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Jacob, Esau, Vessels of Wrath and the Incomparable Love of the Living God: Romans 9, rightly divided

February 1, 2023Calvinism, Responsibilities as Believers: Sound Doctrine, UncategorizedCalvinism, False Prophets and Teachers, Knowing God, The wordSola Scriptura

“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭9‬:‭13‬ ‭

“What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭9‬:‭22‬

I’ve read Romans 9:13 (above) countless times, and have never once thought that it meant that God capriciously decided that he was going to love Jacob from the womb and despise his brother Esau. The reason for my certainty was that, I am and always will be convinced, that the Calvinist view of this scripture as a reflection of God’s sovereignty over the souls of men, and as a pillar of support for their doctrine of unconditional election, is false, based on the enduring character of God exhibited from Genesis to Revelation. The God of the Bible is a God of mercy, love, and long-suffering, and the Old Testament in particular, is a tour de force on His faithfulness despite man’s relentless disobedience and idolatry. God has always longed, yearned even, for the hearts of men, without distinction. There are numerous examples in the Old Testament where His beloved Jews rejected Him, but pagan Gentiles received Him with a surrendered heart (Nineveh, Rahab, Namaan, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, Ruth, Ittai, etc). His love is infinitely deeper and wider then we could possibly comprehend.

While I never understood what exactly God meant with this statement about Esau and Jacob, I knew that God loved them both and that some day it would all make sense. While studying the minor prophets a few weeks ago, it finally became clear. Paul exhorted us to study the whole counsel of God for a reason. We need every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God in order for us to grasp the big-picture of God’s love of and labor for the souls of sinful men.

It’s important to note that God’s statement about hating Esau was never made during Esau’s lifetime. In fact, God’s anger with “Esau” doesn’t appear in scripture until the book of Obadiah, well over one thousand years after his death. In Genesis, Scripture actually records the tender moment when a cowardly Jacob, afraid that Esau might kill him (despite his covenant with God), divides his family into three groups as he prepares to be greeted by the brother he so wickedly deceived (Esau). Shockingly, Esau welcomes Jacob home with heartfelt-tears, and a warm, sincere embrace. (Genesis 33:1-16) That…is an example of the character of God. Esau had removed anger and bitterness far from him, and received his deceiver with mercy, kindness and joy.

While God was obviously disappointed with Esau’s carnal decision to trade his birthright for a single meal decades earlier, it’s unlikely that his emotional reunion with Jacob would have been recorded with the details Moses provided if God truly despised him as a person. It’s also likely, based on how Issac’s death and blessings went down, that Esau did not even take his bargain with Jacob seriously, since it was such a ridiculously unfair trade. Evidence to this effect is that when Isaac was dying, Esau clearly believed that he was the one who was rightfully entitled to his family’s birthright. (Genesis 27)

In order to fully understand the meaning of the statement in Romans 9:13, we must first return to Genesis and the time of their gestation:

“And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; And the one people shall be stronger than the other people; And the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭25‬:‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭

Here we see that God, when speaking of Jacob and Esau’s future, states with great clarity, that two nations will arise from the seed of these brothers. We later learn that God anoints Jacob as the father of Israel, the small and insignificant tribe that God used to reveal himself to the world, for better and for worse, while:

“…Esau is Edom.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭36‬:‭8‬ ‬‬

As we come to find out, Edom, as it grows over the generations, becomes a proud, wicked and murderous nation, one that constantly wars with Israel and even pillages their land after the northern kingdom is carried off to Assyria. In Obadiah, we see God’s fury at this wicked nation (Esau, which is Edom), which gloats at the harsh but necessary judgement of God on his chosen people. Not only is Edom brimming with pride, but it rejoices at Israel’s calamity and plunders them when they are weak and scattered. Just a as God refered to Israel as “Jacob” throughout the Old Testament (including 16 times from Isaiah chapters 40-49), so he referred to Edom as “Esau” in multiple books of the Old Testament. I encourage you to read the entire one-chapter book of Obadiah. Below is the most relevant portion:

“1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.8 Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.15…18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.” Obadiah‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭14‬, ‭18‬ ‭

It’s clear from the passage above, and the passage I will quote below in Malachi, that God isn’t talking about two individual men, but two nations in conflict, Edom and Israel. God’s fury with “Esau” aka Edom, is clearly justified. The prophet Obadiah notes God’s hot displeasure at their pride and violence,”against thy brother Jacob(aka Israel).” There are few things God despises more than pride. Also, He abhors when the strong take advantage of the weak, even if their weakness is a consequence of their own sin. Edom has done both of these things, and he has done it against God’s chosen and beloved nation, Israel. Vengeance and judgment belong to God, not men, and especially not to wicked, murderous, and godless men.

In Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament, we finally see the source of the quotation used by Paul in Romans 9:13:

“I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, ***The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.***And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.”
‭‭Malachi‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭5‬ ‭

As in Obadiah, God is clearly speaking of a people…a nation, the nation that sprung from the loins of Esau…the Edomites. God despised them, not because they came from Esau, but because they were proud and delighted in evil. We have all seen in Jonah where one of the most abominable cities on earth, Nineveh, is given an opportunity to repent and escape judgement. While even Jonah, God’s hand-selected prophet, loathes them and does not want them to be saved, our God, who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, does. (2 Peter 3:9) The God of the Bible loves sinners, is rich in mercy and wants everyone, everywhere to repent.(Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:4; Acts 17:30) Given these examples, and many, many more, it is truly abominable to teach that God doesn’t love all of humanity. For we were once just as wicked as the Ninevites, yet God offered His strong and loving hand of mercy to each one of us. May we never forget what we once were, until the word of God, and his transcendent love, saved us from the hell we deserved:

“⁹Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,¹⁰Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.¹¹And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

VESSELS OF WRATH

After reading of God’s great mercy towards Nineveh, and His dealings with vain, pagan, power-hungry Nebuchadnezzar, how could we ever assume that God randomly decides to make one person for salvation and another to burn for eternity with no hope of redemption? God was rich in mercy, even towards that wicked nation and that outrageously arrogant king – and He is merciful today towards ALL men. Sadly, few care. While God made Nebuchadnezzar suffer mightily and eat the rancid fruit of his vanity for seven long, cold, humiliating years, God did not cast him out entirely, but gave him an opportunity to repent…and that he did, and with great humility and eloquence. (see, Daniel 4:34-37)

While Romans 9 says this:

‘What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:” Romans 9:22

…2 Timothy 2:20-21 teaches us, without equivocation, that even vessels of wrath or dishonor, can be saved when they TURN their hearts to God for mercy:

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭

2 Corinthians 3:13-16 is a comparable passage, stating that, even the spiritually blind will have the veil lifted from their eyes when their heart turns to Him:

“but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭16‬

The 2 Timothy 2:20-21 passage could not be more self-explanatory. Even if a vessel was created for dishonor, that vessel could still choose repentance, humility and salvation. I could quote many verses on God’s death for all and love for all, but that would take up too much space here.(I do have a list of such verses at the very end of this article) I suggest that we simply study our New Testament WITHOUT using a commentary** and you will see His all-surpassing love for the souls of men…all men everywhere.(Acts 17:30) Sadly, you will also see men angrily, and even violently, rejecting it.

** I am not against commentaries. However, I think they should be reserved only for the most difficult or confusing passages, lest your entire theology be destroyed by the particular view of one man. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us. (1 John 2:27b; John 14:26; John 16:13) I did not consult any outside resources when writing this article.

ISRAEL, GOD’S CHOSEN VESSEL

Calvinists often use God’s selection of Israel as his chosen nation, as evidence of the Augustinian doctrine (which he purloined from pagan Manicheaism) of unconditional election, but this could not be further from the truth when the Old Testament text is carefully examined.

God did not randomly chose Israel so that every single Jewish soul would be saved, to the exclusion of the rest of the earth’s population. No. God chose this small, weak and insignificant people group in order to show the world His incomparable glory and power. (Deuteronomy 7:6-9; 9:1-6) Of course, many Israelites were saved, but sadly many more were not, choosing the pagan gods and goddesses of the Canaanites or Babylon over the ONE who delivered them from slavery, parted the Red Sea and destroyed the most powerful army on earth. (Romans 11:3-4) We see in Luke 13:34 how much this hurt the heart of God:

“³⁴O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! ” Luke 13:34

His chosen people, beloved and protected by God himself, chose their own will, their precious sin, and the wicked and idolatrous practices of the vilest nations on earth over the God who dwelt among them and did mighty works year after year after year. Other nations saw His mighty works and feared, sometimes even more than the Israelites did.

We saw this when Caleb and Joshua snuck into Jericho. Rahab informed them that the people of Jericho were terrified when they discovered that the Israelites were approaching. They had heard that the God of Israel had, not only parted the Red Sea, but had unilaterally and thoroughly defeated the greatest, most powerful army on earth – the army of Egypt. God’s hope and purpose, of course, was that the pagan nations who learned of these incomparable deeds, might turn from their manmade idols, to the God who parted the sea and annihilated an entire army, without the assistance of man. Rahab, for one, did and God rewarded her faith by placing Jesus in her lineage.

Unfortunately, there are countless example’s throughout the Old Testament, where the Jews rejected God and were swallowed up by the earth, killed by fiery serpents, executed by the sword at God’s order, or were carried off to be slaves in strange and distant lands. Meanwhile, the pagan and murderous city of Nineveh repented and turned to the God of Israel after hearing the reluctant words of a single prophet! Other examples of non-Jews turning to the Lord include Ruth, Nebuchadnezzar, King Darius, Ittai, Naaman, the centurion who’s son Jesus healed(Luke 7:1-10), the centurion who found God at the cross(Luke 23:45-47), and many, many more.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is to refute the claim that God irrevocably chooses certain individual people or groups for salvation, while others are blindly and irrevocably sentenced to hell with no chance of salvation. Not only does Calvinist soteriology (doctrine of salvation) slander the character of God, but it nullifies the unmitigated power of His eternal word, which was designed to pierce and turn a soul from a life of willful sin, to a life of simple, humble faith. (Hebrews 12:9-10; Ephesians 1:13; Romans 10:13-14,17) Our God truly is rich in mercy. As scripture says so clearly, God: loves the world, died for all, tasted death for every man, and gave himself as a ransom for all, and WHOSOEVER believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. I will post verses establishing this, below. This list is not even close to exhaustive but should be sufficient to prick the heart of even the most steadfast Calvinist, and confirm the unalterable truth, that the one and only God has a generous, merciful and loving heart towards a lost and sinful world, and for that, this forgiven sinner is eternally grateful.

