SINLESS SINNER?

It surely can be confusing to tell someone that you are sinless in Christ, yet that you still commit sins on a daily basis because of your humanity. The unbeliever will certainly think you are crazy, or perhaps addled, but the fact is that this an accurate attribute of a born again Christian! But to explain it, we must use correctly interpreted bible verses to convey this concept in a manner that laymen are able to understand.
"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." (1 John 3:8 - 10) Here is a passage that some may need explaining about. The first part of this passage means that those who have not accepted Christ and have not been born again are of the devil. Those not born again will not want to read the bible, they find their condemnation in it concerning what all behavior God calls sin, including a lack of faith, which is another term for belief. if one lacks belief, they likewise lack faith. If one doesn't believe in the bible, why would they read it, except out of curiosity, and probably wouldn't even finish it; it's a long book, and besides, they don't believe according to the hardness of their hearts. however, if one has had their heart circumcised by the Lord, and their eyes and hearts be opened, then they will accept Christ, accept what the bible says, and be born again, and then they will adapt their behavior to biblical precepts, instead of according to selfish lusts. A passage by James edifies this train of thought -

"From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But He giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." (James 4:1 - 8) Be born again! If one's eyes be opened, James is explaining those who chose the world were enemies of God, and he encourages people to draw nigh unto God, or, in other words, choose God instead of the world, and this will eventually lead to elimination of asking God amiss, because one who draws nigh to God reads His word, and those who read His word to a level of understanding will learn how to ask God correctly, and not amiss, which is according to selfish lusts, even to anyone's hurt. Habitual sinners, those who have not accepted/believed on Christ, these are not sinless sinners, because they have refused or denied the promise of God through Jesus Christ. And what was that promise?

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John 3:16 - 21) I will say it again, that many pastors and preachers in many denominations do an injustice not preaching God's full promise. This is a loaded passage, because it's not just a promise, but it explains how God works. God requires a blood sacrifice for forgiveness of sins; therefore, He sent His Son, the only entity in existence capable of doing the task necessary to provide love to an entire human race, to provide blood sacrifice of His own Self, that we might all be saved on the sole condition of believing in Christ Jesus His Son. This being done more than 2,000 years ago, we now have the stage set for explaining the sinless sinner. First, a body accepts Christ and is born again, attaining salvation. The same body dies a saved soul, and now it's judgment time! "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Heb. 9:27) There are two judgment seats, the bemis and the white throne. Those saved by Jesus' blood are judged from the bemis seat, and according to what they did for Christ. "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (1 Cor. 3:12 - 15) But those who have rejected or denied God's gift through Jesus Christ, these are not sinless sinners, but sinners INDEED! They go to the white throne judgment seat! "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:11 - 15) So this is how a saved soul is a sinless sinner. When God looks at a soul for judgment, those who are saved by the blood of Christ receive Jesus in the form of a filter, and although we have sinned sins of all sorts throughout our lifetime, Jesus' sacrifice acts as a filter so that God sees us in Jesus' sinless character, thereby we are saved by Jesus. It's like a red filter on a page in the bible where Jesus speaks in places, but not on the entire page. When you use a red filter over the entire page, you can't see what Jesus said in the red letter edition, because the filter blocks out His words written in red in the bible on that page. Likewise, our sins are as the red letters of Jesus' words, and Jesus' blood is the filter that God looks through to find sins. Since He sees no sin through the filter of Jesus' sacrifice, we are accepted into heaven, forgiven all blemish due to the fact we accepted the one condition of the gift of God, and that being the belief in Christ Jesus as Savior and the sacrificial Lamb, a gift from God our Father.

"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death." (1 John 5:16 - 17) Believers can sin to the point where physical death results as judgment from God; "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (1 Cor. 11:30) "Many sleep" means that many died. "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee." (Jer. 7:16) If a person willfully sins after repeated corrections by their family member in Christ, John is saying one doesn't need to pray about it, because God will handle it!

