The benefits of a relationship with Jesus Christ

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“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
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Psalms 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
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Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
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A  personal relationship with God begins the moment we realize our need for Him, admit we are sinners, and in faith receive Jesus Christ as Savior, our  God, our heavenly brother.
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John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
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Christ gave you new life. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

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Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
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1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
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6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
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7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
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Christ gave you eternal life.  “And this is the testimony; God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:11-13).

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Christ gives  you the empowering of the Holy Spirit of Christ,  Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
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Christ gives  you the fruit of the Holy Spirit  Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  23    Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24    And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
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A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD EQUIPS TO DEAL WITH SPIRITUAL WORLD  Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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Christ gave you the ability to have your prayers answered 
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John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
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John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
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John 16: 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.  24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
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“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
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Christ gave you peace  John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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Jesus Christ now  lives in you. You have become a temple, or dwelling place, of God’s Spirit. He lives inside of you! “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
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Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ! “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
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God has chosen to share His kingdom with you! “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). If children, (we are) heirs also (Romans 8:17).
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He shall set his angels to look after you
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Psalms 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
Hebrews 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
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CHRIST HEALS YOU, HEALING IS  HIS CHILDREN’S BREAD  1 Peter 2: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

The Sin Of Worshipping The Land Of Israel , Jews

israel- 0Stephen regarding Solomon’s temple , the Jerusalem temple he said, “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men.(Acts 7:48) and he quoted from Isaiah 66 to support his point.

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Matthew 21:

3 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

 

The Sin Of Worshiping The Land Of Israel Instead is Idolatry,  as idolizing and worshiping of Jerusalem, Israel and the Jews is evil in the sight of God.  Especially since Israel today is a shameful nation that has abandoned the sole God of the Bible, Jesus Christ. It  is demonism  that are  inspiring people to idolize Israel and the Jews. You are now  also God, Bible IGNORANT if you do still think that God blesses any Christians who support a wicked, Christ-rejecting people, Nation of Israel. The land of Israel itself and the nation still  has nothing to do with our salvation from death and sin.!  Jesus alone now died, was buried and rose up three days later for our justification. Defending Israel is NOT even a man’s job. Defending Israel is NOT a function of the New Testament Church. In fact, this may come as a shock to you, but the Bible says that Jerusalem and the Jews will be attacked and defeated, continually  as we often hear about it too, until the Lord returns to earth, thus ending “the times of the Gentiles.” Luke 21:24, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Israel today is not the fulfillment of any New Testament Biblical prophecy. as well. Only a total jackass, fool would believe otherwise..

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Don’t be fooled  as God is not concerned with restoring Israel to the Holy Land anymore . Jesus told the Jewish rabbis of His time that the kingdom of God had been taken away from them forever. Zionism  itself now still has no need, purpose, nor concern for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation came through the Jews, not by the Jews. A Jew must be born-again or he or she cannot go to Heaven. Nicodemus was a Jewish leader, a Pharisee. Jesus warned Nicodemus that he needed to be born again or else he couldn’t enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5-7). Hebrews 13:5 promises that God never forsakes His own. If you are unsaved,  do refuse to accept Jesus Christ as th Lord of your life, it is you alone that have already forsaken God and rather  now next Hell, the Lake of Fire will be your eternal home. https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/hell-is-real/

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Of all the words of Jesus recorded in the Bible, about twenty-five percent of his teaching was devoted to prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, the scattering of the Jewish people worldwide, and the end of the world. Instead of listening to the lies of mere men and demons do read Jesus’ words in their entirety, in the Bible itself firstly. Not one Bible Prophecies Endorses Israel’s present Behavior, land conquests. The nation of Israel was blessed when it obeyed God’s instructions, and it was next cursed when it disobeyed. The context of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse was about the pending desolation of Jerusalem and the Jews, and NOT about even the Gentile end times.   https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/desolate/

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Isaiah 62:4…“…for the LORD delighteth in thee…” . The Lord delighteth in those Jews who obey Him. Zionists would have us to believe that God supports all Biological Jews, regardless of how they live, even accepting Christ-rejecters who blaspheme the name of the Lord continually in their hatred for God. Read these Scriptures that Jews won’t quote to you… .  It is also hypocritical for Christian Zionists to threaten the wrath of God against those who express disagreement with any policy of the Israeli government when they have done the same thing themselves.

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And who is really “blessing Israel;” those who are working for peace in the Middle East, or those who are agitating for a war designed to get two-thirds of all Jews wiped out? Gershom Gorenberg, in his book “The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount,” says, “I’ve listened to…

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American evangelical ministers who insist on their deep love for Israel and nevertheless eagerly await apocalyptic battles on Israel’s soil so terrible that the dry river bed will, they predict, fill with rivers of blood . Jeremiah 15:5-6, “For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.” . 2nd Kings 18:11-12, “And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.”

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1st John 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”

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Anyone who denied that Jesus is the Messiah is a liar and antichrist. There are many antichrists; but only one ANTICHRIST (the Beast who is coming). The whole Judaic religion is of antichrist. Besides being of the “spirit of anti-Christ,” Judaism is based on the false Talmud which looks upon the Gentiles as cattle whose purpose is to serve the Jews. “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world, only to serve the People of Israel. “

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After all that God did for the Jews, despite their lack of faith and gratitude, they next falsely selfishly take credit for everything and boast lying that it was by their own might that they became a mighty nation…

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Deuteronomy 8:14-20, “Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.”

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The Bible also plainly teaches that God is NO respecter of nations, persons (Romans 2:11). Romans 1:16 proclaims, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” . Zionism is based on a total misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches. It is true that God gave Palestine to Hebrews in ancient times. But the Bible teaches that their possession of the land was under a conditional covenant with Jehovah. If the Hebrews disobeyed their God, they would lose the land. This is clearly taught in Genesis 17:9-14, Exodus 19:4-5, Leviticus 26:40-45, Deuteronomy 7:12, Joshua 23:15-16, 1 Kings 9:6-9, 2 Chronicles 7:19-22, Jeremiah 34:12-22, Ezekiel 33:23-29, Matthew 21:43, etc. When the Jews rejected their Messiah, God sent the Romans to dispossess the Jews from their land in 70 AD. This was God’s complete punishment on the Jews for crucifying Christ – therefore, the Jews today should not be persecuted for something that happened 2000 years ago. However, their former title deed on the land of Palestine is not abrogated. The New Testament teaches that Christians are to focus on the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly one, John 4:21, Galatians 4:24-28, Hebrews 12:18-24. We are told in Hebrews 11:13-16 that even Abraham has no further interest in a restored Jewish state on earth, because he is in a much better place in heaven. Do they thank God for restoring their nation after 1,878 years of exile? (the year 1948 A.D. minus 1,978 = A.D. 70, the year Rome destroyed Jerusalem). The Jews were forced into exile.

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The notion that unsaved, Christ-rejecting, Jews have been restored to their homeland is totally false and unbiblical. . Just as Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands, doubting God’s promise to give Sarah a son, trying to force God instead to bless Ishmael, which He refused; likewise, Communist-Marxist false Khazar Jews put Israel back on the map in 1948 through military brutality, indoctrinating U.S. churches to believe that God was behind their manmade restoration of the secular state of Israel, demanding for God to bless it. It doesn’t work that way. The Bible plainly teaches in Luke 21:24, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” You just read it for yourself, Israel shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the Lord Jesus Christ returns at the Rapture (which is when the Times of the Gentiles will end). We are now living in the Church age. https://wittnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/so-what-reasons-do-you-have-to-support-the-jews-and-the-state-of-israel/

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One of the most Common complaints one hears from the Jewish people is that they are being falsely persecuted, well in reality they are no so innocent.. https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/invaded/

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THE  BIBLICAL CAUTION AGAINST JUDAISTIC PARTIALITY, AGAINST FAVOURING THE RICH (THE JUDAIZING CHRISTIAN) AND DEPRECIATING THE POOR (THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN) IN THEIR CHURCH-LIFE. CONSISTENT PROOF OF FAITH DEMANDED IN THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERLY LOVE AND IN THE ACKNOWLEDGING OF UNITY OF FAITH IN THE FAITH-WORK OF ABRAHAB THE PATRIARCH AND IN THE FAITH-WORK OF RAHAB, THE GENTILE HARLOT. DEAD AND LIVING FAITH .

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JAMES CHAPTER 2 : 1 MY brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.  For if there come unto your assembly1 a man with a gold ring,  in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment:   And ye have  respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him,   Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here   under my footstool:  Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?  Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world,  rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom  which he hath promised to them that love him?  But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you  before the judgment seats?  Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?  If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:  But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. 1 For whosoever shall  keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.  For he that said, Do not commit adultery,  said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.  For he shall have judgment without mercy,  that 1 hath shewed no mercy; and13 mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit,  my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute  of daily food, 16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?  Even so faith,  if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.  Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without   thy  works, and I will shew thee  my faith by my  works. Thou believest  that  there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our  father justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?  And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.  Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers,  and had sent them out another way?  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without  works is dead also.

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It is all about Judaism  and not about personally hating any people and certainly not about hating the Jews in general.

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Acts 15:10  Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? . And by declaring, “The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future,” Benjamin Netanyahu,’s goal  is that waging wars for Israel will make the world safe—NOT for ‘democracy’—BUT for Jews, and for JEWS alone,  common characteristic of Jewry’s conduct and the modus operandi of its spokesmen. And  “Why is the future of Jews more important than the future of Gentiles?” .

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do see also

https://asposed.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/christianity-is-not-judaism-and-never-will-be/

https://wittnessed.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/the-major-errors-of-christian-zionism/

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/keep-your-eyes-on-jesus-not-the-jewish-antichrist-yeshua/

https://lifebyjesus.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/christianity-is-not-about-the-support-for-israel-the-jews/

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/many-jews-even-messianic-jews-lie-about-christianity/ 

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/1683all-earthly-zionists-jewish-ones-included-are-in-great-error/

https://comeholyspirit.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/jews-at-it-again/

https://dispensatiionalism.wordpress.com/

https://postedat.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/the-sole-and-the-only-true-israel-today-is-the-church/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/few-christians-know-these-facts-about-israel-the-jews/

Keep your eyes on Jesus not the Jewish Antichrist Yeshua

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Keep your eyes on Jesus Christ not the Jewish Antichrist Yeshua . The Jewish Yesuha is another Jesus and not the same as the Christian Jesus Christ

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/messianic-judaism-beliefs-differ-from-the-christian-church/
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The Jewish Messiah’s given name at Birth also was Jesus Christ, a Greek name and not a Hebrew name.

Yeshua is a Messianic Jewish invention where the Jews are falsely waiting for Yeshua to come to earth to re establish the kingdom of Israel and to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.. It will never happen, these are false hopes for Jesus Christ himself is the new temple of God for all Christians.

Most Jews have rejected their own Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, He came to his own and they did not receive him. They did not receive him because he was not going to re establish the nation of Israel and a major world power so they are now waiting for an imposter Yeshua, the antichrist will will do that for them .Are you looking forward to a war next where millions of Jews may wind up dead? https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/are-you-looking-foward-to-a-war-next-where-millions-of-jews-may-wind-up-dead/

https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/desolate/
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1 John 2
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 4
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1 John 3
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
John 15
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

James 2
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
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There basically is nothing good in man or in the world still .

I cannot understand how anyone, an English speaking person, holy spirit filled can now even use a Hebrew name for God even Yahwah, Yeshua, in an English Christian church instead of using God’ s revealed, real name which is Jesus Christ, the sole name above all other name.. this is very ungodly of them and there is no place in the Bible that says Jesus is to be called by any other name; YAHWAH is JESUS ! SO SAY SO TOO!

https://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/the-dangers-of-the-hebrew-roots-messianic-movement/
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Would you please give us a Bible verse from the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures or from the Greek New Testament that tells us Messiah’s name is Yeshua?
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None have ever done so or ever will since Yeshua is never found in the OT or NT in reference to Messiah. Messiah is never identified by name in the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures.
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JESUS ONLY Phillipians 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
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“Do not be deceived” Three times during the Olivet Discourse (Mat 24), Jesus He had warned His Disciples.
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He did not command them to do anything else, but not to be deceived in the Last Days. And, immediately after that He said . . Matthew 24:13 (13) “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Matthew 24:13 “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
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and anyone with any real spiritual discernment knows that the Hebrew name movement is false.. THEY UNDENIABLY ARE also spreading gross error, and preaching a “different gospel.” They do misinterpret scripture deliberately, or apply scripture in a way that distorts its real Christian meaning.
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And one of their blatant misapplications pertains to the vision the Apostle Peter received from God in Acts 10 and 11.

As we know, Peter’s vision was of many animals that had been classified as “unclean” for the Jews to eat under the ceremonial laws, and, in the vision, God specifically told Peter to kill and eat. Peter protested, explaining that he had never eaten anything that the law called unclean, but God told him not to call unclean that which He had made clean. In fact, because of Peter’s disbelief, God showed him the vision three times!

Of course, Peter later recounted the vision for others and stated that it meant that, even though he was a Jew, he was no longer to regard Gentiles as “off limits,” which is what the ceremonial laws had previously forced him to do. Those in the HRM perform some incredible mental gymnastics with this one by contending that, after Peter realized the full meaning of the vision, he then somehow understood that God was only kidding about His command to “kill and eat.” They state that the vision was only used as a metaphor, and that Peter knew that God didn’t mean for him to do what he was told to do. The most amazing aspect of their teaching on this is that there are people who actually believe their nonsense. The message of the vision was clear to Peter—that the laws that had kept Jews and Gentiles separate had been removed. If there were no longer any legal prohibition against Jews mingling with Gentiles, then the laws forcing their separation could no longer be applied. The ceremonial laws, or that which determined clean vs. unclean, were spiritual in nature. That the law made certain foods “unclean” for Jews to eat didn’t mean that the food was not fit for human consumption, but that disobedience defiled a person (or made him “unclean”).

Once those laws were no longer, there was no such thing as “unclean” food. Those laws being abolished through Christ is the subject of Ephesians 2. To further demonstrate that being unclean (defiled) had nothing to do with the food itself, read Ezra 2:62, where “unclean” applied to a priest’s lack of genealogical records. If “unclean, meant “unhealthy,” then that verse would be absurd. It was wholly a spiritual construct. Furthermore, their teaching in this is easily shown to be false by Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11-21, for Peter had acted on the message of his vision, and had started eating with Gentiles in their homes (which was previously forbidden by the ceremonial laws) until some Jews, who had not yet properly apportioned Christ’s work on Calvary, started condemning Peter’s actions, and he withdrew from the Gentiles. Paul said that Peter had condemned himself because of his hypocrisy. That alone (even if there weren’t other New Testament passages teaching this truth) thoroughly debunks this HRM tenet to be heresy, for if those laws had still applied, Paul would not have rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy, but for his breaking of the ceremonial laws.;

Judaism also still is a false religion (Satanism) and NOT even PART OF the origin of Christianity. It is the same religion that the Pharisees practiced.

Note the very cunning techniques Judiazers, Hebrew Roots enthusiasts such as Mark Biltz, deceive us and their followers. Modern day Jews and Judaism is all about worshipping the Anti Christ and not the real Jesus Christ, because they are BEWITCHED (Gal 3:1). This movement is called Hebrew Roots, and while it uses words and phrases from the bible and Jewish culture, there is nothing either Jewish or Christian about this group as you will see. The movement usually hides their beliefs and presents itself as simply seeking to educate Christians concerning their Jewish heritage. As they become acclimated to the Jewish orientation the more aberrant doctrines are slowly introduced. Hebrew Roots enthusiasts belief system seems to be very well “rationalized,” and their false peer pressure is blinding upon them all as well clearly a cult..

They affirm the existence of an original Hebrew-language New Testament and, in some cases, denigrate the existing New Testament text written in Greek. This becomes a subtle attack on the reliability of the text of our Bible. If the Greek text is unreliable and has been corrupted, as is charged by some, the Church no longer has a standard of truth. Their assumption is that the Church has lost its Jewish roots and is unaware that Jesus and His disciples were Jews living in obedience to the Torah. For the most part, those involved advocate the need for every believer to walk a Torah-observant life. This means that the ordinances of the Mosaic Covenant must be a central focus in the lifestyle of believers today as it was with the Old Testament Jews of Israel. Keeping the Torah includes keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week (Saturday), celebrating the Jewish feasts and festivals, keeping the dietary laws, avoiding the “paganism” of Christianity (Christmas, Easter, etc.), and learning to understand the Scriptures from a Hebrew mindset. They teach that Gentile Christians have been grafted into Israel, and this is one reason every born-again believer in Jesus the Messiah is to participate in these observances. It is expressed that doing this is not required out of legalistic bondage, but out of a heart of love and obedience. However, they teach that to live a life that pleases God, this Torah-observant walk must be part of that life.

The movement maintains that Christianity has been indoctrinated with the culture and beliefs of Greek and Roman philosophy and that ultimately biblical Christianity, taught in churches today, has been corrupted with a pagan imitation of the New Testament gospels. “Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, [Ye must] be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no [such] commandment: It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell [you] the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” Acts 15:24-29

For them to suggest that any Gentile believer who follows Jesus must be placed under Old Testament law, Hebrew names is nothing but bondage, and it’s a bondage that the Bible speaks against not only in the verses quoted here, but in many other places as well. Regarding the freedom we have in Christ, let me leave you with this verse from the Master himself:

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36;

THESE JEWISH FALSE PROPHETS REALLY ARE STILL THE SONS OF THE SERPENT, THE DEVIL

If the Judaizers are such pious “Torah keepers” as they say they are, they must know better than adding their own meanings or words to the Word of God, and even than teaching them. Torah, and also other Books in the Bible, are more than clear on this, strictly prohibiting such abominable practices, as following:

Deuteronomy 4:2 “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. (6) Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Revelation 22:18-19 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; (19) and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Need I list more?

Judaism is a false religion that follows an extremely large set of “law” as a way of living. And, this “Jewish law” spoken here is not Torah, but “Halakha,” a collection of orally transmitted interpretations of “Mitzvot” (613 biblical laws), “Talmudic laws,” and later including the rabbinical laws. Talmud consists of “Gemura” (“learning by tradition”), Mishna (“oral” Torah), and Torah. The actual Torah is the smallest part of the whole teaching, and it is mainly about the laws and the gematria (Kabbalistic numerology). Except actual Torah, they are all compilations of orally transmitted “teachings” of so-called “sages” and rabbis, which originated around the time of the Babylonian exile between 597 and 538 BC (2 Ki 24-25; 2 Ch 36; and Ezr – Neh).

“Judaism is not just a set of Jewish beliefs about God, man and the universe. Judaism is a comprehensive way of life, filled with rules and practices that affect every aspect of life: what you do when you wake up in the morning, what you can and cannot eat, what you can and cannot wear, how to groom yourself, how to conduct business, who you can marry, how to observe the holidays and Shabbat, and perhaps most important, how to treat God, other people, and animals. This set of rules and practices is known as halakhah.”

This “Halakha” was “the law” against which our Lord and Apostle Paul spoke so strongly; they were the “tradition of elders,” and “the law” we should not be “under” (Romans 1-8).

Matthew 15:(1) Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, (2) “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (3) He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? (4) “For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ (5) “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”– (6) ‘then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. (7) “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: (8) ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (9) And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ “

Believing to be following the teaching of Moses, most of Israelites were probably “Judaized” by the time our Lord Jesus Christ began His ministry, which was over 400 years after the Pharisees began forming during the time of the Babylonian exile and had taken over the Judeans by their way, elevating themselves as the spiritual authority of the Israelites, against which Jesus Christ our Messiah spoke. Even the Apostle Peter was actually “Judaized,” as he followed the tradition of Judaism until he was rightfully rebuked by the Apostle Paul for doing so and he Peter repented of it.

Please make no mistake that the “false” movement of God, Hebraic Roots Awakening and the Messianic Jewish Movement are still a lie, the big “deception.” As this confusion is misleading some believers to practice legalism and empty traditions of Judaism. They the present Jews now today are not the “House of Judah.” The core group and the majority of the Zionist are false Jews. They, as a group, are neither true descendants of Judah nor Jacob, and not even of Abraham. Christians alone now are.. They are falsely trying to make Christians to look back and follow the Mosaic Laws and not too look forward to following Jesus Christ

Of a Jewish Heritage Apostle Paul had said on Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Judaism, which “the Jews” practice today, and traditions that are appearing to be biblical have been all distorted and usurped by the occult meanings. There are many secular Jewish people, some may be actually Christians, but the Illuminati Zionist Jews, many Orthodox Jews, and most of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews do practice Satanism based on Kabbalah. The biblical sacred objects, such as menorah, and “Tree of life,” and even the name of YHVH (Tetragramaton, יהוה “yod-hey-vav-hey”), have become mystical satanic symbols to them. Their lives are full of Kabbalistic symbols, amulets, magical prayers that take away your sin, and highly satanic rituals.Zionism is a way, or a trap, to “draw” everyone to Israel for their final annihilation

Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

So, according to the translation by the NKJV, “Judaizing” means “to live as Jews.” It is not just about circumcision, but to live according to the customs and traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

If you follow the traditions of Judaism, you are in error, a Judaizer by definition. It does not matter either you believe that “you are saved by grace alone through faith” (Eph 2:8-9) and the circumcision is not required for the salvation, or not. If you do things what the Jews say to do, all most which are not applicable even if they were in the Bible, that is all “Judaizing,” which means, “conforming to the practices and customs of false Judaism.”

And, did you know that most of the practices and customs of the Messianic Jews are based on Judaism? And, Judaism, old or modern, is not based on the biblical teaching . . . not at all?

Christianity is made up of people from “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation” (Rev 5:9; 13:7; 14:6), and not just “the Jews.” Yes “the Jews,” are not the same as the House of Judah any longer.

And, the Judaizers are those who “live as the Jews,” and who influence non-Jews to live as the Jews, following the teaching of Halakha, wearing what they wear (tallit, tzitzi, and kippah, etc.), talking like they talk with jargon Hebrew terminologies, calling YHVH, “HaShem,” meaning “the name,” spelling “God” with a dash in the middle (“G-d”), praying the prescribed prayers at the prescribed time, keeping the Sabbath and the Feasts religiously, eating the Kosher Food, and even getting circumcised. But, when they do them, they do with fear of breaking the law and feel the guilt when they do not do what they are “supposed to” do. Judaism is a false religion originates in the ancient Babylon. Judaism is of Satan. It only has an outward appearance that they the Jews do follow Torah and worship God according to the Old Covenant. Judaism was and is NOT of God , but of Satan, and 2) IS NOT the origin of Christianity.

It is a fact that the Judaizers often first falsely tell you the truth that the Christianity is revised Judaism. Then, they invariably lie and say that their Judaized way is the true way to worship God, Jesus, and that Christians do not know “Torah” the way the Jews do and that is CORRECT also! Of course, we all mostly do not know it, and that is a good thing, BECAUSE the Jews’ way of knowing Torah is Judaism, which is through Talmud (Mishnah ‘Oral Torah,’ Gemaria, Halakha) and NOT the original Five Books of Moses even intented for the past Jews. Before you know it if you falsely listen to them , then, you would be observing the feasts and Sabbath in Judaic ways. This is the very definition of Judaization. Doing so is as empty observation even of Easters and Christmas … From one big lie to another, and you are being this still still deceived.

The fallacy that Christianity originated in Judaism is the BIGGEST LIE of this Age. The term, “Judeo-Christian” must be eliminated from your vocabulary and be replaced by the term, “Anointed Christianity.” For anyone to teach “Torah” to Christians, which he tells us to love and know God better in the same statement is still a great big lie, a demonic undertaken.. Judaism is the past, Christianity is the future. why are they doing these things to deceive us? Because … Messianic and Hebraic Roots Movements are the new Judaization plot of the false Zionists, who have been working in order to lead you astray into the trap of the Satanistic and Kabbalistic Judaism. This is a major part of the preparation for the “Great Deception,” and that is the false Jewish Yeshua messiah to come to Israel yet.. It is no minor mistake or confusion now, but it this delusion will lead you into the great deception, then you will find yourself trapped in the midst of the Great Deception. And, then, it will be too late for you too. You will go to Hell and not to the New Heavenly Jerusalem, in Heaven..

Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.”

Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

One thing is certain … that when THIS FALSE end time prophecy is widely promoted by a card-carrying Zionist, such as John Hagee (the founder of Christians United For Israel) with bells and whistles, it is not true prophecy. Simple, and that easy. The problem is, however, that too many people are mindlessly listening to him and following him, not even knowing what “Zionism” is AND WHAT THE BIBLE REALY SAYS ABOUT IT TOO. John Hagee clearly “predicts” that the rapture will occur sometime during the four blood moon eclipses, and somewhat vaguely implies that the Messiah is returning after that. But, more importantly, he has always been a strong advocate for the unbiblical “Armageddon,” by which he means the Middle Eastern War in which Israel attacks the Arabic nations. He wants war and wants Israel to nuke Iran. This is false Zionism: the projection of the supremacy of the Illuminati-controlled current political State of Israel. It is the way our Father chooses to fulfill His plan to eliminate the evil on earth, but we are never to conform to the false way the current State of Israel is and her political agenda are at all.

“Zionism,“

– a false international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel

– a false Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in response to growing anti-Semitism and sought to re-establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel.

It was first conceptualized by a Jewish German, Theodor Herzl, in his book, “Der Judenstat” (“The Jewish State,” 1896), and later became a strong and forceful movement among the Jews.

As you can see already from the definitions above, this “movement” has nothing to do with the true biblical and genetic Israelite. And, this is a “political movement,” falsely claiming the biblical entitlement of the Land of Israel based on the “false” identity as the Children of Abraham (Gen 12-17), claiming the right to live in the Land of Israel according to the Abrahamic Covenant, and also, based on the false prophecy that “the Jews” are still now the “Chosen People” of God to rule the world as Christians alone now are the chosen people of God.

The current State of Israel has been created with political manipulations and the military force by a small group of international banker elites for their rebellious ambitions. The illuminati, the agent of Satan (Lucifer, they prefer to call), has been working tirelessly for hundreds of years to mimic and “counterfeit” the true Restoration through his last and the greatest plot called, the “New World Order (NWO).” They are trying to establish a police-state centralized one-world government with one-world religion, which is the Satanism (includes Freemasonry, Judaism, Paganism, New Age, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God, Mormonism, etc. all false religions combined), placing their own “false messiah” on the throne, and rule from Jerusalem. They are even trying to build their own so-called the “third temple” to forcefully fulfill their diabolical understanding of the biblical prophecies (Temple Institute). I kid you not.

That is the Satan’s grand scheme to take over the process of the Restoration and subvert it, just as he has been plotting and relentlessly working at it from the beginning.

God, Jesus Christ never intended to re establish a Jewish nation in the Land of Israel even “by force” or by the hand of man.The New Jerusalem is the Bride of the Messiah Jesus , and that rather still will be the City of God where His remnant who will have been regenerated and perfected spiritually will dwell with their God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit

The Abrahamic Covenant was fulfilled as the Messiah Jesus the Christ, his Seed (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:16), came, died for us, and was resurrected. Now, those who believe in Him of any race, nationality, or tongue can inherit the heavenly Jerusalem in Him in the Age to come (Gal 3:13; et al.). The biblical Zion is not meant to be on earth or consisted of any particular race or people group

Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

The problem even with the Messianic Jews and most JEWS is that they are color blind.. they can only see things through a Jewish perspective.. not the reality.

JESUS HAD WARNED THE JEWS IN JERUSALEM ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND IT’S TEMPLE AND WHY AS WELL.

Matthew 23:37,38:O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

Luke 19:41-44 And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Now most of the Jews of their day (especially the Essenes and the Pharisees) even most Jews today were looking falsely for a Jewish Messiah to come who would restore national Israel, set up an earthly kingdom,and were surprised Jesus was talking about the destruction of the temple and the desolation of Israel next instead, Jesus rather indicated the desolation next of the Jews, Israel * and he relatedly prophesied both the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem; and they of course had expected falsely that anyway next the temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt,and the nation of Israel would be restored which will never happen again in God ‘s plan…. Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. so they had asked , 1 “When will this happen, and 2 what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The meaning of the term desolate is very clear, The nation of Israel , Jews next will be replaced as God’s chosen ones.. .. Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishopric let another take.

Chosen is never again used by God to indicate the Jews but rather only of the Christian church.

John 6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?
John 13:18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Ephesians 1:4 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:

1 Corinthians 2: 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

1 Corinthians 1: 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The God of the Old Testament was never a Jew,  God called the Jews to be His  “chosen people” through whom He would accomplish His master plan for history (Deuteronomy 7:6).

It was through the Jewish people that God gave the world His Word. And it was through the Jews that He sent the Messiah.The Hebrew Scriptures say that the Jews were also chosen to be witnesses of God — of what it means to have a relationship with Him (Isaiah 43:10-12).

The history of Israel attests to the fact that when one is faithful to God, He blesses; when one is unfaithful, He disciplines; and when one repents, God forgives and forgets and begins to bless once again. Today the Jews are under God’s curse, Negative discipline.

Jesus himself told His disciples that a day would come when the Jews would be dispersed among all the nations of the world and Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles, the disobedience of the Jews has invalidated God’s promises to them. God had already given the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob the title deed to the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-317:1-826:1-5; and 28:13-14).

Now,Moses proclaimed that if the people were obedient to God, He would shower them with blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). Their children, their crops and their animals would be blessed (28:4). Their enemies would be defeated and they would  “abound in prosperity” and be established as  “a holy people whom the rest of the world would fear (28:7-11).

Moses proceeded to sternly warn them that if they were disobedient to God, He would place curses on them. Their children would rebel, their crops would fail and their animals would not reproduce (Deuteronomy 28:16-19). They would also suffer from diseases, drought, and foreign domination (28:21,24,33).

“Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known” (Deuteronomy 28:64). After listing many possible remedial judgments (Leviticus 26:14-31), just as in Deuteronomy, Moses warned that God’s ultimate judgment would be their  “scattering among the nations” (26:33).

Hadrian, the Roman Emperor,according to Roman historian Cassius Dio (c. 150-235 AD), had 580,000 Jews   killed, and 50 fortified towns and 985 villages were razed to the ground.  Those who were not killed were sold into slavery. Additionally, Hadrian ordered Jews to be banned from Jerusalem, except on the day of Tisha B’Av (the day of mourning over the destruction of the first two temples)

According to Roman records, there were about 8 to 10 million Jews in the First Century. Now there are only about 4 million more today than 2,000 years ago. This fact is the fulfillment of this prophecy is found in Deuteronomy 4:27—  “And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the LORD shall drive you.”

  The Christian view concerning the Jews today is that “God has washed His hands of all of them”

Romans 15:8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers,

Romans 12:5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Now Jesus was truly a Jew or not? Is Jesus still a Jew  and his followers as well?  NO.

The  NT described as “believers”, as those who “believe in (on) the Lord Jesus”, as “Christians” .

Then were all those who are referred to as “Jews” in the NT Scriptures followers of the Lord Jesus Christ or rather adherents to an OT based (and, at least in part, an apostate) religion?

Were those who are referred to as “Gentiles” followers and believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the non Jewish folks who who were not natural descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel? No.

And then were those who are referred to as members of the “church of God” believers in and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who then were also called by the term “Christian”? Yes

Now what definition or descriptive term one should use today for those who are believers in and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ in the biblical sense … since the lying Messianic  Jews say that ‘Christian” would then not be fitting for the biblical followers of Christ?

Now those of a Gentile background who repented and believed in and became followers of the Lord Jesus Christ biblically speaking still “Gentiles” or honestly  had they become members of the “church of God” and thus were now “Christians” rather than “Gentiles”?

And were also not those of a Jew background who repented and believed in and became followers of the Lord Jesus Christ biblically speaking are not  still “Jews”  but rather had they become members of the “church of God” and thus truly  were now “Christians” rather than “Jews”? Yes.

Even though thousands of Jewish people embraced Jesus in the early days of the Christian church (three thousand in Acts 2:41; at least another two thousand in Acts 4:4). Nevertheless, one of the first and greatest Christian missionary, an ex  Jew himself and former Pharisee, the apostle Paul, protested that he was “saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Messiah must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22–23).

Most Jewish people still turn away from Jesus as the one who fulfills the promises of God in the Jewish Scriptures. They Reject Jesus, Reject God.

Neither Jesus nor his apostles taught that   Israel would be rescued from judgment in spite of turning away from Jesus. Jesus did not come as one among many ways to God. He came as the true and only Jewish Messiah and Mediator between God and man. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

And he Jesus taught plainly that to reject him was to reject God

“You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (John 8:19)

“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” (John 5:23)

“I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me.” (John 5:42–43)

“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.” (John 8:42)

“No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23)

Why do many of  the Jews believe that Jesus did not exist until he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary?  Has that not been historically been a part of their doctrine?  Is it because God is not Jewish? At least since the sixth century before Christ, the bedrock of Judaism has been monotheism, belief in one God which excludes Jesus..

However many Jews at the time of Jesus believed he was the Messiah and became Christians.  The New covenant is for Everyone and not a sole Jewish Nation.

The Mosaic Covenant and Torah was given only to the Jewish people that were present at Mt. Sinai.  If the Mosaic covenant  were for the whole world: Why is this not stated anywhere in the bible?

Also, how do we explain why after 3300 years the very people who it has been given to (the Jews) haven’t figured this out and insist it is Noah’s laws for the rest of the world?

Yeshua, a replacement Messiah, is a bold faced liar and not the real Jesus Christ . So why do they write “G-d” and use Hebraic terminology for the  Greek New Testament original Jesus. Because it is only Jesus what his mother and brothers , disciples, apostles, others have called him. Jesus was the Christ. He was born Jewish and died a Christian.

Was Jesus a Jew? Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. He’s not a Sadducee. He’s not a Pharisee.  Jesus Christ,” the Anointed One (John 1:41, 4:25);  was not only a Rabbi but Prophet (Matt. 7:28-8:1). Jesus next in retrospect is seen not as a Jew, but as something else, as a founder of Christianity.

Jesus’ followers were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26)

“Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, ‘Why does this man speak that way? Who but God alone can forgive sins?’ Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, ‘Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, pick up your mat and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority for sins on earth—he said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home’” (Mark 2:8-11).

After Caiaphas, the high priest, commanded Jesus, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God,” Jesus said, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You [members of the Sanhedrin] have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?’ They said in reply, ‘He deserves to die!’” (Matthew 26:63-66, with a similar passage in Mark 14:61-64).

Now do we really want to become “Jewish”, seeing what the NT scriptures tell us about “the sins of the Jews” at the time of Christ and their false beliefs ? No.

Was not the Jewish understanding of the coming kingdom with Christ as a political leader and deliverer and re-establisher of a “earthly nation” false? Yes.

In light of the fact that in the NT scriptures any “Jewishness” seems mostly used for the beliefs / actions of “unbelieving Jews”, one ought perhaps to notice more emphatically the difference between “divine truth” and “Jewish teaching” ?

Jews at the time of Christ and in the past had too many things wrong concerning Christ, NT Christianity, the religion of Jesus, and what he commands us to believe and do, it now has been corrupted by the world religion known as Judaism.

NT Christianity is not just a copy of biblical Judaism, and even the Apostle Paul fought constantly the tendency of the Moses party to drag Christians back under the Old Covenant. Apostle Paul truly waged a relentless war against those who wanted Christians to be circumcised and observe food laws and Sabbath, holy days and new moons.

The words of Paul are just as much scripture as the OT, in fact they are the final word to us in the New Covenant. There is a big vast unacceptable difference between Christians and Jewish, Hebrew Christians.

Jews today   need to separate the 2 covenants and 2 separate callings instead of them  trying to take the land of promise by force(pressing into it).

According to Gal 3.29 only “in Christ” do people of  all nations, bloods, and creeds become the new commonwealth [Israel] of God [Gal 6.16].

2 Corinthians 9:5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness.

Galatians 3:

16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God,  but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since  they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Romans 10: 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.

6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ” Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down),

7 or ‘ Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

8 But what does it say? ” The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart“–that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

11 For the Scripture says, ” Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;

13 for ” Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ” How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ” Lord, who has believed our report?”

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

18 But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; ” Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, ” I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, By a nation without understanding will I anger you.”

20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, ” I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”

21 But as for Israel He says, ” All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.

Jews and Christians both claim to have God’s Word, but   they basically do not have the same religion. Judaism    does not accept the central Christian teaching that Jesus Christ is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament.

Jews who have become supposedly Christians may refer to themselves as “completed Jews.” but they are certainly not Christians. Faith in Yeshua is a false faith , only a clear affirmation of Jews identity as still being Jews not Christians.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3.28

 John  1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it. 6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name – he has given the right to become God’s children 13

– children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.

14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. 15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’” 16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.  18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

The Mosaic law was temporarily established for a certain purpose to keep a people separate so a seed could come in the line of David,Jacob,Isaac,Abraham, Shem, Seth and Adam. The Mosaic Law is not required for any Salvation because it was just a requirement of a nation who truly rejected next their Messiah, the future promises as as promised to Abraham

https://www.facebook.com/The-lies-of-the-false-Christian-Zionism-Movement-166907416793938/ 

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

In his well known prophecy about the end of the age recorded by Matthew and Luke, Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem which came to pass 40 years after his death and resurrection. The Meaning of The Number 40, this number 40 symbolizes a period of warning . The prophet Jonah powerfully warned ancient Nineveh, for forty days, that its destruction would come because of its many sins.

do see also

https://www.facebook.com/Jesus.Christ.the.Name.Above.All.Names

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-lies-of-the-false-Christian-Zionism-Movement/166907416793938

https://www.facebook.com/groups/402046343147200/

http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/anointed/

http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/christians-are-gods-true-jews-today/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/even-heaven-awaits-jewish-return-to-god-jesus-christ-and-rather-not-to-the-promised-earthly-land/

https://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/what-does-the-word-chosen-mean-in-the-bible/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/even-heaven-awaits-jewish-return-to-god-jesus-christ-and-rather-not-to-the-promised-earthly-land/

http://wittnessed.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/do-we-all-realy-now-need-to-support-the-jews-now-why/
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MANY JEWS, EVEN MESSIANIC JEWS LIE ABOUT CHRISTIANITY

pentecost. jpg

Messianic Judaism is the term given to Jewish people who believe and have accepted Yeshua  the supposed Hebrew name or equivalent  for Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Rather   it tends to be another Jesus. These Jewish people falsely do not stop being Jewish, but they continue to remain strong in their Jewish identity, lifestyle and culture, while following Yeshua as He is revealed by their leaders, and not the New Testament. . Many Messianic Jews refer to themselves as “completed Jews,” . but there is no such thing as Christians alone are the true Jews, the true Israel.

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/keep-your-eyes-on-jesus-not-the-jewish-antichrist-yeshua/

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Sadly even Messianic Jews tend to be self centered and they do lie about Christianity , and falsely do not agree, differ from the Christian Church. Jesus Christ did come to start a new religion and not to fulfill the Jewish false expectations, or the false continuation of the old covenant. The old Jewish covenant was replaced by a new one. And that applies to everyone, non Jews included now. Messianic Jewish Christian congregations (or synagogues) exist in large numbers, both of the Ebionite (Torah-observant) and “sect of the Nazarene” (non-Torah observant)

See   HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH*

http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/About.htm

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Sadly many Messianic Jews tend to fall back to Judaism. If one reads the Messianic views, exposition of Christianity one can clearly see they do not agree with real Christianity.. Messianic Judaism Beliefs Differ from Christianity and they tend to take isolated verses from the Bible and twist them to suit their purposes now too. and there is no doubt about it they falsely are earthly, Zionist oriented when Jesus said my Kingdom is not of this world. Yes Christians differ from them in many ways including history, beliefs, dress, and practice

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IT SHOULD BE CLEARLY EVIDENT THAT MANY JEWS, EVEN MESSIANIC JEWS CONTINUE THESE DAYS TOO  TO LIE ABOUT CHRISTIANITY, APOSTLE PAUL AND THE REASON IS  THEY DO NOT WANT TO GIVE UP THEIR JEWISH LIFESTYLE, AND THEIR FALSE DEMAND THAT CHRISTIANS KEEP ALL OF THE LAWS FOUND IN THE TORAH. . The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament — the writings of Moses.

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The Torah contains a variety of God  given information including history, the Ten Commandments, and instructions pertaining to Jewish finance, government, family, health, farming, dress, feasts, and worship. * The Torah should not be confused with the Talmud which was written later. The Talmud contains traditions, laws, and interpretations that were added by the Jewish rabbis. Jesus himself spoke against these interpretations and called them the false “traditions of men”. (Mark 7:8) .

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These Jews do next lie, distort the New Testament too, when they state that Jesus, the first Apostles and the first Christian Church were all Torah observant Jews now as well for if that was the case why did they not remain in the synagogues and worship on Saturday as  the Jews did but rather formed local Christian churches that worshiped on Sunday.. Acts 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.  . The book of Acts itself nor any other New Testament book contain no evidence that all of the new born from above Christians were observing the Old Testament laws, the Torah. . Acts 2:5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. . Peter was speaking ALSO to Jews from all over the world that had come to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Pentecost. . . Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. . When the Jewish people were converted to being Christians  by the Holy Spirit, there was a need for them to abandon their Jewish faith. The present converted Gentiles as well did not take the Jewish Faith. They all had accepted Jesus as the Messiah that had also been foretold in the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament. 

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To be a Christian is based on the Greek word anointed one, Christos, a person in whom  we can see the anointing of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.. Jesus Christ himself also was baptized with the Holy Spirit, The word “Christ” is a transliteration of the Greek word christos, meaning “the Anointed One.
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(Acts 10:38 KJV)  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
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Now  the anointed one- Greek for Messiah (anointed one) is Christos, Christ in English. Thus, “Jesus Christ” joins a name and a title, and means Jesus the Messiah. Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. The title “Christ” or “Anointed One” Gk. Christos “Cristov” occurs about 350 times in the New Testament..
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 The word christos means a person HOLY SPIRIT anointed . The Greek name for an individual “Christos” rendered “Christ” in Scripture, the basic of the term Christian now as well, comes from the Greek word “chrio” means to anoint with oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit,
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 Luke 4:18-19 (Wey) [Jesus:] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor; He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners of war and recovery of sight to the blind: to send away free those whom tyranny has crushed, to proclaim the year of acceptance with the Lord.”But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. . . .
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As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:20, 27;
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The word christos means a person so anointed and the word chrisma refers to that by which a person is anointed. John uses chrisma in these two verses, not speaking of the object being anointed but of the instrument of anointing. Additionally, we find a word christianos in Acts 11:26, which means “one belonging to the Anointed One,” just as Herodianos would mean “one who belongs to Herod.” As the ultimate Prophet, King and Priest, Jesus Christ was anointed when he began his earthly ministry. This anointing was predicted by Isaiah in Isaiah 61:1 when he said that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon the Messiah. In God’s time, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, we are told the Holy Spirit came upon him when he came up out of the water. In other words, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and that without measure.
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When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1,2 in the synagogue of Nazareth, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” he was announcing to the people that he was the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah long ago and that the anointing of the Holy Spirit was now resting upon him.
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Not only is Jesus Christ anointed, but the Bible tells us that every believer in Jesus Christ is also anointed. We are kings, priests, and prophets under the Priest, Prophet and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We find references to this in many places. John the Baptist said there was another person coming after him, mightier than himself, who would baptize people in the Holy Spirit and fire.
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 In Acts 1:5 the Lord Jesus Christ himself speaks of this, saying, “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, as we read in Acts 2:4: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” The Greek word for anointing is chrisma, from which we have the word chrism. Chrisma appears several times in 1 John 2:20 and 27. It comes from the root word, chriô, which means to rub something or someone lightly with a substance like oil or lotion. Thus, when John writes in 1 John 2:20, “But you have a chrisma, an anointing,” he was referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every believer.;
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(1 John 3:21 KJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 2 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.The word “Christ” is a transliteration of the Greek word christos, meaning “the Anointed One,    Jesus was the anointed one. Jesus is the Messiah and  the transliteration of the Old Testament Hebrew word pronounced maw-shakh, meaning Anointed One, which when translated into the New Testament Greek is Christos. Matt. 3:11, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”   http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/anointed/
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Acts  2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. . Note all of the Christian Converts were added to the Church, not to the Jewish faith, the Jewish Temple,  Synagogues. . Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” (Matthew 24:1-3) . Jesus himself was not impressed with the Temple’s physical structure, because he knew that  God was greater than any  religious  building that man would construct.  Jesus now also was no ordinary man, he was  still the Creator God who voluntarily gave up his immortal existence to become human and die for the sins of humanity. .

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  Mathew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

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Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Lamentations 1:8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Lamentations 2:13-14 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

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“Then the crowds spread out their robes along the road ahead of him, and as they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus had done. ‘God has given us a King!’ they exulted. ‘Long live the King! Let all heaven rejoice! Glory to God in the highest heavens!’ But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, ‘Sir, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!’ He replied, ‘If they keep quiet, the stones along the road will burst into cheers!’ But as they came closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead, he began to cry. ‘Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down,’ he wept, ‘and now it is too late. Your enemies will pile up earth against your walls and encircle you and close in on you, and crush you to the ground, and your children within you; your enemies will not leave one stone upon another- for you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.’ Then he entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls, saying to them, ‘The Scriptures declare, My Temple is a place of prayer; but you have turned it into a den of thieves'” (Lk.19:36-46 TLB). .

“And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us” (Lk.23:27-30 KJV). .  

When Jesus cried out “it is finished” and the Jerusalem temple  curtain tore, the relationship between God and humanity was altered forever. The tearing of the curtain of separation from top to bottom forever opens the way for all humanity to eventually fellowship directly with God the Father. No physical temple was needed  any more. “The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman believe me that an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem . .

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. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”  Jn.4:19-23 Para.   . Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph.2:11-16 KJV). . With the tearing of the curtain, all who worship God, whether Jew or Gentile, have access to the throne of mercy by the one and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. See Heb.4:15-16; 6:18-19; 9:1-15; 10:19-22. . For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now therefore you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph.2:18-19 KJV). . And it was not long before Jewish persecution drove the Christians,  and the Apostles North to Antioch. The Jewish people soon forgot,  ignored Jesus and his qualifications as the Messiah, the true prophet of God  . 

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Greater disaster was soon to come upon the Jews in Jerusalem too as a result. The remaining inhabitants of Jerusalem  next died in great numbers by famine as it had happened when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem centuries earlier (Jer. 52:6,7).  Both the Temple and the City of Jerusalem were indeed  destroyed. Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus was present in Jerusalem when the city was captured and the Temple was burnt.  http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-5.htm

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Those ostriches,  wishful dreamers, rather still do  lie who say that  the Disciples of Jesus did not Stop Observing the Old Testament Laws, the Torah  and  clearly falsely fail to address the reality that the four Christian gospels say very little about the Jewish Temple rituals  in the days of Jesus  and even as to why next did Jesus- God then  destroyed the Jerusalem  Judaic temple in 70 ad.  It temple was obsolete! No more ritual sacrifices ere demanded,  needed.  . When the  Judaic Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 the period of the second exile began. The Jewish people were soon to be scattered throughout the earth.  Thousands of hundred years after the city of Jerusalem and it’s Temple were destroyed, but  there is still a false expectation among the Jews that they would once again return to their land and rebuild the temple  which was devastated.  Rather for the next thousands of years the Jews can have any longer a God given authority to dwell, worship in this city, the land  that God had once given  gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

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Most Jews still do  fail to realize that it was God who had scattered the Jewish people and that He had an ultimate Godly purpose in doing so.  The national Jews today are  impostors in whom there is no real seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jesus Christ,  in them at all. . Many persons do  wonder why God waited 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection to fulfill his prophecy about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. First, the number 40 in the Bible is symbolic of trial, testing, and punishment.   God’s once chosen people had allowed themselves to be compromised by evil. They had turned to other gods and neglected the true worship and service due to the true Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ. So this destruction as  prophesied happened. God’s patience comes to an end with his past chosen people, he removes his presence and the physical symbolism of his presence from among them to be a another witness to future generations that there is a price to pay for disobedience to him.