“¹⁵That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.¹⁸He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:15-18

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭36‬ ‭

“³⁵And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…⁴⁰And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:35,40

“³⁷In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.³⁸He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38

⁵¹I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51

“²⁴I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24

“⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:9

“²⁵Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. ²⁶And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:25-26

³²And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.³³This he said, signifying what death he should die.” John 12:32-33

“⁴⁶I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.⁴⁷And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.⁴⁸He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12:46-48

“²⁹Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” John 20:29

“³¹But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” John 20:31

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭7‬:‭51‬ (God wants everyone, but everyone doesn’t want him. His grace IS resistible.)

“³⁴Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:³⁵But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34-35

“⁴³To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Acts 10:43

“²⁴God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;²⁵Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;²⁶And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;²⁷That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” Acts 17:24-28

“³⁰And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent“. Acts 17:30

“¹⁶For 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.” Romans 1:16

“¹⁸Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Romans 5:18

“³³As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Romans 9:33

“⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 10:4

“⁹That 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.¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.¹¹For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.¹²For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13 (The condition for salvation is laid out here. It has nothing to do with being chosen. It has to do with faith…a deep faith from the heart. The next two verses below explain how we may obtain a saving faith)

“¹⁴How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?…¹⁷So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:14,17

“¹⁴For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

“…God our Saviour;⁴Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.⁵For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;⁶Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” 1 Timothy 2:3-6

“¹⁰For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” 1 Timothy 4:10

“⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Hebrews 2:9

“²And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2

“⁹The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

“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.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬

“¹⁷And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
‭‭Joshua‬ ‭24‬:‭15‬

Other Articles by the author of this blog:

LIMITED ATONEMENT And UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION: Does Everyone Have an Opportunity to Be Saved?

“Greater works than these shall he (we) do….” What is the meaning of this scripture?

HELL AND THE WRATH OF GOD ALMIGHTY

Repentance, Salvation and The New Bible Versions: Yes, it Really Does Matter

July 21, 2017Bible Versions, Grace and Obedience, Sin, The Word, UncategorizedEcumenicism, The wordSola Scriptura

^3″I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish….“ Luke 13:3, 5

^19″Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19

^{30 “}And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent….” Acts 17:30

^{13 “}But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matthew 9:13

In my experience, it has been very rare to attend a church that consistently teaches the narrow road to Jesus Christ…the road that travels through his blood, shed freely for our sins on a cold hard cross. I recently attended a church where the pastor teaches frequently and powerfully against the false, broad-road, happy-go-lucky Jesus, which is so prevalent today. This man, without equivocation, states that the road to heaven is narrow and that few find it. He boldly teaches that the only Jesus who saves us from the consequences of our sin is the one described for us solely in the Bible, and that Jesus is full of love, grace, and mercy…but also unmitigated vengeance in His time. Hell and the Wrath of God Despite the fact that this pastor uses my former longtime-love, the NIV 84, I was able to sit through a few of his sermons, since the substance of the messages were not affected by the textual differences between translations. However, in a recent sermon, this changed, and the truth of God was greatly, and horrifically obscured due to a serious doctrinal change from the Textus Receptus to the newer, critical Greek text, reflected in the differences between the KJV and the NIV/NASB/ESV, et al. The Bible Version Controversy Explained

The sermon in question was on Matthew 9:9-13, and the parallel passage in Luke 5:27-32. The substance of these passages centers around the fact that Jesus surrounded himself with publicans and sinners, and frequently ate and drank with them. In Luke 5:29, the text states that Matthew, who had just been called by Jesus, held a feast in his honor at his own house. However, the pastor, while using Luke to expound on the nature of the dinner (a feast vs. a quiet gathering) focused on the passage in Matthew and noted that, when questioned by the legalistic religious leaders as to why he would spend time with such undesirables, Jesus answered:

13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13 NIV

I believe that this verse is critical for understanding the heart of Jesus Christ towards mankind. It even explains why he left the glory of heaven …”to call sinners….” Yet the critical Greek Text, which is followed closely by the NIV and all of the other new Bible versions, deletes out THE key phrase at the end of verse 13. Jesus did not just “call sinners” to come and party with him, as so many megachurch preachers want us to believe – and justifiably so using the NIV/NASB. Jesus Christ did come to earth did to call sinners, and he called them to repentance.

In the KJV, and in it’s underlying Greek Text, the Textus Receptus, the Greek word “metanoia” is present at the end of of verse 13, and that word completes this important passage perfectly. Below is Matthew 13:9 in the King James Bible:

“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”(emphasis added). ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭9:13‬ ‭KJV‬

Jesus did not call the unrighteous to further unrighteousness or to simply to “hangout” with him, as the passage without the repentance language could easily imply to: a new believer, a pastor interested in attracting people with a worldly “gospel,’ or to an antinomian (hypergrace proponent). Instead, the God of heaven and earth called the sinners, tax collectors and publicans he loved so dearly, not to fulfill their fleshly lusts, but to turn to him from the wickedness of their sins, via repentance. The celebration with Jesus and his disciples was not a time of gluttony and drunkenness. It was a time of true joy – the kind of joy that comes when we know that we are safely hidden in the shadow of God…resting in the freedom and peace that accompanies a broken and contrite heart towards God as a result of an awareness of and hatred for our sin. Sin, Repentance and the Cross

The deletion of repentance in Matthew 9:13 (and in Mark 2:17) brought to my mind another well-known passage, this one addressing those who though they were saved but, shockingly (to them), were not. “Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” Luke‬ ‭13:26-27‬ ‭KJV‬‬‬‬‬‬

I have always wondered who those people were (in the passage above) and why they were so deeply deceived about something as important as their eternal destiny. I think I now understand. They were those who chose to spend time with Jesus, eating, drinking, and perhaps even sitting under his teaching on occasion…yet they refused to turn their hearts away from sin to him via repentance. In other words, they viewed Jesus just as the NIV and most other new Bible versions do…as a cool God/man who really just wants us to follow his ways and hang out with him…no judgement, no pricking of our consciences, no repentance…just chill with Jesus and his posse, and maybe debate some theology over a craft beer or two. After all, isn’t that how Jesus rolled?? Sadly, that Jesus is a fake one, manufactured by our own lustful desire to cling to our sin…and even our Bibles and many of our “churches” affirm that Jesus.

