Yeshua - Jesus Christ - The anointed one of God is the Truth, His the also the Way to the Life. Life more abundant, filled with Grace, Joy, Peace.
His ways are higher than our ways,
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Yet, He looks upon each one of us as his precious children and wants to bless us with His gift of Life.
Life only comes from God - The Creator. There is only one way to get to God the Creator and that is through His precious Son Yeshua - Jesus Christ - the Messiah. For through his very presence on this Earth and sacrifice for us - mankind has an opportunity to be covered by the blood of the lamb - as the door posts were covered at the time of Exodus from Egypt - only by receiving this covering of His blood and being baptized in water and spirit can we truly come to know God - through our surrender to God's Holy Path and following in the footsteps of Yeshua- Jesus Christ in obedience to God's Word and His commandments and teachings can we truly be brought into life eternal.
Amen
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta commandments. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta commandments. Mostrar todas las entradas
miércoles, 22 de enero de 2014
domingo, 5 de enero de 2014
Seeking the Divine
Looking for God - here there and everywhere yet not in the
one place he can be found – In His Holy Word. – not in tarot card, angel cards,
or divination, you will not even find him in the dimensional portals people
claim to find, Yeshua/Jesus is the only Portal to the Divine. However you will find him in His Holy
Scriptures you will find Him there. Clear as day all His handiwork to be shown –
the power of his might and the strength of his love and mercy as well as His
wrath and anger towards mankind.
You will find deliverance in the Word
of the Scriptures in the form of Yeshua – the Messiah – You will find mercy and
grace too. Yet the one overriding issue
is you get the peace and abundant life when we obey Gods Commandments and His
precious teachings. These are clearly
laid out in the Scriptures – and even Yeshua/Jesus makes reference to his Teaching
and Commandments several times during His Ministry on the earth – yet they are
ignored and cast aside as if they have past yet that is not what the Messiah
said – look at the book of Revelations – These are they that keep the faith of
Yeshua and the Commandments of Moses – therefore we have to ask ourselves – do we
want to live in a world filled with hate and malice and horrors –as we do now
or do we want to live in a world where there is peace and harmony and the
Messiah is on the Throne – whichever way you may decide to live your life you
can be assured that the Messiah is coming back and will be instituting again
His Commands and Teachings to all Nations – just as He had done in the
beginning. For when the Israelites left
Egypt there were foreigners amongst them – Gentiles – people of different races
who choose to follow God and Moses out into the Desert to receive from God.
God gave the Commandments and
teachings to Moses for the benefit of all mankind – because as we see in the
scriptures when you follow God and His ways there is Peace and prosperity. Yet we do not know them – therefore we need
to learn them and see just how important they are to you in your own life.
Life beyond Armageddon what will it be like – will you be
there.
We can see the power of his
deliverance in the Exodus of His people, the leading of His people by a pillar
of smoke by day and fire by night. You
can see also the visitation of angels to a whole range of people for the
purpose of reminding people that God is Almighty and is to be obeyed. Our lives
depend upon it. Our very existence
depends on His Word being taken seriously.
Are you going to ignore the evidence being presented to you by a whole
host of people who have painstakingly given their lives over to discovering the
hard evidence in the land of Israel and Saudi Arabia and Egypt – are you going
to continually be blinded by the facts as they stand before you in Utube
research films – I have been greatly blessed to see such as the ones for Sodom
and Gomorrah and of the Ark and Crossing of Israel through the dry land, now
that someone has taken the trouble to find the real crossing and seen for
themselves the evidence of chariots and horses and people skeletal remains in
the depth of the waters – these are compelling evidences. Yet even though we have these presented to us
we are still sceptical about the Lord God Almighty – Creator of Heaven and
Earth.
What is it going to take for you to
wake up and realise that we are living in the times of revelation. Things that were once hidden for centuries
are being revealed. People are singing
hymns and praising God yet do they really know the God of the Bible – the Maker
of All that we see about us, or do they just sing out of a sense of duty and “perhaps
and insurance of just in case there is a God” just as they do when they go to
church for their celebration – christening of a child – or even a baptism and
even a marriage – yet for each of these that are celebrated in front of the
altar of God they are not really real as the people do not really believe what
they are doing has any real value – as in everyday living they are just living
their lives as they see fit – not even giving God a second glance – yet when it
comes to the functions of duty to be seen to be doing good then they use these
occasions to give a lip-service and do not even trust in the Almighty God – not
every one is like that there are some of us who actually do believe the Word of
God, and His power and His might and are in awe of his Majesty. We do understand
the meaning of Gods Words to the people when he says that He is going to do
something He does do it. Therefore you
have to ask yourself are you ready to really become born again in the Spirit
and Water and really join with others who have found the way to the Door that
leads to the Eternal Life – that is Jesus/Yeshua – we are all waiting for His
return.
People from all faiths and
denominations acknowledge that they are waiting for someone to reappear – yet those
of us who are blessed to Know that the Messiah Yeshua is the one who is coming
back to set all things in order – and is victorious over all that is happening
and will be happening until He returns.
Do you want to be turned into a pillar of salt, burned up like Sodom and
Gomorrah or drowned like the ancient people – or do you want to be Save in the
Arms of the Almighty – Here there is peace and harmony. Here is a future. Here is a great sense of Grace and
Understanding.
For all the searching for artefacts
and evidence on this earth – which is slowly revealing that the Word of God is
TRUE and that there is God Almighty who does things in His own time and His own
way to wake up the nations. Please be
sure that You are ready for His coming.
Dig out your dusty bible off the shelve which has not been touched since
you received it, look into the history of Israel and How God treated Mankind –
check out what the prophets said and how important it was for them to fast and
pray and ask Gods forgiveness for their nations lack of Trust and Obedience to
God – that they had turned their back on Him – and after much tears and crying
unto the Lord God He heard their cry and turned the hearts of the people back
to God and to the teachings and laws that He gave – they prospered and grew
into a great nation – yet when they choose to forget and go their own way they
were scattered and brought to nothing – so do yourself a favour and check out
the Scriptures for yourself before it is too late.
Spanish
En busca de la
Divina
Buscar a Dios -
aquí allí y por todas partes aún no están en el único lugar donde se puede
encontrar - en su Santa Palabra . - No en las cartas del tarot , cartas de los
ángeles , o la adivinación , que ni siquiera le puede encontrar en los portales
dimensionales personas pretenden encontrar , Yeshúa / Jesús es el único portal
de la Divinidad. Sin embargo usted lo encontrará en Su Sagrada Escritura lo
encontrarás allí. Claro como el día toda obra de sus manos para ser mostrado -
el poder de su fuerza , y la fuerza de su amor y misericordia , así como su ira
y rabia contra la humanidad.
Va a encontrar
la liberación en la Palabra de las Escrituras en forma de Yeshua - el Mesías -
Va a encontrar misericordia y gracia también. Sin embargo, la única cuestión
primordial es que te dan la vida de paz y abundante cuando obedecemos Dioses
Mandamientos y Sus enseñanzas preciosas. Estos están claramente establecidos en
las Escrituras - y hasta Yeshua / Jesús hace referencia a sus enseñanzas y
mandamientos en varias ocasiones durante su ministerio en la tierra - sin
embargo, se les ignora y hecho a un lado como si no tuvieran pasado pero eso no
es lo que dijo el Mesías - mira el libro de las Revelaciones - Estos son los
que guardan la fe de Yeshua y los Mandamientos de Moisés - por lo tanto,
tenemos que preguntarnos a nosotros mismos - es lo que queremos vivir en un
mundo lleno de odio y malicia y horrores - como lo hacemos ahora o queremos
vivir en un mundo donde reina la paz y la armonía y el Mesías está en el Trono
- cualquier manera que usted puede decidir a vivir la vida que usted puede
estar seguro de que el Mesías va a regresar y se le instituir de nuevo sus
mandamientos y Enseñanzas a todas las naciones - al igual que lo había hecho en
el inicio . Porque cuando los israelitas salieron de Egipto había extranjeros
entre ellos - los gentiles - personas de diferentes razas que optan por seguir
a Dios y Moisés en el desierto para recibir de Dios .
Dios dio los
mandamientos y enseñanzas de Moisés para el beneficio de toda la humanidad -
porque como vemos en las Escrituras cuando sigue a Dios y sus caminos no hay
paz y prosperidad. Sin embargo, no sabemos de ellos - por lo tanto, tenemos que
aprender de ellos y ver lo importante que son para usted en su propia vida .
Podemos ver el
poder de su redención en el Éxodo de su pueblo, el líder de su pueblo por una
columna de humo de día y de fuego por la noche . Se puede ver también la visita
de los ángeles a toda una serie de personas con el propósito de recordar a la
gente que Dios es Todopoderoso y debe ser obedecido . Nuestras vidas dependen
de ello . Nuestra existencia depende de su Palabra está tomando en serio . ¿Vas
a ignorar la evidencia que se presenta a usted por toda una serie de personas
que han dado con gran esmero su vida al descubrimiento de la evidencia dura en
la tierra de Israel y Arabia Saudita y Egipto - vas a estar continuamente
cegado por los hechos tal y como están antes en películas de investigación
Utube - he sido muy bendecido para ver como las de Sodoma y Gomorra y del Arca
y la travesía de Israel a través de la tierra seca , ahora que alguien se ha
tomado la molestia de encontrar el cruce de bienes y visto por sí mismos la
evidencia de carros y caballos y personas restos óseos en la profundidad de las
aguas - estas son evidencias convincentes . Sin embargo, a pesar de que tenemos
estos que se nos presenta aún somos escépticos sobre el Señor Dios Todopoderoso
- Creador de los Cielos y la Tierra.
¿Qué se va a
tomar para que usted se despierta y se da cuenta de que estamos viviendo en los
tiempos de la revelación. Cosas que anteriormente estaban ocultos durante
siglos están siendo revelados . La gente está cantando himnos y alabando a Dios
con todo lo que realmente conocen al Dios de la Biblia - el Creador de Todo lo
que vemos a nuestro alrededor, o ellos simplemente cantar fuera de un sentido
del deber y " tal vez y seguros de si acaso existe un Dios " tal como
lo hacen cuando van a la iglesia para su celebración - el bautizo de un niño -
o incluso un bautismo e incluso un matrimonio - sin embargo, para cada uno de
ellos que se celebran ante el altar de Dios en realidad no son reales como las
personas no creen realmente lo que están haciendo tiene algún valor real - como
en la vida diaria no son más que viviendo sus vidas como mejor les parezca - ni
siquiera dar a Dios una segunda mirada - aún cuando se trata de las funciones
del deber de ser ven a hacer el bien después utilizan estas ocasiones para dar
un servicio de labios y ni siquiera confían en el Dios Todopoderoso - no todo
el mundo es así , hay algunos de nosotros que realmente no creen que la Palabra
de Dios, y su poder y su poder y están en el temor de su Majestad. Nosotros
entendemos el significado de palabras de dioses a la gente cuando dice que Él
va a hacer algo que él no lo hizo. Por lo tanto usted tiene que preguntarse
¿estás listo para realmente llegar a ser nacido de nuevo en el Espíritu y agua
y realmente unirse con otros que han encontrado el camino a la puerta que lleva
a la Vida Eterna - que es Jesús / Yeshua - todos estamos esperando Su regreso.
La gente de
todos los credos y denominaciones reconocen que están esperando que alguien
vuelva a aparecer - sin embargo, aquellos de nosotros que somos bendecidos al
saber que el Mesías Yeshua es el que va a volver a configurar todas las cosas en
orden - y es victorioso sobre todo lo que es sucediendo y que ocurrirá hasta
que Él regrese . ¿Quieres ser convertida en una estatua de sal , asolada como
Sodoma y Gomorra o ahogado , como el antiguo pueblo - o lo que quieres ser en
Guardar en los brazos del Todopoderoso - Aquí hay paz y armonía. Aquí hay un
futuro. Aquí hay un gran sentido de la tolerancia y la comprensión .
Para toda la
búsqueda de artefactos y pruebas en esta tierra - que poco a poco va revelando
que la Palabra de Dios es verdad y que no es Dios Todopoderoso, que hace las
cosas a su tiempo ya su propia manera de despertar a las naciones. Por favor,
asegúrese de que esté listo para su venida . Buscas tu biblia polvoriento deja
de lado que no se ha tocado desde que usted lo recibió , mira en la historia de
Israel y cómo Dios trató a la Humanidad - echa un vistazo a lo que dijeron los
profetas y lo importante que era para ellos ayunar y orar y pedir Dioses el
perdón de sus naciones falta de confianza y la obediencia a Dios - de que habían
dado la espalda a Él - y después de mucho llorar y llorar a Dios el Señor le
oyó su clamor y convertido a los corazones de la gente de vuelta a Dios ya las
enseñanzas y leyes que ha dado - prosperaron y se convirtieron en una gran
nación - aún cuando eligen olvidar y seguir su propio camino fueron dispersados
y llevados a la nada - así que hazte un favor y echa un vistazo a las
Escrituras por sí mismo antes de que sea demasiado tarde .
Portuguese
Buscando o
Divino
À procura de
Deus - aqui e lugares ainda não está em um lugar onde ele pode ser encontrado -
Em Sua Santa Palavra . - Não no cartão de tarô , cartões de anjo , ou
adivinhação, você não vai mesmo encontrá-lo nos portais dimensionais se presume
encontrar , Yeshua / Jesus é o único Portal para o Divino. No entanto, você vai
encontrá-lo em Sua Sagradas Escrituras que você vai encontrá-lo lá. Claro como
o dia de toda a Sua obra para ser mostrada - a força do seu poder e da força do
seu amor e misericórdia , bem como a sua ira e raiva para com a humanidade.