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Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house ( Israel)  is left unto you desolate. . Luke 13:35 Behold, your house ( Israel)  is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

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. ”  There was one occasion after the destruction of the Second Temple when the Jews were able to formulate plans to rebuild their temple. The man behind this project was the Roman Emperor, Flavius Claudius Julianus, a nephew of Constantine – also known as Julian the Apostate because of his opposition to Christianity. Julian planned the project in the last year of his reign in A.D. 363. Julian rescinded all the anti-Jewish laws that his uncle Constantine had instituted. He issued an edict that the Temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem. This caused a great deal of excitement among the Jews. From far and wide, Jews came to Jerusalem to help in the rebuilding work. Julian supplied the necessary funds and appointed Alypius of Antioch, the Roman Governor of Great Britain, to carry out the project. Jews from all over gave from their wealth upon the projected work of rebuilding the Temple. The roads to Jerusalem were filled with multitudes of Jewish men and women who had hopes of seeing a Third Temple built.  Then sudden tragedy struck. The foundations of the Second Temple were barely uncovered when flames of fire burst forth from under the ground. The flames were accompanied by large explosions. The cause for the flames were probably the result of noxious gas in the subterranean passages catching fire. The workmen fled and the building was stopped, never again to be restarted. Many believed that the explosion and fire were a demonstration of the anger of God.  With their hopes dashed, the Jews were then driven into Exile and became wanderers in foreign lands. They were to remain  people without  a temple. . Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation ( Israel)  be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. (Church). . Galatians 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate ( Gentiles) hath many more children than she which hath an husband.  ( Israel) . In A.D. 324 Emperor Constantine and his mother Queen Helena were converted to Christianity. Aelia Capitolina was renamed Jerusalem and the title of “Holy City” was restored to Jerusalem. It was now, however, considered the Holy City of Christianity, no longer now the national capital of the Jews.

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While there is no direct evidence as to exactly when all of the Christians stopped observing the Torah, the Old Testament laws. Exactly when that total change occurred is not specific in the New Testament Bible. Clearly the change was made by Jesus himself immediately after His resurrection but some others do attribute it to the teaching of the Apostles, Peter and Paul included even at Pentecost.

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Acts 26: 1 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself: 2 I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews: 3 Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 4 My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; 5 Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. 8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? 9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 11 And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. 12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 17 Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, 18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. 19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: 20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. 21 For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me. 22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: 23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

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Acts 3:12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? Acts 5:11-13 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. . Note the term Church is consistently used in the New Testament to describe the Assembly of Christians followers, believers…

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Specific Words used for the Church in the New Testament 1 The Greek term ἐκκλησία, which is transliterated as “ecclesia”,  generally meant an “assembly”, but in most English translations of the New Testament is usually translated as “church”. This word is the Greek words kaleo (to call), with the prefix ek (out). Thus, the word means “the called out ones.” This term appears in two verses of the Gospel of Matthew, twenty-four verses of the Acts of the Apostles, fifty-eight verses of the Pauline Epistles (including the earliest instances of its use in relation to a Christian body), two verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, one verse of the Epistle of James, three verses of the Third Epistle of John, and nineteen verses of the Book of Revelation. In total, ἐκκλησία appears in the New Testament text 114 times, although not every instance is a technical reference to the church. In the New Testament, the term ἐκκλησία is used for local communities as well as in a universal sense to mean all believers. The Christian Church is a term solely used to refer to the whole group of people belonging to the Christian religion throughout history. And the “Church” capitalized does not refer to a building. Now the exact English word “church” does not come from ekklesia but from the word kuriakon, which means “dedicated to the Lord.” This word was commonly used to refer to a holy place or temple. Since believers have been united with Christ through spiritual baptism, they are sometimes corporately referred to as the body of Christ. (Rom. l2:4-5; 1 Cor. l2:11,13,l8,27; Col. l:l8; Eph. 5:30) The idea seems to be that the group of Christians in the world constitute the physical representation of Christ on earth. It is also a metaphor which demonstrates the interdependence of members in the church, while at the same time demonstrating their diversity from one another. (Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:14-17) 2 The Temple of God (1 Cor. 3:l6; Eph. 2:2l,22; 1 Pet. 2:5). 3 The Jerusalem From Above or The Heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26; Heb. l2:22). Both of these terms (as well as “temple”) illustrate how the Old Testament notions of outward sanctuary have been replaced with the literal dwelling of God in his people. 4 Bride of Christ or Christ’s Betrothed (Eph. 5:25-32; 2 Cor. 11:2). These titles refer to the love and loyalty existing between Christ and believers.

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What constitutes the local church? where “. . . two or three have gathered together in my name (Jesus Christ) . . . ” (Mt. l8:20) This is Christ’s version of what is necessary to have a local church. . A too common approach those falsely interested in dismissing the gospel message of Jesus Christ is falsely trying to discredit personally the gospel messenger and his content and mainly reflects their more eagerness to find supposed faults than to find the truth..

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Too many Jews falsely that Jesus was a good teacher who never claimed to be the Messiah or the Son of God. They also do lie and claim that Paul imported pagan ideas into the Jewish teaching of Jesus in order to appeal to the Gentiles and to create a new religion. Paul, they lie and say, was the false”inventor” of Christianity and a false detractor of Judaism since he had taught that the Torah was of no value. .

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Many Jews since then too falsely too have hated Apostle Paul from the start and no surprise here they tried to kill him many times.. Now one cannot claim Jesus’ teachings were distorted without first knowing what Jesus taught and few of Apostle Paul’s false detractors do even. All those who claim distortion demonstrate a lack of knowledge of Jesus ’real teachings. One need only read the first four books of the New Testament (not written by Paul) to see the invalidity of their false claims.. None of their false claims about Apostle hold up under real inquiry, and they are all unsupported by the New Testament, Real Christianity. These false Detractors most commonly ascribe Apostolic doctrines such as the deity of Jesus, the resurrection, sacramental meals and baptism to pagan origins. But if you’ll investigate the New testament , you’ll see each of these doctrines or events as being even recorded in the first four books of the New Testament, all not written by Apostle Paul. Two of the four writers there were some of Jesus’ closest associates. John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner, practiced baptism long before Paul was on the scene. . Paul described his anguish over the disbelief of many fellow Jews: I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:2,3) When Paul left earth at the end of his earthly life he not only left over 14 local church plants, he followed Jesus Christ’s movement that would eventually spread to the extent that even the Roman Empire itself would surrender to Christianity . History was changed in dramatic fashion through this one man’s obedience. as well. https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/son-of-man-is-a-title-that-jesus-used-of-himself/

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Apostle Paul had followed some of the the laws found in the first five books of the Old Testament (the Torah as the Jews now call them when he found it convenient to do so. He did not do so because it was required of him as a Christian but because some of the laws could be followed without violating the laws of Christ. Yet at the same time, but Paul still strongly taught that most of those Torah laws were not binding on Christians and so did Apostle Peter. “For example, the Torah records a law requiring circumcision. Before Paul brought Timothy among the Jews, he had him circumcised. “Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek” (Acts 16:3). Paul did not do it because God required circumcision under the law of Christ. He merely did it so Timothy would be found acceptable among the Jews in the region he would be preaching. As Paul later argues, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (I Corinthians 7:19). Because of the change in laws, the law of circumcision which was an absolute requirement, became something of no significance. Since it did not matter whether a person was circumcised or not, Paul found it convenient to have Timothy circumcised in order that Timothy would be accepted in the Jewish community. Yet Paul adamantly refused to have Titus circumcised. “Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised” (Galatians 2:3). In fact, Paul faced down those who taught that such a thing was necessary, “to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you” (Galatians 2:5). . Later, Paul said this about circumcision: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:1-4). Such teaching is contrary to what the Law of Moses taught. If Paul was living by that law, he had violated it by his teaching that circumcision was unnecessary. . Hence, Paul kept laws from the Torah when it was convenient and it suited his purpose, but he did not follow the law of Moses because that law had come to an end. “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another–to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (Romans 7:4). What law was Paul referring to? Just a few verses later, Paul illustrates the law he had in mind. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet”” (Romans 7:7). Paul quotes the last of the Ten Commandments. It was this law that had come to an end in order that it might be replaced with a greater law — the law of Christ.” . God’s has preserved the Old Testament scriptures that they might never be lost. He did do this  also for the Jews’ sake ,  as the Jewish scriptures are able to make the Jewish people“wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (1Tm 3:15-17). . Psalms 48:1-2 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. .   Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. .

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  Revelation 21 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

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What defines a real Jew, a real Christian clearly again? “…for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you…” (1 John 2:27). “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Cor. 12:27). Anathema — The Greek word for cursed or condemned, as used in the King James Version. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor. 16:22 KJV). “Who is My mother and who are My brothers? And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, Here are My mother and My brothers!” (Matt. 12:48-49). Pentecostal — A believer who claims the same experience of the early disciples on the day of Pentecost — the infilling of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:1-4). The Pentecostal embraces the present-day operation of the gifts of the Spirit. .

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PS;   Now we all do really have freedom of religion,  freedom of choice,  freedom of speech, the right to be heard now as well.. I clearly do believe in the right of everyone to speak, to speak out as well, and to be equally heard by all, so we can all judge what has been said if it is appropriate and we can next corresponding act upon it, even in the church, in the government, on the internet now too. Clearly some bad people falsely still DO DISALLOW THIS RIGHT… the really bad persons especially as even I know this for sure as they falsely refuse the whole to be shared even as to who they are firstly. They respond with a personal attack, inquisition, censorship, lies, slanders, diversions, distortions, instead of facing, dealing with the facts, truths being presented. Confirming to many what they still are really like, immoral, abusive bullies…

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It is a common approach  of the false Jewish only lovers to slander and lie about  all others who do not go along with them.. . I cannot understand why too many of the Jews tend to be still   very obnoxious,  Judiazers, even Messianc ones..and anyone with any real spiritual discernment knows that the Hebrew name movement is false.. THEY UNDENIABLY ARE spreading gross error, and preaching a “different gospel.” They do misinterpret scripture deliberately, or apply scripture in a way that distorts its real meaning. . they have a false agenda Jesus never spoke Hebrew nor did the Apostles, as per the Romans Instructions, the New testament was written in Greek not Hebrew, there never was an original greek new testament.. Jesus was named by his parents using the greek name Jesus   If you are talking to me or writing to me in English you would use the Greek name of Jesus Christ not a foreign language   And anyone with any real spiritual discernment knows that the Hebrew name movement is false.. THEY UNDENIABLY ARE  spreading gross error, and preaching a “different gospel.” They do misinterpret scripture deliberately, or   apply scripture in a way that distorts its real meaning.

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How simple can I say it to any of you.. if you write to me or talk to me in English  why would you use another name but Jesus Christ?? tell me why.. unless you are a false Judiazer on an ego trip and why to sounds falsely spiritual and use the Hebrew name.. and there are no Jews in Heaven now, only Christian, being Jewish means following the now obsolete, false  Judaic religion anyway.. Christianity has replaced the Jewish religion, and the real Jews now only are the Christians. Jews are not the center of the Bible, Jesus is, In the New Testament the emphasis is now solely on the heavenly Jerusalem.. and there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek they both end up in heal without Jesus. Christians are God’s true “Jews” today. all of the Zionists are still immoral and Unbiblical  .Where is the straight scripture that you need to use a Hebrew name of God, Jesus talking or writing to me in English? like the false Hebrew Movement pushes..  I said if you talk or write to me in English why would you use a foreign language name of Jesus? as the Judiazers do.. Hebrew Roots movement do..

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I cannot understand how anyone, an English speaking person, holy spirit filled can now even use a Hebrew name for God even Yahweh, Yeshua, in an English Christian church   I question their motives for doing so speaking to me in Hebrew  as they should have the decency to talk to me in English and not babble some foreign language too.

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Most   Jews are very obnoxious, judiazers, even Messianic ones.. and anyone with any real spiritual discernment knows that the Hebrew name movement is false.. THEY UNDENIABLY ARE spreading gross error, and preaching a “different gospel.” They do misinterpret scripture deliberately, or apply scripture in a way that distorts its real meaning. . they have a false agenda .

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To be a Christian is based on the Greek word anointed one, Christos, a person in whom  we can see the anointing of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.. Jesus Christ himself also was baptized with the Holy Spirit, The word “Christ” is a transliteration of the Greek word christos, meaning “the Anointed One.

(Acts 10:38 KJV)  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

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Now  the anointed one- Greek for Messiah (anointed one) is Christos, Christ in English. Thus, “Jesus Christ” joins a name and a title, and means Jesus the Messiah. Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. The title “Christ” or “Anointed One” Gk. Christos “Cristov” occurs about 350 times in the New Testament.. The word christos means a person HOLY SPIRIT anointed . The Greek name for an individual “Christos” rendered “Christ” in Scripture, the basic of the term Christian now as well, comes from the Greek word “chrio” means to anoint with oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, Luke 4:18-19 (Wey) [Jesus:] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor; He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners of war and recovery of sight to the blind: to send away free those whom tyranny has crushed, to proclaim the year of acceptance with the Lord.”But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. . . . As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:20, 27; The word christos means a person so anointed and the word chrisma refers to that by which a person is anointed. John uses chrisma in these two verses, not speaking of the object being anointed but of the instrument of anointing.

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Additionally, we find a word christianos in Acts 11:26, which means “one belonging to the Anointed One,” just as Herodianos would mean “one who belongs to Herod.” As the ultimate Prophet, King and Priest, Jesus Christ was anointed when he began his earthly ministry. This anointing was predicted by Isaiah in Isaiah 61:1 when he said that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon the Messiah. In God’s time, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, we are told the Holy Spirit came upon him when he came up out of the water. In other words, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and that without measure. When Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1,2 in the synagogue of Nazareth, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” he was announcing to the people that he was the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah long ago and that the anointing of the Holy Spirit was now resting upon him. Not only is Jesus Christ anointed, but the Bible tells us that every believer in Jesus Christ is also anointed. We are kings, priests, and prophets under the Priest, Prophet and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. We find references to this in many places. John the Baptist said there was another person coming after him, mightier than himself, who would baptize people in the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus Christ, the sole name above all other names .

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I cannot understand how anyone, an English speaking person,  holy spirit filled can now even use a Hebrew name for God even Yahwah, Yeshua, in an English  Christian church instead of using God’ s revealed,  real name which is Jesus Christ, the sole name above all other name.. this is very ungodly of them and there is no place in the Bible that  says Jesus is to be called by any other name;  YAHWAH is JESUS ! SO SAY SO TOO!

Phillipians 2:9    Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10    That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11    And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. “Do not be deceived” Three times during the Olivet Discourse

(Mat 24), Jesus He had warned His Disciples. He did not command them to do anything else, but not to be deceived in the Last Days. And, immediately after that He said . .

Matthew 24:13 (13) “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Matthew 24:13 (13) “But he who endures to the end shall be saved. .

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and  anyone with any real spiritual discernment knows that the Hebrew name movement is false.. THEY UNDENIABLY ARE  spreading gross error, and preaching a “different gospel.” They do misinterpret scripture deliberately, or   apply scripture in a way that distorts its real meaning. And one of their blatant misapplications pertains to the vision the Apostle Peter received from God  in Acts 10 and 11. As we know, Peter’s vision was of many animals that had been classified as “unclean” for the Jews to eat under the ceremonial laws, and, in the vision, God specifically told Peter to kill and eat. Peter protested, explaining that he had never eaten anything that the law called unclean, but God  told him not to call unclean that which He had made clean. In fact, because of Peter’s disbelief, God showed him the vision three times! Of course, Peter later recounted the vision for others and stated that it meant that, even though he was a Jew, he was no longer to regard Gentiles as “off limits,” which is what the ceremonial laws had previously forced him to do. Those in the HRM perform some incredible mental gymnastics with this one by contending that, after Peter realized the full meaning of the vision, he then somehow understood that God  was only kidding about His command to “kill and eat.” They state that the vision was only used as a metaphor, and that Peter knew that God  didn’t mean for him to do what he was told to do. The most amazing aspect of their teaching on this is that there are people who actually believe their nonsense. The message of the vision was clear to Peter—that the laws that had kept Jews and Gentiles separate had been removed. If there were no longer any legal prohibition against Jews mingling with Gentiles, then the laws forcing their separation could no longer be applied. The ceremonial laws, or that which determined clean vs. unclean, were spiritual in nature. That the law made certain foods “unclean” for Jews to eat didn’t mean that the food was not fit for human consumption, but that disobedience defiled a person (or made him “unclean”). Once those laws were no longer, there was no such thing as “unclean” food. Those laws being abolished through Christ is the subject of Ephesians 2. To further demonstrate that being unclean (defiled) had nothing to do with the food itself, read Ezra 2:62, where “unclean” applied to a priest’s lack of genealogical records. If “unclean, meant “unhealthy,” then that verse would be absurd. It was wholly a spiritual construct. Furthermore, their teaching in this is easily shown to be false by Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2:11-21, for Peter had acted on the message of his vision, and had started eating with Gentiles in their homes (which was previously forbidden by the ceremonial laws) until some Jews, who had not yet properly apportioned Christ’s work on Calvary, started condemning Peter’s actions, and he withdrew from the Gentiles. Paul said that Peter had condemned himself because of his hypocrisy. That alone (even if there weren’t other New Testament passages teaching this truth) thoroughly debunks this HRM tenet to be heresy, for if those laws had still applied, Paul would not have rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy, but for his breaking of the ceremonial laws.;

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Judaism also still  is a false religion (Satanism) and NOT even PART OF  the origin of Christianity. It is the same religion that the Pharisees practiced. Note the very cunning techniques Judiazers, Hebrew Roots enthusiasts  such as Mark Biltz, deceive us and their followers. Modern day Jews and  Judaism is all about worshipping the Anti  Christ   and not the real Jesus Christ, because they are   BEWITCHED (Gal 3:1). This  movement is called Hebrew Roots, and while it uses words and phrases from the bible and Jewish culture, there is nothing either Jewish or Christian about this group as you will see. The movement usually hides their beliefs and presents itself as simply seeking to educate Christians concerning their Jewish heritage. As they become acclimated to the Jewish orientation the more aberrant doctrines are slowly introduced. Hebrew Roots enthusiasts belief system seems to  be  very  well  “rationalized,” and their false peer pressure is blinding  upon them all  as well clearly a cult.. They  affirm the existence of an original Hebrew-language New Testament and, in some cases, denigrate the existing New Testament text written in Greek. This becomes a subtle attack on the reliability of the text of our Bible. If the Greek text is unreliable and has been corrupted, as is charged by some, the Church no longer has a standard of truth.

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Their  false assumption is that the Church has lost its Jewish roots and is unaware that Jesus and His disciples were Jews living in obedience to the Torah. For the most part, those involved advocate the need for every believer to walk a Torah-observant life. This means that the ordinances of the Mosaic Covenant must be a central focus in the lifestyle of believers today as it was with the Old Testament Jews of Israel. Keeping the Torah includes keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week (Saturday), celebrating the Jewish feasts and festivals, keeping the dietary laws, avoiding the “paganism” of Christianity (Christmas, Easter, etc.), and learning to understand the Scriptures from a Hebrew mindset. They teach that Gentile Christians have been grafted into Israel, and this is one reason every born-again believer in Jesus the Messiah is to participate in these observances. It is expressed that doing this is not required out of legalistic bondage, but out of a heart of love and obedience. However, they teach that to live a life that pleases God, this Torah-observant walk must be part of that life. The movement maintains that Christianity has been indoctrinated with the culture and beliefs of Greek and Roman philosophy and that ultimately biblical Christianity, taught in churches today, has been corrupted with a pagan imitation of the New Testament gospels.

“Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, [Ye must] be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no [such] commandment: It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell [you] the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” Acts 15:24-29 For them to suggest that any Gentile believer who follows Jesus must be placed under Old Testament law, Hebrew names  is nothing but bondage, and it’s a bondage that the Bible speaks against not only in the verses quoted here, but in many other places as well. Regarding the freedom we have in Christ, let me leave you with this verse from the Master himself: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36;

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THESE FALSE PROPHETS REALLY ARE STILL THE SONS OF THE SERPENT, THE DEVIL If the Judaizers are such pious “Torah keepers” as they say they are, they must know better than adding their own meanings or words to the Word of God, and even than teaching them. Torah, and also other Books in the Bible, are more than clear on this, strictly prohibiting such abominable practices, as following: Deuteronomy 4:2 (2) “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Deuteronomy 12:32 (32) “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. Proverbs 30:5-6 (5) Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. (6) Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. Revelation 22:18-19 (18) For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; (19) and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

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Need I list more?

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Judaism is a false religion that follows an extremely large set of “law” as a way of living. And, this “Jewish law” spoken here is not Torah, but “Halakha,”  a collection of orally transmitted interpretations of “Mitzvot” (613 biblical laws), “Talmudic laws,” and later including the rabbinical laws. Talmud consists of “Gemura” (“learning by tradition”), Mishna (“oral” Torah), and Torah. The actual Torah is the smallest part of the whole teaching, and it is mainly about the laws and the gematria (Kabbalistic numerology). Except actual Torah, they are all compilations of orally transmitted “teachings” of so-called “sages” and rabbis, which originated around the time of the Babylonian exile between 597 and 538 BC (2 Ki 24-25; 2 Ch 36; and Ezr – Neh).

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“Judaism is not just a set of Jewish  beliefs about God, man and the universe. Judaism is a comprehensive way of life, filled with rules and practices that affect every aspect of life: what you do when you wake up in the morning, what you can and cannot eat, what you can and cannot wear, how to groom yourself, how to conduct business, who you can marry, how to observe the holidays and Shabbat, and perhaps most important, how to treat God, other people, and animals. This set of rules and practices is known as halakhah.” This “Halakha” was “the law” against which our Lord and Apostle Paul spoke so strongly; they were the “tradition of elders,” and “the law” we should not be “under” (Romans 1-8). Matthew 15:1-9 (1) Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, (2) “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (3) He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? (4) “For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ (5) “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”– (6) ‘then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. (7) “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: (8) ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (9) And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ “ Believing to be following the teaching of Moses, most of Israelites were probably “Judaized” by the time our Lord Jesus Christ  began His ministry, which was over 400 years after the Pharisees began forming during the time of the Babylonian exile and had taken over the Judeans by their way, elevating themselves as the spiritual authority of the Israelites, against which Jesus Christ  our Messiah spoke. Even the Apostle Peter was actually “Judaized,” as he followed the tradition of Judaism until he was rightfully rebuked by the Apostle Paul for doing so and he Peter  repented of it. Please make no mistake that the “false” movement of God, Hebraic Roots Awakening  and the Messianic Jewish Movement are still  a lie, the big “deception.” As this confusion is misleading some believers to practice legalism and empty traditions of Judaism. They the present  Jews now  today  are not the “House of Judah.” The core group and the majority of the Zionist are false  Jews. They, as a group, are neither true descendants of Judah nor Jacob, and not even of Abraham. Christians alone now are..