Another oft-quoted verse that, in the NIV appears to justify unmitigated sin, is the famed Romans 8:1:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” NIV

A few years ago I had an unmarried Christian brother quote this verse to me after nights of skinny dipping and heavy drinking. His point to me, when I was attempting to encourage him gently to flee from sin to the Jesus of the Bible was that, “I’m saved, so don’t even talk to me about repenting and turning my heart away from my sin. There is no condemnation no matter what I do.”

Well, the King James Bible tells a different story. It states:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1 KJV

The point is not that one has to be perfect to walk uncondemned before Jesus Christ. Instead, the extra clause emphasizes the fact that, if we are truly in Christ Jesus, while we will stumble and fall as we make our way through this wicked world, we, as lovers of Jesus Christ and his precious blood, hate our sin and seek, with all of our hearts to walk not according to our fleshly lusts but according to the spirit. Paul said it best to Titus when he described what should happen when we truly understand the grace of God:

11 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ….¹⁵These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:11-13,15

I could go on and on quoting important doctrinal changes to new version Bibles via the underlying critical Greek text, but for the purposes of this article I am simply illustrating how the new versions can absolutely corrupt ones understanding of God’s grace…even when a solid pastor is preaching. If we truly believe with our hearts (per Romans 10:9-10), that Jesus Christ paid for our sins with his blood, free of charge, than we will seek to turn to him from our sin, and honor him…not as works unto salvation, but as love. Jesus himself states:

21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” John 14:21-24

We must all, as disciples of Jesus Christ, desire only the pure milk of the word, and thus, cast off all of our adulterated Bible versions, no matter how easy they are to read and no matter who accuses us of being legalistic. The evidence in favor of the KJV and it’s Greek foundation are overwhelming. See, The Bible Version Controversy Explained . We are told by Jude to contend vigorously for the faith, but how can we do that if we are quoting watered down Bible versions that delete out the clarion call to repentance, a call given by Jesus himself twice in a row in Luke 13 (see the top of the page)? Even Muslims I meet on the streets when I am evangelizing point to the fact that Christians have over a hundred different Bible versions, all of which say different things, while they only have one Quran. Therefore, they cannot even consider trusting the Bible or Christianity. What a brilliant scheme by Satan to easily convince 2 billion Muslims that Christianity has to be false since their holy book contradicts itself in hundreds of places! While I gladly inform them that only one English Bible is actually true, and I note that I would be glad to explain to them the history of the Textus Receptus and KJV, they simply laugh and say that the KJV is only one of hundreds of Bibles, and why should they believe me. Such is the brilliance of satan’s handiwork….

EPILOGUE

I loved the NIV and NKJV for 25 years, and I believed what was taught in seminaries and bible colleges about the superiority of the Greek foundation for the new versions (the critical Greek text, whose primary components are Codex Siniaticus and Codex Vaticanus). However, after my wife (like me, an NIV’er at the time), raised serious questions as to why the KJV was so different doctrinally than modern Bibles (after reading straight through six different versions), I decided to dig beyond what I had, like a sheep, been fed. So…I studied the issue for myself and found well over a hundred serious doctrinal changes, many of which lined up with catholic church doctrine (Acts 8:37, 1 Cor. 1:18, 2 Tim. 2:15, James 5:16 are a few off of the top of my head). My previous in-depth article (linked in the previous paragraph) lays out my findings in much greater detail.

I care about one thing and one thing only – that people escape satan’s wicked lies and pass from death to life via repentance through the blood of Jesus Christ. I have no other agenda than that, and this goal can only be accomplished if we are ALL teaching, exhorting and rebuking with an accurate Bible, a Bible that demands more than that sinners simply follow Jesus. Instead we must use a Bible that repeats over and over and over again the call by both Jesus and his apostles that all men everywhere must repent for the remission of sins.

^{15 “}These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:15

The Beauty and Power of the Written Word of God

Click link for edits and deletions in the so-called New King James Bible

The Mark of The Beast And The Bible Version Issue: A Warning

October 15, 2016Ecumenicism, Knowing God, Responsibilities as Believers: Sound Doctrine, The Word, UncategorizedThe wordSola Scriptura

“Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he approveth.” Romans 14:22b

**The mark of the beast does not appear until 3.5 years after the rapture, so the church will not have to deal with the antichrist or the mark of the beast. Unfortunately, those saved during the tribulation will. My hope is that some will see this article or learn about the issue before it’s too late. (See, Revelation chapters 13-14). An internal chip is not the same thing as a tattoo, obviously.