So here we have an explanation of a sinless sinner; "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Eph. 2:5) By God's grace through Christ Jesus, we are saved to the uttermost; we are heavenly kingdom bound - "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8 - 9) We who believe are God's children, and the law is no longer our schoolmaster, that we should be held accountable for our sins; we who are born again are under grace; sinless sinners! "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:24 - 26)

A Jewish Day vs. A Gentile Day

A Jewish Day vs. A Gentile Day

You know, we Gentiles look at a typical day the exact opposite as does a Jew. I mean to say, they start their day, in biblically correct fashion, in the evening! 6:00 P.M. starts the Jewish day, at sunset. I will use an unusual piece of text where it is written verbiage that defines the end of a day. "And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deut. 21:22-23) So here we see in Deuteronomy that in order for a body to be buried "that day", and not hang there in the night, it could not be on the cross it hanged on any later than twilight, which in the Talmud is called Shema, or hour of prayer. For the Jew, each day begins with a time to sleep. "And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep." (Gen. 28:11) Now if there was business to be taken care of, sometimes that continued from one day to the next! "But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." (Exod. 17:12) "And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day." (Josh. 8:29) Note here that Joshua obeyed the law set in Deuteronomy!

Now there are English divisions of the new day of the Jews that are typical designations of the Jews. For example, the first watch ends at 10:00 P.M.; "Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street." (Lam. 2:19) Midnight for the English is the same as for the Jew, and there is scripture for that. "And Moses said, 'Thus saith the LORD, "About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts."'" (Exod. 11:4 - 5) "And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet." (Ruth 3:8) We can see here, too, that Jews aren't necessarily interested in sleeping during the dark of night, not anymore than God; but of course, God NEVER sleeps! Jesus spoke on two occasions of Jews being busy during the night, one of a wedding (Matt. 25:6), another of one merely going to a neighbor to borrow bread (Luke 11:5)!

At 2:00 A.M. is another division of the Jewish day, and that is when the second watch ends. "So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands." (Judges 7:19) Now it may seem that the Jews are awfully busy at night, but it was typical then, because someone had to guard camps and cities all night from enemy attack, and those that were awake at night had to resort to sleeping in the day!

3:00 A.M. for the Gentile has the designation of rooster crow for the Jew; "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping." (Mark 13:35 - 36) "And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, 'Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.' And he went out, and wept bitterly." (Matt. 26:75) So here is revealed a little piece of trivia; you can ask people what time of day was it when Peter denied Jesus for the third time, and you'll have many scratching there heads for days!

4:30 A.M. is designated as second rooster crow in the Jewish division of the day. "And Jesus saith unto him, 'Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice.'" (Mark 14:30) In the Talmud, this is twilight of sunrise, as opposed to the twilight of sunset.

6:00 A.M. is designated as sunrise, and this is when the third watch ends for the Jew. In the Talmud, it is called for that there be three trumpet blasts. "The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar." (Gen. 19:23) Ah, another brain buster of Bible trivia! What time was it when Lot entered Zoar? "And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians," (Exod. 14:24) Note on this verse the last watch of nightfall ends. "Until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as He hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD'S servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising." (Josh. 1:15) Another brain buster to stump the congregation Bible whiz! "And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together." (1 Sam. 11:11) From this information we can gather that it took at least 6 hours for Saul to slay the Ammonites. Now for two armies to battle it out in that short of a time, either the Ammonites were well-outnumbered, or The Israelites were some pretty good warriors! Gives authority to the verse, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31)

9:00 A.M. is the first hour of prayer for the Jew. "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." (Acts 2:15) Now this verse is obscure in designating the time of day for the Gentile, but for the Jew, the third hour is 9 A.M., when Jews engaged in the exercises of the synagogue. On feast days they neither ate nor drank until 10:00 A.M. or noon, and this was what Peter was using to prove that the amazing feat of the apostles speaking in many tongues was not the result of being drunk with wine.

