Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

God is a strong advocate of capital punishment. "The wages of sin is death... But let's be clear. Death by capital punishment comes to a swift end. God is not an advocate of cruel and unusual punishment like the doctrine of eternal conscious torment. God loves His enemies and after the death penalty is administered, He intends to give them eternal life. ...but the free gift of God is eternal life..." (Romans 6:23) This "free gift" was one of the mysteries revealed by God to the Apostle Paul. "When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations..." (Ephesians 3:5) Down through the years only a few people have tortured others. Much of the torturing was done by political or religious leaders in their wrath against "infidels." But that behavior is how wicked men treat their enemies, not God. When God's wrath is poured out on wicked men it is swift an...

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery..that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved...God has shut up ALL in disobedience so that He may show mercy to ALL." (Romans 11:25-32) The mystery was that ALL Israel would be saved, but not until the FULLNESS of the Gentiles has come into a knowledge of their Salvation. It was God who made ALL mankind disobedient so that He can show his MERCY to all. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!...For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory...Therefore... do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, so that you may PROVE WHAT THE WILL OF GOD IS, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 11:33-12:2) It is God's will to  "show mercy to all"  .  How?  By saving "all mankind" . "...trust...

" Whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven ." (Matthew 10:32-33) The context is NOT salvation. Jesus was speaking to the house of Israel concerning the promise of God to Israel to reestablish the Kingdom of Israel ON THE EARTH at some time in the future. The JEWS who do not confess that Jesus is their Messiah will be denied entrance into that Kingdom when it is restored by Jesus at his 2nd coming. The timing of this restoration of the Kingdom was the last thing the JEWISH apostles asked Jesus about before he ascended into heaven after his resurrection. "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:1-10) After the ascension of Jesus, Peter told the JEWS that if THEY would repent and be baptized in the name of Je...

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel… they all shall know Me...For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34) This of course is a promise to ISRAEL. Remember them? They are the ones who delivered Jesus their Messiah to the Romans to be crucified. I cannot think of a greater sin than this. However, God says He will "forgive their iniquity" and their sin He will "remember no more" . "Father forgive them, they do not know what they doing" (Luke 23:34) Jesus said this from the cross and his request included both ISRAEL and the ROMAN empire who conspired together to crucify Jesus. Jesus asked God to forgive them because the cross was God's plan to save sinners. Christians think God is going to put them in hell and torture them forever unless they repented and accepted Jesus as their Savior before they died, because that i...

"Out of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things" (Romans 11:36) "...in accordance with the riches of God’s GRACE he made known to us the mystery of his will... to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ…according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." (Ephesians 1:7-11). The Bible says that everything is out of God and is proceeding just as He wills and "according to the plan" . Jesus is the Son of God and "…the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15). Through His Son, the living Word, God made everything. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being...And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of gr...

"...Christ Jesus... from whom we have received GRACE ...." (Romans 1:1-7) "...do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4) The repentance of religion comes from the fear of the doctrines of men who tell us to repent or be damned. However, that kind of repentance does not save anyone from the penalty for sin, which is death - and we all die.  "For all have sinned...the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 3:23; 6:23) The "repentance" referred to in Romans above comes AFTER we realize that God is far better to us than we deserve and is not the angry god worshipped by many Religions.  The real God, the one of the Bible, will save all sinners out of death by his grace.  He sent His Son to die "for the ungodly"  2000 years ago, and will send Jesus again to free us from sin's penalty - death.  "Thou art the Christ, ...

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit ... This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 3:2-6) And what is "the promise" ? "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—" (1 Timothy 1:15) Did he get the job done? "Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ...And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world's Savior." (John 1:29; 1 John 4:14) "All this is from...

“…and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things…” (Ephesians 3:9) The “mystery” was NOT hidden in the Scriptures, but was hidden “in GOD” . This mystery could not have been discovered by studying the Old Testament. “I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has NOW been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit…” (Ephesians 3:1-5) And what was the Mystery? “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6) The job of preaching to EVERYONE this H...

"...always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth...for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires." (2 Timothy 3:7; 4:3-4)  What have you learned lately? And who from? Learning from the Bible is a great thing, and if we haven't learned anything new lately, it is most likely because we have refused "the truth" when presented to us by one who has "come to a knowledge of the truth" .  Our study of the Bible may be continuous, "line upon line, hear a little, there a little"  but in all our meticulous study we may  never learn antything new, but in fact fall "backward, and be broken, and snared"... "And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept...line upon line, here a little, there a little that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." (Isaiah 28:13) ...

"...we declare God’s wisdom, a MYSTERY that has been HIDDEN... these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit... so that we may understand what God has FREELY GIVEN US.... if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Corinthians 2-3) Paul was speaking to those in Corinth about God’s grace and His free gift of salvation. They believed the gospel but still had all kinds of sin going on among them. Much of this letter is to advise them on how to correct those problems. However, as carnal as they were, they were still called saints and were recipients of the free gift of salvation by the grace of God. This was part of the MYSTERY that had been hidden until revealed to Paul, by Jesus after his ascension to heaven. Although we may lose rewards and be shamed for bad living and false doctrine at the return of Jesus, we are still saved.  For Christ "came into the world to save sinners" - a...