wants to do is crucify the flesh so that Jesus can look like Jesus – in and through us. This is what Paul was getting at:

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us…always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor 4:7-11)

Upon reading this passage, it becomes clear what God means when he inspired Paul to say that God wants us to, “be conformed to the image of His Son.” Actually, the word in the Greek means, “to be formed together with.” It does not mean that our natural man or flesh – that which is OUTSIDE of the new creation in Christ – it does not mean that this is to look like Jesus. Neither does it mean that we are, in any way, to be made into little versions of Christ. No. We are to be formed TOGETHER WITH Christ. In short, Christ is to be manifested through us, and as He is, we are in concert with Him.

The call to us, if any of this is to happen, is to relinquish ourselves to the Cross – that is, we are to LOSE our lives for the sake of Christ. Central to this losing of our lives will be the losing of all of our self-righteousness. But the result will be that we will shift all of our faith from OFF of ourselves over onto Christ.

But if you think about this, the only way in which we will ever shift our faith from ourselves over to Christ is if God allows us to be exposed as totally unrighteous. This is nothing more than God showing us the TRUTH. And it will never happen just by telling us. We have to learn it by failure. We will have to be brought to the dead end of ourselves.

There ought to be encouragement in this because it means that when our flesh is exposed as terrible, and when we are shown to be utter failures – entitled to NOTHING before the Lord – well, this is normal. It is the Truth. When we begin to crumble under the weight of our own lack – God is simply letting us see a little of the true nature of things without Christ. But God does not intend to leave us in such despair. It is all so that we might finally confess what we are and forever put our faith in Christ.

God will even let the enemy loose on us – maybe not in our life circumstances – but He may allow the enemy to disturb us in a spiritual or psychic way. This will disrupt us and press us to God. In time, it will show us the futility of vesting anything in ourselves. We will abandon ourselves to God by faith in Christ.

We should not be surprised or troubled by the terrible potential that is in our flesh. God has always known about it – and loved us anyways. We need to confess it and LET IT GO. There is nothing there to salvage and nothing to fix. There is nothing to excuse. God is simply showing us – by experiential failure – the Truth about ourselves. But all of thus is so we will see the Truth of Christ.

A Matter of Faith

All of us have faith in ourselves. We don’t have to be conscious of it or make an effort. It is bound into our fallen nature. Even those who lament over their failures, and always feel condemned, and would loudly proclaim that they have no faith in themselves do have faith in themselves. For condemnation of self is the result of a frustrated faith in self. Faith in self is the natural state of mankind. But this is precisely why the flesh is contrary to the Spirit. By nature, we have faith in ourselves. To walk in the Truth, we must have faith in Christ.

We tend to view this issue as a doctrinal issue. It is not – it is a life issue. It is Truth verses darkness. It is life vs. death. To get a person free of faith in self over to faith in Christ requires a new birth. I’m not talking here about salvation as much as I am about the life we life after salvation – for most Christians have no concept of what it means to walk solely by faith in Christ.

For example, take the matter of RIGHTEOUSNESS. We think of righteous as a doctrine. And because we do, we say that we know that our righteousness is not based on works, but upon Christ.
That’s good. But is that it? Have we any idea what it means to walk before the Lord free of our own righteousness, but to have Christ as our righteousness?

In the Bible, this matter of righteousness is central to the NT. That is because you have to be righteous to be saved. You have to be righteous – made right with God — to walk with God. Paul addresses the need for us to become righteous because it is the core essential for life in Christ. He talked about losing his own righteousness and finding Christ. Do we think he was merely talking about a new doctrine he adopted? No. He was talking about a revolutionary tearing apart of his own righteousness – a breaking to pieces of what made him tick – unto the end that Christ alone would be his object of faith. Paul said:

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. (Phil 3:8-9)

Paul is asking: Can anything you do, or can anything you are, make Christ more righteous? No. Can any sin you commit, or any sin of omission, make Christ less righteous? No. Well, Christ is OUR righteousness! Thus, your righteousness cannot be added to, or subtracted from, by anything you do are by anything you are. The righteousness of Christ is eternal and unalterable, and the presence of the living Christ in us is our righteousness.

The Battle is Won

The flesh is contrary to Christ in us. So we ought not be surprised that our flesh is continually rising up and suggesting by our conduct – even in our thinking and in our emotions — that we are not in Christ. That is what the flesh DOES. If we have any faith in our flesh our faith will fail.

God has not called us to win the battle over the flesh. No. God has called us to rest in Christ by faith – for if we do, we are resting in the One who has already won that battle. Thus, we are wasting our time if we turn upon ourselves and fight our flesh in an attempt to make it act like Christ. No. The battle is never to make the flesh behave. The battle is to leave ourselves alone and abandon ourselves in faith to Christ.