Você vai
encontrar a libertação na Palavra das Escrituras na forma de Yeshua - o Messias
- Você vai encontrar a misericórdia ea graça também. No entanto, a questão
primordial é um que você começa a vida de paz e abundante quando obedecemos
Deuses mandamentos e os seus preciosos ensinamentos. Estes são claramente
definidos nas Escrituras - e até mesmo Yeshua / Jesus faz referência a seus
ensinamentos e mandamentos várias vezes durante seu ministério na terra - mas
eles são ignorados e postos de lado como se tivessem passado ainda não é isso
que o Messias disse - olhar para o livro do Apocalipse - Estes são os que
guardam a fé de Yeshua e os mandamentos de Moisés - , portanto, temos de nos
perguntar - não queremos viver em um mundo cheio de ódio e malícia e horrores ,
como fazemos agora ou queremos viver em um mundo onde há paz e harmonia eo
Messias está no trono - do jeito que você pode decidir viver a vida que você
pode ter certeza de que o Messias está voltando e será instituindo novamente os
seus mandamentos e ensinamentos a todas as nações - assim como ele tinha feito
no início . Porque, quando os israelitas deixaram o Egito havia estrangeiros
entre eles - gentios - pessoas de diferentes raças que optam por seguir a Deus
e Moisés para o deserto para receber de Deus.
Deus deu os
mandamentos e ensinamentos de Moisés, para o benefício de toda a humanidade -
porque, como vemos nas escrituras quando você seguir a Deus e Seus caminhos há
paz e prosperidade. No entanto, nós não os conhecemos - portanto, precisamos
aprendê-las e ver o quão importante eles são para você em sua própria vida .
Podemos ver o
seu poder de libertação no êxodo de seu povo , o líder de seu povo por uma
coluna de fumaça de dia e de fogo à noite . Você pode ver também a visitação de
anjos para toda uma gama de pessoas com o objetivo de lembrar as pessoas de que
Deus é Todo-Poderoso e é para ser obedecida. Nossas vidas dependem disso . A
nossa própria existência depende de Sua Palavra que está sendo levado a sério.
Você vai ignorar a evidência que está sendo apresentado a você por toda uma
série de pessoas que deram suas vidas meticulosamente até descobrir a duras
provas na terra de Israel e Arábia Saudita e Egito - que vai ser continuamente
cegado pelos fatos como estar diante de vocês em filmes de pesquisa Utube -
tenho sido muito abençoado para ver como os de Sodoma e Gomorra e da Arca e
travessia de Israel através da terra seca, agora que alguém se deu ao trabalho
de encontrar o real do cruzamento e visto para si a evidência de carros e
cavalos e pessoas restos de esqueletos na profundidade das águas - são
evidências convincentes . No entanto , embora tenhamos estes apresentado a nós
que ainda estão céticos sobre o Senhor Deus Todo-Poderoso - Criador do Céu e da
Terra.
O que é que vai
demorar para você acordar e perceber que estamos vivendo em tempos de
revelação. Coisas que antes eram escondidos por séculos estão sendo revelados .
As pessoas estão cantando hinos e louvando a Deus ainda que eles realmente
sabem o Deus da Bíblia - o Criador de tudo o que vemos à nossa volta, ou que
eles simplesmente cantar fora de um senso de dever e " talvez e seguro de
apenas no caso de haver um Deus ", assim como eles fazem quando vão à
igreja para a sua celebração - batismo de uma criança - ou mesmo um batismo e
até mesmo um casamento - mas para cada um deles , que são celebradas em frente
ao altar de Deus, eles não são realmente reais como as pessoas realmente não
acredito que eles estão fazendo não tem qualquer valor real - como na vida
cotidiana eles estão apenas vivendo suas vidas como bem entenderem - nem mesmo
dar a Deus um segundo olhar - ainda quando se trata de as funções do dever de
ser visto para ser fazer o bem , em seguida, eles usam essas ocasiões para dar
um serviço de bordo e nem sequer confiar no Deus todo-Poderoso - não cada um é
como que existem alguns de nós que realmente acredito que a Palavra de Deus e
Seu poder e seu poder e estão no temor de sua Majestade. Nós fazemos
compreender o significado de palavras de Deus para o povo quando diz que Ele
vai fazer algo que Ele faz isso . Portanto, você tem que se perguntar se você
está pronto para realmente tornar-se nascer de novo no Espírito e Água e
realmente se juntar com outras pessoas que tenham encontrado o caminho até a
porta que leva à vida eterna - que é Jesus / Yeshua - estamos todos à espera de
Seu retorno .
Pessoas de todas
as religiões e denominações reconhecem que estão à espera de alguém para
reaparecer - ainda aqueles de nós que são abençoados saber que o Messias Yeshua
é o único que está voltando para definir todas as coisas em ordem - e é
vitorioso sobre tudo o que é acontecendo e vai acontecer até que Ele volte .
Você quer ser transformado em uma estátua de sal , queimou como Sodoma e
Gomorra ou se afogou como os povos antigos - ou você quer ser Salvar nos braços
do Todo-Poderoso - Aqui há paz e harmonia. Aqui está um futuro . Aqui está um
grande senso de Graça e Entendimento.
Apesar de toda a
busca por artefatos e evidências nesta terra - que está lentamente revelando
que a Palavra de Deus é verdadeira e que não há Deus Todo-Poderoso que faz as
coisas em seu próprio tempo e sua própria maneira de acordar as nações. Por
favor, certifique-se de que você está pronto para a Sua vinda . Busca sua
Bíblia empoeirada fora da prateleira que não tenha sido tocado desde que você o
recebeu , olhar para a história de Israel e como Deus tratou Humanidade - veja
o que os profetas disseram e como era importante para eles para jejuar e orar e
pedir a Deus perdão por suas nações falta de confiança e obediência a Deus -
que virou as costas para ele - e depois de muito chorar e chorar ao Senhor Deus
ouviu o seu clamor e transformou os corações das pessoas de volta a Deus e aos
ensinamentos e leis que deu - que prosperou e se transformou em uma grande
nação - ainda quando eles optam por esquecer e seguir seu próprio caminho eles
foram dispersos e reduzidos a nada - então faça um favor e confira as
Escrituras por si mesmo , antes que seja tarde demais .
domingo, 9 de junio de 2013
All Things In Common
In Acts of the Apostles we see a community of people who are committed to the Messiah and His teaching and His way of life.
They shared their lives, lifting one another up with encouragement and support.
We could all take another look at exactly what was happening in the lives of the people during those early days of the believers in the Messiah.
All had been given the scriptures growing up, knowing the teachings of God from Moses and the Prophets. They also would have had the wisdom of Solomon through the books of Proverbs. They also would have had historical data of the Israel on how it prospered and suffered depending on whether the ruler, priest, leaders and teachers were teaching the people to live with Gods Torah – teachings and laws, yet when the leaders failed to keep the commandments and Holy days and keeping their lives separated from the worlds (pagan) ways of life. We can see historically that Israel prospered when they obeyed God, Israel suffered defeat and loss and dispersion amongst the nations when they failed to obey.
So we see that when we come to the Messiah and our hearts and minds are seared by the Holy Spirit and as we are drawn to live Gods ways and keep his commandments, learning to understand how we can live together in peace and harmony.
We see the lives of the disciples are living unity of mind and purpose and supporting one another.
They lived together sharing one another’s lives, working together as a community helping one another enjoy each other company by being hospitable with one another.
Yet in today’s society it is so hard to be hospitable – people are afraid to share and invite people to their homes, sharing is hard when people do not trust each other – yet as fellow believers, building relationships within the community is highly important as we are called to be one body – each of us has their own role to play within each community to help build up the Kingdom of God here on earth. Inviting one another to break bread together, encouraging one another with words of comfort and psalms and hymns and always loving one another just as Yeshua loves us.
We really need to recognise we are all important to God, we all have a place in the Body of Christ – yet there are many times that we feel separated and cut off and out of the communities we are called to share in therefore it is incredibly important that we are honest and truthful to each other and sharing genuinely with one another.
This is the calling of God on our lives to Love One Another As He Loves Us.
The greatest gift we can give a fellow human being is Love and support. For without supporting one another we are in danger of being selfish and self centred and separated from God and His mercy and His Love and His generosity.
So next time you speak with your friend be genuinely interested in their lives, if you can encourage that person in some way do so. Lift each other up in prayer and love. Help one another find solutions to their troubles, listen to each other. Grow together. For without this support system the body falls to bits and nothing will remain. Yet when we start to be genuine with each other and start to really Love one another as God has called us to then we will start to see a difference in people lives.
Sharing benefits
miércoles, 8 de mayo de 2013
Understanding God’s incredible creations
The Sixth Extinction: Biodiversity and Its Survival
Even though you may not agree with this book you will find it it astonishing in its research and study of the bio diversity of our incredible planet. God made an incredible place for us to live and we as human beings have systematically been destroying it ever since we set foot on the place, instead of nurturing it and making a really great place to be we have slowly killed off a wide range of creatures which were put here for us to take care of.
It is a real eye opener, I know it may not be totally up to date, yet it has some merit as a book that could be helping you to understand the need for us to take on the role as a Caretakers not murderers of other creatures In Genesis, Human beings were given the commandment to take care and maintain the planet in good order. Yet we have not done that, many parts of the planet are destroyed by so much greed, also there are many plagues on the earth which God said He would bring about because we have failed to obey His Commandments and His Ordinances.
Surely, we as Human beings owe to our selves to start to make sure we put things back in the correct order. God first then ourselves and family and neighbours. People to day are so quick to judge their fellow man, yet the Word of God judges us much more. By God;’s standards we do not deserve to live – yet because He saw fit to send us His precious Son Yeshua to become our mediator between God and Man and our Saviour and reconcile us back to the Father. We should take steps in our own lives to see that we are living in accordance to His Guidelines. These you will find to be really reassuring and you can trust God’s Word to bring about Hope and Peace into this incredible place we call home.
We need to be restored and transformed into His likeness and get to understand life as He ordained it to be. Not fighting over every scrap of land, oil, money, life itself. We need to recognise that we are all equal under God – He created us all. He created the animals too for our benefit, for eating and pleasure. Not all animals are to be eaten – those that God said would be good for us. He gave us good reasons why he said the others where not to be eaten – they are the cleaners of the planet both in the sea and of the air and land.
Complete Jewish Bible-OE
Holy Cow! Does God Care about What We Eat?
TORAH REDISCOVERED
Even though you may not agree with this book you will find it it astonishing in its research and study of the bio diversity of our incredible planet. God made an incredible place for us to live and we as human beings have systematically been destroying it ever since we set foot on the place, instead of nurturing it and making a really great place to be we have slowly killed off a wide range of creatures which were put here for us to take care of.
It is a real eye opener, I know it may not be totally up to date, yet it has some merit as a book that could be helping you to understand the need for us to take on the role as a Caretakers not murderers of other creatures In Genesis, Human beings were given the commandment to take care and maintain the planet in good order. Yet we have not done that, many parts of the planet are destroyed by so much greed, also there are many plagues on the earth which God said He would bring about because we have failed to obey His Commandments and His Ordinances.
Surely, we as Human beings owe to our selves to start to make sure we put things back in the correct order. God first then ourselves and family and neighbours. People to day are so quick to judge their fellow man, yet the Word of God judges us much more. By God;’s standards we do not deserve to live – yet because He saw fit to send us His precious Son Yeshua to become our mediator between God and Man and our Saviour and reconcile us back to the Father. We should take steps in our own lives to see that we are living in accordance to His Guidelines. These you will find to be really reassuring and you can trust God’s Word to bring about Hope and Peace into this incredible place we call home.
We need to be restored and transformed into His likeness and get to understand life as He ordained it to be. Not fighting over every scrap of land, oil, money, life itself. We need to recognise that we are all equal under God – He created us all. He created the animals too for our benefit, for eating and pleasure. Not all animals are to be eaten – those that God said would be good for us. He gave us good reasons why he said the others where not to be eaten – they are the cleaners of the planet both in the sea and of the air and land.
Complete Jewish Bible-OE
Holy Cow! Does God Care about What We Eat?
TORAH REDISCOVERED
sábado, 20 de abril de 2013
Prosperity With God
Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 – 14
1. “If you will listen closely to what Adonai your God says, observing and obeying all his mitzvot (teachings) which I am giving you today – Adonai your God will raise you high above all the nations on earth
2. And all the following Blessings will be yours in abundance – if you will do what Adonai your God says.
3 A blessing on you in the city, and a blessing on you in the countryside.
4 A blessing on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and fruit of your livestock – the young of your cattle and flocks.
5 A blessing on your grain-basket and kneading-bowl
6 A blessing on you when you go out, and a blessing on you when you come in
7 Adonai will cause your enemies attacking you to be defeated before you, they will advance on you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 Adonai will order a blessing to be with you in your barns and in everything you undertake; he will bless you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.
9 Adonai will establish you as a people separated out for himself, as he has sworn to you – if you will observe the mitzvot (teachings) of Adonai you God and follow his ways.
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that Adonai’s name, his presence, is with you; so that they will be afraid of you.
11 Adonai will give you great abundance of good things – of the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land in the land Adonai swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 Adonai will open for you his good treasure, the sky, to give your land its rain in the right seasons and to bless everything you undertake. You will lend to many nations and not borrow;
13 Adonai will make you the head and not the tail; and you will be only above, never below – if you will listen to , observe and obey the mitzvot (teachings) of Adonai you God
14 And not turn away from any of the words I am ordering you today, neither to the right nor to the left, to follow after other gods and serve them.