More information on the timing of the rapture, the tribulation, the mark, and the second coming can be found here:The Timing of the Mark of the Beast

As the readers of this blog know, the Bible version issue, which I once considered ridiculous, is now dear to me, and one that I approach with a great measure of seriousness, since the Bible is God’s voice to his beloved children. We cannot afford to listen to and teach from an adulterated Bible. As I studied this issue in great depth over a period of many years,, I was shocked to see the stark, substantive differences between the new versions (ESV, NIV, NASB, etc.) and the King James Bible (KJV), a version I had dismissed entirely some 25 years earlier as antiquated and unnecessary.

The new versions and the KJV flow from two entirely different streams of Greek manuscripts, which I have written about in some detail here: The Bible Version Controversy . That article also contains links at the end, which show specific departures (deletions and additions) from the Majority Greek text (which is the Greek text used by the KJ, Luther, Tyndale and Geneva Bibles), by the ESV, NIV and NKJV. I encourage anyone who wants to understand this issue in more depth to read my article, and then review the links at the end.

It has recently come to my attention that all of the new versions state, in Revelation 13:16, that the mark of the beast will be “on” our right hand, while the KJV(and the Geneva Bible) says that it will be “in” our right hand. “On” and “in” are NOT the same thing, and based on my research into the Bible Version issue (see link above), I believe that this critical, eternity-affecting difference is intentional, and will be used to deceive thousands and perhaps millions into taking the mark of the beast. The ESV, NIV, NASB, et al. will be used to prove to those alive during that horrific season, who are concerned about the mark, that they can and should take it in their right hand…since “in” after all is not “on,” and how could the ESV possibly be wrong since so many of the men I respect love it??

Based on technology readily available today, and already in use in some places in Europe, I believe that it is highly likely that the “in” referred to in the KJV means an RFID chip. In Europe for instance, RFID chips encased in silicate glass have been inserted into the right hands of some in order to store medical and contact information, while in Sweden an inserted chip has been, in at least one case, used to open locked doors without a keycard at an office building. I certainly wouldn’t swear by this or say that this definitively will be the mark, but it is highly suspicious given the fact that these chips can store banking information and other personal details and are injected with a needle…in to one’s right hand.

My challenge to all Bible believers is to contemplate this” on”/”in” difference and review the Bible version issue again, carefully. The Bible is God’s voice to us and we need his authentic word now more than ever with all of the charasmatic false teachers rising up, and the dark opposition to the biblical Jesus that we are seeing wax stronger every day in our sick and godless society. The version issue is especially important in the context of the mark since an eternity in heaven vs. an eternity…on fire…in hell…is at stake. While we may or may not be here when the mark is unveiled, those we have influenced will be…and if the Bible we taught from and praised, is used to dupe those we love into taking the mark, it will not go well for us at the judgement seat of Christ – and as for those deceived into taking the mark: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb…and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they shall have no rest day and night….” Revelation 14:6-11. I want no part of leading anyone into that horrific fate.

Paul tells us in Romans 14, that, blessed is that the man who is not condemned by what he approves. Romans 14:22b. May we not condemn ourselves by teaching and even using a Bible that, among many other things, is working to seduce people into taking the mark of the beast, lest you, by ignorance, pride, the fear of man or hard-heartedness, lead others off the cliff and into the fiery pit where the worm never dies and the fire is never, ever quenched.** We are all watchmen…..

Ezekiel 3:17- 21

“17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.”

** I was ignorant of the Bible versions issue for 25 years, and was a huge NIV 84 and NKJV fan. However, when my wife, after reading through 6 different versions, noticed huge, substantive differences between the KJV and others…I didn’t want to hear it. I debated her hard-heartedly for about 8 months…but ultimately the great weight of the evidence was so overwhelmingly in favor of the Greek text used by the KJV Bible (the Textus Receptus/Majority Text/Byzantine Text), that I knew my beloved NIV belonged in only one place…the trash.

The Rapture of the Church

The Bible Version Controversy

Hell and the Wrath of God Almighty

Heaven With God Forever

The Written Word of God

The Bible Version Controversy: The Tale of Two Greeks, A Brief History of The War over God’s Eternal Written Word

October 24, 2015Ecumenicism, Knowing God, The WordEcumenicism, Knowing God, The wordSola Scriptura

DR palms — Dorado Beach, Dominican Republic, September 2015

“ The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Psalm 12:6-7

“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke‬ ‭4:4‬ ‭(check your new version Bible to see what is curiously deleted from this verse)

“Yea, hath God said…?” Satan to Eve, and the textual critics to the world. The most destructive lie ever told…lives on. Genesis 3:1b

I used to dismiss the King James Version of the Bible entirely. I thought of it as a ridiculous and outdated translation – an anachronism at best. I viewed it as a shabby antique – one that belonged under a half-inch of dust in my grandmother’s attic….but then I studied the history of current English Bible translations in great detail, and realized that ALL of the new versions use corrupt and purposely adulterated Greek manuscripts, which water down the eternal word of the living God…every last one of them. That Greek your pastor often refers to in church? It flows from corrupt Greek manuscripts first edited by the gnostic, self-castrating “scholar” Origen (and a student of his work, Eusebius), who believed in purgatory, universalism, that all human souls have existed from eternity past, that satan (and demons) would eventually be redeemed, and that Jesus did not actually return to earth in the flesh after his resurrection.

