IN DEFENSE OF THE GOSPEL

I have been oft attacked by those who reject my inadequate attempts to have people question their wrong doctrines; at least as I understand them. I may not express myself the best, being a mere person, but I must reveal the truth to a lost world, and social media is a great place to meet the lost, sort of face-to-face.

Everybody, even beauty pageant contestants, above all, want peace on Earth, and for the record, Jesus came to provide peace of earth and goodwill toward men. However, it is not to be for the moment, Jesus said: 

I am come to send fire on the Earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose you that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. (Luke 12:49-52)

 To clarify this passage, consider how Matthew wrote it: 

Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother-in-law. (Mat 10:32-35)

 It seems that Jesus did come to bring peace on Earth but as Matthew pointed out, so many will argue about Jesus and some will even deny Him, of course all the while thinking they all are worshipping Him.

Ever since Jesus said that, even Christians argue about the Substance and Power of Jesus, and what it takes to become a Christian. Just following Jesus does not a Christian make to paraphrase a common phrase. He must be followed in truth!

Disagreement about Jesus and His Purpose is the ‘kindling’ of which Luke wrote and dissension the ‘fire.’ Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace but a sword.

Jesus was speaking, I believe, of the great tribulation that John saw after the second seal was opened:

There went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the Earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. (Rev 6:4)

 Things are not inclined to get better until the millennial reign of Jesus. There will always be disagreement on Earth, and everyone will always debate about their Christ! Yes, most all Christians have created a ‘Christ’ to their own liking. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder. (Mat 19:6), but many do just that.

Everyone should be seeking the real Christ. However, about everyone has created their own version of ‘Jesus;’ how they would do things if they were Christs.

To be simple; Jesus is God manifested to mankind, not another God that is visible. As the Messiah, or Christ, Jesus is the only one anointed to save mankind, “These (things) are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his Name” (John 20:31). Not through anything else but by believing in the Power of His Name.

It is so simple; the Name, ‘Jesus,’ provides life. When God breathed life unto Adam it was pre-incarnate Jesus who did that. John testified to that (John 1:1-14).

God just Is. We all try to explain the supernature of God, but it is always insufficient because He is beyond comprehension.

Jesus came so that mankind could comprehend the Divine Nature of God. The Name, ‘Jesus,’ is theophoric, meaning ‘Ya(weh) Saves.’ It is no other thing than the Name of God that saves. The saving Power of God is no other thing than Virtue, or in the Greek His ‘Dynamis.’ It is the dynamics of God that saves and no other thing.

When Jesus healed, made whole, and so forth, He could feel Virtue leaving Himself; Jesus said about healing, “Somebody has touched Me: for I perceive that Virtue is gone out of Me” (Luke 8:46). Jesus emanated goodness, or goodwill, to people to make them whole. That goodness, called ‘Virtue,’ was not a material substance of any sort but the Spirit of God. Any other substance, other than the Holy Spirit that is said to heal, is not of God.

At times people were anointed with olive oil. The disciples of Jesus, “Went out, and preached that men should repent, and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:5). The divine spark is repentance. It ‘kindles’ sinners to receive the Holy Spirit as if it is fire (Acts 2). They anointed the sick with oil to heal them. Those who were sick were not just the infirm, but those coming short of the glory of God because of sin.

Was it the oil that emanated virtue, or was it God? The point there is that the oil was merely the ‘transducer,’ or medium of exchange, but the healing remained from God. It is always God that saves either in the form of Jesus or His Invisible Form, the Holy Ghost (Luke 3:22).

The first person to experience Paradise via Jesus was the repentant thief on the cross beside Him. He is called that because he repented. What was it that he did to be saved in Paradise? Nailed to the cross, he was incapable of doing anything but look toward Jesus and think. He quickly worked out his salvation by thinking, just as scripture says to do, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). He looked at Jesus and Jesus did the work by the propitiation of His own blood (Rom 3:25). The blood of the man was not sufficient; it had to be the blood of Jesus. Jesus shed His Divine Blood and saved that man to Paradise that very day.

Unlike the eunuch who finally understood, “As they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water; what does hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:36).

What hindered him before? He was seeking water. He felt that water was necessary to be saved, but it was only to prepare him for the internal washing. Again, the water was only the ‘transducer’ just like the olive oil before. It had no power to emanate Virtue from God.

Water is indeed a handy transducer. Some still carry olive oil as an anointing agent, but for the thief on the cross beside Jesus, his only agent was the blood of Jesus. He may have been anointed directly by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificed Man beside Him. However, the only thing the sinner did was to recognize Jesus as God as Jesus gave up the Spirit that healed Him. He was healed by the water and the blood of God, “This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:6).

When Jesus gave up the Ghost and lost His Virtue, he died. Virtue emanated from the body of Jesus via His Spirit and healed the man. It was the Spirit emanated from Jesus that saved the thief. It was not induced by any medium, oil nor water, but the ‘Living Water’ directly from Jesus — the Holy Spirit — flowed to the sinner to make him whole.

At the same time, Jesus was pierced. Imagine the affusion as the blood gushed from the belly of Jesus at His last breath and endowed the dying man with life in the same manner as God breathed life unto Adam in the beginning!

What would hinder the man from being saved? Water would not! Jesus would provide both the blood and the water, and the sinner was baptized by the Holy Ghost right then. Nothing, not even river water, hindered the baptism of the repentant sinner!

By adding another ingredient to what Jesus provides makes that substance a ‘god’ or at a minimum a ‘fluid’ that contains the Spirit of God. As we know, the things of the world cannot contain God. Water is of the world, and nothing in the world has the saving power of the Holy Ghost which is the Invisible Substance of Jesus that remains with us.

This is the truth as I understand it. Note that not anywhere in this commentary did I relegate power to any person or substance but from God Himself. It is He that transmits Virtue, whether from His Body or Spirit, and no earthly conductance is required; to God goes all the Power and anything else trivializes Him! God does not need your water; just as at the crucifixion, he provided that Himself and baptized the repentant sinner with the Holy Ghost; the one baptism in the “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5).

It is that truth that I confess and that offends many who believe that baptism with immersion in water is what saves. It is “Ya Saves,” not Poseidon or any other god of water.

I will argue to the day I die that although I was baptized in water, that it was still Jesus that saves. Why so? Because Jesus baptized me in Spirit and in truth long before I ever thought about water immersion.

Now for those who despise me for promoting the truth on social media; that is the best place to preach to publicans and sinners in this age because they do not go to Church, and in the manner of Jesus: 

And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, “How is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, He said unto them, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:15:17)

 You may fly or sail to Africa, Asia, or South America; but social media reaches more people than you can ever go to! Social media is the place to correct those whose doctrine is in error, and to be honest, Jesus knew that most people would hang on to their idea of Him; you know, the god that they made Jesus out to be.

When the truth is preached, Jesus knew there would be dissension, and there is! What is astounding is that concrete Christians would even want to shield the truth from the world just because it is social media. When the truth is revealed; it will hurt, but it should not hurt those who believe that Jesus is the Way!

How dare them judge me for merely expressing the truth! They may fly the world over to do the same, but dare not step on the toes of good people who have created their own god and espouse it often on social media. I have a right to defend Jesus! I firmly believe that it is Jesus who saves and not some activity on our own part.

I could be wrong, but scripture supports my notion. It is okay to judge what I write with the scales of God but to attack me personally for the Great Commission is harsh judgment, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). I have been condemned more than once because I have the audacity to write the truth. Jesus understood that!