On opening up Deut 28 and learning to apply the principles of faith regarding Gods teaching we can see that we shall prosper – remember Yeshua/Jesus said that we would have lives more abundantly if we choose to follow in His Footsteps – He kept His father’s teachings – for He is the Word made flesh dwelling amongst us to show us the way to abundantly life. The teachings of keeping Gods Commandments is the essential ingredient to receive abundant life. When we look at the 10 Commandments carefully we can see that they are of benefit to all mankind.
Putting God first in your life, recognising his majesty and power as God creator and Father of all – even the fishes of the sea are his creation – every living breathing animal, insect, bug, flower, tree, bird, in fact everything that breathes is His creation – He ordained it – spoke the word and it was brought into being – He saw the glory of His creation and sat back and rested on the first Shabbat day and marvelled at His Own Handiwork – surely as His creation we too should take the Shabbat (Friday night 7.30 to Saturday night 7.30) and enjoy the joys of His creation and praise Him for His incredible gift of life. In taking the time to rest on the Shabbat and recognising Gods great handiwork even in each other and setting time aside to spend with you family to enjoy a day of celebration of Gods great gift is worth more than gold or silver – time is a precious commodity – we tend to spend it running around “doing stuff” to fill in the “time” yet God saw fit to “take the Time” to create and develop this great planet we call home. In the same way He is taking His time that none should be lost that all men will bend the knee to Him and all shall follow after His teachings and learn from Him to live the lives that God ordained us to life in the first place – in harmony and peace with each other and in union with God himself. For that is the purpose that God sent his precious son Yeshua/Jesus that we may be reconciled back to the Father.
For when people are seeking their own way all the time, demanding to be rich with money rather than rich in love and peace there can only be strife. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is more important than seeking how to make more money than the next guy – after all Everything is in God’s hands – whether you prosper or not is in His hands too.
By our willingness to submit our lives to God and have His direction in our lives is more important than struggling to find our own way. I have discovered this to my cost many times, running against Gods timing in things and ending up worst off than if I would take the time to come before Him and ask His advice and His will for my lfie. Chasing after dreams to become rich and famous is not for me. My aim in life is to obey Gods calling on my life – to Obey His commands and live a life of complete surrender to His will. For His grace and mercy are amazingly abundant and His ways are full or peace and grace. He is able to provide all the things necessary for life as we surrender to him. No weapon that is formed can prosper because God himself will cut it down – He has done that many times in my life. He has rescued me from my pit of despair and pain and suffering and has led me back to Himself – where there is comfort and peace and love and grace. I enjoy the life I have for I know that My Father in Heaven is able to take care of all my needs.
For in Obedience Christ the Messiah came, in obedience He died, In obedience and majesty He has been placed at the right hand of the Father a place of highest honour – in His place as the King of all, High Priest – He has entered the veil for us, through His precious blood – we have the way back to the Father . He has the power to heal and the power to save lives. Also he has the power to take life – He and He alone knows the time of each man/woman and child – their time is in His Hands.
So although you may not agree with what I say. This does not mean that the God of Creation is not there. For in my own life I have proved on many occasions that He has the power to change people’s lives.
Should you wish to contact me to pray or even discuss what I write feel free to leave you name and email and I shall get back to you.
Better Understanding.
There are many ways we could help our homes and families to prosper by achieving a Godly Marriage and keeping our relationships sacred as God had intended not seeking to find other partners when it was appearing that things were not going so well – Divorce was not meant to be but man and woman their hearts are hard and never seem to learn that there is a way that is better for when you enter into union with a fellow human being when it is a God Given ordained relationship and everything is in His hands then the marriage would flow with grace and peace to each other recognising that each has an important role to play in Gods plan and in their own lives. We are so quick to jump from one relationship to another – but we are not so willing to stand by and learn from our mistakes and completely come before the Father to bring the difficulties to Him. Here is a booklet that could help you reach a better understanding of your marriage and its intentions.
For a better understanding of how to achieve a more fruitful life living Gods way I would highly recommend this book to help you and your family to reach the goals of fulfilment in your own lives. I personally use the Word of God as my guide to life however sometimes people like to read other peoples works to achieve more understanding so here with some really great teaching. I have heard this man preach and am happy to share his work Breaking the Jewish Code: Twelve Secrets That Will Transform Your Life, Family, Health, and Finances
1. “If you will listen closely to what Adonai your God says, observing and obeying all his mitzvot (teachings) which I am giving you today – Adonai your God will raise you high above all the nations on earth
2. And all the following Blessings will be yours in abundance – if you will do what Adonai your God says.
3 A blessing on you in the city, and a blessing on you in the countryside.
4 A blessing on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and fruit of your livestock – the young of your cattle and flocks.
5 A blessing on your grain-basket and kneading-bowl
6 A blessing on you when you go out, and a blessing on you when you come in
7 Adonai will cause your enemies attacking you to be defeated before you, they will advance on you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 Adonai will order a blessing to be with you in your barns and in everything you undertake; he will bless you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.
9 Adonai will establish you as a people separated out for himself, as he has sworn to you – if you will observe the mitzvot (teachings) of Adonai you God and follow his ways.
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that Adonai’s name, his presence, is with you; so that they will be afraid of you.
11 Adonai will give you great abundance of good things – of the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land in the land Adonai swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 Adonai will open for you his good treasure, the sky, to give your land its rain in the right seasons and to bless everything you undertake. You will lend to many nations and not borrow;
13 Adonai will make you the head and not the tail; and you will be only above, never below – if you will listen to , observe and obey the mitzvot (teachings) of Adonai you God
14 And not turn away from any of the words I am ordering you today, neither to the right nor to the left, to follow after other gods and serve them.
On opening up Deut 28 and learning to apply the principles of faith regarding Gods teaching we can see that we shall prosper – remember Yeshua/Jesus said that we would have lives more abundantly if we choose to follow in His Footsteps – He kept His father’s teachings – for He is the Word made flesh dwelling amongst us to show us the way to abundantly life. The teachings of keeping Gods Commandments is the essential ingredient to receive abundant life. When we look at the 10 Commandments carefully we can see that they are of benefit to all mankind.
Putting God first in your life, recognising his majesty and power as God creator and Father of all – even the fishes of the sea are his creation – every living breathing animal, insect, bug, flower, tree, bird, in fact everything that breathes is His creation – He ordained it – spoke the word and it was brought into being – He saw the glory of His creation and sat back and rested on the first Shabbat day and marvelled at His Own Handiwork – surely as His creation we too should take the Shabbat (Friday night 7.30 to Saturday night 7.30) and enjoy the joys of His creation and praise Him for His incredible gift of life. In taking the time to rest on the Shabbat and recognising Gods great handiwork even in each other and setting time aside to spend with you family to enjoy a day of celebration of Gods great gift is worth more than gold or silver – time is a precious commodity – we tend to spend it running around “doing stuff” to fill in the “time” yet God saw fit to “take the Time” to create and develop this great planet we call home. In the same way He is taking His time that none should be lost that all men will bend the knee to Him and all shall follow after His teachings and learn from Him to live the lives that God ordained us to life in the first place – in harmony and peace with each other and in union with God himself. For that is the purpose that God sent his precious son Yeshua/Jesus that we may be reconciled back to the Father.
For when people are seeking their own way all the time, demanding to be rich with money rather than rich in love and peace there can only be strife. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is more important than seeking how to make more money than the next guy – after all Everything is in God’s hands – whether you prosper or not is in His hands too.
By our willingness to submit our lives to God and have His direction in our lives is more important than struggling to find our own way. I have discovered this to my cost many times, running against Gods timing in things and ending up worst off than if I would take the time to come before Him and ask His advice and His will for my lfie. Chasing after dreams to become rich and famous is not for me. My aim in life is to obey Gods calling on my life – to Obey His commands and live a life of complete surrender to His will. For His grace and mercy are amazingly abundant and His ways are full or peace and grace. He is able to provide all the things necessary for life as we surrender to him. No weapon that is formed can prosper because God himself will cut it down – He has done that many times in my life. He has rescued me from my pit of despair and pain and suffering and has led me back to Himself – where there is comfort and peace and love and grace. I enjoy the life I have for I know that My Father in Heaven is able to take care of all my needs.
For in Obedience Christ the Messiah came, in obedience He died, In obedience and majesty He has been placed at the right hand of the Father a place of highest honour – in His place as the King of all, High Priest – He has entered the veil for us, through His precious blood – we have the way back to the Father . He has the power to heal and the power to save lives. Also he has the power to take life – He and He alone knows the time of each man/woman and child – their time is in His Hands.
So although you may not agree with what I say. This does not mean that the God of Creation is not there. For in my own life I have proved on many occasions that He has the power to change people’s lives.
Should you wish to contact me to pray or even discuss what I write feel free to leave you name and email and I shall get back to you.
Better Understanding.
There are many ways we could help our homes and families to prosper by achieving a Godly Marriage and keeping our relationships sacred as God had intended not seeking to find other partners when it was appearing that things were not going so well – Divorce was not meant to be but man and woman their hearts are hard and never seem to learn that there is a way that is better for when you enter into union with a fellow human being when it is a God Given ordained relationship and everything is in His hands then the marriage would flow with grace and peace to each other recognising that each has an important role to play in Gods plan and in their own lives. We are so quick to jump from one relationship to another – but we are not so willing to stand by and learn from our mistakes and completely come before the Father to bring the difficulties to Him. Here is a booklet that could help you reach a better understanding of your marriage and its intentions.
For a better understanding of how to achieve a more fruitful life living Gods way I would highly recommend this book to help you and your family to reach the goals of fulfilment in your own lives. I personally use the Word of God as my guide to life however sometimes people like to read other peoples works to achieve more understanding so here with some really great teaching. I have heard this man preach and am happy to share his work Breaking the Jewish Code: Twelve Secrets That Will Transform Your Life, Family, Health, and Finances
miércoles, 26 de diciembre de 2012
Passover
Do you realise that the Messiah is a our passover lamb. When He celebrated Passover with this disciples in the upper room sharing with them the body and blood, (flat-bread and wine) which would have been part of the passover meal that they would have celebrated all their lives due to the remembrance of the Israelites and foreigners who choose to leave Egypt to follow Moses and onto following God and His Commandments.
We see that Yeshua sitting at the table recounting the story of the Exodus with each other, sharing with them the real events of the time, yet at the same time sharing with the the fact that He is the Passover Lamb for all mankind to help us to become restored back to the Father - God Creator.
When Yeshua lifts the Bread to Heaven and prays over it and sharing it with the disciples saying that "this is my body broken for you" - at this point he had not gone to the cross - so at this point it must have been a very strange thing for the disciples to hear. Yet here is Yeshua saying that He is about to be broken for US - humanbeings. Then lifting the wine to Heaven and praying over it asking God to bless the Wine recognising that this is representing his blood - which is poured out for us. For us to take and become part of the Life blood of the Messiah.
When the God said to Moses to cover the door posts with the blood of the passover lamb, we too also are covered by the Blood of the Lamb - the Messiah. When we walk in His commandments and His teachings. When the Messiah says in Matthew that we are sons of lawlessness when we are not obeying Gods commandments. We are covered by His grace by keeping the Words that Christ gave us. Yet people choose to dismiss Gods Commandments and Teachings as if they are not anylonger relevant yet God is the same today, as he was yesterday and is tomorrow, His word never changes therefore how can we change Gods Word. God makes it clear in Revelations that "these are they that keep the Faith of Yeshua and the Commandments of God". For me the Passover is very important. For me it is clear indication on how Gods plan and Holy days - how everything fits together really nicely in Gods plan.
So for me the next big event in Gods calendar is the Passover - His glorious death and resurrection and the fact that we do have a NEW LIFE in Yeshua. For He is the New Life.
When we open our hearts and minds to the Messiah and allow Him to lead you into the Truth it becomes a NEW LIFE into which your life becomes a brand new adventure.
Yeshua/Jesus is the best person in my life. Without Him into my life I would not be alive today if God had not touched my life when I was 21. Therefore God for me is the only way forward. Leaving all that has gone on before and pressing forward to the Goal of my place in Heaven.
We see that Yeshua sitting at the table recounting the story of the Exodus with each other, sharing with them the real events of the time, yet at the same time sharing with the the fact that He is the Passover Lamb for all mankind to help us to become restored back to the Father - God Creator.
When Yeshua lifts the Bread to Heaven and prays over it and sharing it with the disciples saying that "this is my body broken for you" - at this point he had not gone to the cross - so at this point it must have been a very strange thing for the disciples to hear. Yet here is Yeshua saying that He is about to be broken for US - humanbeings. Then lifting the wine to Heaven and praying over it asking God to bless the Wine recognising that this is representing his blood - which is poured out for us. For us to take and become part of the Life blood of the Messiah.
When the God said to Moses to cover the door posts with the blood of the passover lamb, we too also are covered by the Blood of the Lamb - the Messiah. When we walk in His commandments and His teachings. When the Messiah says in Matthew that we are sons of lawlessness when we are not obeying Gods commandments. We are covered by His grace by keeping the Words that Christ gave us. Yet people choose to dismiss Gods Commandments and Teachings as if they are not anylonger relevant yet God is the same today, as he was yesterday and is tomorrow, His word never changes therefore how can we change Gods Word. God makes it clear in Revelations that "these are they that keep the Faith of Yeshua and the Commandments of God". For me the Passover is very important. For me it is clear indication on how Gods plan and Holy days - how everything fits together really nicely in Gods plan.
