Sin Is A Good Thing - But Don't Tell My Grandkids

“Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall…as for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Acts 23:3; Galatians 5:12)

Ouch! Paul had a temper and sometimes it just could not be contained. It was probably this “thorn in the flesh” that he pleaded with God to remove (as opposed to an eye problem that theologians like to speculate). Paul was tormented by his temper...

“…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 KJV)

Humans have to sin in order to need Grace and Mercy. Sooo - is it better to sin and be forgiven, than never to have sinned at all?

"But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:20-21)

Remember the Garden of Eden?  It was God who planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Again - IT WAS GOD, not Satan! Note it was the tree of the knowledge of GOOD, as well as EVIL. God knew what He was doing when he created both the tree of knowledge and Satan the tempter.  

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create EVIL: I the LORD do all these things….All have sinned and come short of the glory of God...the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Isaiah 45:7; Romans 3:23; 6:23 KJV)

God knew what Adam and Eve would do - sin. But he also knew they would have to experience the evil of sin in order to have knowledge of and appreciate GOOD...including the Love and Grace of God in redeeming them and forgiving their sin. So it seems to me that God created evil in order for people to learn that good is better than evil. People learn by experience so it was God's plan for people in this "present evil age" to experience both.

"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." (Galatians 1:3-4)

So it just might be “better to sin and be forgiven, than to never have sinned at all” - but don't tell my grandkids!

Messengers of Light - Or Maybe Not

“For such are false apostles, fraudulent workers, being transfigured into apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is being transfigured into a messenger of light. It is no great thing, then, if his servants also are being transfigured as dispensers of righteousness...” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

Paul says some “dispensers of righteousness” are Satan’s servants who are appearing to the world as “apostles of Christ”. They are at work in the midst of Christianity. They are not bad people per se, just preachers and teachers preaching and teaching false doctrine, for the most part unaware it is false.

How are we to distinguish them from the true believers and followers of Christ Jesus if they all look the same and may not even realize who they are?  

We can only identify them by what they are teaching. If it is not what Paul was teaching, then they are Satan’s servants, not Christ’s, regardless of how sincere they are or righteous they may appear...

"...there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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!" (Galatians 1:7-8)

How do we know if they are teaching false doctrine? 

By comparing what they teach to the best and most accurate version of the Scripture we have which for me is the Concordant Version which I have made available on the right side of my blog.  I sometimes quote other translations because they are more familiar to others, but in this post all quotes are from the Concordant Version...

"Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11)

From whom did Paul receive the good news he taught?  Not from other men but directly from Jesus Christ...

“But I certify you brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12)

It is interesting to me what he did not teach.  He said nothing about the trinity, free will, or eternal separation from God in hell.  Yet he stated clearly that he was innocent of the blood of all men for he had taught “the whole counsel of God”…

“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27)

So exactly what did Jesus reveal to Paul and send him to preach and teach?  

He taught the Jews that Jesus is their Messiah (Christ) and the Messiah had to suffer death and rise again:

“…that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.” (Acts 17:2-3,10; 18:4).

He taught both Jews and Gentiles that they were UNITED before God in Christ and all would be resurrected from the dead by the grace of God:

1. “…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of ALL Who is over all and through all and IN ALL…to each one of us was given GRACE in accord with the measure of the gratuity of Christ.” (Ephesians 4: 5-6)

2. “…Christ was roused from among the dead…if we have become planted together in the likeness of his death, nevertheless we shall be of the resurrection also.” (Romans 6:5-6)

3. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive…so that God may be All in ALL” (1 Corinthians 15:22-28)

Specifically about law, grace, faith, sin, and the gift of salvation he taught the following, among other things:

1. “…by works of law, no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight, for through the law is the recognition of sin…for ALL have sinned and are wanting of the glory of God” (Romans 3:20, 23)

2. “…God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes…being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10)

3. “For the ration of sin in death, yet the gracious gift of God is life eonian, in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

4. “God was in Christ, conciliating the WORLD to Himself, not reckoning THEIR offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

