Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

“…one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift…And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers…” (Ephesians 4:6-11) The bible says that God is the Father of all and in us all. And that he has gifted some among mankind to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why the gift of these persons? ”…for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-13) Equip and edify (build up) saints with the TRUTH of what God has done through Christ Jesus until we " ALL" come to unity of faith in and knowledge of God. And minister the good news message of reconciliatio

"Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…” (1 Corinthians 2:6-8) Paul tells us that it was the wise rulers (religious and political) of this age that crucified their Lord, but we learn from Peter in his sermons in Acts chapters 2 and 3 that it was God’s Will. And they are forgiven for Jesus asked the Father while on the cross… "Father forgive them, they do not understand what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). The wise men of today…Philosophers, Theologians and Politicians… still do not know what they are doing but are many times just “the blind leading the blind” (Matthew 15:14). They refuse to see…but God reveals His Plan to t

“For those whom he foreknew (mankind) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:29-31) I think Christians have erred in limiting “those He foreknew” to only those who “get saved” as the different church groups define what is necessary to be saved. God Himself has called all mankind into existence and has promised, in spite of evil and our sin, to save, justify, reconcile and glorify all mankind when His work in finished….God is FOR US, not against us! “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope (assurance) that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the c

"And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8:23-25) The problem I see with most people, even Christians, or especially Christians, is that we are more concerned with the journey than with the final destination. When our eyes are fixed on the evils along the way, we forget what awaits when we arrive. If we just learn to believe God and accept that evil is necessary, but temporary, we begin to see people differently along the way, and start to see the destination…the place where mankind arrives safely in the arms of a loving Father, changed in part by the journey, but finished to perfection by the Master craftsman before the Great White Throne. So how can we love the God who su

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God." (Romans 8:18-19) There is much suffering in this world. From the homeless in our country to the poor and starving in other parts of the world. Tender hearts are broken and their tears fall when they see such suffering. It all seems so futile and pointless. Why are those suffering...suffering? “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." (Romans 8:20-22) The Greek word translated “hope” above is “helpidi” and does NOT mean hope as we understand the word 2000 years later. We s

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? (Galatians 1:8-10) Pretty harsh wouldn’t you say? Paul says anyone who preaches a gospel contrary to what he had preached to them was accursed – meaning “devoted to destruction” (death-not tortured in hell). So don’t you think it important to know what Paul preached, and receive it? So what did Paul preach?….you will have to read Romans through Philemon to get it all but 1 Corinthians 15 will give you a good summary. But it is what he did NOT PREACH about that is very interesting to me….he did not speak of eternal conscious torment in hell even one time…even to deny it. Why? Because it never crossed his mind that anyone would believe

I want to pause in my assault on false teachers and teaching for one day at least…..in order to assault the rest of us Christians...just kidding...I think. My oldest brother recently posted this comment on his Facebook page: What does "following Christ" really mean? Just an idea. Jesus was certainly not religious in any sense of the word. It started me thinking, as usual, so blame him for what follows ...although I thank him for making me think and “reason” about my view of Scripture. My mind went immediately to the words of Jesus quoted by Luke... “Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple (follower) . Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cos

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it YOU WIL SURELY DIE…” (Genesis 2:16-17) Here is a quote from an article by a Christian fundamental author and bible teacher I read this morning… “Part of the awful impact of sin is the death it produces in lives: "sin reigned in death.” (Romans 5:20). "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Sin brings "spiritual" death. Such is a good example of an otherwise good teacher subtly passing on what is false, probably unaware of the problem. He boldly and correctly identifies the awful impact of sin and even quotes the Scripture correctly. So what is the problem? Do you see it? OK, after correctly quoting the Scripture he makes the statement “Sin brings SPIRITUAL death”. Which of course is false. There is absolutely nothing in the Scripture he quoted about “SPIRI