So for me the next big event in Gods calendar is the Passover - His glorious death and resurrection and the fact that we do have a NEW LIFE in Yeshua. For He is the New Life.
When we open our hearts and minds to the Messiah and allow Him to lead you into the Truth it becomes a NEW LIFE into which your life becomes a brand new adventure.
Yeshua/Jesus is the best person in my life. Without Him into my life I would not be alive today if God had not touched my life when I was 21. Therefore God for me is the only way forward. Leaving all that has gone on before and pressing forward to the Goal of my place in Heaven.
domingo, 2 de diciembre de 2012
If Jesus of Nazareth were to return to the earth today
If Jesus of Nazareth were to return to the earth today, would He recognize the religion that is using His name? Would He be shocked to find that people claiming to be His followers have been waging war against each other almost continually for the last 1,900 years—Catholic fighting Catholic, and Protestant fighting Protestant? That His professed followers believe doctrines totally contrary to what He taught, observing different days of worship, different customs and—most importantly—having a totally different concept of God and of His purpose than Jesus and the original Apostles did?
Jesus might wonder: “Why are they putting My name on all this “stuff”?
Yet most genuine religious scholars recognize that vast changes have overtaken professing Christianity—rendering it totally different from the Christianity of Jesus and the Apostles! As respected mainline Protestant scholar Jesse Lyman Hurlbut acknowledges:
Describing the time period after all the original Apostles and their successors had died out, Hurlbut writes:
When Paul realized the depth of the apostasy that would overtake most of the Church, it hit him emotionally. He then “did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears”! Very few people today seem to be concerned enough about this massive apostasy to even begin to shed tears over this awesome change.
And what about today? How can we account for the more than 400 different denominations and sects—all calling themselves “Christian”? And all of them having some type of different ideas, traditions and approaches and yet claiming to follow the same Jesus Christ?
Part of the answer is the fact that extremely few professing Christians really study their Bibles! So they do not “prove” virtually anything they believe by carefully researching it in the Bible! Oh, they may enthusiastically study books and articles on health, on self-improvement or on investing and making more money. But somehow it does not occur to them to thoroughly study the most vital subjects of all: Is there a real God? If so, what is His purpose in creating human beings? And how can we fulfill that purpose? Yet the Bible commands: “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).
Most people have just “accepted” the religion passed down through their families. Most have just “gone along” with the beliefs and the traditions taught to them as children. Noting the public’s lack of attention to their religion, Los Angeles Times religion writer Teresa Watanabe reported:
For by perverting mankind’s normal interest in sex and excitement, and by cleverly injecting sick humor into so many of television’s “situation comedies,” Satan is able to cleverly mislead mankind into abusing, degrading and ultimately destroying itself if God does not intervene at the last minute to stop it (Matthew 24:21–22). Satan is truly the “god” of this present world! The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).
Most important of all, Satan has injected into mainstream “Christianity” a whole series of totally false ideas about the origin and destiny of man, of what God is like, of what God’s awesome purpose is, and how we are to achieve that great purpose. Additionally, Satan has confused people about prophecy so much that most professing Christians and even most professing Christian ministers and priests simply throw up their hands and almost totally neglect biblical prophecy. Yet our Creator devotes about one-fourth of the entire Bible to the “sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).
Have you ever looked at traditional Christianity and asked yourself: “Is this religion really based on the Bible? Is this the religion founded by Jesus Christ and taught by His Apostles?” If Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, then his life should be an example for His followers. But practically no one actually follows His example!
The truth is clear. Modern “Christianity” has become “vastly different”—as Professor Jones wrote—from the Christianity of Christ! But what has been the result? Nations are almost constantly at war with each other, the rich prosper while the poor starve and disease runs rampant. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. He was right! But neither Thoreau nor most of mankind have had their eyes opened to the solution, the Truth that would fill their lives with meaning and joy and peace.
Some might say, “So what?” But this is no small matter we are talking about. Frankly, we are talking about the way to eternal life on the one hand, or eternal death on the other (Romans 6:23). For if you do not have the Christianity of Christ, you have no Christianity whatsoever!
Jesus Himself warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21–23). It is important to realize that Christ will say to those failing to do the “will” of the Father: “I never knew you.” In plain language, these deceived churchgoers will be told that they were, in fact, never acquainted with the Christ they claim to serve. They were never really converted. They were never really “Christian”!
Again, Jesus said, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). A “lord” or “master” is someone you obey. But most professing Christian ministers and their followers do not follow the clear teachings and examples of Jesus and the Apostles. And most of them do not even bother to deeply study their Bibles to find what those teachings and examples are!
Frankly, the “little flock” (Luke 12:32)—the true Church of God—has always understood the need to pattern itself after the teachings and examples of Christ and the Apostles. Although very few have seriously attempted to follow this pattern, many scholars and religious historians have understood the concept of the “Jerusalem Church of God.” This is a vital concept to understand if we are sincerely interested in contending “for the faith once delivered.”
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians, “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 2:14). The book of Acts makes it clear that the earthly “headquarters” Church of God—for many decades—was the Jerusalem Church. It was here that the Holy Spirit was originally poured out on the true Christians (Acts 2). It was here where Peter, James and John carried on most of their ministry for many years (cf. Acts 4:1; 8:1; 11:1–2). Later, it was to the leadership at Jerusalem that Paul and Barnabas came to settle the major question of circumcision for the Gentiles and related questions (Acts 15:4-6).
As renowned historian Edward Gibbon wrote: “The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 15, sec. 1, p. 389).
As indicated above, the only major ministerial conference indicated in the New Testament was held at Jerusalem. Here lived the leading original Apostles. Here was the true “mother” church (not Rome!). And it was to Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas had come even earlier, lest, as Paul had put it, “I might run, or had run, in vain” (Galatians 2:1–2).
After the major Jerusalem conference, Paul and Silas traveled through Asia Minor visiting the churches: “And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4).
After rejoicing in the good news Paul brought about God’s Work among the Gentiles, the Jerusalem leadership told Paul: “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law” (v. 20). The term “myriad” literally means “tens of thousands.” So as not to confuse or discourage these many Jewish Christians, Paul was asked by the Jerusalem Church to go through an offering ceremony to publicly demonstrate that he was not teaching in any way against God’s laws. The Jerusalem leaders exhorted Paul: “Take these men along and be purified with them and pay all the expenses connected with the shaving of their heads. This will let everyone know there is no truth in the reports they have heard about you and that you still regularly observe the Law” (v. 24, Jerusalem Bible).
If Paul had in fact been teaching against God’s Law in any way—especially the spiritual law containing the Ten Commandments—he most certainly would not have gone through this ceremony of the law of Moses! That particular ceremony—probably a thanks offering at the conclusion of the Nazarite vow—was not necessary for a New Testament Christian. But it was not “sinful” either! And Paul’s deep respect for God’s Law, for the original mother church and the pattern of obedience to God’s Law—all this guided Paul in his decision to go ahead and participate in this ceremony. By guiding Paul in this—and putting this example in the Bible—God is showing all of us that Paul’s approach was one of obedience to law, not one who tried to do away with or “reason around” God’s spiritual laws as so many Protestant theologians teach!
Did His “fulfilling” the law somehow change these commands? Or did they change after Christ’s resurrection? No! Heaven and earth did not pass away at His resurrection. And we must understand what He meant when He said that he would “fulfill” the law. One scholar explains His words as follows:
When Timothy was a child, the “Holy Scriptures” he knew were the Old Testament scriptures. Most of the New Testament books did not yet exist! Paul says that these Old Testament scriptures are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Paul saw no conflict between Old Testament scripture and Christian faith and practice, and confirmed that all Scripture (including the Old Testament) is profitable for doctrine and for instruction in righteousness. These are not the words of someone teaching that the God’s Old Testament laws have been done away!
The Apostle Paul instructed Christians: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Apostle John observed: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
These two, like all the Apostles, knew that Jesus Christ came to show the perfect example, and that Christians ought to follow His example, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This was the commonplace understanding in the Apostle Paul’s day, as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire.
As we have seen, it was not the Apostle Paul. It was certainly not any of the original 12 Apostles. Rather, as the time period—which is fittingly called the “Dark Ages”—began to get underway, misguided false religious leaders began to change virtually everything that had made the Christian religion totally different from the pagan cults of the Roman Empire.
Some wrongly teach that after Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed in 70ad, Christians were no longer to keep the law as had Jesus Christ and the Apostles. So it is important to note that the Apostle John, the last surviving Apostle, wrote the book of Revelation after the Temple was destroyed. And in that book, he upheld the law of God! “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14). John heard these words from God, and knew the importance of obeying Him: “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations” (Revelation 2:26). Clearly, Christians were keeping the law, living just as Jesus Christ did, long after the Temple was destroyed! Scholars concur. “The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals [the biblically-taught festivals], though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed” (Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 8, p. 828).
How was it different?
As we saw earlier from Professor Davies, the early Christians “took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples… did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food.”
Subtly, but surely, Satan the devil has deceived most of today’s professing ministers into believing that Christianity was a “brand new religion”—seemingly cut off from the Old Testament and the teaching God gave through Moses. And although some may not be consciously aware of it, a definite anti-Jewish bias crept into early Christianity and has continued to this day!
But the biblical and historical facts show that Christianity was a continuation—an enlargement and “magnification” of the teachings God gave through Moses—not something brand new! As the Apostle Paul was inspired in the New Testament to explain to the Gentile Christians at Ephesus: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:19–20). So a basic part of the very “foundation” of Christianity was the writings and teachings of the Old Testament prophets—those writings which Christ and the Apostles referred to as “Scripture” again and again!
For Jesus Christ was a circumcised Jew (Luke 2:21–22; Hebrews 7:14). It was Jesus’ “custom” to keep the seventh-day Sabbath—right along with the other Jews (Luke 4:16). Far from abrogating God’s Sabbath, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for “man”—not just the Jews, and that He was “Lord” of the Sabbath. So the Sabbath is, in fact, the true “Lord’s Day” as far as a day of rest and worship is concerned!
Long after the crucifixion, it was the Apostle Paul’s “custom” also to keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Acts 17:2). We also find Paul observing the annual biblical festivals such as Pentecost (1 Corinthians 16:8), Passover and Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7–8) and other festivals.
The true Church of God—named “Church of God” 12 times in the New Testament—was itself started on the Day of Pentecost, one of the seven annual Sabbaths God gave Israel. At His second coming, Christ Himself will return at the “seventh trump” (Revelation 11:15)—pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, another one of the biblical Holy Days. And the Living Jesus Christ, who inspired the entire Bible, also inspired His servant Zechariah to explain that after Christ’s second coming the whole world will be observing the Feast of Tabernacles! (read carefully the entire 14th chapter of Zechariah). Also, during the soon-coming Millennial reign of Christ, Isaiah tells us, “‘And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the Lord” (Isaiah 66:23).
So true Christians who observe the biblical Sabbaths and biblical festivals are, in fact, “pioneers.” They are not only following the “pattern” of the original Christianity taught and practiced by Jesus Christ; they are “pioneering” the Way of life which all nations will soon be learning in tomorrow’s world!
For example, the seventh-day Sabbath pictures the reign of Christ during the coming seventh millennium of human history. It is the “rest” which God commanded from the beginning (Hebrews 4:4). That is why Paul was inspired to write, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (v. 9). It is important to realize that the Greek word here translated “rest” is sabbatismos—the “keeping of a Sabbath”—whereas katapausin is the normal Greek word for taking rest and is the word used throughout the rest of Hebrews 4.
Incidentally, if you would like full, documented proof that Christians today should keep the biblical Sabbath, then write for our powerful and absolutely vital booklet, Which Day is the Christian Sabbath? It will be sent to you at no charge upon your request. Just write or call us at the address nearest you listed at the end of this booklet.
God’s Sabbath and His annual Holy Days picture His great Plan. But true Christianity, of course, involves far more than keeping the biblical Sabbaths. As we have already intimated, it involves an entire Way of life based on Jesus’ example and His teaching, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God” (Luke 4:4).
We are never to commit adultery. But, as Jesus clearly said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (vv. 27–28).
The early Christians were taught that they should give in a very private manner—not showing off, or having a big “foundation” in their own name to perpetuate their honor in the giving (Matthew 6:1–4). True Christians were to pray regularly and privately—not showing off their oratorical skills before men or using certain words or phrases over and over in “vain repetition” (vv. 5–13). And true Christians certainly would fast regularly (vv. 16–18), following biblical examples of doing without food and water in order to humble the self and get closer to the invisible God as Jesus did (Matthew 4), Moses did (Deuteronomy 9:9, 18) and the Apostle Paul did (Acts 9:9).
In our materialistic age, we need to understand that the original Christians did not allow themselves to be overcome by the desires for money, or material things as most professing Christians do today (Matthew 6:19–20). As Jesus later warned His followers: “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). Rather, as the book of Acts explains: “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32).