12:00 A.M. is noon, first Mincha, according to the Talmud; a time to pray and eat! "And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon." (Gen. 43:16) "And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, 'O Baal, hear us.' But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made." (1 Kings 18:26)

1:30 P.M. for the Gentile is great vesper time for the Jew. Called the second Mincha in the Talmud; prayer time! 3:30 P.M. is designated as small vesper time for the Jews. A time of 9 blasts on the trumpet, according to the Talmud.

6:00 P.M. comes once again, sunset. The Talmud calls for 6 blasts on the trumpet on the eve of the Sabbath. "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them." (Luke 4:40)

Now wasn't this an interesting peek into the typical day of the Jews? Their day starts in the evening - "And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Gen. 1:5), and many noteworthy things happened in biblical history. Can you hardly wait to use the newly given Bible trivia you now have?

One Death Or Two?

One Death Or Two?
 

I have been conversing with an unusual Jehovah witness who doesn't act anything like the ones here in the U.S., and one thing unusual about him is that he doesn't go away like the others when you tell them what church you belong to. Even stranger, he made wrong assumptions what we talk about, and seemed very determined to control the conversation, and didn't want to talk about commonly known false doctrine of their church, and even when you talk to him pointedly about it, he refused to answer, but rather wanted to be accusatory of what I believed rather than face the facts of his church's doctrine. He was obsessed with talking about hell fire, which he thought we constantly talk about (which we don't), and he was also obsessed with talking about burning in hell, and burning in torment for all eternity, and apparently thinking his doctrine controls what our God does and will do. I have called this putting our God in a box, and it's not a new concept. There are many people who want to believe God works under the rules they give Him, not the rules He gives us. I also noted to myself he never once mentioned Jesus, although I often did. As a matter of fact, he would not touch it when I asked him if he knew that Jesus was the full embodiment of Jehovah, according to Col. 2:8 - 9, but he referred to what I was saying as a human philosophy! So much for Jehovah witnesses, who don't believe in the divinity of Jesus, apparently. In any case, he was quite insistant that I answer the question, "Will God give eternal life to sinners too for the pleasure of torturing them for eternity?" He wanted a yes or no answer, and the answer is actually yes and no.

There are two kinds of sinners, and all of mankind, save Jesus Christ, has been and still is a sinner, but some of us are saved by grace, and many are not We who have accepted Christ as our personal Savior and have repented our wicked ways and have taken on the yoke of Christ and are constantly reading the Bible to hone our Christian walk and ambassadorship, though we are sinners, we will have eternal life - "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." (Rom. 8:1-2) Herein is an answer regarding some sinners, those who have accepted Christ. They will not be condemned, therefore, they will have eternal life in heaven, and their judgment will be concerning their works in this way; "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (1 Cor. 3:11 - 15)

Now everyone knowing true Christian doctrine knows that we will die and go to judgment one way or the other. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Heb. 9:27), but Jehovah witnesses think you just wait somewhere and know nothing until judgment day. In this scripture, it is explained that you are judged after you pass from this life! Jesus told the saved criminal, "And Jesus said unto him, 'Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.'" (Luke 23:43) So this sinner and criminal hanging on the cross next to Jesus on His cross was guaranteed eternal life in paradise, which we all know is heaven. The criminal died, and went to heaven. He did not wait, or Jesus would have said so. Since this was a criminal, and apparently sinned a lot, this also destroys the concept of a "purgatory", which appears nowhere in the Bible.

