Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) There we have it from Jesus himself. All we have to do to have a Merry Christmas is "be perfect" . Oops! Guess Santa may not be coming to town after all! Anyone know any perfect people? Neither does Jesus. "There is no one righteous, not even one...all have sinned" (Romans 3:10; 23) I don't know about you but I am counting on the gift of GRACE again this Christmas! "...the grace of God given to you by Christ Jesus..." (1 Corinthians 1:4) Gifts from God are not rewards for good behavior…that is only required by Santa Clause.  Gifts coming to us from God are free - and grace is just the beginning. "Grace" is not all we get for free, here is a few other things... “For by grace you have been saved…it is a gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9) “My peace I give to you…” (John 14:27) “…the free gift of God is eternal life…” (Romans 6:23) A Father’s l

God said this through King David… “The Lord is good to everyone: and His compassion rests on all He has made.” (Psalm 145:9 HCSB). God said this through Jesus… “And if thy hand causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell - the unquenchable fire, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-44). Did Jesus really say that? Not exactly. What Jesus actually said, properly translated… “And if your hand causes your downfall, cut it off. It is better to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to Gehenna – the unquenchable fire, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” I have highlighted the one word that differs, but it changes everything. Gehenna means “valley of the sons of Hinnom”. It was a real place outside the walls of Jerusalem at the time Jesus made the above comment. It was an unclean place to the Jews who used the site to burn dead carcasses of animals and

“…For his mercy endureth forever.” (Psalm 136:1 KJV) In Psalm 136 the Lord’s mercy is said to last forever 26 times. If so, what are we to do with the doctrine of eternal torment in hell, or eternal separation from God? Here is what someone suggested is the answer to that question?  "In God’s mercy and loving kindness He wants to forgive and save, however, His Justice requires Him to eternally separate unrepentant sinners from Him and torture them forever. BUT He will graciously block it from the memory of those who make it to heaven." That to me makes no sense!   Justice from the God who has revealed Himself in Nature, as well as the Bible, loves His creation and deals with sin in perfect  righteousness, not with cruel and unusual punishment. "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands...For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen

"...when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 NLT) Dang Robert, what's that "eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord" all about? I  thought you said God will save all people, not eternally destroy and separated some of them from Him. I did not say it, God said He is "the Savior of all people" ... "This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people..." (1 Timothy 4:9-10 NLT) OK, so how are we supposed to reconcile the two passages. They seem to contradict each other?  You are right, the above English New Livi

There is only one way this wicked world of sinners gets saved, and that is by the grace of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, as a free gift from God. "For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works...for the ration of sin is death, yet the gracious gift of God is life eonian, in Christ Jesus, our Lord." (Ephesians 2:8; Romans 6:23 CLNT) There are no Scriptural exceptions. But the good news its that God "wills that all mankind be saved" and so they all will be. The Scripture says it this way - "...our Savior, God, Who wills that all mankind be saved, and to come unto a realization of the truth; for there is one God, and one mediator of God and mankind, a man, Christ Jesus, who is giving himself a correspondent ransom for all, (the testimony in its own eras).. ." (I Timothy 2:3-6 CLNT). Do the most wicked among us deserve to be saved?  Not from my perspective, but that is what

“O foolish Galatians! Who bewitches you…” Some Scripture translated into English from the oldest Greek texts have errors …and no one seems to care as long it fits church dogma predating the translation. One EXAMPLE from Galatians 2:16 reads in the King James Version... “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but BY the faith OF Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith OF Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” This is a place where the King James Version was right. But look at the New American Standard Version, one of the modern versions of the same verse. “…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but THROUGH faith IN Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith IN Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” So, you tell me, is there

“God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31) There have been thousands of men, women and children who have ran down the isle of the church after hearing a version of the 1741 sermon of Jonathon Edwards entitled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” based in part on the above verse in the book of Hebrews. It may be the most famous sermon ever preached – and the most heretical blasphemy against God ever preached. It is not that fearing God is not commanded in the Bible. Mankind has forfeited the blessings which come from keeping His commandments because he did not fear God, but our eternal salvation is not “in the hands of an ANGRY God” , but in the hands of “the LIVING God” , Who has righteously judged sinful mankind to chastening in this life and eventually death for our sins.  "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23) "

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever… And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death...” (Revelation 20:10, 14,15) The phrase “the lake of fire” is an obvious metaphor. But what is it to consume? It will consume our enemies which are the the adversary (devil), the governments of men (beast) and the religions of men (false prophet), death and the grave (hell -grave).  They will all experience "the lake of fire" . What about those not found in the book of life?  Two things to remember, first,  both the "righteous and the wicked" are to be resurrected, and second, death, including "the second death" , is to be "destroyed" . "...there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and t