First century Christianity was squarely based on the teachings of the “law and prophets”—except for those animal sacrifices and washings which pre-figured the sacrifice of Christ and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. These sacrifices and washings were made obsolete (Hebrews 9:9–12). But the spiritual laws of God were never done away. Rather, as Jesus’ beloved disciple John was inspired to write: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
With Christ living in them through the promised Holy Spirit, they would keep all ten of the Ten Commandments as a way of life. As they learned to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), there would be in their community no crime—no murder, rape, robbery or assault. No fornication or adultery. And except in rare incidents of sexual misconduct, there would be no divorce and remarriage (Matthew 5:32). Obviously, such Christians would have in their society no pornography and no gross sex and violence of any kind in their “entertainment”—whether in books, plays, or (among today’s Christians) television, movies, computer games or the Internet. Rather, all these dedicated, wholesome families would be obeying their “Lord,” not just using His name while they contradicted by their lifestyle everything He taught (Luke 6:46). They would be resting and worshiping God on the seventh-day Sabbath as He commanded—constantly being reminded by this biblical day of worship that the true God is the Creator of all that is (Exodus 20:8–11).
True Christians, for instance, would never be found fighting or butchering their fellow Christians—as has happened over and over again in the last few centuries in France, Belgium, Germany and Italy. In first century Christianity, the members of God’s Church never prayed to dead, so-called “saints” or to idols. They never worshiped the Virgin Mary. Of course, they understood that as a normal wife, Mary had at least six other children by her husband after Jesus’ supernatural birth had taken place (Matthew 13:55–56).
In first century Christianity, the dedicated ministers and elders in the Church of God were primarily husbands and fathers (1 Timothy 3:1–5; Titus 1:5–9). They were taught that in “latter times” some would be deceived by “doctrines of demons” into thinking it was wrong for men—certainly including ministers or priests—to marry (1 Timothy 4:1–3). Meeting regularly in plain surroundings on the day God made holy, His Sabbath, God’s ministers were instructed: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:2–4).
Indeed, as we have seen, mankind has been turned aside to “fables
.” Today, in dark, dank, foreboding cathedrals, priests and ministers in strange-looking “Mother Hubbard” gowns go through incomprehensible rituals, chant prayers and responsive readings—and expound the Bible itself very seldom. They have very little to say about the way of life which Christ and the Apostles taught or about the one-fourth of the Bible which was prophetic, or about the true purpose which God is working out here on earth.
As the New Testament makes plain, first century Christians would be “feeding on Christ” (John 6:57) by constant study of the Bible. Remember God’s description of the Bereans? “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
First century Christians, then, would be trying sincerely, with God’s promised help, to live by every Word of God. They would be following Christ’s example of obedience to God’s laws—not the ways, the rituals or the religious festivals learned from the pagans around them.
Again, they would not only believe in the person of Jesus Christ, but they would believe and practice what He taught: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). And they would believe what the Apostle John wrote near the end of the Apostolic Age: “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24).
Most first century Christians would have deeply understood the fundamental teaching of the Apostle Paul: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV). The Bible makes it clear that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
So true Christians—through Christ living in them—would be obeying the Ten Commandments as Jesus did, keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and biblical Holy Days as Jesus did and following the entire way of life modeled by Jesus Christ and the original Apostles whom He taught. As they worshiped together, sang together and served one another, they would have been filled with love—with worship and adoration toward the Great God, and with kindness and out-flowing concern toward one another.
For Christ would be living within them His loving, serving and obedient life. And they would be filled with and led by God’s Spirit (Romans 8:14). That very love of God flows down the riverbed of the Ten Commandments. As Jesus’ beloved Apostle explains: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
Sincere members of that church would be shocked to learn that many of those who today call themselves Christians can trace their faith not to Peter, but to Simon Magus, mentioned in Acts 8! This Simon Magus was at the heart of the apostasy that turned much of the first-century Church away from Christ’s teachings.
Scripture recounts that all of Samaria gave heed to Simon Magus as someone great, calling him “the great power of God” (Acts 8:9–10). That phrase represents Simon’s “claim to be the bearer of divine revelation” (The New Testament Environment, Lohse, p. 269). Simon received baptism and became a nominal Christian, but the Apostle Peter recognized Simon as being “poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:23). Simon’s Samaritan religion was also greatly influenced by Greek philosophy, and early Christian writers reviled him. Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity notes: “Early Christian writers regarded Simon as the fount of all heresies” (p. 100). The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.) in its article on Simon Magus identifies him as the “founder of a school of Gnostics and as a father of heresy.” Noted historian Edward Gibbon says the Gnostics “blended with the faith of Christ many sublime but obscure tenets which they derived from oriental philosophy” (The Triumph of Christendom in the Roman Empire, p. 15).
Simon Magus and others sought to create a syncretistic faith, mixing popular devotions with their philosophies, and adding a covering of Christ’s words, to create a religion that could win mass acceptance. As noted historian Will Durant wrote:
Under Constantine’s direction, the Council of Nicaea was held in 325ad. Though he had not yet been baptized, Constantine presided over the council’s opening session and took part in its discussions, believing that it was his duty as emperor to oversee the establishment of doctrine for the church. But was Constantine presiding over the council as a former pagan now turned Christian, or did he use the Council of Nicaea to infuse his pagan background into what would become “official” Christianity? Respected historian Paul Johnson has observed the following regarding Constantine’s religious views:
Centuries later, the Protestant “reformers” were able to see a few of the problems of this Roman religion. But most of these pagan concepts were so thoroughly inculcated into their minds that the reformers made only a very few “surface” changes.
Romans 3:28 in the New King James Version reads: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Luther added the word “alone” (sola in Latin) so that in his German-language New Testament the phrase became “justified by faith alone”—a plainly wrong change without support in the text. When one critic raised an objection to his changing Scripture, Luther haughtily replied: “Should your Pope give himself any useless annoyance about the word sola, you may promptly reply: ‘It is the will of Dr. Martin Luther that it should be so.’” (John Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, Dublin: M.H. Gill and Son, 1902, p. 199). And, we may add on good authority, no other reason for such unscriptural changes as these was ever given. When it came to Luther’s own personal doctrinal convictions, Martin Luther was truly a self-willed man.
His third tractate of 1520, On Christian Liberty, asserts that a Christian man is spiritually subject to no man or to any law. He contended that since we are justified by faith alone, we are no longer under obligation to keep the law of God.
And, as is well known, Luther called the book of James an “epistle of straw” because James clearly taught the necessity of obedience to the Ten Commandments! Notice James 2:10–12: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
It is exceedingly clear in this passage of inspired Scripture that James is talking about the ten “points” of the Ten Commandments. He tells Christians to keep the whole law. James then concludes by teaching New Testament Christians to “speak and to do” as those who will be judged by God’s law.
So although often sincere, the Protestant reformers carried over most of the anti-law, anti-obedience attitudes they had come to adopt in their rebellion against “Mother Rome.” Yet, like Rome, they were still involved in a paganized system of false doctrines, wrong Holy Days and false concepts of God, which God Himself describes in Revelation 17:4–5: “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
As this form of “Christianity” became the state religion, masses of former pagans “converted.” Many did so out of convenience rather than conviction, and kept their old beliefs privately. Others came to the new syncretistic faith uneducated in its beliefs, and able to receive only the most basic instruction.
The church gained from Constantine and the Empire not just new doctrines, but new organization. Rome had a long-standing imperial cult, and its practices found a home in this compromised Christianity. Will Durant observes:
Yet the Jews had known that the coming Messiah was to be a literal “son of David.” How could this one also be David’s “Lord,” but have a still “greater” Lord telling Him what to do?
In 1 Corinthians 10:1–4, we read that ancient Israel was baptized into Moses and they all “ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” Again, it is clear—as a number of Bible commentaries acknowledge—that the spirit Personality who dealt with ancient Israel was the One who became Christ. For, as we have seen, Jesus said that “no one” had ever seen “God”—obviously meaning the One we call the Father.
Yet, right after giving the Ten Commandments and some of the statutes to ancient Israel, we find that the “God of Israel” did indeed appear to some of Israel’s leaders! “Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9–11). So more than 70 of the leaders of Israel “saw the God of Israel”—not God the Father, but the “Word” who later became Jesus Christ (John 1:1–12). Could anything be more clear?
It was the One who became Jesus Christ who literally walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was the One who dealt directly with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was the One who spoke “face to face” with Moses (Numbers 12:8). He was the One who spoke the Ten Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai! He was the One who commanded the seventh-day Sabbath.
If all professing Christians were taught the truth that the One who became their Savior is the One who gave the Ten Commandments, perhaps their actions would be quite different. The world would be a much safer place! All would realize that true Christianity is a law abiding religion—a way of life based on the great spiritual law of God. They would learn that—although no one is suddenly perfect, and we are commanded to grow in Christ’s character—it is possible to follow Christ’s inspired example through His Spirit within us.
But how can Christians walk “just as He walked”? If Jesus Christ had to come and give His life because all have violated God’s law, how can anyone keep that law? Again, perhaps the most concise explanation was given by the Apostle Paul. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).
A Christian does not obey the law on his own, but through the power of Christ living in Him. Paul goes on to emphasize that law-keeping comes through the grace of God, and that law-keeping does not earn grace. “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Galatians 2:21). With God’s grace, a converted Christian will keep the law; but without that grace, no amount of effort will bring righteousness and salvation.
A Christian is more than someone who “knows” the truth. The Gnostics believed that “knowledge” brought salvation, and some today would deny that one has to “do” anything as a faithful Christian. Yet Scripture gives a very different instruction: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).
Christians are to do as Christ did. In the “Great Commission” He instructed His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). Christians are to take His message to “all the nations” and teach “all things” that He commanded! They were not to change His message so much that it is today almost unrecognizable!
Sadly, many who call themselves Christians today—even commandment-keeping Christians—have turned inward. Saying that they must “prepare the bride” (the Church) for Christ’s return, they neglect the Bridegroom’s instructions. How can the Church “prepare” for His coming by neglecting His instruction to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations? (Matthew 24:14). It cannot! That is why the Living Church of God has sent you this booklet, and why we print booklets, magazines, a Bible study course and other publications. It is why we broadcast the Tomorrow’s World telecast. It is why we use the Internet and other tools that God provides to do His work as He opens doors for His Message to be given to the world as a witness before He returns!
It is important that all our readers fully recognize that those of us in this Work—those of us on the staff of the Tomorrow’s World magazine, of the Tomorrow’s World television program and, indeed, all of us involved in this Work of the Living Church of God—are all dedicated to the task of restoring the original Christianity taught and practiced by Jesus Christ and His Apostles!
As you read our articles and booklets, and as you view the Tomorrow’s World program, it is vital that you recognize “where we are coming from.” For we intend to continue to preach and teach the same message that Jesus and the early Apostles did. We intend to restore—in all of its spiritual aspects—the way of life that Jesus and the Apostles lived and taught. Also, guided by God’s Spirit, we will continue to preach the inspired prophecies of the Bible and warn those willing to listen of what lies ahead.
As the time of God’s intervention in human affairs and the soon-coming Great Tribulation approaches, it is absolutely vital that you and your loved ones make sure that you truly belong to Jesus Christ—the Christ of the Bible—that you are worshipping God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23), and that you are part of the true Church of God which teaches and practices the Christianity of Jesus and the original Apostles. “He who has an ear, let him hear” (Revelation 3:13).
Jesus might wonder: “Why are they putting My name on all this “stuff”?
Yet most genuine religious scholars recognize that vast changes have overtaken professing Christianity—rendering it totally different from the Christianity of Jesus and the Apostles! As respected mainline Protestant scholar Jesse Lyman Hurlbut acknowledges:
“For fifty years after St. Paul’s life a curtain hangs over the church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises, about 120ad with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul” (Story of the Christian Church, p. 41).If the leaders, during this time which Hurlbut elsewhere called an “age of shadows,” were filled with and led by God’s Spirit, then why would the Church suddenly be “very different”? For the Bible tells us that Christ is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Yet the professing Christian church today is not even remotely the same as the one Jesus founded.
Describing the time period after all the original Apostles and their successors had died out, Hurlbut writes:
“The services of worship increased in splendor, but were less spiritual and hearty than those of former times. The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and of worship. About 405ad images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshiped. The adoration of the Virgin Mary was substituted for the worship of Venus and Diana; the Lord’s supper became a sacrifice in place of a memorial; and the elder evolved from a preacher into a priest” (p. 79).Notice Hurlbut’s statement that “some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals.” They “became” that way because God Himself had predicted that evil men and false leaders would take over most of the Church! Remember this inspired warning the Apostle Paul gave the Ephesian elders: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29–31).
When Paul realized the depth of the apostasy that would overtake most of the Church, it hit him emotionally. He then “did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears”! Very few people today seem to be concerned enough about this massive apostasy to even begin to shed tears over this awesome change.
HOW Could This Happen?
This massive apostasy occurred because men and women back then, just like today, did not zealously prove to themselves where God’s Truth was being taught. That is why the living Christ corrected those Christians living near the end of the Apostolic Era: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:4–5). And what about today? How can we account for the more than 400 different denominations and sects—all calling themselves “Christian”? And all of them having some type of different ideas, traditions and approaches and yet claiming to follow the same Jesus Christ?
Part of the answer is the fact that extremely few professing Christians really study their Bibles! So they do not “prove” virtually anything they believe by carefully researching it in the Bible! Oh, they may enthusiastically study books and articles on health, on self-improvement or on investing and making more money. But somehow it does not occur to them to thoroughly study the most vital subjects of all: Is there a real God? If so, what is His purpose in creating human beings? And how can we fulfill that purpose? Yet the Bible commands: “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).