”For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. However not all men have this knowledge…” (1 Corinthians 8:5-7) I suppose that there are as many gods and lords as there have been cultures and religious men over the years. And of course Paul is talking about those men or idols made up by men that people worship. He does not condemn such people to hell, but simply says that all men do not have the knowledge of the “one God, the Father, from whom are all things…and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” . But they will one day, if not predestined to do so in this life, then after the resurrection of both the just and the wicked. Jesus told his listeners... “Verily, verily, I say to you — He who is hearing my word, and is believing Him who sent

Grab yourself your favorite beverage, for this may take a little longer than usual. As promised yesterday, I want to tell you what I consider to be the most egregious of the “secretly introduced destructive heresies” which was introduced and remains in Church doctrine. I will use two different translations of Matthew 25:46 to help reveal this “heresy”... “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:45-46 NASB) “And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during” (Matthew 25:46 YLT) So which is it - “eternal” punishment and life as the NASB has it, or “age-during” punishment and life as the YLT has it? Once again I went to the concordance and the oldest original Greek manuscripts. I found that the Greek word translated “eternal” and “age-during” is “aionion” with the Strong’s Concordance number 166. So I used a research tool and called up all 71 verses in Scripture where “aionion” is used to f

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be FALSE TEACHERS among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them….” (2 Peter 2:1) The last couple of days I have given some examples of what I consider to be false teaching introduced by false teachers through bad translations of the Bible, but today I want to look at how Peter told us to identify false teachers and apply it to myself. So let’s see what he says about these false teachers… First, Peter says that “false teachers” are those who “secretly introduce destructive heresies” : Applying this to myself I can honestly conclude that I do not fit in this category. I post my views on Facebook or my Blog for everyone to see….quoting the Scripture from which I have arrived at my views. No secrets. Second, Peter says that “false teachers” are those who are “denying the Master” : Well if you read my posts I not only do not deny that Jesus is the Master but

Yesterday I mentioned 1 Timothy 4:10 and that it is a good example of how different translations into English can “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” . (2 Peter 2:1). Here are two different translations... “…we work hard and do our best because our hope is in the living God, the One Who would save all men. He saves those who believe in Him.” (1 Timothy 4:10 New Life Bible) “…we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” (1 Timothy 4:10 NASB and most other translations - over 15 that I looked at) So which is correct? Is God the “savior of all men, especially believers” like almost all translation have it, or is it that he “would” save all men but will only save “those who believe” as set forth in the NLB? Again, I went to the resources I mentioned yesterday to find out. I found that the majority of English translations are correct and that "God is the Savior of all men, especially b

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be FALSE TEACHERS among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them….” (2 Peter 2:1) I think of a “prophet” as one to whom God originally spoke the Words (the Scripture) found in the Bible and were told by God to tell others what God said. As best I can tell, these ORIGINAL Words of God given to the prophets were codified into what we now call the Bible around 325 AD. I think a “teacher” is anyone who explains those Words to others. The Apostle Paul seems to be the last Prophet to receive any ORIGINAL Words of God because he says that his ministry was to reveal the mystery previously hidden and therefore COMPLETE the Word of God... “...I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to COMPLETE the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has NOW been made manifest to his saints...

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, or no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:2-3) And so Peter begins by saying that all Scripture is from God. Then he warns his listeners of false prophets who would arise and be among them… “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1) I believe this is true because I believe the Bible. And that was 2000 years ago, no telling where these “secret heresies” will be embedded among churches after 2000 year sooooo….the difficult thing is to figure out the "false prophets" are and especially what they "secretly introduced" into the church since they have been mingling with the church for 2000

“…we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things.” (1 Timothy 4:10) I can imagine being asked by a defensive church leader. Robert, assuming that the above verse is true (as if the Bible might not be true) and God is actually the Savior of all men and does so, what exactly are we to do, close all the churches, seminaries and missionary organizations? I would bow my head in prayer and ask the Father for permission to say YES  – but before I did he would go on to ask: Doesn’t obeying the 10 commandments, repenting when we sin, joining a church, sacrificially giving, getting baptized, reading the bible, winning people to Jesus, getting involved in AWANA, fighting abortion, bashing Obama for his love of Islam and attending and supporting the local church please God? So I would swallow my pride and humbly say. I don’t know but it will sure please 20% of the Christians I know who need some help in doing those