The manuscripts Origen(a well known gnostic) compiled and edited in Alexandria, Egypt in the 200’s, form the two primary Greek New Testament manuscripts (Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Siniaticus) used by Westcott & Hort, Nestles & Aland and the United Bible Society to make ALL of the modern English Bible versions. These manuscripts were more or less hidden from view from the late 300’s until the 1400’s (1800’s in the case of Siniaticus, when it was found in a trash bin at the St. Catherine’s monastery in Egypt where it was allegedly about to be burned)…hardly making them the word of the Lord preserved from generation to generation per Psalm 12 (see above). The fact that these two foundational manuscripts conflict with each other in over 3,000 places in the gospels alone, and are missing multiple books of the Bible while containing extra, gnostic books, does not help their credibility. For all you M.Divs and Thds out there, I bet you weren’t taught any of that in seminary.

(*Codex Siniaticus, aka Aleph, has 23,000 edit marks[per the British Library, where it resides], has at least 11 different scribes over many centuries making those 23,000 correction marks. It is missing the last 9 verses of Mark, the story of the woman at the well, a significant portion of the Lord’s Prayer, and key verses on believer’s baptism and the trinity. Many other important portions of scripture are either edited or deleted, including two of the strongest verses establishing the deity of Christ. While the book of Revelation is missing, it does contain the Apocrypha, the gnostic Epistle of Barnabas and the bizarre Shepherd of Hermas – yet it is still considered THE ancient biblical manuscript, by the scholarly world, and it lit the fuse of the Bible destroying pseudo-science known as textual criticism.)

(**Codex Vaticanus (aka B), was likely written after the council of Florence in the mid 1440’s because both its style and substance seem to be influenced by the Latin biblical text that was introduced at that council. Both Erasmus and Hort held that position on its genesis, as does the curator of ancient manuscripts at the British Library, Dr. Scot Mckendrick. He states, with absolute certainty, that the ornamentation and high quality vellum B was written on, indicate a date no later than the early to mid 1400’s. It wasn’t even cataloged in the Vatican Library until 1481, more then 1000 years after it was allegedly written. That…makes no sense. Furthermore, there is no record of anyone even suggesting an early date for B until the 1800’s when the German higher critics were desperate to dethrone the Textus Receptus. B is tragically flawed and should hardly be considered reliable as a foundational Bible manuscript given that it is missing: the first 46 chapters of Genesis, 32 Psalms, multiple verses in the gospels, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, a huge portion of Hebrews, and all of Revelation. It does, however, contain the non-Hebrew, catholic apocrypha, The Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepard of Hermes. B also disagrees with its supposed twin, Aleph, over 3000 times in the gospels alone. It is missing 1491 words, phrases or clauses in the gospels[per Dean John Burgon] and there are spelling and grammatical errors on almost every page. The Old Testament portion of B was written in Greek instead of Hebrew, the actual language the Jewish Masorites used when writing and preserving their ancient scriptures.)

In the 1800’s, Westcott & Hort, two Anglican clergy men and open occultists, whose own letters expose their veneration of Darwin and the Catholic Church, their love of seances and their total disregard for Eden, heaven, the flood and the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, made their own Greek New Testament manuscript (the so-called “critical Greek” text). This new Greek manuscript cleverly deleted out, added in or simply rephrased whatever scriptures they thought they could get away with without causing a furor …verses and passages that lined up with their “enlightened” thinking and, not surprisingly to anyone who has studied the Bible version issue, their changes almost always lined up with catholic doctrine(Acts 8:37, 1 Cor. 1:18, 2 Tim 2:15,James 5:16, etc.)

Westcott & Hort did expect some push back on their changes even back then…but they heard hardly a peep (Dean John Burgon’s vigorous dissent was an exception). Leading men loved these brilliant, iconoclastic lies shrouded in the dense and deceiving fog of “scholarship.” Did we really not have a true Greek New Testament until the late 1800’s?? That is exactly what the textual critics/new version advocates are saying.

It is important to note that all of this information regarding Westcott & Hort’s core beliefs is gleaned exclusively from their personal correspondence, published by their children after their deaths. That is the only way we know these key facts about their non-literal view of the Bible, their reverence for Darwin, Rome and the occult, and their motives for changing the scriptures…and we are all reading and teaching from their Bibles.

The first English translation to flow from Westcott & Hort’s so-called “critical”Greek text was the 1881 Revised Version. Subsequently, their Greek manuscript (with additional changes made by the Nestles and Åland committee and the UBS, also using Siniaticus and Vaticanus) was used as the foundation for EVERY single new version. It is deeply corrupt, and if one examines charts with the actual departures from the Textus Receptus Greek(TR), which was used by the Tyndale, the Great, the Mathew’s, the Bishop’s, the Geneva and the King James Bibles (I have added links to charts at the end of my article), I can assure you that he or she will see through this brilliant plan to weaken God’s unchanging word, and turn eternal concepts into temporal ones (the famed Jeremiah 29:11 is but one example of a spiritual promise turned into a temporal one in the NIV). I, personally, was both shocked and disgusted by the numerous substantive changes to my Bible, yet… I do concede that the modern versions are a bit easier to read and understand due to more familiar language. The new version translators (and satan) knew all too well that this generation would take ease of reading and the lofty and pretentious claims of scholarship over the sharp two-edged sword of truth. I did for over 25 years.

The KJB detractors, and there are many, attempt to denigrate the 54 scholars (or 47, since 7 died during the translation process) who jointly worked on the KJB, with their subjective and pseudo-intellectual textual criticism. The translators were all considered brilliant scholars, and were chosen by the King due to sterling, easily verifiable academic backgrounds (I have seen many of their CV’s)…men such as Lancelot Andrews, George Abbot, John Aglionby, and the head of the OT committee, Dr.John Bois, who was reading and writing in Hebrew at age 6. These men worked in 6 separate groups (two at Oxford, two at Cambridge and two at Westminister), each of which translated the entire New Testament independently, after which time the groups came together, using fourteen translation principles, to determine the final reading. Furthermore, each portion of New Testament scripture had been independently translated between 14 and 17 times by the committee, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness.