5. “For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

6. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, foremost of whom am I. But therefore was I shown mercy, that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ should be displaying all His patience, for a pattern of those who are about to be believing on Him for life eonian.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

7. “…be leading a mild and quiet life in all devoutness and gravity, for this is ideal and welcome in the sight of our Savior God, Who wills that ALL mankind be saved and come into 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.” (1 Timothy 2:2-6)

8. “…we rely on the living God, Who is the Savior of ALL mankind, especially of believers. These things be charging and teaching.” (1 Timothy 4:10-11)

For the bible to be the very Word of God, one must be able to harmonize all of it with the revelation Jesus gave to Paul and quoted above.  If a doctrine is taught that  cannot be harmonized with the above, then it is FALSE and those teaching such...

“...are false apostles, fraudulent workers, being transfigured into apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is being transfigured into a messenger of light. It is no great thing, then, if his servants also are being transfigured as dispensers of righteousness...”

The Throne of Grace

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). 

Many among Christianity have made God’s thrown one of fierce judgment rather than Grace. And by judgment they mean an angry God pouring out His wrath on the sinner…and by wrath they mean casting them forever away from Him into a fiery furnace to be tortured forever. 

But God says His throne is where we come and find Grace and Mercy, not condemnation and everlasting punishment.  It is not that God does not get angry, and that He never pours out his wrath on men. But His wrath ends in death which is the "wages of sin". (Romans 6:23)

The Scripture tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:8) so even His wrath flows from Love and therefore must be remedial in purpose… and short lived. Surely He does such as he instructs us to do…

“Be angry, yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger…” (Ephesians 4:26)

But I hear you say "God is Just".  True, and the word means that God always does what is right.  It is right to put the sinner to death.  It is also right for God to raise the sinner to life as the just result of His Grace and Mercy for...

“The LORD’S loving-kindness’ indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning…Love never fails” (Lamentations 3:21-23; 1 Corinthians 13:8)

It is best to remember that God is not like us, then we would not create such horrible and fierce judgment and call it "just" as is common among the religious dogma of the Church.

Deceitful Workers

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light…" (2 Corinthians 11:13-14)

I recently read a quote from one of those “workers”, a Jewish Christian evangelist from down under (appropriate). It went in part like this….

“It deeply concerns me when I hear a professing Christian telling an unbeliever that he is a good person…Anyone who says that human beings are good are calling Jesus a liar…it makes me doubt the genuine nature of the Christian’s salvation…to fail to warn sinners of the terrible consequences of sin (damnation in hell) is the ultimate betrayal of Jesus…”

Don't get me wrong I could care less about what this guy is deeply concerned with, and because I am personally familiar with what the Bible actually says by reading and studying it for myself, he cannot deceive or offend me. I am posting this to my blog because I love my family and friends and want to warn them about believing what men like him have written down through the years.

This particular person has debated atheists, written over 70 books and authored countless evangelical tracks over the years. He has even written a commentary of sorts on the Bible - apparently the Bible is not clear enough for regular folks so it was necessary for this "worker" to clear it up.

Jesus had this to say about those like him 2000 years ago...

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

According to this guy anyone who says his Mom, Dad, Children or anyone else is a good person is calling Jesus a liar. Really, I don't think so.  There is liar in this scenario, but it is certainly not those who know some really good people and tell them so.

I really hope this guy isn't intentionally leading people astray. Satan is so good at deception and is such a good recruiter that his “deceitful workers” are mostly ignorant of their role and probably believe what they are saying. They work for or are the leaders of religious organizations, including Christianity. They usually promote obedience to the Law of Moses or Sharia Law or some other religious Law, and teach that obedience to that Law is the method for getting and staying saved, getting eternal bliss, and avoiding eternal conscious torment from the god they are promoting (sometimes even mixing in the word grace). And they all refer to those who don't join their group and tow the line as unbelievers or infidels.

And these “deceitful workers” of the Christian persuasion profess concern for the salvation of those who disagree with them (Islam not so much). Their methods are subtle, as Satan is subtle, but you can easily tell when they are of Satan. How you may ask?