Okay, now one of the Jehovah witness' greatest concerns was about whether our God would be so cruel as to make someone burn in hell and the lake of fire for all eternity. This is where he wants desperately for God to fit into his box, his set of concepts concerning God. When we were young, we had to fit into our parents' set of rules. We couldn't make our parents' rules bend to our will, nor can we make our God's rules bend to what we want them to say or mean. Let's look into this great concern he had in the second death.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:6 - 15) Sorry for the length, but this much Scripture was necessary for points to be made. The Bible makes it very clear; the lake of fire is for torment day and night forever and ever. The sinners who were saved by accepting Christ as their Savior, who resisted taking the mark of the beast, these who took part in the first resurrection will not see the second death, as it is written in Rev. 20:6; however, in the next chapter of Revelation it is written; "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Rev. 21:8)

Now he was really concerned about this second death, and denied that God would be so cruel as to torment anyone in hell and the lake of fire forever. Called our God insane because of it, even! And he kept asking if God would give eternal life to sinners for the pleasure of torturing them for all eternity. Our God did not want for us to be tortured for all eternity, that is why He sent Jesus to pay our sin debt, that we should not have to be in eternal punishment. God does not take pleasure in torturing us, our God is a loving God, who spared not His Son, that we should hope on Him for eternal life in heaven. Whoseover rejects Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, whosover will not repent and take up their cross and follow Christ, whosoever will not be His bondservant, these rebels put THEMSELVES into condemnation of hell and the lake of fire, not God. God put His rules in this Bible so that it would be plain to us how to receive eternal life in heaven after our first death on earth. If we reject it, by His rules, which we have, then He punishes us, and if we expire and with our last breath we have rejected Christ, then we have put ourselves in eternal punishment, not that God wanted us to be there, not that He likes that idea, else He would not have sent His Son to be sacrificed to pay our sin debt. We cannot put God in our box with a set of rules that appeal to us. It's the same as our parents; they gave us rules, and if we did not abide by them, we were punished according to their rules. God will punish us by His rules, and there is no Jehovah witness who can change the rules by twisting the Scriptures to mean what they want them to mean and have God go along with it. We couldn't make our parents change their disiplinary rulings, how can we fool ourselves to believe we can change what God has put forth?

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10:28) Now here is a place where interpretation is very necessary. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matt. 25:46) Does not everlasting punishment mean punished forever? "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. 12:2) "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28 - 29) I hope he reads this and understands, and that this answers what he thinks is a yes/no question.

Let me put this out there; I told him that Jesus was the full embodiment of Jehovah, so his church should be called Jesus witnesses, not Jehovah witnesses, because it is written, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. 2:8 - 9) If the Jehovah witness cannot accept Christ as Savior and Redeemer, and refuses to believe in the deity and divinity of Jesus, then his rejection of Christ will put him in that lake of fire where the second death is. Pray for all who reject Jesus to this end, they are blind to Christ's saving grace as their Savior!

Christ's 4 Appearances To Paul

CHRIST'S 4 APPEARANCES TO PAUL
 

Everyone realizes Christ appeared to Paul on his way to Damascus (see Acts 9:4 - 6), but how many know Jesus appeared to him three more times? And why? It was very important that Paul be converted on the first appearance, but what were the other three appearances for?

"Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, 'Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.'" (Acts 18:9 - 10) Jesus foreknew, obviously, that Paul would be fearful of speaking at Corinth, where he would stay for 18 months, so He edified him that he should speak freely whenever needed, which at one point proved Jesus' words to Paul, because Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, protected Paul's preaching under Roman law. Furthermore, the Greeks' anger against the Jews made Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, a scapegoat worthy of a beating right in front of the judgment seat. If you look to 1 Cor. 1:1, Sosthenes is referred to by Paul as a brother, a convert to Christ! The beating made him convert? Perhaps so! In any case, Paul was untouched during His stay there.

"And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; And saw Him saying unto me, 'Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me.' And I said, 'Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee: And when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.' And He said unto me, 'Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.'" (Acts 22:17 - 21) Here again, Christ is commanding His servant Paul to leave Jerusalem, that he might be protected from the mob that inevitably was set off by his preaching. Upon being bound with thongs, he spoke up of his Roman citizenship, which caused the chief captain to abandon scourging him. Even furthermore, the chief captain rescued him the following day from the Sanhedrin, where Paul baited the Pharisees against the Sadducees!