All of the criticism of the KJB on intellectual grounds is pseudo-academic nonsense. The KJB is hated because it stands as the preserved word of God, starting in Antioch and then spreading all over the world, only to be gathered together by the brilliant Pope-defying, Catholic scholar Erasmus(the Reformation had not happened yet) in the 1500’s. Luther, Tyndale, Coverdale, the Geneva Bible translators, the Great Bible translators, the ancient Wessex Gospels translators, and many more Bibles all over the world, used the same Greek manuscript family as Erasmus (known as the Textus Receptus, Byzantine Text, Majority Text or Traditional Text), and since satan couldn’t burn all of the copies…he decided to change the Bible from the inside, using proud men, far too “enlightened” to believe many of the “superstitions” of God’s word. Noted theosophist(a blending of all the world’s major religions with philosophy) Helena Blavatsky (a favorite of 19th century intellectuals, and publisher of the periodical “Lucifer”), along with her disciple Alice Bailey (revered by occultists, theosophists and new agers), have openly discussed satan’s ultimate plan to infiltrate the church from the inside…and the Bible was a perfect place to start(See Paul’s warnings, Acts 20:29-31;2 Corinthians 2:17).

I understand that the language of the KJB is old fashioned at times, and most seminarians and Bible college graduates will have a dismissive attitude towards it. Why? Because the vast majority of seminaries and Bible schools are part of the ecumenical, watered-down gospel machine. Yes…Satan, the father of pride, works everywhere – but especially in academia. Men love to know better than other men because they went to this school or that school and studied under this professor or that one. Satan was and is counting on the pride of men to weaken God’s word by imparting to them limited, but “scholarly” knowledge, in order to proliferate his altered Greek manuscripts and thus, his modern Bible versions. The apostle Paul specifically noted that he was well aware of satan’s clever schemes to deceive men (2 Corinthians 2:11),and he warned the church specifically about those who were already corrupting the word of God in his day(2 Corinthians 2:17).

As for the new versions having older manuscripts…that is technically true in a general sense, because the Alexandrian manuscripts were written on higher quality papyri/vellum at their well-funded gnostic schools, and because they weren’t frequently handled for over a thousand years…since almost no one took them seriously outside of Vatican City until the 1800’s. The early Antiochan manuscripts (Textus Receptus/TR) were true to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles, yet were on lower quality papyri, because the early church wasn’t wealthy – and because they were sent all over the world by foot and by ship, which exposed them to the elements. They were also worn down due to constant usage and thus, were recopied time and time again…unlike the gnostic manuscripts, which were hardly used at all.

Despite those facts, the earliest surviving Bible today is actually a Textus Receptus Latin Bible called the Vetus Latina, circa 147 – 1000AD, which obviously necessitates an even earlier TR Greek manuscript from which it was translated. There are several thousand (perhaps over 10,000 per one researcher) still in existence today, along with similarly dated Coptic, Bohairic, Armenian, Slavic and Gothic TR Bibles. A well known Syrian translation called the Peshitta, and the famed TR “Itala” Bible also date to the late 150’s AD.

I recently discovered that manuscript fragments from the Gospel of Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 Timothy, James and 2 Peter were found in cave 7, Qumran, Dead Sea. These caves were sealed by the Essenes no later than 68 AD, as the Roman legions approached, confirming an astoundingly early date to significant portions of the Syrian Greek text (TR) used by the KJB. See, New Testament Manuscripts, Cave 7, Qumran, dated to 68AD This evidence, and the aforementioned early Latin and Syriac Bibles, prove that even the “oldest biblical text/manuscript” argument, often used to support the corrupt Alexandrian Greek texts, fails, miserably.

Kurt Aland, co-author of several late editions of the Nestles & Aland Greek New Testament text, and a vigorous KJB detractor, admits that early copies of Textus Receptus(TR) manuscripts are almost non-existant (again,the very early Syrian Peshitta, Old Latin, and Itala Bible versions did survive) because they were intentionally destroyed by Rome during the brutal Diocletian persecution(303-311 AD), along with unfavorable weather conditions in Asia Minor and Greece. However, once the Roman persecution of the church ended circa 311 AD, there was, naturally, an explosion of new Textus Receptus manuscript copies inside the Roman Empire, prepared by actual Bible believing christians, and proliferated through the centuries by brave communities such as the Itala Church in Italy, the Donatists in North Africa, The Paulicians/Albigenses/Bogomiles/Cathars, etc. throughout Europe the Balkans and even into Asia. Groups such as the Waldenses in the Italian and French Alps, the Gallic church in France, Ulfilas in Northern Europe (who translated the Bible into Gothic), the Vaudois in Switzerland, the Anabaptists, and the Huguenots also worked vigorously to translate and maintain the true biblical text, unmarred by Rome.

The Itala church and Waldenses/Vallenses/Vaudois were two of the communities of faith that worked feverishly in the early 300’s to reproduce TR Bibles in order to make up for all of the copies which had been burned by Diocletian. This easily explains the concern textual critics have with the sudden appearance of a large number of Textus Receptus manuscripts in the 4th Century, and beyond. The Waldenses were known to memorize entire books of the Bible and even as much of the New Testament as they had, and head out into the world as far as they could go, translating the Bible for the people groups they met along the way. Some made it as Far East as the Parthian empire, known today as Iran.