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Judaism, which “the Jews” practice today, and traditions that are appearing to be biblical have been all distorted and usurped by the occult meanings. There are many secular Jewish people, some may be actually Christians, but the Illuminati Zionist Jews, many Orthodox Jews, and most of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews do practice Satanism based on Kabbalah. The biblical sacred objects, such as menorah, and “Tree of life,” and even the name of YHVH (Tetragramaton, יהוה “yod-hey-vav-hey”), have become mystical satanic symbols to them. Their lives are full of Kabbalistic symbols, amulets, magical prayers that take away your sin, and highly satanic rituals.Zionism is a way, or a trap, to “draw” everyone to Israel for their final annihilation Galatians 2:14 (14) But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? So, according to the translation by the NKJV, “Judaizing” means “to live as Jews.” It is not just about circumcision, but to live according to the customs and traditions of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If you follow the traditions of Judaism, you are in error, a Judaizer by definition. It does not matter either you believe that “you are saved by grace alone through faith” (Eph 2:8-9) and the circumcision is not required for the salvation, or not. If you do things what the Jews say to do, all most which are not applicable even if they were in the Bible, that is all  “Judaizing,” which means, “conforming to the practices and customs of false Judaism.” And, did you know that most of the practices and customs of the Messianic Jews are based on Judaism? And, Judaism, old or modern, is not based on the biblical teaching . . . not at all? Christianity is made up of people from “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation” (Rev 5:9; 13:7; 14:6), and not just “the Jews.”  Yes “the Jews,” are not the same as the House of Judah any longer. And, the Judaizers are those who “live as the Jews,” and who influence non-Jews to live as the Jews, following the teaching of Halakha, wearing what they wear (tallit, tzitzi, and kippah, etc.), talking like they talk with jargon Hebrew terminologies, calling YHVH, “HaShem,” meaning “the name,” spelling “God” with a dash in the middle (“G-d”), praying the prescribed prayers at the prescribed time, keeping the Sabbath and the Feasts religiously, eating the Kosher Food, and even getting circumcised. But, when they do them, they do with fear of breaking the law and feel the guilt when they do not do what they are “supposed to” do. Judaism is a false religion originates in the ancient Babylon. Judaism is of Satan. It only has an outward  appearance that they the Jews do follow Torah and worship God according to the Old Covenant.  Judaism was and is NOT of God , but of Satan, and 2) IS NOT the origin of Christianity.

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It is a fact that the Judaizers often first falsely  tell you the truth that the Christianity is revised Judaism. Then, they invariably lie and  say that their Judaized way is the true way to worship God, Jesus, and that Christians do not know “Torah” the way the Jews do and  that is CORRECT also! Of course, we all mostly do not know it, and that is a good thing, BECAUSE the Jews’ way of knowing Torah is Judaism, which is through Talmud (Mishnah ‘Oral Torah,’ Gemaria, Halakha) and NOT the original Five Books of Moses even intented for the past Jews. Before you know it if you falsely listen to them , then, you would be observing the feasts and Sabbath in Judaic ways. This is the very definition of Judaization. Doing so is as empty observation even of Easters and Christmas … From one big  lie to another, and you are being this still  still deceived. The fallacy that Christianity originated in Judaism is the BIGGEST LIE of this Age. The term, “Judeo-Christian” must be eliminated from your vocabulary and be replaced by the term, “Anointed Christianity.” For anyone to teach “Torah” to Christians, which he tells us to love and know God better in the same statement is still a great big lie, a demonic undertaken.. Judaism is the past, Christianity is the future. why are they doing these things to deceive us?  Because … Messianic and Hebraic Roots Movements are the new Judaization plot of the false Zionists, who  have been working in order to lead you astray into the trap of the Satanistic and Kabbalistic Judaism. This is a major part of the preparation for the “Great Deception,” and that is the false Jewish Yeshua messiah to come to Israel yet.. It is no minor mistake or confusion now, but it this  delusion will lead you into the great deception, then you will find yourself trapped in the midst of the Great Deception. And, then, it will be too late for you too. You will go to  Hell and not to the New Heavenly Jerusalem, in Heaven..

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Matthew 24:4 (4) And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.” Ephesians 5:6 (6) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. .

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Why is it that even the Messianic Jews rarely talk about Jesus directly? Most Jews are still not at all open to even consider any of the claims of Jesus Christ. One was defeated before he even began The truth has noting to do with it.. .

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The Jews hate Jesus Christ because they do not like being in a position of “weakness.” For one to come to Jesus Christ he has to admit that he has sinned and in need of a Saviour and therefore must repent and correct his conduct. The Jews find this absolutely abhorrent. The Chosen Jews do not want a Saviour. They do not believe they have ever sinned. They do not see any need to repent of anything. The Jews simply abhor the idea of getting down on their knees. Indeed every Jew who persists in his hatred of Jesus Christ, even the “new enemies” of the Cross: The Jews . “They are all the enemies of the Cross.” (Philippians 3) even because of their false pride , ” when push comes to shove the Jews will finally say, “I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew.” And so we see the Jews moving their negation of Jesus Christ into an outright warfare against Him. Their wishes will be answered in Hell.. as well as for all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists etc., too..” “You have found yourselves unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven” Those amongst them, that is, the rabbis & their admirers, are looking for a “messiah,” as they want him to be the conqueror of the all of the nations and also next to put them in charge of the world. There is no such thing as repentance in this their “messianic hope.” And this rabbinic “messianic hope” of conquering the Goyim, funnels down even to the secular Jews who give tacit submission to the rabbis, Bible”

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The most common reasons the Jews will not accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah is the same bad reasons Apostle Judas did not.. They falsely want a Judaic Messiah that will make Jews the center of the Universe on earth, ii is due to a false pride and the false idolistic Jewish culture worship For a Jew Moses is credited with writing the Torah and is the law giver and for them falsely Paul cannot trump that, which could be one reason why many a Jewish or Muslim person may not appreciate the Christians view of influential Paul.. Those Jews who too often also are only partially aware of the details of Christian teachings and the teachings of Paul falsely tend to see Paul as being at a main fault for creating the opposition to main Judaism. . They are not what they pretend to be..  

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Why did so many Jews, Messianic Jews still do hate Jesus Christ , the Church and persecute the Christians? They will not go to a Christian church falsely too. Some people have the impression that Jewish hostility for Christianity began only after Jews experienced persecution by Christians. Actually, Jewish hostility toward Jesus Christ and His church has been ongoing for the last 2000 years still. The main problem still is that the Jews hate the New Testament and the New People of God , the Christians, Apostle Paul too.. even Jesus in reality.. Jews today still have the mindset of Jesus’ enemies in the first century, The problem even with the Messianic Jews and most JEWS is that they are color blind.. they can only see things through a Jewish perspective.. not the reality.. I’ve never felt so HATED for being a real Christian in all my life like I have been by the false Jewish only lovers and Messianic Jews ! The early Christians were stoned and persecuted by Jews basically it was because of the Jews unbelief and fear their religion/tradition would be undermined, and that is still true today. But also Paul still said there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male or female but all one on Christ Jesus. . Messianic Judaism is not just Christianity for Jews or even Christianity in a Jewish context. It is the modern equivalent of the “Judaizers” who plagued the New Testament in the time of the apostles. Today, as then, they attempt to bring both Gentile “proselytes” and Jews into bondage to law. Paul told Peter he “stood condemned” for allowing such Judaizers to again impose the bondage of circumcision. (Galatians 2) But many of today’s Messianic Judaizers want to do much more: impose not just mandatory circumcision on their followers but the entirety of the Old Testament law!  http://wittnessed.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/they-are-not-what-they-pretend-to-be/   .

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The false Jewish stumbling block is too often still Jesus Christ.. .. Messianic Jews who falsely claim that “I want to help the Christians in churches but my spirit cannot take it there much longer. And I’ll not have my daughter identifying with those who hate our Judaic heritage.” “You are NOT meant to stay in a Christian church on a permanent basis”. is STILL a false diversion. . To be fair, every Messianic Jew tends to falsely says they love Yeshua, Jews and they love Israel only and they falsely are still mimicking Jewish religious and identity behaviors, so very typically the Christians rightfully people accuse these Jewish people of error, racism and false partiality exclusionism and other unpleasant things, As it is typically like having your Jewish neighbor burst through your Christian Home front door, raid your fridge for food even , say that they’re moving in, and you have to “share” your stuff too the food, bed, clothes, toothbrush) with them forever…and you don’t have a say in the matter: Dream on..  http://witnessed.wordpress.com/…/4180i-also-do-know-them/ .

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The Messianic Jews are the “wolves in the sheep’s clothing” (Mat 7:15) in a truer sense. And, they are the “Judaizers” Apostle Paul spoke of in Galatians 2:14. They were revived and came back with vengeance for the purpose of Zionism . Notice how they both encourage and guilt Christians into pouring money on Israel and promote trips to Israel, on top of billions of dollars of the U.S. tax money already being poured into her every year, while close to 90% of the people in that country are not even the true children of Israel Zionist Israeli Messianic Jews even are still an abomination to God,.. Yeshua is NOT a Jew… Therefore, a “Jewish” messiah is a false messiah. Our true Messiah is a Judahite, from the Tribe of Judah, an Israelite, a Son of Shem, according to the flesh. But, He was not a Judean when He walked on earth; He did not live in Judea, where Jerusalem was located. He was born in Bethlehem, lived in Nazareth, and later Capernaum, Galilee. He was called the “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus did NOT practice Judaism, and When He returns, our Messiah will NOT look like a Jewish rabbi. Jews are part of the “Tares”; they look like us, but they are not like us. If you are a Messianic Jew or Israeli Arab Christian, any Israeli Christian who supports the government of Israel, which is inherently Zionist by its very history and nature, you are on the wrong side..

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There are No Bible Verse Tells Us Messiah’s Name Is Yeshua I like to ask the Yeshua people the following: Would you please give us a Bible verse from the Hebrew Scriptures that tells us Messiah’s name is Yeshua? None have ever done so or ever will since Yeshua is never found in the OT or NT in reference to Messiah. Messiah is never identified by name in the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures. . Regarding the Jewish Messianic ministries, we have learned that some of them emphasize the word “Yeshua” to such a degree that they say this is the name in which salvation is found and not Jesus. (Furthermore, many of them also believe in the heresy of eternal security!) . In an article entitled, We Call Him Yeshua it was written: One of the aspects of Messianic Judaism that stands out the most is the fact we usually refer to the Messiah as Yeshua instead of Jesus. Here is why. Messianic Jews tend to refer to Messiah as Yeshua. Why do we do this? To put it simply, in calling Him Yeshua we are restoring to Him His Jewish identity. Yeshua was and is the name He was called when He walked on this Earth. . But what does Jesus’ Jewish identity have to do with anything? This is never magnified in the New Testament. Jesus is the Savior of all who will repent and submissively trust in him. Rev. 7 states there will be people in God’s kingdom from every tribe, people, language and nation all redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. Of what nationality Messiah was as He walked the earth is totally irrelevant.  http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/yeshua.htm .

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I too now have detailed on many places for the whole world to see how unchristlike, immoral too often the Messianic Jews behave . . yes those unacceptable persons, of bullies, abusers, control freaks, liars, slanderers so they will not get away with it.. and the New Covenant is not a continuation of the old TESTAMENT.. These Jews are next again going to repeat the history of ancient Israel, which by and large was a history of apostasy. The apostle Paul expressed his justified fear in this ominous prediction when he addressed the church elders of Ephesus:I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Acts 20:29-31 . In the New Testament the emphasis is now solely on the heavenly Jerusalem..  https://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/in-the-new-testament-the-emphasis-is-now-solely-on-the-heavenly-jerusalem/ .

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Since the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. there has been a desire among many observant Jews to rebuild the Jewish Temple. The rebuilding of the temple is not sanctioned by God. Jesus, the Holy Spirit nor promised directly as such too.. there is no need for a third temple as Jesus is the temple now. . John 8: 23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. . John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. http://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/the-new-heavenly-Jerusalem/ .

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The true Christianity of the Israelites was slowly subverted by an underground current of the spiritual ancestors of the Pharisees, the Jews, This covert corruption began with the worship of the golden calf in the wilderness, then continued with the worship of the pagan god Baal, and then grew to include child sacrifice through the fire to the pagan god Molech. When God raised up prophets to rebuke Israel for their waywardness, the prophets were ignored, imprisoned or stoned to death. Eventually, the Israelites were taken captive by Babylon because of their apostasy.Finally, Jesus, the Messiah, came but this wicked undercurrent had taken hold in such a strong way that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had become so arrogant and self-righteous that they accused Jesus of being a demon-controlled imposter. Jesus rebuked the leaders for bringing false doctrines into the beliefs of the Christian Israelites by promoting traditions that “made the commandments of God of none effect.” “Thus you have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Matthew 15:6And He (Jesus) said unto them (the Pharisees), Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your owntradition. Mark 7:9 Once they had rejected and killed the Messiah, Jesus Christ, they fell into even deeper darkness. In A.D. 70, Jerusalem and the temple in it were destroyed. Many of the Pharisees ended up in Babylon where these abominable oral “traditions of the elders” were committed to writing and became known as the Babylonian Talmud, the “holiest” book of Judaism. This evil undercurrent that had been smoldering for hundreds of years had now taken over completely, and a new occult religion was born – the religion of Judaism. The term “Judeo-Christian” is an oxymoron, the combining of two words defining two diametrically opposing systems of belief. It’s similar to using the term “blackish-white” or cloning a human being combined with a beast. The authors of Judaism were the Pharisees – the murderers of Christ! The values of Judaism are violently opposed to the values of Christianity as will be shown by quotes from their “holiest” book, the Talmud, including the Talmudic quotes that calls for theft from, lying to, and murdering of Christians – by the Jews. The term “Judeo-Christian” is a farce, total nonsense, and an abominable lie. It has been foisted on, and embraced by, almost all who refer to themselves as “Christians.” But how can they call themselves Christians when they are essentially worshiping the followers of Judaism who ridicule, curse and denounce Jesus Christ    http://postedat.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/falsely-torah-observant-jewish-and-gentile-messianic-judaism/ .

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As to the book of Revelations most decent Bible scholars say the symbols in Revelation refer to events and places familiar to its intended audience – Firstly to the first century Christians in Asia Minor. The book, itself, states that its message is directed at the first century Christians in Asia Minor, and that the events it describes would happen “soon” (Revelation 1: 1-4, 1:9-11, 22:10) The city Babylon described in Revelation is called “Mystery Babylon.” The prophecy of Mystery Babylon is found in Revelation 17:3-5. “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” . Verse 18 of the chapter tells us that the woman is a city. “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” In verse 1, we are told that the woman sits on many waters. Verse 15 explains the meaning of the waters. “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Not only is this woman a city, but the city is apparently the headquarters over a vast international commerce, financial, political system. The Angel’s warning was that God’s people might hear His voice saying: “Come out of her, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.  http://witnessed.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/babylon-the-great-the-mother-of-harlots/ .

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One thing is certain … that when THIS FALSE  end time prophecy is widely promoted by a card-carrying Zionist, such as John Hagee (the founder of Christians United For Israel) with bells and whistles, it is not true prophecy. Simple, and that easy. The problem is, however, that too many people are mindlessly listening to him and following him, not even knowing what “Zionism” is AND WHAT THE BIBLE REALY SAYS ABOUT IT TOO. John Hagee clearly “predicts” that the rapture will occur sometime during the four blood moon eclipses, and somewhat vaguely implies that the Messiah is returning after that. But, more importantly, he has always been a strong advocate for the unbiblical “Armageddon,” by which he means the Middle Eastern War in which Israel attacks the Arabic nations. He wants war and wants Israel to nuke Iran. This is false Zionism: the projection of the  supremacy of the Illuminati-controlled current political State of Israel. It is the way our Father chooses to fulfill His plan to eliminate the evil on earth, but we are never to conform to the false way the current State of Israel is and her political agenda are at all.

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“Zionism,“ – a false  international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel – a false Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in response to growing anti-Semitism and sought to re-establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel. It was first conceptualized by a Jewish German, Theodor Herzl, in his book, “Der Judenstat” (“The Jewish State,” 1896), and later became a strong and forceful movement among the Jews. As you can see already from the definitions above, this “movement” has nothing to do with the true biblical and genetic Israelites. And, this is a “political movement,” falsely claiming the biblical entitlement of the Land of Israel based on the “false” identity as the Children of Abraham (Gen 12-17), claiming the right to live in the Land of Israel according to the Abrahamic Covenant, and also, based on the false prophecy that “the Jews” are still now the “Chosen People” of God to rule the world as Christians alone now are the chosen people of God. . The current State of Israel has been created with political manipulations and the military force by a small group of international banker elites for their rebellious ambitions. The illuminati, the agent of Satan (Lucifer, they prefer to call), has been working tirelessly for hundreds of years to mimic and “counterfeit” the true Restoration through his last and the greatest plot called, the “New World Order (NWO).” They are trying to establish a police-state centralized one-world government with one-world religion, which is the Satanism (includes Freemasonry, Judaism, Paganism,   New Age, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God,  Mormonism, etc. all false religions combined), placing their own “false messiah” on the throne, and rule from Jerusalem. They are even trying to build their own so-called the “third temple” to forcefully fulfill their diabolical understanding of the biblical prophecies (Temple Institute). I kid you not. That is the Satan’s grand scheme to take over the process of the Restoration and subvert it, just as he has been plotting and relentlessly working at it from the beginning. .

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God, Jesus Christ  never intended to re establish a Jewish  nation in the Land of Israel even “by force” or by the hand of man.The New Jerusalem is the Bride of the Messiah Jesus , and that rather still will be the City of God where His remnant who will have been regenerated and perfected spiritually will dwell with their God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit . The Abrahamic Covenant was fulfilled as the Messiah Jesus the Christ,  his Seed (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:16), came, died for us, and was resurrected. Now, those who believe in Him of any race, nationality, or tongue can inherit the heavenly Jerusalem in Him in the Age to come (Gal 3:13; et al.). The biblical Zion is not meant to be on earth or consisted of any particular race or people group

Heb 12:22   But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:  29 For our God is a consuming fire. .

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The very false Hebrew or Greek  knowledge, emphasis  on a decent Bible study falsely now replaces what the Holy Spirit leading, guidance, talking?  and in reality very  few educated Jews or Greeks are real Christians even. It is the Holy Spirit who will guide and lead you into all truth not the languages you know… Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit for that purpose too..

1 Corinthians 2 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Ephesians 3 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Colossians 1 28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

1 Corinthians 1 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1 Corinthians 2 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

1 Corinthians 3 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

2 Corinthians 1 12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. .

Many ungodly persons, Jews and Jew lovers  who cannot handle the truth tend to behave next like a kid, bully.. and   all they can do  in response is to call people names.. such as Hitler, Jew Hater, and they do  show to all what they  are  like.. they  are   falsely in denial, cannot face the reality, truth so they have to  make a false personal attack on others instead of being factual, coherent.. this is normal behavior of the immoral persons too. By their false denials Who is fooling whom?
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It seems on any subject there will be two different opposite views often too, If one express an opinion, view one can automatically expect contradictions,oppositions to it, such as real life, You get used to it..
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Many people have their own false images, scenarios, and so they do falsely refuse to see the truth of what is going on and in denial to the truth,these people they next even do falsely say or do anything, they  lies, slander included and make false personal attacks.. these people are the ones who need help
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These are the same  people in Denial who really do delude themselves too THAT THEY ARE NOT LIARS, as they lie and say I am not guilty, the facts are untrue, this is absurd, crazy nuts, as too often they still cannot deny the reality especially after they are exposed
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Matthew 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
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There are so many childish, unloving, dogmatic, slanderous person, arrogant, pretend persons who take one view and now falsely do try to push it down other people’s throats, and they do falsely believe they are better than other persons now cause they have hold their view.. Now if you do not agree with them, dare to oppose them they will go crazy on you. calling you slanderous names, insulting you, falsely attacking you personally, trying to attack you as being immoral, demonic, an antichrist or what ever as they are in false denial to the real truth and why? their pride will not let them admit they have been deceivers and have been deceived.. .. these bad persons they really should not even be on the net preaching to others till they get matured, wiser.
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When you oppose and criticize openly some of these very the bad persons one next still tends to get a false denial, a remark in response like you are crazy, you need professional help. They still really cannot face the reality there are things in their life that need serious, drastic changes. These people in denial are the ones who often need professional help for their own short comings, sickness. Their false denial, diversion, distortion does not change the negative reality about their own unacceptable acts. These People in the state of false denials, clearly also who lie often, they do now also tend to have severe personal, mental disorders next even cause one tends to eventually believe next ones own lies as being the truth, and they can no longer differentiate their own lies from reality, the truth. By their false denials Who is fooling whom? You cannot fool all the people all the time and now matter how smart you are there is still someone more wiser who can see the truth still too..
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Most of these people with their personality disorders may not perceive that there is anything wrong with their behavior and thus they are not motivated to change it. It is important to note that these personality disorders are considered to have their onset in late adolescence or early adulthood and they alone are responsible for it too.
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Again false Denial, it is very very common when many an individual are openly confronted with the truth they do not like so that they resort to a false denial.
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When confronted with the truth the denier they often respond with a similar personal counter attack remark as ”you are crazy”. “I reject your reality… and substitute my own.” Their false denial, diversion, distortion does not change the negative reality about themselves still though. Sadly it is a negative natural human tendency to devolve into denial.” It’s not just a moral compass that’s lacking, but the ability to honest, or to stand apart. Denial often comes out of a false pride, a fear of being openly exposed as being wrong. Denial is a false convenient escape, excuse for inaction for persons now facing a situation that requires a decision or action that conflicts with his or her established past policy.
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Denial too often can be further disastrous upon themselves and others.. for denial is not seeing data at all or seeing it and coming to an erroneous conclusion within oneself. One’s false denial is often based on their own severe personal failure next due to a personal disconnect with real life. Illustrated fully by the story of the Emperor with new clothes.
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False Denial (also called abnegation) is a often defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and  rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence, a mechanism of the immature mind that conflicts with the ability to learn from and cope with reality. The subject may now deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether (simple denial), admit the fact but deny its seriousness (minimization) or admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility (transference). The concept of denial is particularly related to the denial of one’s addiction to alcohol for example, or to one slandering others, abusing them stealing, lying.. their denial or their minimization of their own wrong doings is the essential part of what enables them next to to continue his or her behavior in the face of evidence that, to an outsider, that is overwhelming. “The American Heart Association cites denial as a principal reason that treatment of a heart attack is delayed. Because the symptoms are so varied, and often have other potential explanations, the opportunity exists for the patient to deny the emergency, often with fatal consequences. It is common for patients to delay mammograms or other tests because of a fear of cancer, even though this is clearly maladaptive.”
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Types of Denial include now
Denial of fact: This form of denial is where someone avoids a fact by lying.
This lying can take the form of an outright falsehood (commission), leaving out certain details in order to tailor a story (omission), This form of
denial involves avoiding personal responsibility by blaming, minimizing or
justifying.
Denial of responsibility: Denial of impact: avoiding thinking about or
understanding the harms their behavior have caused to themselves or others.
Denial of awareness: they do not admit any previous awareness of the
negative reality.
Denial of cycle: Denial of cycle is where a person avoids looking at their
decisions leading up to an event or does not consider their pattern of
decision making and how harmful behavior is repeated.
Denial of denial: This latter form of denial typically overlaps with all of
the other forms of denial, but involves more self-delusion. People in a
false denial are really nuts, delusional..
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There are tools and practices that we can implement to overcome the psychological trap of anyone’s false denial.
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The Public exposure and prosecution of the guilty is one of the best approach serving everyone’s best interest too.
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ONE OF MY OWN FAVOURITE EXPRESSION IS THAT “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BEING A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT”.
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Now about those in false denials, they need help for they are likely demon possessed too and they  still really cannot face the reality there are things in their life that need serious, drastic changes. These people in denial are the ones who often need professional help for their own short comings, sickness. Jews  included now so one tends to get from them a false denial, remark in response  like you are crazy, you need professional help. They still really  cannot face the reality there are things in their life that need serious, drastic changes. These people in denial are the ones who often need professional help for their own short comings, sickness. Their false denial, diversion, distortion does not change the negative reality about their own unacceptable acts. Their false denial, diversion, distortion does not change the negative reality about their own unacceptable acts. These People in the state of false denials, clearly also who lie often, they do now also tend to have severe personal, mental disorders next even cause one tends to eventually believe next ones own lies as being the truth, and they can no longer differentiate their own lies from reality, the truth. By their false denials Who is fooling whom? Jews  included now.. 