To lighten things up a bit: I was around 16 years old and was sitting in my pew next to a friend minding my own business. It was the close of a service and the Pastor was extremely happy because he was in the baptistery to baptize those who had walked the aisle during the revival. All was quiet and reverent when the Pastor announced “buried with Christ in Baptism, raised to walk in newness of life”. I was not as intent on what was going on as some because I had already been baptized myself 3 times. As I recall I was irreverently trying to make bubbles with my saliva with my mind in lala land. THEN IT HAPPENED…down he went into the water and up he came, at which time my friend leaned over to me and said… “WEEEE, another sinner bites the dust” It was his fault not mine!…those bubbles spewed out over the balcony onto the unsuspecting people below and we just could not stop laughing. THEN, just as suddenly as we laughed, FEAR seized my body as a saw the Pastor and congregation looking up

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:2-7) The last two days I have been thinking about God’s plan for mankind, and I concluded in studying the word saint in the Scripture that all people are saints in God’s eye. Paul says above that it is God’s intention and choice to bless us, not curse us. In fact God decided and PREDESTINED this before He created any of us…and He knew that ALL would sin and fall short of the glory of God in this present evil age which must have been why he created evil… “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and c

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:1-2) Yesterday I was thinking about who the saints are and want to continue my thoughts. Religious dogma has altered the meaning of “saint” to restrict it to a few people whom their particular sect considers to be more righteous than other folks…even praying to them on occasion. It appears to me, however, that to God all mankind are holy to Him and set apart…therefore Saints….despite the fact that He also clearly says, “there is none righteous, no not one” , and “all have sinned” . God created mankind to be made into His image. At least that is how I read the Scripture. But only a few of these saints have been “faithful” since their creation. Paul was chosen to reveal the glorious future of all mankind to those who God has predetermined to hear and believe in this present ev

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To the SAINTS who are at Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:1-2) Paul had no choice in the matter of becoming an apostle, it was the WILL of God for him. And he wrote this letter to saints “who are FAITHFUL” . Not to all Saints, but to the faithful saints…meaning of course that there are also saints who are unfaithful…which made me start to think about the term “saints” in the Scripture. The Hebrew word for Saint is “qodesh” and the Greek word for Saint is “hagios” and both are translated not only “saint” but “holy” in the English versions of the Bible. The short definition is “set apart” or “holy” or “sacred”. But it has nothing to do with a person’s goodness or righteousness as Christian dogma implies but simply refers to any person or thing God sets apart, and is therefore “unique” or “special” just because God says so. The Holy

King David lamented to God… “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” (Psalm 51:12) I think many Christians have lost the “joy” of their salvation. David lost it due to the guilt associated with his sin and I suppose that still happens. But many who have lost this joy are not sure why? They are faithful members of a local church. I sympathize with them because I lost my joy while actively involved in a local Church as a deacon, lay preacher, and bible teacher, and serving on an international mission board. But the more I served the less joy I had. After 25 years of working in the local church trying to please God, all I had was “guilt” that I just did not do enough, which guilt was regularly reinforced by well-meaning pastors and guest evangelists who would imply that most people would end up in hell because the church was not doing a good enough job to save them. AND THEN IT HAPPENED…GOD OPENED MY EYES TO THE TRUTH. I had labored all those years to DO what God in Christ had

“…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) Yesterday I pointed out that the Bible clearly says that God is going to save ALL ISRAEL as His unconditional promise. God is no respecter of persons and so the Bible also clearly says that God is going to unconditionally save everyone else. God says it and only those who believe what he says have FAITH that pleases God. Here is His unconditional promise… “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires (wills) all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time... it is a trustworthy statement deserving full accept