"Lo! a secret to you am I telling! We all, indeed, shall not be put to repose, yet we all shall be changed, in an instant, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trump. For He will be trumpeting, and the dead will be roused incorruptible, and we shall be changed..." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) Secrets, or mysteries, are not unknowable, but are things left unrevealed until the proper time. The "secret" revealed above was that all "the dead will be roused incorruptible"  by the "grace" of God. The Apostle Paul received the above "secret" and other secrets that were hidden from all others that went before him... "...since you surely hear of the administration of the grace of God that is given to me for you, for by revelation the secret is made known to me according as I write before, in brief, by which you who are reading are able to apprehend my understanding in the secret of the Christ, which, in other generations, is not made kno

I once heard an evangelist ask this question at a revival meeting. Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life? At the time I did not know or have an opinion.   And it turned out, he did not know either, but he did have an opinion.  He said that we are entered in the book when we make a decision for Christ, and those who do not make that decision are left out, or blotted out, to be eternally condemned to hell.  Then he appealed to the crowd to repent and accept Jesus so that your name could be written in the book of life. So up to the alter I went, an act in which I would repeat almost every time revival services came to town...until I started studying the Bible for myself. Here is what I think about the book of life after reading all Scriptures, including those which reference that book. Anyone who is born and is alive is in the book of life (they’re alive). And anyone who dies is blotted out (they’re dead). Well that is a bummer isn't it? Well yes,

Edward Beecher determined that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment was only taught in one of the 6 main theological schools of early Christianity. He says that in the second century Universal Reconciliation was taught in 4 of those schools. See following link… ( https://books.google.com/books?id=1eCBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=Edward+Beecher+six+theological+schools&source=bl&ots=wCunNL2FNE&sig=bDrBxELT5l9c-8meyL7nRySPGd8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8-YHB8dnSAhWrjFQKHcj2BFYQ6AEIPzAG#v=onepage&q=Edward%20Beecher%20six%20theological%20schools&f=false ) Nevertheless, the doctrine of eternal conscious torment promoted by the school in Carthage, influenced by Tertullian and later championed by Augustine has become the principal dogma of both Catholic and Protestant evangelicals.  It’s popularity of course does not make it true. Remember that the Law of Moses was defined and refined by the various rabbis in their schools over a period of a

"I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.   I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it.   But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken." (John 12:46-48 NLT) There are some, like my wife and I, who quit going to church without quitting God, and most of humanity have never gone to a church.  Nevertheless if they trust in Jesus "to save the world" , they are not "in the dark" .  It is rejecting the "message"  that  Jesus came  "to save the world"  and will succeed in what He came to do that  " will be judged" . "For God did not dispatch His Son into the world that he should be judging the world,  but that the world may be saved through him..." ... "For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ,

"...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God..." (Romans 10:17) Faith does not come from hearing the word of men, but "the word of God" . So how do we distinguish between the two? If you hear it from another man, or read it in a commentary, it is the word of man. Not necessarily wrong, but just a man's opinion. It may be received with joy, then tested by the "word of God"  in a properly translated copy of the Scriptures. "...they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11) When I hear someone say "God told me", or "God lead me", or "God impressed on me", I just remind myself that it is his opinion of what he was told, how he was lead or what he was impressed to do. Equating the word of men to the word of God has lead to countless divisions among Christianity over the last 2000 years. Jesus said to the relig

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the shout of the chief messenger, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words."  (1 Thessalonians  4:16-18) So, how does one get “in Christ” ? “…He chose us in him before the creation of the world...In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace...having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will…" (Ephesians 1:4-11) OK, predestined, we are all in.  So what does hearing about it and believing do for me?  It makes me aware of my inclusion in Christ, the good news of my salvation. And the Holy Spirit (the power of God) within me guarantees my inclusion and salv

Many Christians continue to insist that God intends to torture ungodly folks for all eternity --- so here is another attempt to remind you of what His Bible teaches on the subject of punishing sin. “The wages of sin is DEATH…” (Romans 6:23a) That is not difficult to understand. The Godless hell of Greek Mythology was invented to control the masses, and is accepted without proof by those who deem it unjust for godly people to have the same fate as the ungodly. Again, this is what God says... "...but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23b) Ungodly people should be punished by social justice as well as by God. And a just society should put the most wicked among us to an early death for the protection of the rest of us. God has given governments of men that responsibility.  The fact that they often do not is a problem with our liberal do-gooders, not the justice of God. Our prisons are full of repeat offenders who cost the not so wic