God has already put the flesh under the Cross. So if we don’t put it there – if we don’t realize we are being upset by that which is dead – we are deceived. The flesh is already put aside. So we need to put it aside – we need to STEP AROUND ourselves – STEP OUTSIDE of ourselves – and rest in Christ, to the complete disregard of our flesh. That is the way of victory.

I did not say that sin was ok, or that when we sin it is not sin. What I am saying is that Christ has already paid the price for that. Thus, how are we going to add to His price? No. Even if we think we are, right now, the worst sinner on earth, without any hope of ever changing – we step around that and come by faith into Christ as our righteousness. He died so we could do that.

Coming to Christ as a needy, defeated person is really the only way we can come because it is the Truth. The flesh won’t like that. But it is unto this end that God wants to bring us so that we might fully see the Truth of His grace in Christ Jesus.

These battles between flesh and Spirit are the result of CHRIST IN US, and the outcome of Him MAKING US TRUE unto God. Thus, the lie of the flesh, and it’s inability to function in God, must be exposed. So really, warfare and suffering along this line, IF we continue to seek God, is good. It is the pathway to freedom.
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It is not in anyway about having faith in ourselves or anything else in this life. We can only have faith in Christ. We must battle to come to the end of ourselves and see that if Jesus is the truth then anything else is a lie, even our foolish attempts to be Christ-like.
The flesh does not just go away when we put our faith in Christ, in fact our flesh will fight against being put away and that is what this battle is all about.

To come to Truth, we must see all the lies of our flesh brought into the light of the Spirit. We must experience this battle, we cannot just intellectualize it away. It is not the will of God to make us look like Jesus, but for us to crucify the flesh so that Jesus looks like Jesus in and through us!

The only way we will make the shift from our own righteousness to Christ is if God shows us our unrighteousness, by brokenness and failure. It is much like the law keeping of the Old Covenant that showed mankind their complete unrighteousness before God, and how very much they needed a Savior. It happens to all mankind and it happens to each human, who wants to know the Truth.

Jesus told us that He did not come to bring peace, so that we would be content in the battle-less life of the flesh. No! He came with a sword to tear flesh and spirit apart! To expose the lies of the wide way that seems peaceful, but leads to death. The narrow way is a battlefield, and only a few want to enter in to such a fight for life. For faith in self is the natural state of mankind, one so deeply ingrained that it takes a great battle to give up faith in ourselves and give it all to Christ.

We are not called to win this battle between flesh and spirit, we are called to rest in our faith in Christ, as this is the only way to win, as He has already won it for us!

All Glory be to our most high Lord!

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

 

THE LISTENING WITNESS

THE LISTENING WITNESS

Hello all,

I re-learned something wonderful these past few days that I would like to share with you. It has to do with “witnessing” and the wonder of being still and resting in Christ. It is the way that I can be sure that I am truly witnessing for Christ, when I am not there and His love fills me. His love, that agape love for all, that feeling of being filled to the brim with Him.

I guess what I am getting at is, I have re-learned what an awesome tool for witnessing is the art of listening. I recall when I was first ‘born again’, that moment when I became a “new creature”…that moment, that no other moment compares to in this life; I was filled with Him and I became a listener. I only wanted to listen to Him, and in turn was able to truly listen to others.

In this busy work a day 24/7 whirlwind of a world, where everyone wants attention and everyone wants to talk, it is so very rare to meet someone who really listens. When we think of what being a witness means, we usually think of someone preaching the Gospel to others, reciting Scripture, teaching and reaching the lost. It just dawned on me today, that how listening is the key to open the door to speak about the Gospel and often times the listener doesn’t even have to speak.

A really great example of this is found in a wonderful book entitled “The Listener” by Taylor Caldwell. I read this book ages ago, but it has had such an impact on me in regards to listening as witnessing.

As I recall, the Listener is a statue of Christ that sits in a chapel and people come and rest on a bench nearby. The book tells the story of several people who sit and tell their life stories to this statue, and in doing so, truly come to the Lord. It is such a beautiful book, I am not doing it justice in my description, but hope I am getting my point across.

By resting so completely in Him, and by this I mean giving Him every moment of our life and every thought about our life, we are able to witness of Him by just being there in whatever situation that He puts us in, as He is there also. Then, it just becomes a matter of His presence within us; that presence that is always working and is about His Father’s business. Almost everything and everyone reacts to His presence, it is so irresistible, and as such, people are drawn to Him.

To me personally, I am learning that the only work that is required to be a witness to others about our most wonderful Lord, is to to give all to Him, all our fears and worries about everything!! Resting assured that it is in His hands, having total faith that it is, and knowing that no matter what happens, if we are truly doing this, that everything will work for our good.