“…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) Biblical FAITH is an interesting topic to study. The Greek word for faith is “pistis” and a short definition is simply “belief” or “trust”. As related to God in the Scripture it has to do with whether you believe and trust what God says. Of course it is important to actually KNOW what God has said. Simply believing or trusting what another person says about God is NOT the faith that will please God according to the Bible. I have made the choice to have FAITH (believe and trust) that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. I cannot prove it and do not spend any time trying to do so. I have also chosen NOT to believe that there are any other writings or teachings which are the inerrant Word of God. What that does for me is to give me a solid foundation upon which to test other people’s opinions about God and life in gener

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 1:7; 2:8) There are certain things God does for mankind just because he wants to, creating Adam and putting him in a garden paradise was the first one of those things we are told about in Scripture. “…seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat...by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.” (Joshua 6:4-7; Hebrews 11:30) There are certain things that God will do for people only if they have the

"...ungodly persons who turn the GRACE of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4) I have been told by sincere Christians that they fear that if sinners are told they have been saved by the GRACE of God without any "free will" choice, then they will be prone to "licentiousness" because they would have no restraint. They simply do not know, or have forgotten their experience with the true GRACE of God, in my opinion. My experience is that the ones who come to know true GRACE endeavor to please God in all that they do, and do not deny their Lord Jesus who brought "salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11). “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men…” (Titus 2:11) If Salvation was brought to mankind as a “choice”, it seems to me that it is by that choice (a work) that a person would be saved. But we are told in Scripture that Salvation is by the grace of God and excludes the wor

Capital Punishment :  Liberal Democrats are against it and conservative Christians make it even worse than death.   But the Bible is crystal clear that God invented it as the penalty for sin. "...sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4) "The wages of sin is death"  (Romans 6:23a) "ALL have sinned...." (Romans 3:23) Therefore... "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27) God is for Capital Punishment - so I'm for what God is for! Judgment :  Liberal Democrats think they are the gods in charge of it and conservative Christians think the Liberals are going to hell for thinking so. But again the Bible is crystal clear that God is in charge of Judgment. And that Judgment is to save the sinners from death - all of them - by making them new and alive in Christ Jesus. “For even as, in Adam, ALL are dying, thus also, in Christ ,shall ALL be made alive.”  (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Another election day…what to do! Those who believe God are called Saints in the Bible. Note that they believe what the God “says”… not just in a god. As Saints of God we are part of a Theocracy, not a Democracy. God has cast the only vote that matters eternally…and he voted in favor of His enemies and turning them into Saints….go figure…God is not like us! “…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation…. one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.…God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ...” (Rom

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the GRACE of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ…” (Galatians 1:6-8) A truth that benefits everyone, no matter how good it is, is rarely popular. The good news of the reconciliation and salvation of all is a good example. For some reason, believers inevitable fall away from the reality of this Grace into some form of law keeping which separates those worthy of salvation from the unworthy. Instead of growing in Grace, they retreat to the bondage of the Law. They continue to call it Grace, but it is a mixture of Law and Grace, another gospel altogether…which is no gospel at all. Mankind does not want anything for FREE, they want to believe they had some part, however small, in obtaining it. The ultimate Salvation and Reconciliation of all to God is the prime example….But it is free regardless of what religio

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind." (Isaiah 65:17) Sue Ann and I recently took a ride on a helicopter and was able to view the island where King Kong, South Pacific, Donovan's Reef, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Avatar and the Jurassic Park movies were filmed, and where "Tattoo" would announce "de plane, de plane" on the Fantasy Island series. It was awesome and beautiful but it made me think. Most people who have lived on this planet since creation have never ventured more than a few miles from where they were born and where they died. And depending on where they lived, they may not have seen the ocean, a view from a mountaintop, or a tropical island paradise. But  I am certain we ALL will see even more wondrous things than this present earth has to offer...so awesome that the former things will not come to mind. "...just as it is written, THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND E