Grow in Grace

"...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18)

When I look around I do not see many growing toward those with which we disagree - whether in the political or religious arena. And I rarely encounter any growth in the "knowledge" of our Lord.  

When is the last time you learned something new about God's plan and purpose as revealed in the Scripture?

I attended a denominational church for more than 60 years and cannot remember anything new in its teaching during that time - just the same old traditions passed down in its statement of faith. Much of which I consider to be what Jesus said about traditions of men...

“You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition...you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.” Mark 7:9-13)

At the end of each year I ask myself whether I have grown in grace and in knowledge of our Lord.  Those areas in which I have grown always show God to be more loving, merciful and gracious than I originally thought and I try not to forget that...

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:1-6)

My New Year's resolution is to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, and not forget what I learn.

The Final Solutions

"And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.” (II Timothy 4:4)

The Final Solutions of Sinful Humanity:

One: Hitler’s final solution was to eliminate the Jewish people who he believed were corrupting the world. 

Two: The final solution of institutional Christianity and Islam is to offer salvation from hell for sinners if they repent of their sin and join their religion. If anyone refuses they will die, and then be tortured in a lake of fire they call hell - forever in the Christian religion and until their sins are paid for in the religion of Islam.

The Final Solution of the God of the Bible:

God’s final solution is to ransom, save, redeem, and reconcile all sinners to Himself through the incarnation, death, entombment, and resurrection of His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ.

My anger towards institutional religion's final solution seems well founded to me. HOWEVER, I think that most members of those religions who are involved in spreading the final solution of of hell for unrepentant sinners are just doing what they have been taught by those they consider “wise men”. 

Therefore, I do not blame them although the Bible teaches they will be ashamed at the the Great White Throne when they learn they were deceived. 

"They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye [are] our gods." (Isaiah 42:17) 

"For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil." (Ecclesiastes:12:14)

"Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth." (2 Timothy  2:1)

Each human who has ever lived will stand on the Dias before the Great White Throne of God to give account for the things done in our mortal bodies. During the account all humans will rejoice when mistaken beliefs are burnt up as wood, hay and straw. 

At the conclusion of the accounting, all humanity will joyfully bow and acclaim that Christ Jesus is LORD (Yahweh), which will give glory to God the Father. 

Those who were not part of the “former resurrection” will die the second death in the lake of fire which will be an instantaneous, painless second death. They will die having faith, as I do now, that they will be made alive and transformed into a spiritual body that is immortal and capable of entering and seeing the Kingdom of God (The New Heaven and New Earth). That second death will seem to them to occur instantaneously, just as the “former resurrection will seem to those believers  now sleeping in death to have happened instantaneously.

The Bible makes it clear to me that God is in the process of making a new immortal humanity in the image of Christ Jesus. Their eternal citizenship will be in the New Heaven and New Earth, also known as the Kingdom of God.

The Law and the Prophets Ended With John the Baptist

 "Do not for a moment suppose that I have come to abrogate the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abrogate them but to give them their completion.” (Matthew 5:17)

The Old Testament contains the Law and the Prophets. Whatever the Law and the Prophets said was completed when Jesus came to Earth.

“The Law and the Prophets continued until John came; from that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God has been spreading, and all classes have been forcing their way into it.” (Luke 16:16)

John the Baptist was the final Prophet to Israel. The message found in the Law and the Prophets ended with John the Baptist. Jesus presented the good news message of the Kingdom of God – and all humanity started forcing their way into it. By force is meant they were opposed by the Jewish leaders who refused to believe that their God was also the God of all other nations (gentiles). The last Prophet was Paul, who was given the secrets of the Kingdom of God, one of which is that the God of the Jews in also the God of the Gentiles.

“Is God simply the God of the Jews, and not of the Gentiles also? He is certainly the God of the Gentiles also, unless you can deny that it is one and the same God who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith. Do we then by means of this faith abolish the Law? No, indeed; we give the Law a firmer footing.” (Romans3:29-31)

Another secret revealed to Paul was that both the Jews and the Gentiles will be acquitted (pardoned), not by obedience to the Law and the Prophets, but based on their “faith” that the requirements of the Law were completed by Christ Jesus, and therefore ALL humanity will bow before Him, and affirm He is Lord, and enter and see the Kingdom of God.

“He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Himself the nature of a bondservant by becoming a man like other men. And being recognized as truly human, He humbled Himself and even stooped to die; yes, to die on a cross. It is in consequence of this that God has also so highly exalted Him, and has conferred on Him the Name which is supreme above every other,  in order that in the Name of JESUS every knee shall bow, of beings in Heaven, of those on the earth, and of those in the underworld, and that every tongue shall confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:7-11)

If you want to know what God is doing today, better read the Scripture written through the Apostle Paul. The era of the Law and Prophets is completed, and now we need to start focusing on the Kingdom of God. When that good news is presented everyone will force themselves through the doctrines of religious men and into the Kingdom of God.