"And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.'" (Acts 23:11) On this his last visit to Jerusalem, Paul hears from Jesus for the last time in his flesh. Christ's words of support were for Paul's spiritual strengthening for his task in Rome, already named to him before he got there! Imagine not only being talked to by Christ not just one time, but four times in your lifetime?

So now we have the reasons why that Jesus spoke to Paul three other times during his converted life. The first after his conversion was to build his confidence, as was the last, and the second after his conversion was to get him to go out of town (Jerusalem), and go preach to the Gentiles. While Paul did not die an old man, yet he lived quite a life! He went from a Christian-hating Pharisee who condoned the stoning of Stephen to a converted Christian visited by Jesus Himself on the road to Damascus. He made three missionary journeys, wrote plenty of epistles, and was stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, bitten by a poisonous snake with no ill effects, had audiences before two governors and a king; Felix and Festus, the governors, and king Agrippa. What a life he had!

Born AGAIN!?! Say WHAT?!?

 

Born AGAIN!?! Say WHAT?!?

A muslim friend has been curious for a long time now about Christianity, the Bible, and how to interpret all it says, and so much about it, and recently he asked me about being born again. Seems like an easy subject to understand, and yet, many neither understand it, nor can some others explain it deftly with diction. May the good Lord help me do it so well...

"There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, 'Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him.' Jesus answered and said unto him,

'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" (John 3:1 - 3) What an interesting Pharisee this was, in that he did not doubt Jesus was from God. He also knew the rest of the Sanhedrin would not approve of him confessing Jesus was from God, so he came by night, and perhaps also he wanted uninterrupted time with the King of kings!

Unbelievers may be totally stumped by this concept. Others may be familiar with the term, but not fully grasp the total picture of being born again. See here what Nicodemus' response is to Jesus; "Nicodemus saith unto Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?' Jesus answered,

'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'" (John 3:4 - 6) While Biblical scholars debate the exact meaning of Jesus about the water, it is unmistakable what He meant of the Spirit - a new birth from God through the Spirit!

"'Marvel not that I said unto thee, 'Ye must be born again.' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.'" (John 3:7 - 15) Unsaved mankind does not pay much attention to the comings and goings of the saved, because both pay attention only to the travels of their own. The born again and unsaved may be found anywhere, just as wheat among the tares. An unsaved "Christian" may even be found preaching from the pulpit! Jesus further speaks to Nicodemus of how no man has been to heaven and back to witness of heavenly things, and while He tells of earthly things and they fail to believe Him, how can they believe of the heavenly things He speaks of, as He is witness of how it is there? What follows is how Jesus explains that He is the door and the gate, and how one gains access to heaven through Him...

"'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.'" (John 3:16 - 21) So many preachers fail to give the whole picture; they love to preach John 3:16, but I feel they do people an injustice not giving them John 3:17 - 21 as well, so they can see how they need only make a choice, and find salvation. Choose: do you want to believe in Jesus and go to heaven, or do you reject Him and go to hell? Do you want to be evil and hate and behave wickedly, or do you want to do good, and love and behave righteously? Amazing how many people reject Him!

Let's look a little deeper into this born again concept. "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Gal. 4:8 - 11) Paul spoke to the Galatians how he did not understand why they would act like they were not heirs of God, because they were supposed to be born again, that is, they repented of their old ways and false gods, and accepted Christ as their Savior. He was afraid of the way they were acting, because the saved are supposed to be new creatures in Christ. New creatures, you say?

Those who are not yet born again do not recognize Christ as the Son of God. If they respected Him for His position, they would do what the saved people do. "Born again" results in a new lifestyle. The grace of God not only justifies, but makes us new! Starts us out afresh! Salvation causes a decisive change from our past lifestyle! "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor. 5:16 - 20) I have related to some before how I was born again, how my behavior has been very different from what it was 12 years ago. Oh, I habitually went to church, but God only received one hour of choredom, and then I behaved as I wanted, and even then, even my car was witness of my lack of being born again. I had bumper stickers on that thing that even made the priest wince to read them! I did not donate to charities, I did not know about tithing, and because the priest had never taught me on it, to the hurt of the church! I gave $2 every Sunday, and $3 if I liked his sermon! I had no interest in reading the Bible, and if I had, I would have found out in Malachi that I was being a God robber out of ignorance! If anyone had told me 12 years ago that I would be writing Bible studies, witnessing to all nations, preaching in the pulpit, giving good sums of money to churches and charities, even feeding families, giving clothing to strangers...I'd have said they were crazy!

I want now to focus on the bottom part of what I wrote concerning the previous Scripture: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:18 - 21) Was that a deep message, or what? There is a trade-off when we accept Christ as Savior. Our relationship is changed now, because we no longer have condmenation for our sins! "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:1) We are now bondservants of the one true God. We have entered into the spirit of adoption, and in so doing, we have committed ourselves to being ambassadors of Christ; this requires us to read the Bible cover to cover, and to get learned through our reading what Christ wants of us, how we should act, that we might demonstrate a Christian walk unmistakeable to Christians and unbelievers alike, because both expect it! Now one might say they like this emancipation from sin, but what's with this "bondservant" I mentioned?

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:19 - 20) Remember what I wrote of John 3? How one has a choice? Well, Jesus paid our sin debt, so acceptance of Jesus makes us acceptable to God. But acceptance of Jesus means we accept living God's way! We behave as the new creature we are thereby expected to be! No booze, no drugs, no sex outside of with our marriage partner, church weekly, and constant Bible study; how else would we come to understand how to be a Christian? We have to read what He wants of us! We may choose to act as though we are our own before being born again, but when we behaved so, we were only fooling ourselves. After all, in the end is the white throne judgment, and there is also judgment at the bemis seat, so the unsaved deny His ownership, and the saved confess it, even revel in it!

Now there was also a question from my muslim friend concerning the Holy Ghost teaching the saved, and it is written how Jesus said He would teach the apostles; "

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26) When I became born again, I picked up a Gideon pocketsized Bible and was looking for something on being forgiven, because I wanted someone to forgive me. I found it, but I couldn't throw that Gideon Bible away. After reading it, I was attending my usual church, but I noted a very discernable discomfort of being there; I was given the conclusion I was in a false doctrine church, and had to come out from among them! "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.' Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters', saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor. 6:14 - 18).

So let my muslim friend read and accept the invitation, knowing what it means to be born again. Let all who are weary and laden with sins and all the troubles of the world come to Christ, and be born again! Believe the Bible promise; Jesus gave it Himself out of His own mouth! Believe on Him, and find salvation. Choose Christ, and live in heaven eternally; damnation's fire is never quenched in hell, and there is guaranteed weeping and gnashing of teeth!

10 Commandments Or 2?

10 Commandments Or 2?

I thought it would be neat to expound on the Old Testament 10 Commandments and the New Testament 2 Commandments, and to show that they are different, and yet, very much the same! First, let us print both versions, the Old Testament, and then the New Testament and then discuss what we have.

"I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." (Exod. 20:2 - 17) Okay, now let's see these two New Testament Commandments; "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, '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, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'" Matt. 22:36-40 (KJV)