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We all are right to question the state of Israel’s actions and I am not anti-Semitic for doing so. I think the religious fundamentalism exhibited by certain Zionist and Orthodox Jewish groups needs to be dealt with in a similar manner to Islamic fundamentalism, I don’t see the distinction between the two, both are equally repulsive. “  Less any one gets lost, there are Good Jews, Good Arabs, good Americans, good Canadians and bad ones too.   But is seems both Jews and Arabs are equally guilty of hate, unforgiveness, revenge, theft, murder, an eye for an eye approach  so we can really not support either side as being mainly in the right  THEY BOTH FALSELY DO PREACH THEIR VERSION OF THE LETTER OF THE LAW OVER LOVE  YOUR NEIGHBOUR  TOO! . It seems that anything anti Jewish is falsely distorted as being anti-Semitism again. And so is the New Testament, Christians, the apostles, and Jesus Christ now as well..  the spin doctors in Israel,  the Jewish supporters are hard at work justifying all of their actions, the good and the bad ones. Some they even falsely manage  to paint supporters of Israel as moderates and all others as being anti-Semites, and many Jews  still are often are deflecting attention away from Israeli injustices against the Palestinians    but still the Criticism of Israel is not an anti-Semitic act. .

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Do see also

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/shalom/

http://1inspirational.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/how-accurate-is-the-protestant-bible/

http://canada.today.tripod.com/d/lying.htm

http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/canadian-jews-falsey-object-to-the-truth-being-displayed/

http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/criticism-of-israel-is-not-anti-semitic/ .

http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/anti-jewish/ http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/canadian-jews-falsey-object-to-the-truth-being-displayed/

http://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/where-should-we-worship-god/

Jewish settlers attack US officials visiting West Bank

In an incident likely to further chill US-Israeli relations, Jewish settlers threw rocks at American officials visiting the West Bank Friday to look into Palestinian claims that settlers had uprooted scores of their olive trees. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0103/Jewish-settlers-attack-US-officials-visiting-West-Bank

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Now  all this Jewish Israel problem could have been avoided a long time ago.. Many prominent Jewish figures over the past century — from Albert Einstein to -Sigmund Freud:- have opposed the idea of an ethnically exclusive Israeli state and it is still not supported by Jesus, any of the Apostles, the New Testament .. Sigmund Freud: “I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.” Albert Einstein: “The (Israeli) state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and a narrow-mindedness. I believe it is bad.” .

THE MAJOR ERRORS OF CHRISTIAN ZIONISM

The false interpretation of biblical literalism of Christian Zionism leads them to falsely to demonise Arabs and Palestinians as permanent Satanic enemies of the Jewish people… Christian Zionism a false teaching that focuses on the Jews in the land rather than an inclusive theology that centres on Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world consequently provides a theological endorsement for racial segregation, apartheid and war. This is diametrically opposed to the inclusive theology of justice, peace and reconciliation which lie at the heart of the new covenant, the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles too.

THE MAJOR ERRORS OF CHRISTIAN ZIONISM

BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS

THE PEOPLE WHO HATE THE CHRISTIANS, AND AMERICANS FALSELY SUCH  AS THE JUDAIZERS  FALSELY USE THIS BOOK, THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS  FOR THEIR FALSE INTERPRETATIONS.

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Now as to the book of Revelations most decent Bible scholars say the symbols in Revelation refer to events and places familiar to its intended audience – Firstly to the first century Christians in Asia Minor. The book, itself, states that its message is directed at the first century Christians in Asia Minor, and that the events it describes would happen “soon” (Revelation 1: 1-4, 1:9-11, 22:10). Face it  next even now there is much disagreement as to the actual interpretation of this book.

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The Old testament prophecy of Jeremiah clearly stated that the original Babylon would be destroyed, never to be inhabited again. The physical city of Babylon was originally built by Nimrod after the flood. It was located on the Euphrates River, about 55 miles south of where Baghdad, Iraq stands today. The name Babylon came from the Tower of Babel that was constructed there. Babylon became a large city of global prominence around 1728 BC during the reign of Hammurabi. The glory years of Babylon were achieved under Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC). The city declined during the reign of Belshazzar, and came to ruin when Xerxes, the Persian king, destroyed it in 478 BC. Thus, Jeremiah’s prophesied destruction of Babylon was accomplished, and, just as the prophecy said, it has never been inhabited to this day

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The city Babylon described in Revelation is called “Mystery Babylon.” The prophecy of Mystery Babylon is found in Revelation 17:3-5. “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

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Verse 18 of the chapter tells us that the woman is a city. “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” In verse 1, we are told that the woman sits on many waters. Verse 15 explains the meaning of the waters. “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Not only is this woman a city, but the city is apparently the headquarters over a vast international commerce, financial, political system. The Angel’s warning was that God’s people might hear His voice saying: “Come out of her, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4

https://jesussayscome.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/biblical-prophecies-regarding-the-jews/

How to be Inexpressibly Happy

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How to be Inexpressibly Happy

by R A TORREY—

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: — 1 Peter 1:8

I have here a beautiful text, a text that you all know, but I wonder how many of you have ever pondered it enough to take in all its wonderful wealth of meaning.

A young woman in England many years ago always wore a golden locket that she would not allow anyone to open or look into, and everyone thought there must be some romance connected with that locket and that in that locket must be the picture of the one she loved. The young woman died at an early age, and after her death the locket was opened, everyone wondering whose face he would find within. And in the locket was found simply a little slip of paper with these words written upon it, “Though I have not seen Him, I love.” Her Lord Jesus was the only lover she knew and the only lover she longed for, and she had gone to be with Him, the one object of her whole heart’s devotion, the unseen but beloved Savior.

But it is to the last part of the verse that I wish to call your particular attention tonight, “Even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

This text informs us (and many of us do not need to be informed of it, for we know it by blessed experience) that one who really believes on Jesus Christ, our unseen, but ever living Lord and Savior, rejoices with “inexpressible and glorious joy.” The Greek word translated “joy” is a very strong word, describing extreme joy or jubilant joy. The word “inexpressible” declares that this jubilant joy is of such a character that we cannot, by any possibility, explain it adequately to others. Everyone who really believes on the Lord Jesus does rejoice with an jubilant joy that is beyond all description. And those who do truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are the only ones who rejoice this way. Others may have a certain amount of joy, a certain measure of gladness, but the only people who really know “inexpressible and glorious joy” are those who really believe on Jesus Christ.

Who is there among us who does not wish to be happy? Happiness is the one thing all men are seeking. One man seeks it in one way, and another man seeks it in another way, but all men are in pursuit of it. Even the man who is “happy only when he is miserable” is seeking happiness in this strange way of cultivating a delightful melancholy by always looking on the dark side of things. One man seeks money because he thinks that money will make a man happy. Another man seeks worldly pleasure because he thinks that worldly pleasure will make a man happy. Still another seeks learning, the knowledge of science, or philosophy, or history, or literature, because he thinks that learning brings the true joy; but they are all in pursuit of the one thing, happiness.

The vast majority of men who seek happiness do not find it. You may say what you please, but for the majority of men this is an unhappy world. I go down into the houses of the poor, I do not find many happy people there. I go into the homes of the rich, I do not find many happy people even there. Study the faces of the people you meet on the street, at places of entertainment, or anywhere else, how many really radiant faces do you see? When you do see one it is so exceptional that you note it at once. But there is a way, and a very simple way, a very sure way, and a way that is open to all, not only to find happiness, but to be unspeakably happy. Our text tells us what that way is. Listen, “Even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

This statement of Peter’s is true. How do I know it is true? In the first place, I know it is true because the Word of God says so. Whatever this book says is true. In the second place, I know it is true because I have put the matter to the test of personal experience, and found it true. A good many people say, “I do not believe the Bible.” Well, I do. I believe the Bible for a good many sufficient reasons; but there is this one reason why I believe the Bible that I wish to mention tonight: I believe the Bible because I have personally tested scores and scores of its most astonishing and apparently most incredible statements and found every one of them true in my own experience. Don’t you think that if I knew a man who made very many statements that I could test for myself, some of them apparently incredible, and I tested these statements one after another through a long period of years, and found every one of them true, and never one single statement failed, don’t you think that I would believe that man after a while? Well, that is just my experience with the Bible, and I believe it. I would be a fool if I did not. The statement of the text is one of those that I have tested, and I have found it true.

I was not always happy. Indeed, I was once unspeakably miserable. I had sought happiness very earnestly. I had sought happiness in amusement and sin, and found, not joy, but wretchedness. In my pursuit of happiness I had tried study, the study of languages, science, philosophy and literature, but I did not find happiness in these things. At last I turned to Jesus Christ and believed on Him, and I found not merely happiness, but something better, joy, “inexpressible and glorious joy.” Whatever heaven may be or may not be, I know that on this earth he who really believes on Jesus Christ, who puts himself in Christ’s hands, to be led, and taught, and guided, and strengthened, puts himself in the hands of Jesus Christ for Jesus Christ to do all He will with him, I know that such a person finds “inexpressible and glorious joy.”

Why Those Who Believe in Jesus Christ Have Inexpressible and Glorious Joy

First of all, those who believe on Jesus Christ have “inexpressible and glorious joy” because they know that their sins are all forgiven. It is a wonderful thing to know that your sins are all forgiven, to know that there is not one single, slightest cloud between you and God, to know that no matter how many, or how great your sins may have been, that they are all blotted out; to know that God has put them all behind His back, where no one can ever get at them; to know that God has sunk all your sins in the depths of the sea, from which they can never be raised; that they are all gone. A little boy once asked his mother, “Mother, where are our sins after they are blotted out?” His mother replied, “My boy, where are those figures that you erased from your paper yesterday?” He answered, “I rubbed them out.” Then she asked, “Where are they now?” he replied, “They are nowhere.” “Well,” she said, “that is just the same with your sins when God has blotted them out. They are nowhere. They have ceased to be.”

Oh, friends, what a joy it is to know that there is not one single tiny cloud between you and the Holy God whom we call Father and who rules this universe. Suppose that you had offended the laws of the nation and had been sent to prison on a life sentence, and a pardon were brought to you, do you not think you would be happy? But that is nothing compared with the joy of knowing that your every sin is blotted out. Some years ago Governor Stuart of Pennsylvania determined to pardon one of the prisoners in the Pennsylvania State prison, so he sent for Mr. Moody and said to him, “I have determined to pardon one of the prisoners in our state’s prison, and I want you to go and take the pardon to him. You can preach to the prisoners if you want to while you are doing it.” So Mr. Moody went, carrying the pardon with him, and before he began to preach he said, “I have a pardon for one of you men that the Governor has sent by me.” He did not intend to tell who it was who was pardoned until the sermon was over, but as he looked around on his audience and saw how anxious they all were, how eager they were, how a very agony of suspense was in their faces, Mr. Moody thought, “This will never do, I can’t keep these men in this suspense,” so he said, “I will tell you now who the man is,” and he read his name from the pardon. Do you not think that, that was a glad moment for that one man out of those hundreds of prisoners, a glad moment for the one man who had the Governor’s pardon, and who could walk out of prison a free man? Yes, but that is nothing to knowing that the eternal God has eternally pardoned your sins. Every true Christian knows that, he knows that every one of0 his sins is forgiven. How does he know it? Because the Bible says so in many places.

For example, it says in Acts 13:39, “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”so we know it because God says so. But no one but the believer in Jesus Christ knows that his sins are all forgiven. If anyone who is not a believer in Jesus Christ says, “I know my sins are all forgiven,” he says what is not true; for he does not know it, and cannot know it, for it is not a fact; but a Christian knows it because the Word of God says so.

The Christian knows his sins are all forgiven for another reason, that is, because the Holy Spirit bears witness in his own heart to the fact. One day, when the Apostle Peter was preaching to Cornelius, the Roman officer, and to his household, he said, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”(Acts 10:43), and everyone in his audience believed it. The Spirit of God descended right then and there and filled their hearts with the knowledge of sins forgiven, and they “began to magnify God” with jubilant hearts and jubilant voices. I tell you that was a joyful meeting.

A king, a great king, once wrote one of the greatest songs that ever was written. That song has lasted through the ages. It has been sung and is still being sung by thousands. It has been sung by millions, and though it was written many centuries ago, it is just as sweet today as the day the king wrote it. The man who wrote this song was a great king, the greatest king of his day, he was also one of the greatest generals of his day, one of the greatest generals of any day. He had great armies, the all-conquering armies of the day. He had a magnificent palace. I do not suppose that any other earthly king was ever so beloved as he was. His song was about joy and about happiness. He does not say in that song, “How happy is the man who is a great king,” or, “How happy is the man who is a great general.” What does he say? “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1, translated literally from the Hebrew): “There is no happiness like the joy of knowing your sins are all forgiven.” Oh, what a joy thrills the heart when a man knows that his sins are fully, freely, and forever forgiven. That is one reason why he who believes on Jesus Christ is inexpressibly happy, and you can have that inexpressible happiness today. I do not care how black your life may have been in the past; I do not care how far you may have wandered from God; I do not care how old you may have grown in sin; if you take Jesus Christ today for your Savior and your Lord, and believe on Him, your every sin will be blotted out, and it will be your privilege to know it.

In the second place, those who believe on Jesus Christ rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because they are free from the most grinding and crushing of all forms of slavery, the slavery of sin. There is many a slave in this audience tonight. Some of you are slaves of strong drink. Some of you men and some of you women are slaves of drink. You know you are slaves of drink. Some of you are slaves of drugs. Some of you are slaves of an uncontrollable temper. Some of you are slaves of acts of impurity or impurity of thought. Some of you are slaves of other sins. The grossest, vilest, most degrading slavery in the universe is the slavery of sin. Yes, many of you here tonight are slaves. But the Lord Jesus says in John 8:31, 32, ” If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He says again in the thirty-sixth verse, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” There is not a slave in this building tonight who cannot have his chains snapped in a moment, yes, in a moment, by the mighty Son of God, if only he will believe on Jesus and trust Him to do it. How many a man and how many a woman I have known who once were slaves of sin in its most degrading and hopeless forms, who now are free.

One of the dearest and most honored and most useful friends I ever had was Sam Hadley of New York City. Sam Hadley was once hopelessly enslaved by sin. Strong drink had utterly mastered him and undermined his character. He had committed 138 forgeries, and was being sought for by the police. One night, after having spent the night before in a New York jail with the “shakes,” in a mission meeting a few blocks away from the jail he cried to Jesus to save him, and Jesus saved him right then and there; and I have often heard him say that never from that night had he ever had the slightest desire for that which had enslaved him more than anything else, intoxicating drink. My, what a happy man he became! All who knew him testified that he had “inexpressible and glorious joy.” I wish you could have looked in Sam Hadley’s face and seen the joy in that redeemed and radiant countenance. But we do not need to call Sam Hadley back from heaven to testify, for there are hundreds of people right here in this building tonight who once were complete slaves, who now are God’s free men and free women, and who could testify to the fact. That is one reason why we are inexpressibly happy, because we are free. How the Southern Blacks rejoiced when they came to understand they were set free. They shouted and sang, “Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!” Why? Because once they were slaves, but now were free. No wonder, then, that we rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because we know that we are free, and free forever.

In the third place, those who believe on Jesus Christ rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy,” because they are delivered from all fear. There is nothing that darkens the human heart more and robs it of all joy and fills it with gloom than fear in some of its many forms.

Those who truly believe on Jesus Christ are saved from all fear. They are delivered from all fear of misfortune; they are delivered from all fear of man; they are delivered from all fear of death; they are delivered from all fear of eternity. Do you know, friends, that to a true believer in Jesus Christ “eternity” is one of the sweetest words in the English language? Oh, how it makes our hearts swell, that word, “eternity.” But “eternity” is not a sweet word to the unsaved. Write these words, “Where will you spend eternity?” on a card and hand it to a man who is not a Christian, and they will make him mad; write these same words, “Where will you spend eternity?” on a card and hand it to a Christian, and they will make him glad. Why is it? Simply because a true believer on Jesus Christ is not afraid of but delights in thoughts of eternity. Why, to him who believes on Jesus Christ eternity is glory.

In the fourth place, he who believes on Jesus Christ rejoices with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because he knows he will live forever. Is not that something to rejoice over? Is it not wonderful? We read in 1 John 2:17, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. We all know that it is true that “the world passes away.” We certainly ought to know it by this time; but it is equally true that “he who does the will of God lives forever.”

Sometimes as we ride along our beautiful roads we see the stately mansions of our multimillionaires, and one will think, “It must be very pleasant to live there.” Well, I suppose it must be, but think a moment. How long will these people live there? Perhaps the father of the household may live there ten years, possibly twenty years. Then where does he live? Some of the children may live there twenty, thirty, possibly, forty years, then what? The grave. I tell you it is not worth much after all. But the Christian looks on, and on, and on, to a life that has no end, to a life that is eternal. Glory!

In the fifth place, those who truly believe on Jesus Christ rejoice greatly with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because they know they are children of God. It is a great thing to know that you are a child of God. How does the Christian know it? He knows it because God says so in John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” A child of God, think of it! Sometimes as I have traveled around the world someone would point out to me some man, and say, “That man is the son of such and such a man, naming some king. Would you not like to be the son of a great king? Just look at that young man. He is the son of a king.” In one country many years ago, when the king business was better than it is today, I was taken up and introduced to the son of one of the reigning monarchs of Europe, and the man who introduced me whispered to me, “He is the son of So-and-So” (naming the king). Well, what of it? He was a fine man in himself, but what if he was the son of a king? I am a son of God, and that is far greater, and every believer in Jesus Christ in this building tonight is a child of God, the child of “the King of kings.” And any one of you here tonight, if you are not already a child of God, can become one in an instant by receiving the Lord Jesus.

In the sixth place, and very closely connected with the last, true believers in Jesus Christ rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because they are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Is that not wonderful? We are so familiar with it we do not stop to take in the meaning of it. One of England’s dukes lay dying. He called his brother to him, the one who would succeed to the title, and said, “Brother, in a few hours now you will be a duke and—and I will be a king.” He was already a child of the King and in a few hours he himself would be a king. I, too, will be a king in a few days. You may say, “It may be many years.” Well, many years are only a few days on the scale of eternity. And, if you really are a believer in Christ Jesus, if you have a real living faith in Him, you, too, will be a king in a few days.

There was never a royal pageant sweeping through the streets of London at any coronation comparable in glory to the glory that awaits you and me just over yonder. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4). We may be poor today. That does not matter. This life will be over in a moment and the other life begun, and that life is eternal.

In the seventh place, those who truly believe on Jesus Christ, those who throw their hearts wide open to Him, is those who surrender absolutely to Him, rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy” because God gives them the Holy Spirit, and there is no other joy in the present life like the joy of the Holy Spirit. One Monday morning, in Chicago, my front doorbell rang. I kept Monday in those days for my rest day, and had a notice above the doorbell, “Mr. Torrey does not see anyone on Monday.” The maid went to the door, and there stood a poor woman. The maid said, “Mr. Torrey does not see anyone on Monday. Did you not see the notice over the doorbell?” She said, “I knew that, but I have got to see him and you just go and tell him a member of his church must see him.” So the maid brought her into the reception room. She was a washerwoman. The maid showed the washerwoman a seat and came upstairs and said to me, “There is a woman downstairs who is a member of your church and says she has got to see you.” So down I went.

As I entered the room she arose and hurried toward me, and said, “Mr. Torrey, I knew you did not see anybody on Monday, but I had to see you. Last night after I went to bed I was filled with the Holy Spirit right there in my bed, and I was so happy I could not sleep all night, and this morning I had to come and tell somebody. I could not afford to give up a day’s work to come around and tell you about it, but I knew I must tell somebody and I did not know anybody I would so like to tell as you. I know you won’t be angry.” Indeed, I was not angry. I was glad she had come, and rejoiced with her, that old washerwoman filled with the Holy Spirit and so full of joy that, poor as she was, she had to give up a day’s work to go and tell somebody she loved all about it.

Before I came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ I was one of the bluest men who ever lived. I would sit down by the hour and brood. I have never known what the blues mean since the day I really became a Christian, absolutely surrendered to God. I have had troubles. I have had losses. There have been times in my life when I have lost pretty much everything the world holds dear. I know what it is to have a wife and four children, and to lose everything of a financial kind I had in the world, and not know from meal to meal where the next meal was coming from. I was absolutely without resources, living from hand to mouth —from God’s hand to my mouth. I have known what it is to be with a wife and child in a foreign country where they spoke a strange language, and for some reason or other supplies did not come, and I did not know anyone in the city well enough to turn to for help; but I did not worry. I knew it was all in God’s hands, that it would all come out right somehow, and of course it did come out right.

The first time I ever visited London, thirty-nine years ago last September, I was planning to spend two weeks in England, and then start for America. I expected to find money waiting for me I when I reached London, and I reached London with a wife and child, and not a letter and no money. But I said, “The letter and the money will come tomorrow or the next day.” My wife made some purchases, taking it for granted we would have money when the purchases came home; but the money did not come. Day after day passed, and the dresses came home and it was about time for the landlady to come with her board bill. It came to be the very last day before our boat started, and not a penny in sight. I went down to the bank. I did not know a soul in London. There were three or four million people there then—a stranger amid three or four millions of people, money absolutely gone, three thousand miles from friends. I did not worry. I knew the money would come. I did not know how it would come, for the source I expected to receive it from seemed utterly cut off; but yet I was happy. Why? Because I was a child of God; I had the promises of the Bible; I knew they were absolutely certain. I never lost an hour’s sleep. I never worried. I just trusted. It seemed as though I would have to be fed somewhat as Elijah was, but I knew I would be fed. I knew my wife and child would be provided for. The money came, and I sailed on the steamer I expected to sail on, with every penny due paid, and money in my pocket. Friends, a Christian is happy at all times and under all circumstances. We rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy” every one of the twenty-four hours of the day that we are awake, and sometimes in our sleep. You, too, can have that joy.

    II.            How to Get This Inexpressible and Glorious Joy

Now arises the question, “What must anyone here tonight who does not have this inexpressible and glorious joy do to get it?” I have really answered that question several times in what I have already said, but to be sure that we all really understand it, let me answer it again, or rather let my text answer it, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” The text tells us that the way to obtain this “inexpressible and glorious joy,” the way to be inexpressibly happy at all times and under all circumstances, is just by believing on the unseen Christ Jesus. What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? There is no mystery at all about that. It simply means to put confidence in Jesus Christ to be what He claims to be and what He offers Himself to be to us, to put confidence in Him as the One who died in our place, the One who bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and to trust God to forgive us all our sins because Jesus Christ died in our place; to put confidence in Him as the One who was raised from the dead and who now has “all power in heaven and on earth,” and therefore is able to keep us day by day, and give us victory over sin, and to trust this risen Christ to give us victory over sin day by day; and to put confidence in Him as our absolute Lord and Master, and therefore to surrender our thoughts and wills and lives entirely to His control, believing everything He says, even though every scholar on earth denies it, obeying everything He commands, whatever it may cost; and to put confidence in Him as our Divine Lord, and confess Him as Lord before the world, and worship and adore Him. It is wonderful the joy that comes to him who thus believes on Jesus Christ. But one must really believe on Jesus Christ to have this joy.

Merely being a member of a church is not enough. Merely being baptized is not enough. Merely reading your Bible is not enough. Merely praying is not enough. Merely going to church is not enough. Merely going to the Lord’s table and partaking of the Lord’s Supper is not enough. But if you are a real believer on Jesus Christ, if you have put all your trust in the Lord Jesus as your atoning Savior and your risen Savior, and your risen Lord and Master, and surrendered your thoughts and life to Him utterly as your Lord and Master, and are confessing Him as such before the world, if you have thrown your heart’s door wide open for the Lord Jesus to come in, and live, and rule, and reign there, you will have “inexpressible and glorious joy” at all times and under all circumstances.