It is ironic that doing this requires ” not doing”, yet also being able to accomplish all things through Him. It is the non-action that allows for action and right doing. And right doing, and keeping His commandments, is letting Him work in and through us. The hard part of this “not doing” is the death of self, this is the struggle we all have and the one we will continue to face until we are like Him, when we see Him.

It is “love in action” that is the best witness for the Lord. Whether through a kind word, a smile, a touch, or heartfelt listening, all are drawn to Him and it is that being in “His presence” that brings lost sheep to Himself. We do no work in this process, as it is not about us, and what we know or don’t know. This is why Jesus sent us the Comforter, the Spirit we rest in while He works on, in and through us.

I see it work in my own life, and I am so grateful for those times when I am able to do this non-doing. The love that fills me just has to be shared, and it is the agape love that spills out of one when Christ is doing the work. Able to silence my own voice I am able to listen to others, and when that happens, all things are possible.

I know this sounds strange, but I am confident that this truth resonates in every born again Christian heart. You know what this is, you know this is how He wants you to witness for Him because you were given this information in that instant of being born again. You were raptured and set free, to be filled with His love and light, when you picked up your cross and crucified your “self”, and were born again from above.

God is the Lord that resides in hearts, and Satan is a lord that resides in minds. It is when this mind takes over the heart and is sitting in the temple of God, where it should not be, that one is lost. We cannot serve two masters, we must render onto God what is God’s…our heart, our temple, before we will have the mind of Christ. If one’s mind is ruling their life, then the heart becomes the servant of the Mind. This is backward, as a servant is never above the Master!

Our minds (flesh) must be our servant, and our heart (Spirit) must be our Master. The antichrist resides in all of us, but rules in every life not given to God. It runs the world through these millions and millions of people who have mind as god over the Spirit. The intellect must be sub servant to the Spirit, or one is lost. One cannot have the “mind of Christ” without totally surrendering their hearts.

Spirit must be Master over the flesh, and mind is of the flesh if not renewed in Christ.

With all the fear and worry coming at us from every corner of our lives in this world, with evil living inside so many and surrounding others, with the whole of the earth being poisoned and dying, we are to stop, and rest in Him. He will take care of us as we take care of others by being a witness of His presence in our lives. He will draw all His lost sheep to Himself and He uses those who live in Him and rest in Him. The words of witness will come as each situation dictates, just as He told us they will. He told us not to worry what to say as He will give voice to what needs to be said.

Especially now! When we followers of Christ are under so much pressure!! We feel we should be doing something, something meaningful and important in order to win souls for Jesus! When in all truth, He wants us to rest, as it is time for us to rest entirely and completely in Him, not to worry about our own works. He does not want us to work for Him, He wants to work through us as the vine fills the branches. He is the only one producing fruit, we cannot do this on our own.

Doing something in His name, has not the impact of Him doing something in His name. That is the difference in those who call Him Lord, and do miracles and signs and wonders in His name, but he knows them not; and those who have sacrificed themselves and He lives in them and does His work through them.

We are to come out of Babylon, and this means come out of the flesh centered world and into the Spirit centered realm. This is a personal journey on all levels of our being. And we need not pack a bag and move anywhere else to accomplish this. We need to do it right where He has us, to witness to those who are around us, everyday in every way. There is no escaping this world, or being rescued from it, there is only dying to it, and being reborn.

All this inner struggle, battles and wars are being played out all around us is reflecting how much the world is living inside of millions and millions of souls without Christ! The Wide Way seems to be winning, and we are running out of time! Satan has been loosed and we are being gathered to the great day of battle. This battle that goes on inside of every man and has been spilling into the streets of this world and taking over this earth since the Fall in the Garden.

Of course, the Lord knows what this struggle is and how it is magnified in this time of the fullness of all things. Maybe that is why the New Covenant commandments are summed up in love. The act of loving God, and then loving others as ourselves. If we are truly in Christ we love the Lord as Christ loved His Father, and we love others as if they are also Christ! The absolute only way to do this is to be in Him and Him in us.

This all brings me back to the topic of listening as witnessing. It is the very best we can do where He has us at this time, and wherever He may send us in the future. It isn’t about hating the world and avoiding those He sends to us, it is about loving and believing in the midst of the chaos of this life, and about how much of ourselves we give to Him.

It is about becoming love, not just giving it or receiving it. God is love and love attracts all to itself, and all darkness is overcome with light…His light. And His light can shine anywhere.

May we all become good listeners, listening to the Lord, and each other, as we share the love the Father has for the Son, that the Son has imparted to us though the Holy Spirit.

I did a great deal of talking to try and convey this message about listening! Words seem so feeble at times when trying to convey spiritual things. Forgive me for having to use so many of them to state something so simple and pure.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!