Are Jesus' Commandments different than those of the Old Testament, or no? I tell you, they are the same! The new are a consolidation of the old! Look very closely at the first 4 Commandments of the Old Testament; are they not inclusive of loving God with all your heart, soul and mind? Look at the other 6 of the Old Testament; are they not crafted in wisdom such as that one in obedience of them has no alternative but to love thy neighbor as thyself? And here is another wonder to you, because Jesus' 2 new Commandments are yet of old! "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:" (Deut. 6:5 - 6) "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." (Lev. 19:18) So what have we got here? Jesus has abbreviated the wording out of the 10 Commandments into 2 derived from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and look what He said; "ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS." His 2 Commandments give us that we have to think before interacting with our neighbors, don't we? Whatever I do, will my neighbor appreciate it? If I were my neighbor, would I like what I'm doing? Sort of a "WWJD - (What would Jesus do). Then also there is the greatest and first that He gave. We can all be in deep pondering as to what all we can do to demonstrate our love for God, and our best source for that information is right there in the Bible, cover to cover! Jesus made it easy to know how to love Him; "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15) One can see how Jesus equates love with obedience here. So it's really quite simple: read and obey. Whatever commandments He has in the Bible, commit them to our behavior, and we are loving Him!

So let us obey the 2 Commandments, and in doing so we will be obeying the 10! Treat others how we want to be treated at all times, and obey God in all the commandments and statutes that He gave, and we have done all He wants of us!

Shades Of Heaven And Hell

SHADES OF HEAVEN AND HELL

A man in Africa was telling me of a spot in the Bible where it is written that Christ was in hell, and not able to recollect where that was, for I never remembered seeing it written, I asked him where, and he told me where in Acts to find it, and it gave me inspiration to write this new study. “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Cor. 12:2-4) Well, now, that’s an interesting passage of Scripture; “third heaven”? So there’s more than one heaven? Yes, there is, according to the Bible. In this case, this is the third heaven, paradise, Where God sits on the throne. It is the invisible heaven, the one only a small chosen number have ever had a glimpse of before dying. So what about the other two? Which are they?

“And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:’ and it was so.” (Gen. 1:7-9) Now this makes it apparent that this is the first heaven, the one we can see with our naked eye, what we call the sky, what the Bible also calls the firmament. Now we need to see an example of that second heaven which Paul mentioned there were three of…

“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst unto them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.’” (Exod. 32:13) Can you see stars during the day? You cannot, because the first heaven is lit, and the only star you can see is the sun. But at night, you can see the second heaven, where the stars and comets and other heavenly bodies can be seen outside our atmosphere, which is the first heaven. This is why the things above the first heaven are called “heavenly bodies”.

So in knowing now there are three heavens, does that mean there are perhaps more than one hell? “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.” (Ezek. 32:18) This is the hell called the grave. The Bible says Jesus was in hell, and indeed, He was in the grave for three days, as we know. “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) This is the physical hell, the one where, as we know, if our body is in a grave for even a short time, it begins to decay, or corrupt. “Jesus said, ‘Take ye away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, ‘Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.’” (John 11:39) Lazarus was in the grave four days, and Martha expected he would have a stench, typical of the corrupting of the body in the grave.

Now let’s look at the spiritual hell, the one where souls are tormented. “Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering.” (Job 26:6) The grave hell is not naked, it is covered with dirt, isn’t it? The grave is covered, but the hell for lost souls, it has no covering, else how could it burn with unquenchable fire? Let’s get a clearer picture of the hell for lost souls from Jesus Himself! “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.’” (Luke 16:22 - 26)

Is there yet another hell? Or perhaps, something worse than hell? Consider this Bible passage: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:13 - 15) “Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire”. If all the lost, including Satan’s angels, are in hell, and the lake of fire is big enough to contain hell and the entirety of the unsaved, this is certainly the way it is written worse than hell. After all, it’s a lake of fire! Now there is no further mention of the lost, so as it is written “This is the second death”, I don’t see any reason for debating whether the souls are destroyed or not. Some people will say it means the souls are destroyed and you are no more, while others will say you have a resurrection body that doesn’t get destroyed, you just get eternally burned in the lake of fire without death. Well, it says second death, and since they are not mentioned hereafter, what’s the use of debate?

So here we have three shades of heaven, and at least two, debatably three shades of hell, the last not named hell, but it is written that hell is thrown in it. Both are lost soul burners. May God bless all whom He will with faith in Christ Jesus, that they only taste the grave, except that they taste the joy of His second coming before tasting death!