All anyone has to do, then, to be inexpressibly happy at all times and under all circumstances, is to believe on Jesus Christ. It does not make any difference what his circumstances may be: he may be rich or he may be poor; he may be highly educated, or he may be ignorant; he may be in good health or he may be a hopeless invalid; he may have been a moral, clean, upright man, or he may have been the vilest of sinners, it matters not. Everyone who believes on the unseen but living Christ will find “inexpressible and glorious joy.” I can bring scores, hundreds, thousands of witnesses to prove that. You cannot bring a single witness on the other side. Col. Robert Ingersoll delighted to say, “It doesn’t make one happy to be a Christian.” How did he know? He never tried it. You can search the earth through and you cannot find me one single man or woman who was ever an out-and-out believer in Jesus Christ, a real wholehearted believer in Jesus Christ, one who had surrendered all to Jesus Christ; I say you cannot find me even one such man or woman who will deny that Jesus Christ gives “inexpressible and glorious joy” to those who thus believe on Him. Here, then, is the way the case stands: Every single competent witness, that is, every witness who has ever tried it, testifies that believing in Jesus Christ does bring “inexpressible and glorious joy,” and these witnesses number thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, people from every rank of society and culture, and not one witness on the other side. Is it demonstrated or not? It certainly is.

I take it that I am speaking tonight to reasonable men and women. You desire “inexpressible and glorious joy.” I have told you how to get it. There can be no doubt about it. The evidence is overwhelmingly convincing. There is, then, but one rational thing for you to do, believe on Jesus Christ tonight. Will you do it?

Once a man who was utterly miserable came to me. He was a rarely gifted man, a brilliant scholar, but utterly miserable. If ever I saw a man in hell he was the man. He had attempted suicide at least four times. He had been so near succeeding in his attempts that on two occasions it had been necessary to pump out of him the poison he had taken and thus bring him back to life. I urged him to believe on Jesus Christ. He replied, “I cannot, I have sinned away the Day of Grace.” Day after day I talked with the man and always I had but one message, and that was, “Come to Jesus Christ. Believe on Jesus Christ.” At last, one day the man did come to Jesus Christ. He found “inexpressible and glorious joy.” Sometimes I have seen that man when his face was radiant. Out of hell into heaven by just believing on Jesus Christ! Will you take that same step now?

R. A. Torrey Archive

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Principles of Biblical Interpretation

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The Importance and Value of Proper Bible Study  

1.           Get absolutely right with God yourself by the absolute surrender of your will to Him.

2.           Be determined to find out just what God intended to teach and not what you wish Him to teach.

3.           Get the most accurate text.

4.           Find the most exact and literal meaning of the text.

5.           Note the exact force of each word used.

6.           Interpret the words used in any verse according to Bible usage.

7.           Interpret the words of each author in the Bible with a regard to the particular usage of that author.

8.           Interpret individual verses with a regard to the context.

9.           Interpret individual passages in the light of parallel or related passages.

10.      Interpret obscure passages in the light of passages that are perfectly plain.

11.      Interpret any passage in the Bible as those who were addressed would have understood it.

12.      Interpret what belongs to the Christian as belonging to the Christian; what belongs to the Jew, as belonging to the Jew, and what belongs to the Gentiles, as belonging to the Gentiles.

13.      Interpret each writer with a view to the opinions the writer opposed.

14.      Interpret poetry as poetry and interpret prose as prose.

15.        The Holy Spirit is the best interpreter of the Bible.

Profitable Bible Study by R. A. Torrey

There are many profitable methods of Bible Study. There is something, however, in Bible study more important than the best methods, that is, the fundamental conditions of profitable study. He who meets these conditions will get more out of the Bible, while pursuing the poorest method, than will he who does not meet them, while pursuing the best method. Many a one who is eagerly asking, “What method shall I pursue in my Bible study?” needs something that goes far deeper than a new and better method.

1. The first of the fundamental conditions of the most profitable Bible study is that the student must be born again.

The Bible is a spiritual book, it “expresses spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13), and only a spiritual man can understand its deepest and most characteristic and most precious teachings. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Spiritual discernment can be obtained in but one way, by being born again. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3).

No mere knowledge of the human languages in which the Bible was written, however extensive and accurate it may be, will qualify one to understand and appreciate it. One must understand the divine language in which it was written as well, the language of the Holy Spirit. A person who understands the language of the Holy Spirit, but who does not understand a word of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, will get more out of the Bible than one who knows all about Greek and Hebrew and cognate languages, but is not born again, and, consequently, does not understand the language of the Holy Spirit. It is a well-demonstrated fact that many common men and women who are entirely ignorant of any knowledge of the original tongues in which the Bible was written have a knowledge of the real contents of the Bible, its actual teaching, in its depth and fullness and beauty, that surpasses that of many learned professors in theological faculties.

One of the greatest follies of the day, is to get unregenerate men to teach the Bible because of their rare knowledge of the human forms of speech in which the book was written. It would be as reasonable to set a man to teach art because he had an accurate technical knowledge of paints. It requires esthetic sense to make a man a competent teacher of art. It requires spiritual sense to make a man a competent teacher of the Bible. The man who has esthetic discernment but little or no technical knowledge of paint would be a far more competent critic of works of art than a man who has a great technical knowledge of paint but no esthetic discernment; and so the man who has no technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but has spiritual discernment is a far more competent critic of the Bible than he who has a rare technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew but no spiritual discernment. It is exceedingly unfortunate that, in some quarters, more emphasis is laid on a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew in training for the ministry than is laid on spiritual life and its consequent spiritual discernment.

Unregenerate men should not be forbidden to study the Bible, for the Word of God is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in the New Birth (1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18); but it should be distinctly understood that, while there are teachings in the Bible that the natural man can understand, and beauties which he can see, its most distinctive and characteristic teachings are beyond his grasp, and its highest beauties belong to a world in which he has no vision. The first fundamental condition of the most profitable Bible study is, then, “You must be born again.” You cannot study the Bible to the greatest profit if you have not been born again. Its best treasures are sealed to you.

2. The second condition of the most profitable study is a love for the Bible.

A man who eats with an appetite will get far more good out of his meal than one who eats from a sense of duty. It is good when a student of the Bible can say with Job, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12), or with Jeremiah, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16). Many come to the table God has spread in His Word with no appetite for spiritual food, and go mincing here and there and grumbling about everything. Spiritual indigestion lies at the bottom of much modern criticism of the Bible.

But how can one get a love for the Bible? First of all, by being born again. Where there is life there is likely to be appetite. A dead man never hungers. This brings us back to the first condition. But going beyond this, the more there is of vitality, the more there is of hunger. Abounding life means abounding hunger for the Word. Study of the Word stimulates love for the Word. The author can well remember the time when he had more appetite for books about the Bible than he had for the Bible itself, but with increasing study there has come increasing love for the Book. Bearing in mind who the author of the Book is, what its purpose is, what its power is, what the riches of its contents are, will go far toward stimulating love and appetite for the Book.

3. The third condition is willingness to do hard work.

Solomon has given a graphic picture of the Bible student who gets the most profit out of his study, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5). Now, seeking for silver and searching for hidden treasure means hard work, and he who wishes to get not only the silver but the gold as well out of the Bible, and find its “hidden treasure,” must make up his mind to dig. It is not glancing at the Word, or reading the Word, but studying the Word, meditating on the Word, pondering the Word, that brings the richest yields.

The reason why many get so little out of their Bible reading is simply because they are not willing to think. Intellectual laziness lies at the bottom of a large percent of fruitless Bible reading. People are constantly crying for new methods of Bible study, but what many of them wish is simply some method of Bible study by which they can get all the good out of the Bible without work. If someone could tell lazy Christians some method of Bible study whereby they could put the sleepiest ten minutes of the day, just before they go to bed, into Bible study, and get the profit out of it that God intends His children shall get out of the study of His Word, that would be just what they desire. But it can’t be done. Men must be willing to work, and work hard, if they wish to dig out the treasures of infinite wisdom and knowledge and blessing which God has stored up in His Word.

A business friend once asked me in a hurried call to tell him “in a word” how to study his Bible. I replied, “Think.” The Psalmist pronounces that man “blessed” whose “delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). The Lord commanded Joshua to meditate on it day and night, and assured him that as a result of this meditation, “you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).

Of Mary, the mother of Jesus, we read, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). In this way alone can one study the Bible to the greatest profit. One pound of beef well chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than tons of beef merely glanced at; and one verse of Scripture chewed and digested and assimilated will give more strength than whole chapters simply skimmed. Weigh every word you read in the Bible. Look at it. Turn it over and over. The most familiar passages get a new meaning in this way. Spend fifteen minutes on each word in Psalm 23:1 (“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”), or Philippians 4:19 (“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”), and see if it is not so.

4. The fourth condition is a will wholly surrendered to God.

Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17). A surrendered will gives that clearness of spiritual vision which is necessary to understand God’s Book. Many of the difficulties and obscurities of the Bible rise wholly from the fact that the will of the student is not surrendered to the will of the author of the Book. It is remarkable how clear and simple and beautiful passages that once puzzled us become when we are brought to that place where we say to God, “I surrender my will unconditionally to You. I have no will but Yours. Teach me Your will.” A surrendered will will do more to make the Bible an open book than a university education. It is simply impossible to get the largest profit out of your Bible study until you do surrender your will to God. You must be very definite about this.

There are many who say, “Oh, yes, my will, I think, is surrendered to God,” and yet it is not. They have never gotten alone with God and said intelligently and definitely to him, “O God, I here and now give myself up to You, for You to command me, and lead me, and shape me, and send me, and do with me, absolutely as You will.” Such an act is a wonderful key to unlock the treasure house of God’s Word. The Bible becomes a new book when a man does that. Doing that brought a complete transformation in the author’s theology and life and ministry.

5. The fifth condition is very closely related to the fourth. The student of the Bible who would get the greatest profit out of his studies must be obedient to its teachings as soon as he sees them.

It was good advice James gave to early Christians, and to us, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). There are a good many who consider themselves Bible students who are deceiving themselves in this way today. They see what the Bible teaches, but they do not follow it, and they soon lose their power to see it. Truth obeyed leads to more truth. Truth disobeyed destroys the capacity for discovering truth. There must be not only a general surrender of the will, but specific, practical obedience to each new Word of God discovered. There is no place where the law, “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him,” is more gloriously certain on the one hand and more sternly unavoidable on the other than in the matter of using or refusing the truth revealed in the Bible.

Use, and you get more; refuse, and you lose all. Do not study the Bible for the mere gratification of intellectual curiosity, but to find out how to live and please God. Whatever duty you find commanded in the Bible, do it at once. Whatever good you see in any Bible character, imitate it immediately. Whatever mistake you note in the actions of Bible men and women, scrutinize your own life to see if you are making the same mistake, and if you find you are, correct it immediately. James compares the Bible to a mirror (James 1:23, 24). The chief good of a mirror is to show you if there is anything out of order about you; if you find there is, you can set it right. Use the Bible in that way. Obeying the truth you already see will solve the mysteries in the verses you do not yet understand. Disobeying the truth you see darkens the whole world of truth. This is the secret of much of the skepticism and error of the day. Men see the truth, but do not follow it–then it is gone.

I knew a bright and promising young minister. He made rapid advancement in the truth. He took very advanced ground on one point especially, and the storm came. One day he said to his wife, “It is very nice to believe this, but we need not speak too much about it.” They began, or he, at least, to hide their testimony. The wife died and he drifted. The Bible became to him a sealed book. Faith reeled. He publicly renounced his faith in some of the fundamental truths of the Bible. He seemed to lose his grip even on the doctrine of immortality. What was the cause of it all? Truth not lived and stood for flees. Today that man is much admired and applauded by some, but daylight has given place to darkness in his soul.

6. The sixth condition is a childlike mind.

God reveals His deepest truths to babes. No age needs more than our own to lay to heart the words of Jesus, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25). We must be babes if God is to reveal His truth to us, and we are to understand His Word. A child is not full of its own wisdom. It recognizes its ignorance and is ready to be taught. It does not oppose the ideas of its teachers to those of its own. It is in that spirit we should come to the Bible if we are to get the most profit out of our study.

Do not come to the Bible full of your own ideas, and seeking from it a confirmation of them. Come rather to find out what are God’s ideas as He has revealed them there. Come not to find a confirmation of your own opinion, but to be taught what God may be pleased to teach. If a man comes to the Bible just to find his ideas taught there, he will find them; but if he comes recognizing his own ignorance, just as a little child to be taught, he will find something infinitely better than his own ideas, even the mind of God. We see why it is that many persons cannot see things which are plainly taught in the Bible. The doctrine taught is not their idea, of which they are so full that there is no room left for that which the Bible actually teaches.

We have an illustration of this in the apostles themselves at one stage in their training. In Mark 9:31, we read, “He was teaching his disciples. He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.'” Now, that is as plain and definite as language can make it, but it was utterly contrary to the ideas of the apostles as to what was to happen to the Christ. So we read in the next verse, “But they did not understand what he meant.” Isn’t that amazing? But is it any more amazing than our own inability to comprehend plain statements in the Bible when they run counter to our preconceived ideas?

Problems many Christians find with portions of the Sermon on the Mount would be plain enough if we just came to Christ like a child to be taught what to believe and do, rather than coming as full-grown men who already know it all, and who must find some interpretations of Christ’s words that will fit into our mature and infallible philosophy. Many a man is so full of an unbiblical theology he has been taught that it takes him a lifetime to get rid of it and understand the clear teaching of the Bible.

“Oh, what can this verse mean?” many a bewildered man cries. Why, it means what it plainly says; but what you are after is not the meaning God has manifestly put into it, but the meaning you can by some ingenious trick of exegesis twist out of it and make it fit into your scheme. Don’t come to the Bible to find out what you can make it mean, but to find out what God intended it to mean. Men often miss the real truth of a verse by saying, “But that can be interpreted this way.” Oh, yes, so it can, but is that the way God intended it to be interpreted? We all need to pray often if we would get the most profit out of our Bible study, “Oh, God, make me a little child. Empty me of my own ideas. Teach me Your own mind. Make me ready like a little child to receive all that You have to say, no matter how contrary it is to what I have thought before.” How the Bible opens up to one who approaches it in that way! How it closes up to the wise fool, who thinks he knows everything, and imagines he can give points to Peter and Paul, and even to Jesus Christ and to God Himself! Someone has well said the best method of Bible study is “the baby method.”

I was once talking with a minister friend about what seemed to be the clear teaching of a certain passage. “Yes,” he replied, “but that doesn’t agree with my philosophy.” This man was sincere, yet he did not have the childlike spirit, which is an essential condition of the most profitable Bible study. But there are many who approach the Bible in the same way. It is a great point gained in Bible study when we are brought to realize that an infinite God knows more than we, that, indeed, our highest wisdom is less than the knowledge of the most ignorant babe compared with His. But we so easily and so constantly forget this that every time we open our Bibles we would do well to get down humbly before God and say, “Father, I am but a child, teach me.”

7. The seventh condition of studying the Bible to the greatest profit is that we study it as the Word of God.

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Church of the Thessalonians, thanked God without ceasing that when they received the Word of God they “accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Well might he thank God for that, and well may we thank God when we get to the place where we receive the Word of God as the Word of God. Not that one who does not believe the Bible is the Word of God should be discouraged from studying it. Indeed, one of the best things that one who does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God can do, if he is honest, is to study it. The author of this book once doubted utterly that the Bible was the Word of God, and the firm confidence that he has today that the Bible is the Word of God has come more from the study of the Book itself than from anything else. Those who doubt it are more usually those who study about the Book, than those who dig into the actual teachings of the Book itself. But while the best book of Christian evidences is the Bible, and while the most utter skeptic should be encouraged to study it, we will not get the largest measure of profit out of that study until we reach the point where we become convinced that the Bible is God’s Word, and when we study it as such.

There is a great difference between believing theoretically that the Bible is God’s Word and studying it as God’s Word. Thousands would tell you that they believe the Bible is God’s Word who do not study it as God’s Word. Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves four things.

(1) First, it involves the unquestioning acceptance of its teachings when definitely ascertained, even when they may appear unreasonable or impossible.

Reason demands that we submit our judgment and reasonings to the statements of infinite wisdom. There is nothing more irrational than rationalism, which makes the finite wisdom the test of infinite wisdom, and submits the teachings of God’s omniscience to the approval of man’s judgment. It is the sublimest and absurdest conceit that says, “This cannot be true, though God says it, for it does not agree with my reason.” “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (Romans 9:20). Real human wisdom, when it finds infinite wisdom, bows before it and says, “Speak what You will and I will believe.” When we have once become convinced that the Bible is God’s Word its teachings must be the end of all controversy and discussion. A “thus says the Lord” will settle every question. Yet there are many who profess to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and if you show them what the Bible clearly teaches on some disputed point, they will shake their heads and say, “Yes, but I think so and so,” or “Doctor —–, or Professor this, our church doesn’t teach that way.” There is little profit in that sort of Bible study.

(2) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the second place, absolute reliance on all its promises in all their length and breadth.

He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will not discount any one of its promises one iota. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will say, “God, who cannot lie, has promised,” and will not attempt to make God a liar by trying to make one of His promises mean less than it says. He who studies the Bible as the Word of God will be on the lookout for promises, and as soon as he finds one he will seek to ascertain just what it means, and as soon as he discovers what it means, he will step right out on that promise and risk everything on its full meaning. That is one of the secrets of profitable Bible study.

Search for promises and appropriate them as fast as you find them, which is done by meeting the conditions and risking all on them. That is the way to make your own all the fullness of blessing God has for you. This is the key to all the treasures of God’s grace. Happy is the man who has so learned to study the Bible as God’s Word that he is ready to claim for himself every new promise as it appears, and to risk everything on it.

(3) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the third place, obedience–prompt, exact obedience, without asking any questions to its every precept.

Obedience may seem hard, it may seem impossible, but God has commanded it and I have nothing to do but to obey and leave the results with God. If you would get the very most profit out of your Bible study resolve that from this time you will claim every clear promise and obey every plain command, and that as to the promises and commands whose intent is not yet clear you will try to get their meaning made clear.

(4) Studying the Bible as the Word of God involves, in the fourth place, studying it in God’s presence.

When you read a verse of Scripture hear the voice of the living God speaking directly to you in these written words. There is new power and attractiveness in the Bible when you have learned to hear a living, present Person, God our Father, Himself talking directly to you in these words. One of the most fascinating and inspiring statements in the Bible is, “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). We can have God’s glorious companionship any moment we please by simply opening His Word and letting the living and ever-present God speak to us through it. With what holy awe and strange and unutterable joy one studies the Bible if he studies it in this way! It is heaven come down to earth.

8. The eighth and last condition of the most profitable Bible study is prayerfulness.

The Psalmist prayed, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (Psalm 119:18). Every one who desires to get the greatest profit out of his Bible study needs to offer that or a similar prayer every time he undertakes the study of the Word. Few keys open so many strong boxes that contain hidden treasure as prayer. Few clues unravel so many difficulties. Few microscopes will disclose so many beauties hidden from the eye of the ordinary observer. What new light often shines from an old familiar text as you bend over it in prayer! I believe in studying the Bible a good deal on your knees. When one reads an entire book through on his knees–and this is easily done–that book has a new meaning and becomes a new book. One ought never to open the Bible to read it without at least lifting the heart to God in silent prayer that He will interpret it, illumine its pages by the light of His Spirit.

It is a rare privilege to study any book under the immediate guidance and instruction of its author, and this is the privilege of us all in studying the Bible. When one comes to a passage that is difficult to understand or difficult to interpret, instead of giving it up, or rushing to some learned friend, or to some commentary, he should lay that passage before God, and ask Him to explain it to him, pleading God’s promise, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt” (James 1:5-6). It is simply wonderful how the seemingly most difficult passages become plain by this treatment.

Harry Morehouse, one of the most remarkable Bible scholars among unlearned men, used to say that whenever he came to a passage in the Bible which he could not understand, he would search through the Bible for some other passage that threw light on it, and lay it before God in prayer, and that he had never found a passage that did not yield to this treatment. The author of this book has had a quite similar experience. Some years ago, accompanied by a friend, I was making a tour of Franconian Switzerland, and visiting some of the more famous zoolithic caves. One day a rural letter carrier stopped us and asked if we would like to see a cave of rare beauty and interest, away from the beaten tracks of travel. Of course, we said, yes. He led us through the woods and underbrush to the mouth of the cave, and we entered. All was dark and uncanny. He discussed greatly on the beauty of the cave, telling us of altars and fantastic formations, but we could see absolutely nothing. Now and then lie uttered a note to warn us to have a care, as near our feet lay a gulf the bottom of which had never been discovered. We began to fear that we might be the first discoverers of the bottom. There was nothing pleasant about the whole affair.

But as soon as a magnesium taper was lighted, all became different. There were the stalagmites rising from the floor to meet the stalactites as they came down from the ceiling. There were the beautiful and fantastic formations on every hand, and all glistening in fairy like beauty in the brilliant light. So I have often thought it was with many a passage of Scripture. Others tell you of its beauty, but you cannot see it. It looks dark and intricate and forbidding and dangerous, but when God’s own light is kindled there by prayer how different all becomes in an instant. You see a beauty that language cannot express, and that only those can appreciate who have stood there in the same light. He who would understand and love his Bible must be much in prayer. Prayer will do more than a college education to make the Bible an open and a glorious book. Perhaps the best lesson I learned in a German university, where I had the privilege of receiving the instruction of one of the most noted and most gifted Bible teachers of any age, was that which came through the statement of one who knew him that Professor Dehtzsch worked out much of his teaching on his knees.

R. A. Torrey Archive 

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Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is the Word of God

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 Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is the Word of God

By  R A Torrey

I was brought up to believe that the Bible was the Word of God. In early life I accepted it as such upon the authority of my parents, and never gave the question any serious thought. But later in life my faith in the Bible was utterly shattered through the influence of the writings of a very celebrated, scholarly and brilliant sceptic. I found myself face to face with the question, Why do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

      I had no satisfactory answer. I determined to go to the bottom of this question. If satisfactory proof could not be found that the Bible was God’s Word I would give the whole thing up, cost what it might. If satisfactory proof could be found that the Bible was God’s Word I would take my stand upon it, cost what it might. I doubtless had many friends who could have answered the question satisfactorily, but I was unwilling to confide to them the struggle that was going on in my own heart; so I sought help from God and from books, and after much painful study and thought came out of the darkness of scepticism into the broad daylight of faith and certainty that the Bible from beginning to end is God’s Word. The following pages are largely the outcome of that experience of conflict and final victory. I will give Ten Reasons why I believe the Bible is the Word of God.

 

      FIRST, on the ground of the testimony of Jesus Christ.

      Many people accept the authority of Christ who do not accept that of the Bible as a whole. We all must accept His authority. He is accredited to us by five Divine testimonies: by the testimony of the Divine life He lived; by the testimony of the Divine words He spoke; by the testimony of the Divine works He wrought; by the Divine attestation of the resurrection from the dead; and by the testimony of His Divine influence upon the history of mankind. But if we accept the authority of Christ we must accept the authority of the Bible as a whole. He testifies definitely and specifically to the Divine authorship of the whole Bible.

      We find His testimony as to the Old Testament in Mark 7:13. Here He calls the law of Moses the “Word of God.” That, of course, covers only the first five books of the Old Testament, but in Luke 24:27 we read, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” and in the forty-fourth verse He said, “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms.” The Jews, divided the Old Testament into three parts–the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms–and Christ takes up each of these parts and sets the stamp of His authority upon it. In John 10:35 Christ says, “The Scripture cannot be broken,” thereby teaching the absolute accuracy and inviolability of the Old Testament. More specifically still, it possible, in Matt. 5:18, Jesus says, “One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet–less than half the size of any other letter, and a tittle is the merest point of a consonant–less than the cross we put on a “t,”–and Christ here declares that the Scripture is absolutely true, down to the smallest letter or point of a letter. So if we accept the authority of Christ we must accept the Divine authority of the entire Old Testament.

      Now, as to the New Testament. We find Christ’s endorsement of it in John 14:26, “The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Here we see that not only was the teaching of the Apostles to be fully inspired, but also their recollection of what Christ Himself taught. We are sometimes asked how we know that the Apostles correctly reported what Jesus said–“may they not have forgotten?” True, they might forget, but Christ Himself tells us that in the Gospels we have, not the Apostles’ recollection of what He said, but the Holy Ghost’s recollection, and the Spirit of God never forgets. In John 16:13, 14, Christ said that the Holy Ghost should guide the Apostles into “all the truth,” therefore in the New Testament teaching we have the whole sphere of God’s truth. The teaching of the Apostles is more complete than that of Jesus Himself, for He says in John 16:12, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.” While His own teaching had been partial, because of their weakness, the teaching of the Apostles, under the promised Spirit, was to take in the whole sphere of God’s truth.

      So if we accept the authority of Christ we must accept that of the whole Bible, but we must, as already seen, accept Christ’s authority.

      SECOND, on the ground of its fulfilled prophecies.

      There are two classes of prophecies in the Bible–first, the explicit, verbal prophecies, second, those of the types.

      In the first we have the definite prophecies concerning the Jews, the heathen nations and the Messiah. Taking the prophecies, regarding the Messiah as an illustration, look at Isaiah 53, Mic. 5:2, Dan. 9:25-27. Many others might be mentioned, but these will serve as illustrations. In these prophecies, written hundreds of years before the Messiah came, we have the most explicit statements as to the manner and place of His birth, the manner of His reception by men, how His life would end, His resurrection and His victory succeeding His death. When made, these prophecies were exceedingly improbable, and seemingly impossible of fulfilment; but they were fulfilled to the very minutest detail of manner and place and time. How are we to account for it? Man could not have foreseen these improbable events–they lay hundreds of years ahead–but God could, and it is God who speaks through these men.

      But the prophecies of the types are more remarkable still. Everything in the Old Testament–history, institutions, ceremonies–is prophetical. The high priesthood, the ordinary priesthood, the Levites, the prophets, priests and kings, are all prophecies. The tabernacle, the brazen altar, the laver, the golden candlestick, the table of shewbread, the veil, the altar of incense, the ark of the covenant, the very coverings of the tabernacle, are prophecies. In all these things, as we study them minutely and soberly in the light of the history of Jesus Christ and the church, we see, wrapped up in the ancient institutions ordained of God to meet an immediate purpose, prophecies of the death, atonement, and resurrection of Christ, the day of Pentecost, and the entire history of the church. We see the profoundest Christian doctrines of the New Testament clearly foreshadowed in these institutions of the Old Testament. The only way in which you can appreciate this is to get into the Book itself and study all about the sacrifices and feasts, etc., till you see the truths of the New Testament shining out in the Old. If, in studying some elementary form of life, I find a rudimentary organ, useless now, but by the process of development to become of use in that animal’s descendant, I say, back of this rudimentary organ is God, who, in the earlier animal, is preparing for the life and necessities of the animal that is to come. So, going back to these preparations in the Bible for the truth that is to be clearly taught at a later day, there is only one scientific way to account for them, namely, He who knows and prepares for the end from the beginning is the author of that Book.

      THIRD, on the ground of the unity of the book.

      This is an old argument, but a very satisfactory one. The Bible consists of sixty-six books, written by more than thirty different men, extending in the period of its composition over more than fifteen hundred years; written in three different languages, in many different countries, and by men on every plane of social life, from the herdman and fisherman and cheap politician up to the king upon his throne; written under all sorts of circumstances; yet in all this wonderful conglomeration we find an absolute unity of thought.

      A wonderful thing about it is that this unity does not lie on the surface. On the surface there is oftentimes apparent contradiction, and the unity only comes out after deep and protracted study.

      More wonderful yet is the organic character of this unity, beginning in the first book and growing till you come to its culmination in the last book of the Bible. We have first the seed, then the plant, then the bud, then the blossom, then the ripened fruit.

      Suppose a vast building were to be erected, the stones for which were brought from the quarries in Rutland, Vermont; Berea, Ohio; Kasota, Minnesota, and Middletown, Connecticut. Each stone was hewn into final shape in the quarry from which it was brought. These stones were of all varieties of shape and size, cubical, rectangular, cylindrical, etc., but when they were brought together every stone fitted into its place, and when put together there rose before you a temple absolutely perfect in every outline, with its domes, sidewalls, buttresses, arches, transepts–not a gap or a flaw anywhere. How would you account for it? You would say:

      “Back of these individual workers in the quarries was the master-mind of the architect who planned it all, and gave to each individual worker his specifications for the work.”

      So in this marvelous temple of God’s truth which we call the Bible, whose stones have been quarried at periods of time and in places so remote from one another, but where every smallest part fits each other part, we are forced to say that back of the human hands that wrought was the Master-mind that thought.

      FOURTH, on the ground of the immeasurable superiority of the teachings of the Bible to those of any other and all other books.

      It is quite fashionable in some quarters to compare the teachings of the Bible with the teachings of Zoroaster, and Buddha, and Confucius, and Epictetus, and Socrates, and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and a number of other heathen authors. The difference between the teachings of the Bible and those of these men is found in three points–

      First, the Bible has in it nothing but truth, while all the others have truth mixed with error. It is true Socrates taught how a philosopher ought to die; he also taught how a woman of the town ought to conduct her business. Jewels there are in the teachings of these men, but (as Joseph Cook once said) they are “jewels picked out of the mud.”

      Second, the Bible contains all truth. There is not a truth to be found anywhere on moral or spiritual subjects that you cannot find in substance within the covers of that old Book. I have often, when speaking upon this subject, asked anyone to bring me a single truth on moral or spiritual subjects, which, upon reflection, I could not find within the covers of this book, and no one has ever been able to do it. I have taken pains to compare some of the better teachings of infidels with those of the Bible. They indeed have jewels of thought, but they are, whether they knew it or not, stolen jewels, and stolen from the very book they ridicule.

      The third point of superiority is this: the Bible contains more truth than all other books together. Get together from all literature of ancient and modern times all the beautiful thoughts you can; put away all the rubbish; put all these truths that you have culled from the literature of all ages into one book, and as the result, even then you will not have a book that will take the place of this one book.

      This is not a large book. I hold in my hand a copy that I carry in my vest pocket and yet in this one little book there is more of truth than in all the books which man has produced in all the ages of his history. How will you account for it? There is only one rational way. This is not man’s book, but God’s book.

      FIFTH, on the ground of the history of the book, its victory over attack.

      This book has always been hated. No sooner was it given to the world than it met the hatred of men, and they tried to stamp it out. Celsus tried it by the brilliancy of his genius, Porphyry by the depth of his philosophy; but they failed, Lucian directed against it the shafts of his ridicule, Diocletian the power of the Roman empire; but they failed. Edicts backed by all the power of the empire were issued that every Bible should be burned, and that everyone who had a Bible should be put to death. For eighteen centuries every engine of destruction that human science, philosophy, wit, reasoning or brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against that book to stamp it out of the world, but it has a mightier hold on the world to-day than ever before.

      If that were man’s book it would have been annihilated and forgotten hundreds of years ago, but because there is in it “the hiding of God’s power,” though at times all the great men of the world have been against it, and only an obscure remnant for it, still it has fulfilled wonderfully the words of Christ, though not in the sense of the original prophecy, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”

      SIXTH, on the ground of the character of those who accept and of those who reject the book.

      Two things speak for the divinity of the Bible–the character of those who accept it, and, equally, the character of those who reject it. I do not mean by this that every man who professes to believe the book is better than every man that does not, but show me a man living an unselfish, devoted life, one who without reservation has surrendered himself to do the will of God, and I will show you a man who believes the Bible to be God’s Word. On the other hand, show me a man who rejects the Divine authority of that book, and I will show you a man living a life of greed, or lust, or spiritual pride, or self will.

      Suppose you have a book purporting to be by a certain author, and the people best acquainted with that author say it is his, and the people least acquainted with him say it is not; which will you believe? Now, the people best acquainted with God say the Bible is His book; those who are least acquainted with God say it is not. Which will you believe?

      Furthermore, as men grow better they are more likely to accept the Bible, and as they grow worse they are more likely to reject it. We have all known men who were both sinful and unbelieving, who by forsaking their sin lost their unbelief. Did any of us ever know a man who was sinful and believing, who by forsaking his sin lost his faith? The nearer men live to God the more confident they are that the Bible is God’s Word; the farther they get away from Him the more confident they are that it is not.

      Where is the stronghold of the Bible? In the pure, unselfish, happy home. Where is the stronghold of infidelity? The gambling hell, the drinking saloon and the brothel. If a man should walk into a saloon and lay a Bible down upon the bar, and order a drink, we should think there was a strange incongruity in his actions, but if he should lay any infidel writing upon the bar, and order a drink, we would not feel that there was any incongruity.

      SEVENTH, on the ground of the influence of the book.

      There is more power in that little book to save men, and purify, gladden and beautify their lives, than in all other literature put together–more power to lift men up to God. A stream never rises higher than its source, and a book that has a power to lift men up to God that no other book has, must have come down from God in a way that no other book was.

      I have in mind as I write a man who was the most complete victim of strong drink I ever knew; a man of marvelous intellectual gifts, but who had been stupefied and brutalized and demonized by the power of sin, and he was an infidel. At last the light of God shone into his darkened heart, and by the power of that book he has been transformed into one of the humblest, sweetest, noblest men I know to-day.

      What other book would have done that? What other book has the power to elevate not only individuals but communities and nations that this book has?

      EIGHTH, on the ground of the inexhaustible depth of the book.

      Nothing has been added to it in eighteen hundred years, yet a man like Bunsen, or Neander, cannot exhaust it by the study of a lifetime. George Müller read it through more than one hundred times, and said it was fresher every time he read it. Could that be true of any other book?

      But more wonderful than this–not only individual men but generations of men for eighteen hundred years have dug into it and given to the world thousands of volumes devoted to its exposition, and they have not reached the bottom of the quarry yet. A book that man produces man can exhaust, but all men together have not been able to get to the bottom of this book. How are you going to account for it? Only in this way–that in this book are hidden the infinite and inexhaustible treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

      A brilliant Unitarian writer, in trying to disprove the inspiration of the Bible, says: “How irreligious to charge an infinite God with having written His whole Word in so small a book.” He does not see how his argument can be turned against himself. What a testimony it is to the divinity of this book that such infinite wisdom is stored away in so small a compass.

      NINTH, on the ground of the fact that as we grow in knowledge and holiness we grow toward the Bible.

      Every thoughtful person when he starts out to study the Bible finds many things with which he does not agree, but as he goes on studying and growing in likeness to God, the nearer he gets to God the nearer he gets to the Bible. The nearer and nearer we get to God’s standpoint the less and less becomes the disagreement between us and the Bible. What is the inevitable mathematical conclusion? When we get where God is, we and the Bible will meet. In other words, the Bible was written from God’s standpoint.

      Suppose you are traveling through a forest under the conduct of an experienced and highly recommended guide. You come to a place where two roads diverge. The guide says the road to the left is the one to take, but your own judgment passing upon the facts before it sees clear evidence that the road to the right is the one to take. You turn and say to the guide,

      “I know you have had large experience in this forest, and you have come to me highly recommended, but my own judgment tells me clearly that the road to the right is the one we should take, and I must follow my own judgment. I know my reason is not infallible, but it is the best guide I have.”

      But after you have followed that path for some distance you are obliged to stop, turn around and go back and take the path which the guide said was the right one.

      After a while you come to another place where two roads diverge. Now the guide says the road to the right is the one to take, but your judgment clearly says the one to the left is the one to take, and again you follow your own judgment with the same result as before.

      After you had this experience forty or fifty times, and found yourself wrong every time, I think you would have sense enough the next time to follow the guide.

      That is just my experience with the Bible. I received it at first on the authority of others. Like almost all other young men, my confidence became shaken, and I came to the fork in the road more than forty times, and I followed, my own reason, and in the outcome found myself wrong and the Bible right every time, and I trust that from this time on I shall have sense enough to follow the teachings of the Bible whatever my own judgment may say.

      TENTH, on the ground of the direct testimony of the Holy Spirit.

      We began with God and shall end with God. We began with the testimony of the second person of the Trinity, and shall close with that of the third person of the Trinity.

      The Holy Spirit sets His seal in the soul of every believer to the Divine authority of the Bible. It is possible to get to a place where we need no argument to prove that the Bible is God’s Word. Christ says, “My sheep know my voice,” and God’s children know His voice, and I know that the voice that speaks to me from the pages of that Book is the voice of my Father. You will sometimes meet a pious old lady, who tells you that she knows that the Bible is God’s Word, and when you ask her for a reason for believing that it is God’s Word she can give you none, She simply says:

      “I know it is God’s Word.”

      You say: “That is mere superstition.”

      Not at all. She is one of Christ’s sheep, and recognizes her Shepherd’s voice from every other voice. She is one of God’s children, and knows the voice which speaks to her from the Bible is the voice of God. She is above argument.

      Everyone can have that testimony. John 7:17 (R. V.,) tells you how to get it. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God.” Just surrender your will to the will of God, no matter where it carries you, and you will put yourself in such an attitude toward God that when you read this book you will recognize that the voice that speaks to you from it is the voice of the God to whom you have surrendered your will.

      Some time ago, when I was speaking to our students upon how to deal with sceptics, there was in the audience a graduate of a British University who had fallen into utter scepticism. At the close of the lecture he came to me and said:

      “I don’t wish to be discourteous, sir, but my experience contradicts everything you have said.”

      I asked him if he had followed the course of action that I had suggested and not found light. He said that he had. Stepping into another room I had a pledge written out running somewhat as follows:

      “I believe there is an absolute difference between right and wrong, and I hereby take my stand upon the right, to follow it wherever it carries me. I promise earnestly to endeavor to find out what the truth is, and if I ever find that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I promise to accept Him as my Savior and confess Him before the world.”

      I handed the paper to the gentleman and asked him if he was willing to sign it. He answered, “Certainly,” and did sign it. I said to him:

      “You don’t know there is not a God, and you don’t know that God doesn’t answer prayer. I know He does, but my knowledge cannot avail for you, but here is a possible clew to knowledge. Now you have promised to search earnestly for the truth, so you will follow this possible clue. I want you to offer a prayer like this: ‘Oh, God, if there be any God, and thou dost answer prayer, show me whether Jesus Christ is thy Son, and if you show me He is, I will accept Him as my Savior and confess Him before the world.'”

      This he agreed to do. I further requested that he would take the Gospel of John and read in it every day, reading only a few verses at a time slowly and thoughtfully, every time before he read asking God to give him light. This he also agreed to do, but he finished by saying, “There is nothing in it.” However, at the end of a short time, I met him again, and he said to me, “There is something in that.” I replied, “I knew that.” Then he went on to say it seemed just as if he had been caught up by the Niagara river and had been carried along, and that before long he would be a shouting Methodist.

      A short time ago I met this gentleman again, and he said to me that he could not understand how he had been so blind, how he had ever listened to the reasoning which he had; that it seemed to him utterly foolish now. I replied that the Bible would explain this to him, that the “natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,” but that now he had put himself into the right attitude towards God and His truth, everything had been made plain. That man, who assured me that he was “a very peculiar man,” and that methods that influenced others would not influence him, by putting himself into the right attitude towards God, got to a place where he received the direct testimony of the Holy Ghost that this Bible is God’s Word; and, any one else can do the same.

R. A. Torrey Archive 

THE CERTAINTY OF THE PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

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THE CERTAINTY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE
PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
FROM THE DEAD
BY  R. A. TORREY, D. D.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine. It is mentioned directly one hundred and four or more times in the New Testament. It was the most prominent and cardinal point in the apostolic testimony. When the apostolic company, after the apostasy of Judas Iscariot, felt it necessary to complete their number again by the addition of one to take the place Of Judas Iscariot, it was in order that he might “be a witness with us of His resurrection” (Acts 1:21,22). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the one point that Peter emphasized in his great sermon on the Day of Pentecost. His whole sermon centered in that fact. Its key-note was, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:32, cf. vs. 24-31).

When the Apostles were filled again with the Holy Spirit some days later, the one central result was that “with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” The central doctrine that the Apostle Paul preached to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill was Jesus and the resurrection. (Acts 17:18, cf. Acts 23:6; 1 Corinthians 15:15). The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the two fundamental truths of the Gospel, the other being His atoning death. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1,3,4.”Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

This was the glad tidings, first, that Christ died for our sins and made atonement; and second, that He rose again. The crucifixion loses its meaning without the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the death of Christ was only the heroic death of a noble martyr. With the resurrection, it is the atoning death of the Son of God. It shows that death to be of sufficient value to cover all our sins, for it was the sacrifice of the Son of God. In it we have an all-sufficient ground for knowing that the blackest sin is atoned for. Disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christian faith is vain. “If Christ be not risen,” cries Paul, “then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). And later he adds, “If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins.” Paul, as the context clearly shows, is talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one doctrine that has power to save any one who believes it with the heart. As we read in Romans 10:9, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

To know the power of Christ’’s resurrection is one of the highest ambitions of the intelligent believer, to attain which he sacrifices all things and counts them but refuse (Philippians 3:8-10 R. V.). While the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine, it is also the Gibraltar of Christian evidence, and the Waterloo of infidelity and rationalism. If the Scriptural assertions of Christ’’s resurrection can be established as historic certainties, the claims and doctrines Of Christianity rest upon an impregnable foundation. On the other hand, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be established, Christianity must go. It was a true instinct that led a leading and brilliant agnostic in England to say, that there is no use wasting time discussing the other miracles. The essential question is, Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? adding, that if He did, it was easy enough to believe the other miracles; but, if not, the other miracles must go.

Are the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ statements of fact or are they fiction, fables, myths? There are three separate lines of proof that the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic fact.

1. THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL NARRATIVES

This is an altogether satisfactory argument. The external proofs of the authenticity and truthfulness of the Gospel narratives are overwhelming, but the argument is long and intricate and it would take a volume to discuss it satisfactorily. The other arguments are so completely sufficient and overwhelming and convincing to a candid mind that we can do without this, good as it is in its place. The next argument is from

2. THE INTERNAL PROOFS OF THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE GOSPEL RECORDS

This argument is thoroughly conclusive, and we shall state it briefly in the pages which follow. We shall not assume anything whatever. We shall not assume that the four Gospel records are true history; we shall not assume that the four Gospels were written by the men whose names they bear, though it could be easily proven that they were; we shall not even assume that they were written in the century in which Jesus is alleged to have lived and died and risen again, nor in the next century, nor in the next. We will assume absolutely nothing. We will start out with a fact which we all know to be a fact, namely, that we have the four Gospels today, whoever wrote them and whenever they were written. We shall place these four Gospels side by side, and see if we can discern in them the marks of truth or of fiction.

1. The first thing that strikes us as we compare these Gospels one with another is that they are four separate and independent accounts. This appears plainly from the apparent discrepancies in the four different accounts. These apparent discrepancies are marked and many. It would have been impossible for these four accounts to have been made up in collusion with one another, or to have been derived from One another and so many and so marked discrepancies to be found in them. There is harmony between the four accounts, but the harmony does not lie upon the surface; it comes out only by protracted and thorough study. It is precisely such a harmony as would exist between accounts written or related by several different persons, each looking at the events recorded from his own standpoint. It is precisely such a harmony as would not exist in four accounts manufactured in collusion, or derived one from the other. In four accounts manufactured in collusion, whatever of harmony there might be would appear on the surface. Whatever discrepancy there might be would only come out by minute and careful study. But with the four Gospels the case is just the opposite. Harmony comes cut by minute and careful study, and the apparent discrepancy lies upon the surface. Whether true or false, these four accounts are separate and independent from one another. (The four accounts also supplement one another, the third account sometimes reconciling apparent discrepancies between two).

These accounts must be either a record of facts that actually occurred or else fictions. If fictions, they must have been fabricated in one of two ways — either independently of one another, or in collusion with one another. They cannot have been fabricated independently of one another; the agreements are too marked and too many. It is absolutely incredible that four persons sitting down to write an account of what never occurred independently of one another should have made their stories agree to the extent that these do. On the other hand, they cannot have been made up, as we have already seen, in collusion with one another; the apparent discrepancies are too numerous and too noticeable. It is proven they were not made up independently of one another; it is proven they were not made up in collusion with one another, so we are driven to the conclusion that they were not made up at all, that they are a true relation of facts as they actually occurred. We might rest the argument here and reasonably call the case settled, but we will go on still further:

2. The next thing we notice is that each of these accounts bears striking indications of having been derived from eye witnesses. The account of an eye-witness is readily distinguishable from the account of one who is merely retailing what others have told him. Any one who is accustomed to weigh evidence in court or in historical study soon learns how to distinguish the report of an eye witness from mere hearsay evidence. Any careful student of the Gospel records of the resurrection will readily detect many marks of the eye witness.

Some years ago when lecturing at an American university, a gentleman was introduced to me as being a skeptic. I asked him, “What line of study are you pursuing?” He replied that he was pursuing a post graduate course in history with a view to a professorship in history. I said, “Then you know that the account of an eye witness differs in marked respects from the account of one who is simply telling what he has heard from others?” “Yes,” he replied. I next asked, “Have you carefully read the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Christ?” He replied, “I have.” “Tell me, have you not noticed clear indications that they were derived from eye witnesses?” “Yes.” he replied, “I have been greatly struck by this in reading the accounts.” Any one who carefully and intelligently reads them will be struck with the same fact.

3. The third thing that we notice about these Gospel narratives is their naturalness, straightforwardness, artlessness and simplicity. The accounts, it is true, have to do with the supernatural, but the accounts themselves are most natural. There is a remarkable absence of all attempt at coloring and effect. There is nothing but the simple, straightforward telling of facts as they actually occurred. It frequently happens that when a witness is on the witness stand, the story he tells is so artless, so straightforward, so natural, there is such an entire absence of any attempt at coloring or effect that his testimony bears weight independently of anything we may know of the character or previous history of the witness.

As we listen to his story, we say to ourselves, “This man is telling the truth.” The weight of this kind of evidence is greatly increased and reaches practical certainty when we have several independent witnesses of this sort, all bearing testimony to the same essential facts, but with varieties of detail, one omitting what another tells, and the third unconsciously reconciling apparent discrepancies between the two. This is the precise case with the four Gospel narratives of the resurrection of Christ. The Gospel writers do not seem to have reflected at all upon the meaning or bearing of many of the facts which they relate. They simply tell right out what they saw in all simplicity and straightforwardness, leaving the philosophizing to others.

Dr. William Furness, the great Unitarian scholar and critic, who certainly was not over-much disposed in favor of the supernatural, says, “Nothing can exceed in artlessness and simplicity’ the four accounts of the first appearance of Jesus after His crucifixion. If these qualities are not discernible here, we must despair of ever being able to discern them anywhere.”

Suppose we should find four accounts of the battle of Monmouth. Suppose, furthermore, that nothing decisive was known as to the authorship of these four accounts, but, when we laid them side by side, we found that they were manifestly independent accounts. We found, furthermore, striking indications that they were from eye witnesses. We found them all marked by that artlessness, straightforwardness and simplicity that always carries conviction; we found that, while apparently disagreeing in minor details, they agreed substantially in their account of the battle — even though we had no knowledge of the authorship or date of these accounts, would we not, in the absence of any other accounts, say, “Here is a true account of the battle of Monmouth?” Now this is exactly the case with the four Gospel narratives. Manifestly separate and independent from one another, bearing the clear marks of having been derived from eye witnesses, characterized by an unparalleled artlessness, simplicity and straightforwardness, apparently disagreeing in minor details, but in perfect agreement as to the great central facts related. If we are fair and honest, if we follow the canons of evidence followed in court, if we follow any sound and sane law of literary and historical criticism, are we not logically driven to say, “Here is a true account of the resurrection of Jesus.” Here again we might rest our case and call the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proven, but we go on still further:

4. The next thing we notice is the unintentional evidence of words, phrases, and accidental
details.

It oftentimes happens that when a witness is on the stand, the unintentional evidence that he bears by words and phrases which he uses, and by accidental details which he introduces, is more convincing than his direct testimony, because it is not the testimony of the witness, but a testimony of the truth to itself. The Gospel accounts abound in evidence of this sort. Take, as the first instance, the fact that in all the Gospel records of the resurrection, we are given to understand that Jesus was not at first recognized by His disciples when He appeared to them after His resurrection, e.g., Luke 24:16; John 21:4. We are not told why this was so, but if we will think awhile over it, we will soon discover why it was so. But the Gospel narratives simply record the fact without attempting to explain it. If the stories were fictitious, they certainly would never have been made up in this way, for the writer would have seen at once the objection that would arise in the minds of those who did not wish to believe in His resurrection, that is, that it was not really Jesus Whom the disciples saw. Why, then, is the story told in this way? For the self-evident reason that the evangelists were not making up a story for effect, but simply recording events precisely as they occurred. This is the way in which it occurred, therefore this is the way in which they told it. It is not a fabrication of imaginary incidents, but an exact record of facts carefully observed and accurately recorded.

Take a second instance: In all the Gospel records of the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection, there is not a single recorded appearance to an enemy or opponent of Christ. All His appearances were to those who were already believers. Why this was so we can easily see by a little thought, but nowhere in the Gospels are we told why it was so. If the stories had been fabricated, they certainly would never have been made up in this way. If the Gospels were, as some would have us believe, fabrications constructed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years after the alleged events recorded, when all the actors were dead and gone and no one could gainsay any lies told, Jesus would have been represented as appearing to Caiaphas, and Annas, and Pilate, and Herod, and confounding them by His re-appearance from the dead. But there is no suggestion even of anything of this kind in the Gospel stories. Every appearance is to one who is already a believer. Why is this so? For the self-evident reason that this was the way that things occurred, and the Gospel narratives are not concerned with producing a story for effect, but simply with recording events precisely as they occurred and as they were observed.

We find still another instance in the fact that the recorded appearances of Jesus after His resurrection were only occasional. He would appear in the midst of His disciples and disappear, and not be seen again perhaps for several days. Why this was so, we can easily think out for ourselves — He was evidently seeking to wean His disciples from their old-time communion with Him in the body, and to prepare them for the communion with Himself in the Spirit that was to follow in the days that were to come.

We are not, however, told this in the Gospel narratives. We are left to discover it for ourselves, and this is all the more significant for that reason. It is doubtful if the disciples themselves realized the meaning of the facts. If they had been making up the story to produce effect, they would have represented Jesus as being with them constantly, as living with them, eating and drinking with them, day after day. Why then is the story told as recorded in the four Gospels? Because this is the way in which it had all occurred. The Gospel writers are simply concerned with giving the exact representation of the facts as witnessed by themselves and others.

We find another very striking instance in what is recorded concerning the words of Jesus to Mary at their first meeting. (John 20:17). Jesus is recorded as saying to Mary, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” We are not told why Jesus said this to Mary. We are left to discover the reason for it if we can, and the commentators have had a great deal of trouble in discovering it. Their explanations vary widely one from another. I have a reason of my own which I have never seen in any commentary, but which I am persuaded is the true reason, but it would probably be difficult to persuade others that it was the true reason. Why then is this little utterance of Jesus put in the Gospel record without a word of explanation, and which it has taken eighteen centuries to explain, and which is not altogether satisfactorily explained yet? Certainly a writer making up a story would not put in a little detail like that without apparent meaning and without an attempt at an explanation of it. Stories that are made up are made up for a purpose; details that are inserted are inserted for a purpose, a purpose more or less evident, but eighteen centuries of study have not been able to find out the purpose why this was inserted.

Why then do we find it here? Because this is exactly what happened. This is what Jesus said; this is what Mary heard Jesus say; this is what Mary told, and therefore this is what John recorded. We cannot have a fiction here, but an accurate record of words spoken by Jesus after His resurrection.

We find still another instance in John 20:4-6: “So they ran both together; and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulcher. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen Clothes lie.” This is all in striking keeping with what we know of the men from other sources. Mary, returning hurriedly from the tomb, bursts in upon the two disciples and cries, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him.” John and Peter sprang to their feet and ran at the top of their speed to the tomb. John, the younger of the two disciples (it is all the more striking that the narrative does not tell us here that he was the younger of the two disciples), was fleeter of foot and outran Peter and reached the tomb first, but man of retiring and reverent disposition that he was (we are not told this here but we know it from a study of his personality as revealed elsewhere) he did not enter the tomb, but simply stooped down and looked in. Impetuous but older Peter comes stumbling on behind as fast as he can, but when once he reaches the tomb, he never waits a moment outside but plunges headlong in.

Is this made up, or, is it life? He was indeed a literary artist of consummate ability who had the skill to make this up if it did not occur just so. There is incidentally a touch of local coloring in the report. When one visits today the tomb which scholars now accept as the real burial place of Jesus, he will find himself unconsciously obliged to stoop down in order to look in.

Still another instance is found in John 21:7: “Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith to Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.” Here again we have the unmistakable marks of truth and life. The Apostles had gone at Jesus’ command into Galilee to meet Him there, but Jesus does nor at once appear. Simon Peter, with the fisherman’s passion still stirring in his bosom says, “I go a-fishing.” The others replied, “We also go with thee.” They fished all night, and, with characteristic fishermen’s luck, caught nothing. In the early dawn Jesus stands upon the shore, but the disciples did not recognize Him in the dim light. Jesus calls to them, “Children, have ye any meat?” And they answer, “No.” He bids them cast the net on the right side of the ship and they will find. When the cast was made, they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. In an instant, John, the man of quick spiritual perception, says, “It is the Lord.” No sooner does Peter, the man of impulsive action, hear it than he grasps his fisher’s coat, casts it about his naked form and throws himself overboard and strikes out for shore to reach his Lord. Is this made up, or, is it life? This is not fiction. If some unknown author of the fourth Gospel made this up, he is the master literary artist of the ages, and we should take down every other name from our literary pantheon and place him above them all.

We find a still more touching instance in John 20:15: “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Here is surely a touch that surpasses the art of any man of that day or any other day. Mary had gone into the city and notified John and Peter that she had found the sepulcher empty. They start on a run for the sepulcher. As Mary has already made the journey twice, they easily far outstrip her, but with heavy heart and slow and weary feet, she makes her way back to the tomb. Peter and John have long gone when she reaches it, broken-hearted, thinking that not only has her beloved Lord been slain, but that His tomb has been desecrated. She stands without weeping. There are two angels sitting in the tomb, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. But the grief-stricken woman has no eye for angels. They say unto her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” She replies, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” A rustle in the leaves at her back and she turns around to see who is coming. She sees Jesus standing there, but, blinded by tears and despair, she does not recognize her Lord. Jesus also says to her, “Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” She, supposing it to be the gardener who is talking to her, says, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away.” Now remember who it is that makes the offer, and what she offers to do; a weak woman offers to carry a full grown man away. Of course, she could not do it, but how true to a woman’s love that always forgets its weakness and never stops at impossibilities. There is something to be done and she says, “I will do it,” “Tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Is this made up? Never! This is life; this is reality; this is truth.

We find another instance in Mark 16:7: “But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you,” What I would have you notice here are the two words, “and Peter.” Why “and Peter?” Was not Peter one of the disciples? Surely he was, the very head of the apostolic company. Why then, “and Peter?” No explanation is given in the text, but reflection shows it was the utterance of love toward the despondent, despairing disciple who had thrice denied his Lord. If the message had been simply to the disciples Peter would have said, “Yes, I was once a disciple, but I can no longer be counted such. I thrice denied my Lord on that awful night with oaths and curses. It does not mean me.” But our tender compassionate Lord through His angelic messenger sends the message, “Go tell His disciples, and whoever you tell, be sure you tell poor, weak, faltering, backslidden, broken-hearted Peter.” Is this made up, or is this a real picture of our Lord? I pity the man who is so dull that he can imagine this is fiction. Incidentally let it be noted that this is recorded only in the Gospel of Mark, which, as is well known, is Peter’s Gospel. As Peter dictated to Mark one day what he should record, with tearful eyes and grateful heart he would turn to him and say, “Mark, be sure you put that in, “Tell His disciples and Peter.”

Take still another instance in John 20:27-29: “Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Note here two things; the action of Thomas and the rebuke of Jesus. Each is too characteristic to be attributed to the art of some master of fiction. Thomas had not been with the disciples at the first appearance of our Lord. A week had passed by. Another Lord’s Day had come. This time Thomas makes sure of being present; if the Lord is to appear, he will be there. If he had been like some of our modern doubters, he would have taken pains to be away, but, doubter though he was, he was an honest doubter and wanted to know. Suddenly Jesus stands in the midst. He says to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands, and reach thither thy hand; and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless but believing.” At last Thomas’ eyes are opened. His faith long dammed back bursts every barrier and sweeping onward carries Thomas to a higher height than any other disciple had as yet reached — exultingly and adoringly he cries, as he looks up into the face of Jesus, “My Lord and My God!” Then Jesus tenderly, but searchingly, rebukes him. “Thomas,” He says, “because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they [who are so eager to find and so quick to see, and so ready to accept the truth, that they do not wait for actual visible demonstration but are ready to take truth on sufficient testimony] that have not seen and yet have believed.” Is this made up, or is this life? Is it a record of facts as they occurred, or a fictitious production of some master artist?

Take still another instance: In John 21:15-17 we read: “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.” Note especially here the words, “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?” Why did Jesus ask Peter three times, “Lovest thou Me?” And why was Peter grieved because Jesus did ask him three times? We are not told in the text, but, if we read it in the light of Peter’s thrice repeated denial of his Lord, we will understand it. As Peter had denied his Lord thrice, Jesus three times gave Peter an opportunity to reassert his love. But this, tender as it was, brings back to Peter that awful night when in the courtyard of Annas and Caiaphas, he thrice denied his Lord, and “Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me.” Is this made up? Did the writer make it up with this fact in view? If he did, he surely would have mentioned it. It cannot have been made up. It is not fiction. It is simply reporting what actually occurred. The accurate truthfulness of the record comes out even more strikingly in the Greek than in the English version. Two different words are used for “love.” Jesus, in asking Peter, “Lovest thou Me?” uses a strong word denoting the higher form of love. Peter, replying, “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,” uses a weaker word, but one denoting a more tender form of love. Jesus, the second time uses the stronger word, and the second time in his reply Peter uses the weaker word. In His third question, Jesus comes down to Peter’s level and uses the weaker word that Peter had used from the beginning. Then Peter replies, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee,” using the same weaker word. This cannot be fiction. It is accurately reported fact.

Take still another instance: In John 20:16 we read, “Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” What a delicate touch of nature we have here! Mary is standing outside the tomb overcome with grief. She has not recognized her Lord, though He has spoken to her. She has mistaken Him for the gardener: She has said, “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Then Jesus utters just one word. He says, “Mary.” As that name came trembling on the morning air, uttered with the old familiar tone, spoken as no one else had ever spoken it but He, in an instant her eyes were opened. She falls at His feet and tries to clasp them, and looks up into His face, and cries, “Rabboni, my Master.” Is this made up? Impossible! This is life. This is Jesus, and this is the woman who loved Him. No unknown author of the second, third, or fourth century, could have produced such a masterpiece as this. We stand here unquestionably face to face with reality, with life, with Jesus and Mary as they actually were.

One more important illustration: In John 20:7 we read, “And the napkin, that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.” How strange that such a little detail as this should be added to the story with absolutely no attempt at explaining. But how deeply significant this little unexplained detail is. Recall the circumstances. Jesus is dead. For three days and three nights his body is lying cold and silent in the sepulcher, as truly dead as any body was ever dead, but at last the appointed hour has come, the breath of God sweeps through the sleeping and silent clay, and in that supreme moment of His own earthly life, that supreme moment of human history, when Jesus rises triumphant over death and grave and Satan, there is no excitement upon His part, but with that same majestic self-composure and serenity that marked His whole career, that same Divine calm that He displayed upon storm-tossed Galilee, when His affrighted disciples shook Him from His slumbers and said, “Lord, carest thou not that we perish?” and He arose serenely on the deck of the tossing vessel and said to the wild, tempestuous waves and winds, “Be still,” and there was a great calm: so now again in this sublime, this awful moment, He does not excitedly tear the napkin from His face and fling it aside, but absolutely without human haste or flurry, or disorder, He unties it calmly from His head, rolls it up and lays it away in an orderly manner in a place by itself. Was that made up? Never! We do not behold here an exquisite masterpiece of the romancer’s art; we read here the simple narrative of a matchless detail in a unique life that was actually lived here upon earth, a life so beautiful that one cannot read it with an honest and open mind without feeling the tears coming into his eyes.

But someone will say, all these are little things. True, and it is from that very fact that they gain much of their significance. It is just in such little things that fiction would disclose itself. Fiction displays itself different from fact in the minute; in the great outstanding outlines you can make fiction look like truth, but when you come to examine it minutely and microscopically, you will soon detect that it is not reality but fabrication. But the more microscopically we examine the Gospel narratives, the more we become impressed with their truthfulness. There is an artlessness and naturalness and self-evident truthfulness in the narratives, down to the minutest detail, that surpasses all the possibilities of art.

The third line of proof that the statements contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ are exact statements of historic fact, is:

3. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

There are certain proven and admitted facts that demand the resurrection of Christ to account for them.

1. Beyond a question, the foundation truth preached in the early years of the Church’s history was the resurrection. This was the one doctrine upon which the Apostles were ever ringing the changes. Whether Jesus did actually rise from the dead or not, it is certain that the one thing that the Apostles constantly proclaimed was that He had risen. Why should the Apostles use this as the very corner-stone of their creed, if not well attested and firmly believed?

But this is not all: They laid down their lives for this doctrine. Men never lay down their lives for a doctrine which they do not firmly believe. They stated that they had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and rather than give up their statement, they laid down their lives for it. Of course, men may die for error and often have, but it was for error that they firmly believed. In this case they would have known whether they had seen Jesus or not, and they would not merely have been dying for error but dying for a statement which they knew to be false. This is not only incredible but impossible. Furthermore, if the Apostles really firmly believed, as is admitted, that Jesus rose from the dead, they had some facts upon which they founded their belief. These would have been the facts that they would have related in recounting the story. They certainly would not have made up a story out of imaginary incidents when they had real facts upon which they founded their belief. But if the facts were as recounted in the Gospels, there is no possible escaping the conclusion that Jesus actually arose. Still further, if Jesus had not arisen, there would have been evidence that He had not. His enemies would have sought and found this evidence, but the Apostles went up and down the very city where He had been crucified and proclaimed right to the faces of His slayers that He had been raised and no one could produce evidence to the contrary. The very best they could do was to say the guards went to sleep and the disciples stole the body while the guards slept. Men who bear evidence of what happens while they are asleep are not usually regarded as credible witnesses. Further still, if the Apostles had stolen the body, they would have known it themselves and would not have been ready to die for what they knew to be a fraud.

2. Another known fact is the change in the day of rest. The early church came from among the Jews. From time immemorial the Jews had celebrated the seventh day of the week as their day of rest and worship, but we find the early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, and also in early Christian writings, assembling on the first day of the week. Nothing is more difficult of accomplishment than the change in a holy day that has been celebrated for centuries and is one of the most cherished customs of the people. What is especially significant about the change is that it was changed by no express decree but by general consent. Something tremendous must have occurred that led to this change. The Apostles asserted that what had occurred on that day was the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and that is the most rational explanation. In fact it is the only reasonable explanation of the change.

3. But the most significant fact of all is the change in the disciples themselves, the moral transformation. At the time of the crucifixion of Christ, we find the whole apostolic company filled with blank and utter despair. We see Peter, the leader of the apostolic company, denying his Lord three times with oaths and cursings, but a few days later we see this same man, filled with a courage that nothing could shake. We see him standing before the council that had condemned Jesus to death and saying to them, “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole” (Acts 4:10).

A little further on when commanded by the council not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus, we hear Peter and John answering, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19,20).

A little later still after arrest and imprisonment, in peril of death, when sternly arraigned by the council, we hear Peter and the Apostles answering their demand that they should be silent regarding Jesus, with the words, “We ought to obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things” (Acts 5:29-32). Something tremendous must have occurred to account for such a radical and astounding moral transformation as this. Nothing short of the fact of the resurrection and of their having seen the risen Lord will explain it.

These unquestionable facts are so impressive and so conclusive that even infidel and Jewish scholars now admit that the Apostles believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Even Ferdinand Baur, father of the Tubigen School, admitted this. Even David Strauss, who wrote the most masterly “Life of Jesus” from the rationalistic standpoint that was ever written, said, “Only this much need be acknowledged that the Apostles firmly believed that Jesus had arisen.” Strauss evidently did not wish to admit any more than he had to but he felt compelled to admit this much. Schenkel went even further and said, “It is an indisputable fact that in the early morning of the first day of the week following the crucifixion, the grave of Jesus was found empty. It is a second fact that the disciples and-other members of the apostolic communion were convinced that Jesus was seen after the crucifixion.” These admissions are fatal to the rationalists who make them.

The question at once arises, “Whence these convictions and belief?” Renan attempted an answer by saying that “the passion of a hallucinated woman (Mary) gives to the world a resurrected God.” (Renan’s “Life of Jesus,” page 357). By this, Renan means that Mary was in love with Jesus; that after His crucifixion, brooding over it, in the passion of her love, she dreamed herself into a condition where she had a hallucination that she had seen Jesus risen from the dead. She reported her dream as a fact, and thus the passion of a hallucinated woman gave to the world a resurrected God. But the reply to all this is self-evident, namely, the passion of a hallucinated woman was not competent to this task. Remember the make-up of the apostolic company; in the apostolic company were a Matthew and a Thomas to be convinced, outside was a Saul of Tarsus to be converted.

The passion of a hallucinated woman will not convince a stubborn unbeliever like Thomas, nor a Jewish tax-gatherer like Matthew. Whoever heard of a taxgatherer, and most of all of a Jewish tax-gatherer, who could be imposed upon by the passion of a hallucinated woman? Neither will the passion of a hallucinated woman convince a fierce and conscientious enemy like Saul of Tarsus. We must look for some saner explanation than this. Strauss tried to account for it by inquiring whether the appearance might not have been visionary. Strauss has had, and still has, many followers in this theory. But to this we reply, first of all, there was no subjective starting point for such visions. The Apostles, so far from expecting to see the Lord, would scarcely believe their own eyes when they did see Him. Furthermore, whoever heard of eleven men having the same vision at the same time, to say nothing of five hundred men (1 Corinthians 15:6) having the same vision at the same time. Strauss demands of us that we give up one reasonable miracle and substitute five hundred impossible miracles in its place. Nothing can surpass the credulity of unbelief.

The third attempt at an explanation is that Jesus was not really dead when they took Him from the cross, that His friends worked over Him and brought Him back to life, and what was supposed to be the appearance of the raised Lord was the appearance of one who never had been really dead and was now merely resuscitated. This theory of Paulus has been brought forward and revamped by various rationalistic writers in our own time and seems to be a favorite theory of those who today would deny the reality of our Lord’s resurrection. To sustain this view, appeal has been made to the short time Jesus hung upon the cross and to the fact that history tells us of one in the time of Josephus taken down from the cross and nursed back to life. But to this we answer:

(1). Remember the events preceding the crucifixion; the agony in the garden of Gethsemane; the awful ordeal of the four trials; the scourging and the consequent physical condition in which all this left Jesus. Remember too the water and the blood that. poured from His pierced side.

(2). In the second place, we reply, His enemies would have taken, and did take, all necessary precautions against such a thing as this happening. (John 19:34).

(3). We reply, in the third place, if Jesus had been merely resuscitated, He would have been so weak, such an utter physical wreck, that His reappearance would have been measured at its real value, and the moral transformation in the disciples, for which we are trying to account, would still remain unaccounted for. The officer in the time of Josephus, who is cited in proof, though brought back to life, was an utter physical wreck.

(4). We reply in the fourth place, if brought back to life, the Apostles and friends of Jesus, who are the ones who are supposed to have brought Him back to life, would have known how they brought Him back to life, and that it was not a case of resurrection but of resuscitation, and the main fact to be accounted for, namely, the change in themselves would remain unaccounted for. The attempted explanation is an explanation that does not explain.

(5). In the fifth place, we reply, that the moral difficulty is the greatest of all, for if it was really a case of resuscitation, then Jesus tried to palm Himself off as one risen from the dead, when in reality He was nothing of the sort. In that case, He would be an arch-impostor, and the whole Christian system rests on a fraud as its ultimate foundation. Is it possible to believe that such a system of religion as that of Jesus Christ, embodying such exalted principles and precepts of truth, purity and love, “originated in a sincere heart is not cankered by fraud and trickery can believe Jesus to have been an impostor, and His religion to have been founded upon fraud. A leader of the rationalistic forces in England has recently tried to prove the theory that Jesus was only apparently dead by appealing to the fact that when the side of Jesus was pierced blood came forth and asks, “Can a dead man bleed?” To this the sufficient reply is that when a man dies of What is called in popular language, a broken heart, the blood escapes into the pericardium, and after standing there for a short time it separates into serum (the water) and clot (the red corpuscles, blood), and thus if a man were dead, if his side were pierced by a spear, and the point of the spear entered the pericardium, “blood and water” would flow out just as the record states it did, and what is brought forth as a proof that Jesus was not really dead, is in reality a proof that He was, and an illustration of the minute accuracy of the story. It could not have been made up in this way, if it were not actual fact.

We have eliminated all other possible suppositions. We have but one left, namely, Jesus really was raised from the dead the third day as recorded in the four Gospels. The desperate straits to which those who attempt to deny it are driven are themselves proof of the fact. We have then several independent lines of argument pointing decisively and conclusively to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Some of them taken separately prove the fact, but taken together they constitute an argument that makes doubt of the resurrection of Christ impossible to the candid mind. Of course, if one is determined not to believe, no amount of proof will convince him. Such a man must be left to his own deliberate choice of error and falsehood; but any man who really desires to know the truth and is willing to obey it at any cost must accept the resurrection of Christ as an historically proven fact.

A brilliant lawyer in New York City some time ago spoke to a prominent minister of that city asking him if he really believed that Christ rose from the dead. The minister replied that he did, and asked the privilege of presenting the proof to the lawyer. The lawyer took the material offered in proof away and studied it. He returned to the minister, and said, “I am convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead. But,” he then added, “I am no nearer being a Christian than I was before. I thought that the difficulty was with my head. I find that it is really with my heart.”

There is really but one weighty objection to the doctrine that Jesus arose from the dead, and that is, “There is no conclusive evidence that any other ever arose.” To this a sufficient answer would be, even if it were certain that no other ever arose, it would not at all prove that Jesus did not arise, for the life of Jesus was unique, His nature was unique, His character was unique, His mission was unique, His history was unique, and it is not to be wondered at, but rather to be expected, that the issue of such a life should also be unique. However, all this objection is simply David Hume’s exploded argument against the possibility of the miraculous revamped. According to this argument, no amount of evidence can prove a miracle, because miracles are contrary to all experience. But are miracles contrary to all experience? To start out by saying that they are is to beg the very question at issue. They may be outside of your experience and mine, they may be outside the experience of this entire generation, but your experience and mine and the experience of this entire generation is not “all experience.” Every student of geology and astronomy knows that things have occurred in the past which are entirely outside of the experience of the present generation. Things have occurred within the last ten years that are entirely outside of the experience of the fifty years preceding it. True science does not start with an a priori hypothesis that certain things are impossible, but simply examines the evidence to find out what has actually occurred. It does not twist its observed facts to make them accord with a priori theories, but seeks to make its theories accord with the facts as observed. To say that miracles are impossible, and that no amount of evidence can prove a miracle, is to be supremely unscientific. Within the past few years, in the domain of chemistry for example, discoveries have been made regarding radium which seemed to run counter to all previous observations regarding chemical elements and to well established chemical theories. But the scientist has not therefore said that these discoveries about radium cannot be true; he has rather gone to work to find out where the trouble was in his previous theories. The observed and recorded facts in the case before us prove to a demonstration that Jesus rose from the dead, and true science must accept this conclusion and conform its theories to this observed fact. The fact of the actual and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead cannot be denied by any man who Will study the evidence in the case with a candid desire to find what the fact is, and not merely to support an a priori theory.
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