Oftentimes when people read scripture, they miss the final points because the main points get into the way. As I read the Book of Matthew, I am tempted to gloss over parables because I have heard them preached so many times!
However, as I gloss over parables,
things of importance often attract my mind’s eye. That is God’s way of speaking
to us. Of course, all things in the Bible are important, but the words we often
miss are important as well. Never forget that the words that you read, are the
Word of God — Jesus. He either spoke the Words directly, or inspired others to
write them.
We all like to think what we say
and write is divinely inspired. We must be careful never to be so arrogant.
Like anyone else, I can make mistakes, and therefore all things must be tested
by scripture; Paul wrote to, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good”
(1 Thes 5:21). Good is not how we think of the Word of Jesus, but that what
He meant was good.
Denominations of Christians
exist because so many hang onto what is not good. They can be truth but still
not essential. Face the truth, when denominations or those who disclaim their
denomination, and believe opposing things, some of them are not testing
scripture precisely enough and as a result hang onto both the good and the bad.
Consider the ‘telephone game’ for
a moment. In that game, someone sends a message via a group of people. The
message is whispered into the ear of the first person, then the message is
passed on to each consecutive person in the same manner. After the last member of
the group hears the message, the test begins: How close is the final message to
the original?
The intent of the game is for
everyone to get a good laugh. Usually, the message received from the last one is
nothing like the message said to the first person. Repetition does not make the
truth but distorts it! That is why gossip is forbidden by scripture.
If everyone read or heard the message
from the sender firsthand, then they would receive the truth. The words of
Jesus are firsthand messages. Jesus spoke Greek; Greek is the textus
receptus, the received Word of God.
Translations are versions
of the received text. Perhaps Paul’s warning was to prove all the things that
you read in other languages to the Greek, and it makes sense since the ‘Word’
spoke in some form of ancient Hebrew to mankind; and that the Old Testament in
other languages be tested to the intent of the Hebrew, since that is the earliest
extant version that is known.
The English version, the King
James Version, is authorized, but by whom? King James. It has been the
acceptable version for our protestant and Anglican fathers, but care must be
taken because it was interpreted by biased men; the King James Version (KJV) was
translated mostly by Calvinists so that it reads according to Calvinistic
Doctrine.
The same applies to the Latin Vulgate
Version used by the Roman Catholics since they added another language to the ‘telephone
game.” The KJV was translated from the textus receptus, but the Vulgate
came from the Greek to the Latin and then into their English version. They lost
some ‘goodness’ and because English is not Greek, protestants lost some good as
well, but is one version closer to good than the Catholic Bible.
There are thousands of Christian
denominations in existence and even more non-denominational. However, independent
churches, thinking they are not denominational, are often even more
denominational because they differ from the accepted doctrine of our Church
fathers, let alone from the Divine Word.
Christianity is impure since
mankind hangs onto what is not so good. The first one that comes into my
mind is the doctrine of election; that before the foundation of the
world, God predetermined who would go to Paradise and who would go to Hell. That
doctrine does come from scripture, but needs testing, to wit:
According as He hath chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will (Ephes 1:4-5)
There was a selection by God
before the foundation of the world. The translation is true. The ‘us’ in that
context are Christians. Now, test that scripture; what happened before the
foundation of the Earth? The termination of founding the Earth is when all
things were finished, and all was good (Gen 1:31).
When did the selection occur? “God
created man in His own Image, in the Image of God created He him; male and
female created He them” (Gen 1:27). Man was the last of the kinds that God
made. God had selected the kinds and decided which kind would bear His Image;
the proof of that is this; “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creeps upon the Earth” (Gen 1:26).
The thesis therein was that election
was indeed before the foundation of the Earth, but unlike Calvinists, I understand
it differently because I tested that thesis: I found it in the beginning as the
Earth was forming, just as written by Paul. It was not persons per se
that were elected but kinds — Adam’s kind over the other kinds. God
could have made the gorillas or apes the chosen ones, but he ‘elected’ man to
be like Him.
God had a plan and a purpose for us
(Adam’s kind), according to Jeremiah; it was mankind that God had predestined
for adoption as children of God, not any of the other kinds. It is us that were
made in God’s Image and our kind alone!
That is tested by another passage that
we all should know: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (John 3:16). The key word there is easily glossed over — “believes.” Compare
believes to the Greek word, pisteuo, meaning “to place confidence
in”
Animals are instinctive. They care only
for themselves and most of them, their offspring. It is not God in whom they trust
but in themselves.
Therefore, the “whosoever” in John 3:16
are those that are elected. Humans are the kind that God selected to
never perish. When man became decadent like the beasts, God allowed mankind to
eat the flesh of beasts. The beasts were not made in the image of God and when
man became like the beasts, their kind required correction. God held to His
promise. He offered His own Son, or Image, to compensate for their brutish nature,
but not for the nature of the true beasts.
The ’election’ was that man (Adam’s
kind) would have dominion and not the other kinds.
That explanation was drawn out, but I
tested the Calvinistic Doctrines of election and predestination to scripture,
and it came short of the truth. All things should be tested in the same manner
to satisfy Divine doctrine.
Every word in scripture has meaning. The Words that Jesus spoke should always take precedence over what others spoke or wrote. If any precept contradicts Jesus, then it should be given up as not good. The gospels and letters that remain in the Bible is the hanging onto what is good. With that said, John wrote that it must never be altered:
For I (Jesus) testify unto every man that hears the
words of the prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto these things, God
shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man
shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book. (Rev
22:18-19)
Jesus was crucified because mankind
failed to understand; not because the animals did not understand, but us. He
had grace on us because it is us that should understand but did not. Animals
needed no grace because God did not endow them with understanding.
Essential doctrines are those that
guide the Way to Paradise in Heaven. All the other doctrines (Mosaic Laws and
such) are still the Will of God but are not soterial (saving).
Jesus revealed the Way by manifesting
it: The repentant thief, nailed fixed to a tree, saw that Jesus is God in the
Flesh and would have seen the Holy Spirit of God leave the man. He trusted what
he saw! And he saw that Jesus was indeed God in the Flesh and in addition that His
Ghost was God in the Spirit. He saw One God in three Substances, and that was
enough. How many churches preach that? Few if any.
For other churches, there are always
other things you must do or believe. The only thing that is important is that
at the moment of death those who trust Jesus to be God although the last in can
be the first out of the world to go to Paradise. That does not imply
that any should wait, but that Jesus must be trusted to the very end.
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