They will base their argument on a lie, claiming or inferring that the lie is truth from their religious book. It is “no wonder” because Satan is the “father of lies”. It worked in the garden of Eden on Adam and Eve and it has been working ever since among mankind.

Now for the particular lie of the above “worker”. The lie is obvious to anyone who has read and studied the Scripture (so Muslims get a pass here). The lie is his statement that “the consequence of sin is damnation in hell”. Of course he does not give chapter and verse - there is none. It is interesting that both Christianity and Islam agree on this lie, they just disagree on what the sin that sends one there is.

These men will never quote in context the relevant Scripture which does tell mankind what is the consequence for sin - SOOOO I will do so and I will also quote what God says He has done about sin and for sinners, even for deceived "workers"…

“The wages of sin is DEATH…But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive…the last enemy that will be abolished is death...that God may be All in all...death is swallowed up in Victory." (Romans 6:23; 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:22,26,28, 54)

The deceived "workers" will suffer the consequences of sin like everyone else and they will die - but Jesus will return and resurrect them and everyone else. Even these “deceitful workers” will reap the love of God and His free gift to sinners.  His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ransomed them, and has reconciled them to God. And He will freely give them eternal life...

“The wages of sin is DEATH but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord...who gave himself a ransom for all...for it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach...it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. PRESCRIBE AND TEACH THESE THINGS..." (Romans 6:23; Colossians 1:20; 1 Timothy 1:15-2:6; 1 Timothy 4:10-11; Colossians 1:20 )

“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...” (Colossians 1:24-28 Darby)

In figuring out false teaching I start with the assumption that anyone, including myself, could teach what is false, even without knowing it. So I test what I hear and what I am taught and my own views by referring to the best English translation of the Bible I can find. And even when I find a good translation…I REMEMBER that it is a translation done by men and the translation itself is NOT INSPIRED even though the ORIGINAL Words were. So the translation could sometimes be in error. As an example let me quote another translation of part of the above verses in Colossians...

“...I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to FULFILL the word of God...” (King James Bible)

So was Paul to “fulfill” the word of God or “complete” it? A teacher who does NOT want to teach falsely needs to know if there is a difference and if so, figure out which is correct. How?

The only way I know to check is by going to the oldest original language manuscripts and check the meaning of the translated Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word for themselves. Good Concordances and Interlinear Bibles are available online for free these days so I just Google it. In the above verses I came to the conclusion that COMPLETE was the most accurate English word. And the mystery that Paul was given to teach had up until then “been hidden” from past generations.

Another example of mistranslation is found in Titus 2:1...

“For the grace of God has appeared that OFFERS salvation to all people.” (NIV)
“For the grace of God has appeared, BRINGING salvation to all men”. (NASB)

So is salvation “offered” to mankind as the NIV has it, or “brought” to mankind as the NASB (and most others) have it?

Back to the above mentioned online resources to check it out for myself. I found that the idea of “offers” is not found in the original Greek text but the idea of “bringing ” was there and therefore the best English translation. So at least in that verse, the translators of the NIV are in error and “false teachers”, so in my opinion they “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them”...at least deny the magnitude of what our Lord (Master) accomplished for mankind.

Tomorrow I will look at – 1 Timothy 4:10 which again may provoke some of you to wrath… so you may want to read it in as many translations as you can before you read my post.

“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 years.

It has been my experience that most Christians today suspect anyone who disagrees with them...I am kind of like that too I suppose. The only difference is in my way of thinking even the false prophets get saved eventually just like everyone else. But to them, a least some of them, they are concerned that I am going to hell because of my views…I love them for that concern…

We should remember it is MEN who are the false prophets, and MEN translate the original language of Scripture into English, and MEN interpret the Scripture, sometimes in error. I suspect false prophets think that they are not…if I am one, I sure don’t think so.

So how can we know?

OK here it is….READ AND STUDY THE BIBLE FOR YOURSELF unless you are afraid to find out!

And we will do that tomorrow…just a warning so you can avoid my post tomorrow if you want. I’ll never know….which is the beauty of Facebook and Blogs.