Most people have just “accepted” the religion passed down through their families. Most have just “gone along” with the beliefs and the traditions taught to them as children. Noting the public’s lack of attention to their religion, Los Angeles Times religion writer Teresa Watanabe reported:
“According to one religious research firm, two-thirds of Americans don’t regularly read the Bible or know the names of the Four Gospels. More than half of Americans surveyed can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments. And the majority say they find the Good Book irrelevant.… ‘We still hold the Bible in high regard, but in terms of actually spending the time reading it, studying it and applying it—that is a thing of the past,’ said George Barna. The reasons cited range from changes in American culture to the intrinsic difficulty of the text itself.
Now religious organizations are making a major effort to jazz up the ancient Scripture’s doddering image. Bible publishers are producing a dizzying array of products, with translations and editions pitched to every conceivable niche market, to convince people that the book is neither arcane nor irrelevant” (Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1999).Of course, the real underlying cause of this massive religious apostasy is that this is Satan’s world and that he has totally deceived the vast majority of humanity. In the comfortable surroundings of western civilization, most Americans, Canadians and others fail to realize that the overwhelming majority of human beings have never believed in any form of “Christianity”—let alone the real Christianity of Christ and the Apostles! The vast majority of humans are—and always have been—Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoists, atheists or agnostics.
A Very REAL Satan Is Involved
If you will study and believe your own Bible, you will find that Satan the devil is described as the one “who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). You will also find Satan referred to as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). For Satan “broadcasts” a selfish, rebellious attitude throughout this earth. He is the one who is influencing deceived men into injecting enormous amounts of licentious sex, violence and a general spirit of disrespect and lawlessness into the so-called “entertainment” you and your children see or hear on television, at the movies, on the radio or when playing various kinds of perverted computer games which simulate almost indescribable acts of perversion or violence. Do you know who is really laughing at all this “fun stuff”? Satan is!For by perverting mankind’s normal interest in sex and excitement, and by cleverly injecting sick humor into so many of television’s “situation comedies,” Satan is able to cleverly mislead mankind into abusing, degrading and ultimately destroying itself if God does not intervene at the last minute to stop it (Matthew 24:21–22). Satan is truly the “god” of this present world! The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).
Most important of all, Satan has injected into mainstream “Christianity” a whole series of totally false ideas about the origin and destiny of man, of what God is like, of what God’s awesome purpose is, and how we are to achieve that great purpose. Additionally, Satan has confused people about prophecy so much that most professing Christians and even most professing Christian ministers and priests simply throw up their hands and almost totally neglect biblical prophecy. Yet our Creator devotes about one-fourth of the entire Bible to the “sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV).
Have you ever looked at traditional Christianity and asked yourself: “Is this religion really based on the Bible? Is this the religion founded by Jesus Christ and taught by His Apostles?” If Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, then his life should be an example for His followers. But practically no one actually follows His example!
Christianity Without Christ?
Instead, mankind has made its own religion that is almost completely different from what Jesus Christ preached and practiced. And they call that religion “Christianity,” as if it were connected with Jesus Christ! As the philosopher and theologian Soren Kirkegaard put it:“The Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist… what has to be done is to throw light upon a criminal offense against Christianity prolonged through centuries, perpetrated by millions (more or less guiltily), whereby they have cunningly, under the guise of perfecting Christianity, sought little by little to cheat God out of Christianity and have succeeded in making Christianity exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament” (Attack Upon Christendom, Kirkegaard, 1956, pp. 32–33).Those are strong words, but they are hardly unique. Professor Rufus M. Jones concurs, noting how Christ’s true teachings were quickly detached from the religion bearing His name:
“If by any chance Christ Himself had been taken by His later followers as the model and pattern of the new way, and a serious attempt had been made to set up His life and teaching as the standard and norm for the Church, Christianity would have been something vastly different from what it became. Then ‘heresy’ would have been as it is not now, deviation from His way, His teaching, His spirit, His kingdom.… What we may properly call ‘Galilean Christianity’ had a short life, though there have been notable attempts to revive it and make it live again, and here and there spiritual prophets have insisted that anything else other than this simple Galilean religion is ‘heresy’; but the main line of historic development has taken a different course and has marked the emphasis very differently” (The Church’s Debt to Heretics, Jones, 1924, pp. 15–16).We should not be surprised that mankind tried to remake Christianity its own way. Mankind has tried for thousands of years to find its own way. Humanism, materialism, socialism, communism or capitalism—human society has invented so many philosophies in the vain hope of giving meaning to life without God, and creating through human effort a happy and prosperous society on the earth.
The truth is clear. Modern “Christianity” has become “vastly different”—as Professor Jones wrote—from the Christianity of Christ! But what has been the result? Nations are almost constantly at war with each other, the rich prosper while the poor starve and disease runs rampant. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. He was right! But neither Thoreau nor most of mankind have had their eyes opened to the solution, the Truth that would fill their lives with meaning and joy and peace.
Some might say, “So what?” But this is no small matter we are talking about. Frankly, we are talking about the way to eternal life on the one hand, or eternal death on the other (Romans 6:23). For if you do not have the Christianity of Christ, you have no Christianity whatsoever!
Jesus Himself warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21–23). It is important to realize that Christ will say to those failing to do the “will” of the Father: “I never knew you.” In plain language, these deceived churchgoers will be told that they were, in fact, never acquainted with the Christ they claim to serve. They were never really converted. They were never really “Christian”!
Again, Jesus said, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). A “lord” or “master” is someone you obey. But most professing Christian ministers and their followers do not follow the clear teachings and examples of Jesus and the Apostles. And most of them do not even bother to deeply study their Bibles to find what those teachings and examples are!
Restoring Original Christianity
The key issue, then, is our desire and willingness to get back to the true Christian faith, “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Are you willing to genuinely try to follow the Christianity of Christ? Or are you willing to “take a chance” in your relationship with God and in your quest for eternal life? Frankly, the “little flock” (Luke 12:32)—the true Church of God—has always understood the need to pattern itself after the teachings and examples of Christ and the Apostles. Although very few have seriously attempted to follow this pattern, many scholars and religious historians have understood the concept of the “Jerusalem Church of God.” This is a vital concept to understand if we are sincerely interested in contending “for the faith once delivered.”
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians, “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 2:14). The book of Acts makes it clear that the earthly “headquarters” Church of God—for many decades—was the Jerusalem Church. It was here that the Holy Spirit was originally poured out on the true Christians (Acts 2). It was here where Peter, James and John carried on most of their ministry for many years (cf. Acts 4:1; 8:1; 11:1–2). Later, it was to the leadership at Jerusalem that Paul and Barnabas came to settle the major question of circumcision for the Gentiles and related questions (Acts 15:4-6).
As renowned historian Edward Gibbon wrote: “The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ. It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 15, sec. 1, p. 389).
As indicated above, the only major ministerial conference indicated in the New Testament was held at Jerusalem. Here lived the leading original Apostles. Here was the true “mother” church (not Rome!). And it was to Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas had come even earlier, lest, as Paul had put it, “I might run, or had run, in vain” (Galatians 2:1–2).
After the major Jerusalem conference, Paul and Silas traveled through Asia Minor visiting the churches: “And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4).
Paul Looked to Jerusalem
Clearly the original Apostles and the Jerusalem Church of God set the inspired “pattern” for true Christianity—not just for that time—but for all time! Contrary to the heretical Protestant ideas that the Apostle Paul later was used by God to “reinvent” Christianity, the real Apostle Paul of the Bible—as we have seen—constantly showed deep respect for the original Apostles and deferred to the leadership at Jerusalem in all major matters! And it was the Apostle Paul who wrote the primarily Gentile church at Corinth: “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (1 Corinthians 7:19). Noted historian Carl von Weiszäcker wrote in 1895: “Paul was far from confining his interest to the Gentile Christian Church which he had himself founded. His thoughts were much too lofty to leave Jewish Christianity to itself. He toiled not merely for his own work, but for the Church of God… the whole Church. He never forgot for a moment the true birthplace of the gospel. And for him the Christians in Jerusalem were always the [saints].… He did not however merely entertain a grand policy of ecclesiastical union, but his first and constant thought was that the primitive Church was the foremost divine institution under the Gospel.… In the early Apostles he saw… the Apostles of the Lord. From them the testimony of the Resurrection emanated (1 Corinthians 15:1 ff.). They were ever the apostles, whom God had placed at the head of His Church, the first of those divinely commissioned men who held the leading office in the Body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:28) (The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, pp. 12–13).Later in Paul’s ministry, he traveled again to Jerusalem: “And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present” (Acts 21:17–18). Notice that Paul presented himself to James, the Lord’s brother, who by now was undoubtedly the chief Apostle at Jerusalem—Peter probably having gone to the “lost sheep” of the house of Israel in northwest Europe and the British Isles.
After rejoicing in the good news Paul brought about God’s Work among the Gentiles, the Jerusalem leadership told Paul: “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law” (v. 20). The term “myriad” literally means “tens of thousands.” So as not to confuse or discourage these many Jewish Christians, Paul was asked by the Jerusalem Church to go through an offering ceremony to publicly demonstrate that he was not teaching in any way against God’s laws. The Jerusalem leaders exhorted Paul: “Take these men along and be purified with them and pay all the expenses connected with the shaving of their heads. This will let everyone know there is no truth in the reports they have heard about you and that you still regularly observe the Law” (v. 24, Jerusalem Bible).
If Paul had in fact been teaching against God’s Law in any way—especially the spiritual law containing the Ten Commandments—he most certainly would not have gone through this ceremony of the law of Moses! That particular ceremony—probably a thanks offering at the conclusion of the Nazarite vow—was not necessary for a New Testament Christian. But it was not “sinful” either! And Paul’s deep respect for God’s Law, for the original mother church and the pattern of obedience to God’s Law—all this guided Paul in his decision to go ahead and participate in this ceremony. By guiding Paul in this—and putting this example in the Bible—God is showing all of us that Paul’s approach was one of obedience to law, not one who tried to do away with or “reason around” God’s spiritual laws as so many Protestant theologians teach!
What Did Christ Do on Earth?
Nearly all professing Christians understand that in order to be an acceptable sacrifice for mankind’s sins, Jesus Christ had to keep the Law perfectly. But what law did He keep, and what did He expect of His followers? Here is how Christ Himself described His mission:“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17–20).Many Christians do not grasp the importance of those words. Christ said that not “one jot or one tittle” (the tiniest marks in the Hebrew script) of the law would pass from the law until heaven and earth pass away. Since heaven and earth have not passed away, we must understand that the law remains. And Christ condemned those who would falsely teach men to break even the “least of these commandments.” Rather, He explained that those who both do and teach the commandments will be called “great” in the kingdom of heaven!
Did His “fulfilling” the law somehow change these commands? Or did they change after Christ’s resurrection? No! Heaven and earth did not pass away at His resurrection. And we must understand what He meant when He said that he would “fulfill” the law. One scholar explains His words as follows:
“Did [Jesus] fill or fulfill the [Law]? The common word plerôsai means ‘to fill.’ At [Matthew] 5:17 most translations render it ‘to fulfill.’ The theological implications often drawn are that [Jesus] fulfilled all the prophecies of the [Old Testament] pertaining to the Jews, so that none remain for them now; and that he kept the [Law] perfectly, so that no one need obey it today. But these conclusions do not follow logically, and in fact they contradict [Jesus’] immediately preceding statement that he did not come to abolish (or destroy) the [Law]. More fundamental for translation, however, is the question of whether plerôsai in this verse should be rendered ‘to fulfill’ at all. [This] translator’s view is that [Jesus] came to fill the [Law] and the ethical pronouncements of the Prophets full with their complete meaning, so that everyone can know all that obedience entails. For this reason the Jewish New Testament says that [Jesus] came ‘not to abolish but to complete.’ In fact, this is the subject of the entire Sermon on the Mount; and [Matthew] 5:17, understood in this way, is its theme sentence” (Jewish New Testament, Stern, 1995, pp. xxii–xxiii).In other words, Jesus came, as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 42:21), to “magnify” God’s law and to show its fullest intent and purpose. What Jesus Christ sought to abolish were the abuses of the law, and the man-made traditions that perverted the law. His sacrificial death, foreshadowed by the temple sacrifices, made those animal sacrifices and washings irrelevant for Christians. But His life showed that the spiritual law—the Ten Commandments—was and would remain relevant for those seeking to obey Him. One cannot properly understand His teachings without understanding the Old Testament scriptures and the law they contain, as noted by Frederick Holmgren:
“The Old Testament brings gifts to the Christian tradition. One of those gifts is the Torah (the Law).… Jesus embraced the Torah of Moses; he came not to end it but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17)—to carry its teachings forward. Further, to those who came to him seeking eternal life, he held it up as the essential teaching to be observed (Luke 10:25–28). Despite Jesus’ conflict with some interpreters of his day, both Jewish and Christian scholars see him as one who honored and followed the Law. When Jesus proclaims the coming rule of God, he speaks nowhere in detail about the inner character of this rule. He does not need to because that has already been described in the Old Testament.… The Old Testament is not an antiquated Scripture; its life-giving teachings are needed by the church” (Frederick C. Holmgren, “Preaching the Gospel Without Anti-Judaism,” Removing Anti-Judaism from the Pulpit, ed. Howard Clark Kee and Irvin J. Borowski, 1996, pp. 72–73).Indeed, Jesus Christ taught from the Old Testament, and He lived by it, as did His followers.
What Did the Apostles Teach?
We have seen that Jesus Christ plainly upheld God’s law. Yet some churches falsely accuse the Apostles—especially the Apostle Paul—of teaching that Christians need no longer follow Jesus Christ’s example. Indeed, even in the first century ad we see that some were twisting Paul’s words for their purposes (cf. 2 Peter 3:16). Yet when writing to the young evangelist Timothy, Paul plainly reminded him “that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:15–16).When Timothy was a child, the “Holy Scriptures” he knew were the Old Testament scriptures. Most of the New Testament books did not yet exist! Paul says that these Old Testament scriptures are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Paul saw no conflict between Old Testament scripture and Christian faith and practice, and confirmed that all Scripture (including the Old Testament) is profitable for doctrine and for instruction in righteousness. These are not the words of someone teaching that the God’s Old Testament laws have been done away!
The Apostle Paul instructed Christians: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Apostle John observed: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
These two, like all the Apostles, knew that Jesus Christ came to show the perfect example, and that Christians ought to follow His example, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This was the commonplace understanding in the Apostle Paul’s day, as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire.
“Everywhere, especially in the East of the Roman Empire, there would be Jewish Christians whose outward way of life would not be markedly different from that of the Jews. They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples… did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food. According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in ad70 they were the dominant element in the Christian movement” (Judeo-christianisme, “Paul and Jewish Christianity,” Davies, 1972, p. 72, quoted in Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 151).So for about the first 40 years of Christianity, guided by the Holy Spirit, the “dominant element” in the Church of God was still following Christ’s example of keeping the weekly and annual Sabbaths commanded by God. They were still following the example set by the Jerusalem Church of God!
Who dared to change all of that?
Some wrongly teach that after Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed in 70ad, Christians were no longer to keep the law as had Jesus Christ and the Apostles. So it is important to note that the Apostle John, the last surviving Apostle, wrote the book of Revelation after the Temple was destroyed. And in that book, he upheld the law of God! “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14). John heard these words from God, and knew the importance of obeying Him: “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations” (Revelation 2:26). Clearly, Christians were keeping the law, living just as Jesus Christ did, long after the Temple was destroyed! Scholars concur. “The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals [the biblically-taught festivals], though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed” (Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 8, p. 828).
What Was First-Century Christianity Like?
Most professing Christians today have no idea what first-century Christianity was really like! Yet for decades—long after Christ’s death and resurrection and the disciples’ reception of the Holy Spirit—the true Christians all believed and practiced a way of life and worship totally different from professing Christianity today! How was it different?
As we saw earlier from Professor Davies, the early Christians “took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples… did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food.”
Subtly, but surely, Satan the devil has deceived most of today’s professing ministers into believing that Christianity was a “brand new religion”—seemingly cut off from the Old Testament and the teaching God gave through Moses. And although some may not be consciously aware of it, a definite anti-Jewish bias crept into early Christianity and has continued to this day!
But the biblical and historical facts show that Christianity was a continuation—an enlargement and “magnification” of the teachings God gave through Moses—not something brand new! As the Apostle Paul was inspired in the New Testament to explain to the Gentile Christians at Ephesus: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:19–20). So a basic part of the very “foundation” of Christianity was the writings and teachings of the Old Testament prophets—those writings which Christ and the Apostles referred to as “Scripture” again and again!
For Jesus Christ was a circumcised Jew (Luke 2:21–22; Hebrews 7:14). It was Jesus’ “custom” to keep the seventh-day Sabbath—right along with the other Jews (Luke 4:16). Far from abrogating God’s Sabbath, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for “man”—not just the Jews, and that He was “Lord” of the Sabbath. So the Sabbath is, in fact, the true “Lord’s Day” as far as a day of rest and worship is concerned!
Long after the crucifixion, it was the Apostle Paul’s “custom” also to keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Acts 17:2). We also find Paul observing the annual biblical festivals such as Pentecost (1 Corinthians 16:8), Passover and Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7–8) and other festivals.
The true Church of God—named “Church of God” 12 times in the New Testament—was itself started on the Day of Pentecost, one of the seven annual Sabbaths God gave Israel. At His second coming, Christ Himself will return at the “seventh trump” (Revelation 11:15)—pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, another one of the biblical Holy Days. And the Living Jesus Christ, who inspired the entire Bible, also inspired His servant Zechariah to explain that after Christ’s second coming the whole world will be observing the Feast of Tabernacles! (read carefully the entire 14th chapter of Zechariah). Also, during the soon-coming Millennial reign of Christ, Isaiah tells us, “‘And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the Lord” (Isaiah 66:23).
So true Christians who observe the biblical Sabbaths and biblical festivals are, in fact, “pioneers.” They are not only following the “pattern” of the original Christianity taught and practiced by Jesus Christ; they are “pioneering” the Way of life which all nations will soon be learning in tomorrow’s world!
For example, the seventh-day Sabbath pictures the reign of Christ during the coming seventh millennium of human history. It is the “rest” which God commanded from the beginning (Hebrews 4:4). That is why Paul was inspired to write, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (v. 9). It is important to realize that the Greek word here translated “rest” is sabbatismos—the “keeping of a Sabbath”—whereas katapausin is the normal Greek word for taking rest and is the word used throughout the rest of Hebrews 4.
Incidentally, if you would like full, documented proof that Christians today should keep the biblical Sabbath, then write for our powerful and absolutely vital booklet, Which Day is the Christian Sabbath? It will be sent to you at no charge upon your request. Just write or call us at the address nearest you listed at the end of this booklet.
God’s Sabbath and His annual Holy Days picture His great Plan. But true Christianity, of course, involves far more than keeping the biblical Sabbaths. As we have already intimated, it involves an entire Way of life based on Jesus’ example and His teaching, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God” (Luke 4:4).
Jesus MAGNIFIED God’s Law
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus certainly did not “do away” with God’s spiritual law (Matthew 5:17). Rather, He “magnified” the Ten Commandments. He explained that we must not only refrain from killing other human beings, we must not even look on them with contempt or hatred (vv. 20–23), as that is the “spirit” of murder. We are not to “hate” even our enemies. As Jesus said clearly: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (v. 44).We are never to commit adultery. But, as Jesus clearly said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (vv. 27–28).
The early Christians were taught that they should give in a very private manner—not showing off, or having a big “foundation” in their own name to perpetuate their honor in the giving (Matthew 6:1–4). True Christians were to pray regularly and privately—not showing off their oratorical skills before men or using certain words or phrases over and over in “vain repetition” (vv. 5–13). And true Christians certainly would fast regularly (vv. 16–18), following biblical examples of doing without food and water in order to humble the self and get closer to the invisible God as Jesus did (Matthew 4), Moses did (Deuteronomy 9:9, 18) and the Apostle Paul did (Acts 9:9).
In our materialistic age, we need to understand that the original Christians did not allow themselves to be overcome by the desires for money, or material things as most professing Christians do today (Matthew 6:19–20). As Jesus later warned His followers: “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). Rather, as the book of Acts explains: “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32).
First century Christianity was squarely based on the teachings of the “law and prophets”—except for those animal sacrifices and washings which pre-figured the sacrifice of Christ and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. These sacrifices and washings were made obsolete (Hebrews 9:9–12). But the spiritual laws of God were never done away. Rather, as Jesus’ beloved disciple John was inspired to write: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
A View of First-Century Christianity
If you could somehow “look in on” true Christianity during the first century and even beyond, what would you see? You would see a group of dedicated believers in Jesus as the promised Messiah. You would see a community of believers to whom the God of Israel, the God of Creation, was real. For these people would not just talk about the person of Jesus Christ. They would do what He commanded.With Christ living in them through the promised Holy Spirit, they would keep all ten of the Ten Commandments as a way of life. As they learned to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), there would be in their community no crime—no murder, rape, robbery or assault. No fornication or adultery. And except in rare incidents of sexual misconduct, there would be no divorce and remarriage (Matthew 5:32). Obviously, such Christians would have in their society no pornography and no gross sex and violence of any kind in their “entertainment”—whether in books, plays, or (among today’s Christians) television, movies, computer games or the Internet. Rather, all these dedicated, wholesome families would be obeying their “Lord,” not just using His name while they contradicted by their lifestyle everything He taught (Luke 6:46). They would be resting and worshiping God on the seventh-day Sabbath as He commanded—constantly being reminded by this biblical day of worship that the true God is the Creator of all that is (Exodus 20:8–11).
True Christians, for instance, would never be found fighting or butchering their fellow Christians—as has happened over and over again in the last few centuries in France, Belgium, Germany and Italy. In first century Christianity, the members of God’s Church never prayed to dead, so-called “saints” or to idols. They never worshiped the Virgin Mary. Of course, they understood that as a normal wife, Mary had at least six other children by her husband after Jesus’ supernatural birth had taken place (Matthew 13:55–56).
In first century Christianity, the dedicated ministers and elders in the Church of God were primarily husbands and fathers (1 Timothy 3:1–5; Titus 1:5–9). They were taught that in “latter times” some would be deceived by “doctrines of demons” into thinking it was wrong for men—certainly including ministers or priests—to marry (1 Timothy 4:1–3). Meeting regularly in plain surroundings on the day God made holy, His Sabbath, God’s ministers were instructed: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:2–4).
Indeed, as we have seen, mankind has been turned aside to “fables
.” Today, in dark, dank, foreboding cathedrals, priests and ministers in strange-looking “Mother Hubbard” gowns go through incomprehensible rituals, chant prayers and responsive readings—and expound the Bible itself very seldom. They have very little to say about the way of life which Christ and the Apostles taught or about the one-fourth of the Bible which was prophetic, or about the true purpose which God is working out here on earth.
As the New Testament makes plain, first century Christians would be “feeding on Christ” (John 6:57) by constant study of the Bible. Remember God’s description of the Bereans? “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
First century Christians, then, would be trying sincerely, with God’s promised help, to live by every Word of God. They would be following Christ’s example of obedience to God’s laws—not the ways, the rituals or the religious festivals learned from the pagans around them.
Again, they would not only believe in the person of Jesus Christ, but they would believe and practice what He taught: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). And they would believe what the Apostle John wrote near the end of the Apostolic Age: “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24).
Most first century Christians would have deeply understood the fundamental teaching of the Apostle Paul: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV). The Bible makes it clear that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
So true Christians—through Christ living in them—would be obeying the Ten Commandments as Jesus did, keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and biblical Holy Days as Jesus did and following the entire way of life modeled by Jesus Christ and the original Apostles whom He taught. As they worshiped together, sang together and served one another, they would have been filled with love—with worship and adoration toward the Great God, and with kindness and out-flowing concern toward one another.
For Christ would be living within them His loving, serving and obedient life. And they would be filled with and led by God’s Spirit (Romans 8:14). That very love of God flows down the riverbed of the Ten Commandments. As Jesus’ beloved Apostle explains: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
HOW Was the Truth Lost?
Some teach that their denomination was given the authority to change Christ’s teachings, and that by this authority its members need no longer obey Christ’s commandments or follow His example. The largest professing Christian sect calls itself “universal” and claims to trace its human leadership back to the Apostle Peter—from whom it claims the authority to change biblical doctrines, even though Peter himself never did so. Sincere members of that church would be shocked to learn that many of those who today call themselves Christians can trace their faith not to Peter, but to Simon Magus, mentioned in Acts 8! This Simon Magus was at the heart of the apostasy that turned much of the first-century Church away from Christ’s teachings.
Scripture recounts that all of Samaria gave heed to Simon Magus as someone great, calling him “the great power of God” (Acts 8:9–10). That phrase represents Simon’s “claim to be the bearer of divine revelation” (The New Testament Environment, Lohse, p. 269). Simon received baptism and became a nominal Christian, but the Apostle Peter recognized Simon as being “poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity” (Acts 8:23). Simon’s Samaritan religion was also greatly influenced by Greek philosophy, and early Christian writers reviled him. Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity notes: “Early Christian writers regarded Simon as the fount of all heresies” (p. 100). The Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.) in its article on Simon Magus identifies him as the “founder of a school of Gnostics and as a father of heresy.” Noted historian Edward Gibbon says the Gnostics “blended with the faith of Christ many sublime but obscure tenets which they derived from oriental philosophy” (The Triumph of Christendom in the Roman Empire, p. 15).
Simon Magus and others sought to create a syncretistic faith, mixing popular devotions with their philosophies, and adding a covering of Christ’s words, to create a religion that could win mass acceptance. As noted historian Will Durant wrote:
“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church; the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretist result. From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity… and a personal immortality of reward and punishment; from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child, and the mystic theosophy that made Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and obscured the Christian creed; there, too, Christian monasticism would find its exemplars and its source. From Phrygia came the worship of the Great Mother; from Syria the resurrection drama of Adonis; from Thrace, perhaps, the cult of Dionysus, the dying and saving god.… The Mithraic ritual so closely resembled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. Christianity was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world.… [The Eucharist] was a conception long sanctified by time; the pagan mind needed no schooling to receive it; by embodying the ‘mystery of the Mass,’ Christianity became the last and greatest of the mystery religions” (The Story of Civilization, Vol. 5, Durant, pp. 595, 599).In the fourth century after Christ, the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as his religion. More properly, one might say that he “adapted” it, since what went by the name of “Christianity” was dramatically transformed under his imperial influence.
Under Constantine’s direction, the Council of Nicaea was held in 325ad. Though he had not yet been baptized, Constantine presided over the council’s opening session and took part in its discussions, believing that it was his duty as emperor to oversee the establishment of doctrine for the church. But was Constantine presiding over the council as a former pagan now turned Christian, or did he use the Council of Nicaea to infuse his pagan background into what would become “official” Christianity? Respected historian Paul Johnson has observed the following regarding Constantine’s religious views:
“There is some doubt about the magnitude of Constantine’s change of ideas.… He himself appears to have been a sun-worshipper, one of a number of late-pagan cults which had observances in common with the Christians. Thus the followers of Isis adored a madonna nursing her holy child; the cult of Attis and Cybele celebrated a day of blood and fasting, followed by the Hilaria resurrection-feast, a day of joy, on 25 March; the elitist Mithraics, many of whom were senior army officers, ate a sacred meal. Constantine was almost certainly a Mithraic, and his triumphal arch, built after his ‘conversion,’ testifies to the Sun-god, or ‘unconquered sun.’ Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult and their own. They referred to Christ ‘driving his chariot across the sky,’ they held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice. During the later pagan revival under the Emperor Julian many Christians found it easy to apostatize because of this confusion; the Bishop of Troy told Julian he had always prayed secretly to the sun. Constantine never abandoned sun-worship and kept the sun on his coins. He made Sunday into a day of rest.…” (A History of Christianity, Johnson, 1976, pp. 67–69).If you read the above historical quotes carefully, you will understand that—during the appropriately named “Dark Ages”—nearly all the aspects of paganism were introduced into professing Christianity. False concepts of the “mystery of the mass,” the worship of the Virgin Mary patterned directly after the worship of the pagan goddesses, the idea of a “little Lord Jesus” being born on December 25, calling it “Christmas” and connecting it with all the pagan rituals of the Saturnalia—all these false concepts and more were woven into what became “mainstream” Christianity.
Centuries later, the Protestant “reformers” were able to see a few of the problems of this Roman religion. But most of these pagan concepts were so thoroughly inculcated into their minds that the reformers made only a very few “surface” changes.
The “Reformation” Reformed Very Little
Martin Luther—the “father” of the Reformation—and other reformers still held hostile attitudes against all things “Jewish,” including the Sabbath of Jesus Christ, the annual festivals and, in fact, literal obedience to the Ten Commandments. That is one reason Martin Luther presumptuously added something to God’s own Word! In Luther’s translation of the New Testament, he deliberately added the word “alone” to Romans 3:28. Luther was so adamant against the necessity of obeying God’s law—confusing it perhaps with Catholic canon law and Catholic rituals—that he added a word to God’s inspired revelation!Romans 3:28 in the New King James Version reads: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Luther added the word “alone” (sola in Latin) so that in his German-language New Testament the phrase became “justified by faith alone”—a plainly wrong change without support in the text. When one critic raised an objection to his changing Scripture, Luther haughtily replied: “Should your Pope give himself any useless annoyance about the word sola, you may promptly reply: ‘It is the will of Dr. Martin Luther that it should be so.’” (John Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, Dublin: M.H. Gill and Son, 1902, p. 199). And, we may add on good authority, no other reason for such unscriptural changes as these was ever given. When it came to Luther’s own personal doctrinal convictions, Martin Luther was truly a self-willed man.
His third tractate of 1520, On Christian Liberty, asserts that a Christian man is spiritually subject to no man or to any law. He contended that since we are justified by faith alone, we are no longer under obligation to keep the law of God.
And, as is well known, Luther called the book of James an “epistle of straw” because James clearly taught the necessity of obedience to the Ten Commandments! Notice James 2:10–12: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
It is exceedingly clear in this passage of inspired Scripture that James is talking about the ten “points” of the Ten Commandments. He tells Christians to keep the whole law. James then concludes by teaching New Testament Christians to “speak and to do” as those who will be judged by God’s law.
So although often sincere, the Protestant reformers carried over most of the anti-law, anti-obedience attitudes they had come to adopt in their rebellion against “Mother Rome.” Yet, like Rome, they were still involved in a paganized system of false doctrines, wrong Holy Days and false concepts of God, which God Himself describes in Revelation 17:4–5: “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
As this form of “Christianity” became the state religion, masses of former pagans “converted.” Many did so out of convenience rather than conviction, and kept their old beliefs privately. Others came to the new syncretistic faith uneducated in its beliefs, and able to receive only the most basic instruction.
A PAGANIZED “Christianity”
“Christianity… grew by the absorption of pagan faith and ritual; it became a triumphant Church by inheriting the organizing patterns and genius of Rome.… As Judea had given Christianity ethics, and Greece had given it theology, so now Rome gave it organization; all these, with a dozen absorbed and rival faiths, entered into the Christian synthesis. It was not merely that the Church took over some religious customs and forms common in pre-Christian Rome—the stole and other vestments of pagan priests, the use of incense and holy water in purifications, the burning of candles and an everlasting light before the altar, the worship of the saints, the architecture of the basilica, the law of Rome as a basis for canon law, the title of Pontifex Maximus for the Supreme Pontiff, and, in the fourth century, the Latin language as the noble and enduring vehicle of Catholic ritual. The Roman gift was above all a vast framework of government, which, as secular authority failed, became the structure of ecclesiastical rule. Soon the bishops, rather than the Roman prefects, would be the source of order and the seat of power in the cities; the metropolitans, or archbishops, would support, if not supplant, the provincial governors; and the synod of bishops would succeed the provincial assembly. The Roman Church followed in the footsteps of the Roman state; it conquered the provinces, beautified the capital, and established discipline and unity from frontier to frontier. Rome died in giving birth to the Church; the Church matured by inheriting and accepting the responsibilities of Rome” (The Story of Civilization, Vol. 5, Durant, pp. 575, 618–619).As new and false elements were added to this “Christianity,” the authentic elements were crowded out. Sometimes this occurred because of anti-Semitic feelings. Since Jesus Christ was physically from the tribe of Judah, many Gnostics denied His bodily appearance—they refused to accept that their God had been from this much-despised tribe. Others perverted Christ’s teachings because they hated the nation from which those teachings came. They knew that Christians kept the “Jewish” Holy Days and adhered to other practices that pagan observers found offensive. Early church historian Eusebius wrote of those who, holding this sentiment, sought to replace the New Testament Passover that Christ kept with the Easter festival drawn from Ishtar-worship:
“It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews [of keeping Passover on the 14th of Nisan], who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul.… Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Savior a different way.… Beloved brethren, let us with one consent adopt this course, and withdraw ourselves from all participation in their baseness.… For how should they be capable of forming a sound judgment, who, since their… guilt in slaying their Lord, have been subject to the direction, not of reason, but of… every impulse of the mad spirit that is in them?… Strive and pray continually that the purity of your soul may not seem in anything to be sullied by fellowship with the custom of these most wicked men.… All should unite in desiring that which sound reason appears to demand, avoiding all participation in the perjured conduct of the Jews” (Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, bk. 3, chaps. 18–19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1979, vol. 1, pp. 524–525).
A Far “Different” Way
Yes, many taught that “we have received from our Savior a different way.” But that way is not found in the Bible. Instead, it is found in the customs of the Greeks and Romans and other European converts who adopted Christianity on the surface but kept their old ways. With the passage of time, these old ways overwhelmed the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, as discussed by John Romer below:“Subtly, so subtly that the bishops themselves had not seen them, the old gods had entered their churches like the air of the Mediterranean. And they live still in Christian ritual, in the iconography and the festivals of Christianity. When Julian arrived in Antioch in 362… the great Christian city was in mourning, bewailing in the Levantine manner the annual death of Adonis, Venus’s beautiful lover. At Ephesus, though the sanctuary of Diana, goddess of the city, was taken down… her statues were carefully buried in dry sand. And when the Third Council of the church assembly at Ephesus solemnly voted that henceforth the Virgin Mary should be honoured with the title of Theotokos, the God-bearer, Ephesus, itself for centuries the city of the virgin hunter Diana, became the city of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. In Egypt, too, the ancient sign of life, the ankh, which the gods had carried in their sculptures for thousands of years, was easily transformed into the Christian cross; the figure of Isis nursing her child Horus, Isis Lactans, became the figure of the Virgin with Jesus at her breast.… At Rome, Romulus and Remus were swapped for the biblical saints Peter and Paul. And still in the fifth century, the Pope had to stop the early morning congregation of St Peter’s from walking up the church steps backwards so as not to offend Sol, the rising sun god. Similarly, 25 December, now Christ’s birthday, was also the day of Sol Invictus’ festival and Constantine’s birthday. This festival was celebrated by cutting green branches and hanging little lights on them, and presents were given out in the god’s name. Sol’s weekly festival Sol-day—Sunday—became the Christian Sabbath. Just as Apollo of Delphi had made a beautiful transformation to become the Roman Sol Invictus, so later he became a Christ of the sun. All three of them are sometimes pictured in their fiery chariots… with… radiant haloes” (Testament: The Bible and History, Romer, 1988, pp. 230–31).So we can see that true Christianity has been opposed from the very beginning by those who would turn it away from the true God whose commandments Jesus Christ upheld. But many of today’s professing Christians do not realize just where those commandments came from, and who proclaimed them on Mount Sinai.
The God of the Old Testament
In Matthew 22:42–45, Jesus challenged the religious leaders: “‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The Son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call Him “Lord,” saying: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’”? If David then calls Him “Lord,” how is He his Son?’” The Pharisees were not able to answer. For they knew that King David of Israel certainly had no human “lord.” This scripture had to be describing two personalities in God’s Family—one greater than the other. And, as should be obvious to us, David’s immediate “Lord”—the one who later became Jesus of Nazareth—was told to sit at the right hand of the Father until it was time for Him to become King of kings. Yet the Jews had known that the coming Messiah was to be a literal “son of David.” How could this one also be David’s “Lord,” but have a still “greater” Lord telling Him what to do?
In 1 Corinthians 10:1–4, we read that ancient Israel was baptized into Moses and they all “ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” Again, it is clear—as a number of Bible commentaries acknowledge—that the spirit Personality who dealt with ancient Israel was the One who became Christ. For, as we have seen, Jesus said that “no one” had ever seen “God”—obviously meaning the One we call the Father.
Yet, right after giving the Ten Commandments and some of the statutes to ancient Israel, we find that the “God of Israel” did indeed appear to some of Israel’s leaders! “Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9–11). So more than 70 of the leaders of Israel “saw the God of Israel”—not God the Father, but the “Word” who later became Jesus Christ (John 1:1–12). Could anything be more clear?
It was the One who became Jesus Christ who literally walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was the One who dealt directly with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was the One who spoke “face to face” with Moses (Numbers 12:8). He was the One who spoke the Ten Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai! He was the One who commanded the seventh-day Sabbath.
If all professing Christians were taught the truth that the One who became their Savior is the One who gave the Ten Commandments, perhaps their actions would be quite different. The world would be a much safer place! All would realize that true Christianity is a law abiding religion—a way of life based on the great spiritual law of God. They would learn that—although no one is suddenly perfect, and we are commanded to grow in Christ’s character—it is possible to follow Christ’s inspired example through His Spirit within us.
How Can a Christian Live as Christ Did?
The Bible makes it plain that Christians are to keep God’s commandments. The Apostle John wrote: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3–6).But how can Christians walk “just as He walked”? If Jesus Christ had to come and give His life because all have violated God’s law, how can anyone keep that law? Again, perhaps the most concise explanation was given by the Apostle Paul. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).
A Christian does not obey the law on his own, but through the power of Christ living in Him. Paul goes on to emphasize that law-keeping comes through the grace of God, and that law-keeping does not earn grace. “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Galatians 2:21). With God’s grace, a converted Christian will keep the law; but without that grace, no amount of effort will bring righteousness and salvation.
What Should a Christian Do?
One can recognize a true Christian as someone striving, through Christ’s help, to live by every word of God (cf. Matthew 4:4). “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). By yielding to Jesus Christ, the fruits of the Spirit will become more and more evident in a Christian’s life. A Christian is more than someone who “knows” the truth. The Gnostics believed that “knowledge” brought salvation, and some today would deny that one has to “do” anything as a faithful Christian. Yet Scripture gives a very different instruction: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).
Christians are to do as Christ did. In the “Great Commission” He instructed His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). Christians are to take His message to “all the nations” and teach “all things” that He commanded! They were not to change His message so much that it is today almost unrecognizable!
Sadly, many who call themselves Christians today—even commandment-keeping Christians—have turned inward. Saying that they must “prepare the bride” (the Church) for Christ’s return, they neglect the Bridegroom’s instructions. How can the Church “prepare” for His coming by neglecting His instruction to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations? (Matthew 24:14). It cannot! That is why the Living Church of God has sent you this booklet, and why we print booklets, magazines, a Bible study course and other publications. It is why we broadcast the Tomorrow’s World telecast. It is why we use the Internet and other tools that God provides to do His work as He opens doors for His Message to be given to the world as a witness before He returns!
It is important that all our readers fully recognize that those of us in this Work—those of us on the staff of the Tomorrow’s World magazine, of the Tomorrow’s World television program and, indeed, all of us involved in this Work of the Living Church of God—are all dedicated to the task of restoring the original Christianity taught and practiced by Jesus Christ and His Apostles!
As you read our articles and booklets, and as you view the Tomorrow’s World program, it is vital that you recognize “where we are coming from.” For we intend to continue to preach and teach the same message that Jesus and the early Apostles did. We intend to restore—in all of its spiritual aspects—the way of life that Jesus and the Apostles lived and taught. Also, guided by God’s Spirit, we will continue to preach the inspired prophecies of the Bible and warn those willing to listen of what lies ahead.
As the time of God’s intervention in human affairs and the soon-coming Great Tribulation approaches, it is absolutely vital that you and your loved ones make sure that you truly belong to Jesus Christ—the Christ of the Bible—that you are worshipping God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23), and that you are part of the true Church of God which teaches and practices the Christianity of Jesus and the original Apostles. “He who has an ear, let him hear” (Revelation 3:13).
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