It’s funny – I often hear the question:”Where was the KJB before 1611??” Well, that question should be reversed. Where, exactly, was the critical Greek text before 1881? The answer: in caves in the Egyptian desert, and of course, in the Vatican. Meanwhile, as I have noted above, the source text for the KJB had spread all over the world – from Antioch to Ethiopia to the British Isles to Armenia and to The mountains of western Europe, beginning in the 1st century.

Even KJB rejecting scholars agree that well over 98% of all ancient Greek manuscript evidence agrees with the KJB, while less than 2% agree with the new versions (the last official count I have seen was 5,702 to 44, which is more like 99% to 1%). Any claim that the new versions are superior is patently false from both a spiritual and scholarly standpoint. Yes, they are easy to read, but they have many deep heresies intended to draw mankind away from many of the simple yet profound truths of God. As Jesus said to his Father in John 17, “Thy word is truth” – but not if his eternal word has been edited by wicked and deceitful heretics, who, like Satan in the garden, boldly and proudly cast doubt on God’s voice to mankind by proclaiming to the world – “yea hath God said?” The question is: Are you believing that very same lie today?

EPILOGUE

This is by far the most divisive topic I have ever written about because we all love our modern Bibles, and cannot possibly believe that so many people have it wrong. My beloved seminary professor is wrong?? My distinguished and learned pastor?? My youth group leader?? Yes…even him – or her. Everyone talks about this issue as if they understand it, but usually they just understand one side…the anti-KJB side, the side I was once steadfastly on. It took a trusted friend about 8 months to finally shake me out of my NIV 84 stupor with hard, raw evidence. Then I decided to take the time to study the history of the Greek and Latin manuscripts (that form the foundation of our Bibles) for myself. Once I had a grasp of manuscript history, and reviewed many of the specific changes(deletions and additions) in the actual biblical text…I was done with all of my new versions forever (A few of the hundreds of passages with substantive changes: The removal of the compassion of Jesus four times in Matthew(NIV 84),Genesis 30:27, Jeremiah 29:11(NIV 84), Matthew 9:13, Mark 9:44,46,48 and 10:24, Luke 4:4, Luke 9:55-56, John 7:8-10{is Jesus a liar??},Acts 8:37, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Galatians 5:12(did Paul really want his enemies to castrate themselves??), Colossians 1:14, Romans 8:1b, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 Timothy 6:5,20(warning about prosperity preachers and false science), James 5:16, 1 John 5:7, and Revelation 1: 6, 8, 11). Sadly, I discovered that my dear NIV – even the one written back in 1984 – was the worst of the lot (the Message doesn’t count because it cannot seriously be called a Bible due to multiple ridiculous and even occultic additions). It was hard to read the KJB at first…but I prayed for help from the Holy Spirit…and now I can’t live without it.

I am not one of those people who believe that one can only be saved via the KJB Bible, or that the KJB is perfectly written(I believe it is perfect in substance but not necessarily in form). I simply believe that the KJB, whose Greek foundation lines up with approximately 98% of all ancient manuscripts, according to the most recent studies, is the preserved word of God for this English speaking generation per Psalm 12:6-7. That passage, which I have quoted at the top of this article, was (not surprisingly) edited heavily in the new versions (Septuagint Greek), so that it’s meaning is entirely different. Did God truly say in Psalm 12 that his word would be preserved forever?? Not according to your new version(check that verse in your Bible).

After much study (hoping desperately that I would come to a conclusion that allowed me to keep my NIV, my NKJV or even my brand new MEV), I determined, along with countless other men and women far smarter than I am, that the only legitimate Greek manuscript used as a foundation for a Bible is the Textus Receptus – and despite the claims of the NKJV and MEV editors, the only true Textus Receptus Bible in English is the KJB.

Unlike the new versions’ Egyptian/gnostic roots, the Textus Receptus flows from the spirit-fed spring of the early believers in Antioch…all the way to London in the 1600’s. Do the new versions have many things right? Of course. What satan does best is weave darkness and light together, so that the two cannot be distinguished. He has done a brilliant job with the new Bible versions…yet with an open heart and mind, along with a willingness to exchange comfort and familiarity for truth, his scheme can be defeated. I challenge everyone who reads this, to study the actual textual changes for themselves, in context, ignoring ad hominem attacks on those who have exposed this scheme…for there are many, and they are often nasty. John 15:18-19 warned us that if we were of Jesus Christ, the world would hate us…and nowhere is that more evident than in the battle for God’s eternal voice to mankind. The very truth of His preserved word to this and every succeeding generation is at stake. Yea hath God said? Yes. He did actually, and you can read his words to the world, preserved for eternity, in your King James Bible.

Revelation 22:18-19

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

***The new Reina Valera Gómez (RVG) is a true Spanish Textus Receptus Bible(unlike the other Reina Valeria’s, which mix TR and Alexandrian texts).

***Please remember that if you look up the changed/corrupted verses in the Greek online, chances are very high that the only Greek you can find is the Westcott & Hort/Nestles & Aland/UBS Greek, which is where the corrupted verses originated and metastisized. Unless you check the verses in a verifiable Textus Receptus (TR) Greek (and several people who have dedicated their lives to study this issue say that there are few true TR’s online) you are using the corrupt Westcott & Hort/Nestles & Aland Greek. Even some of the supposed online TR manuscripts have been intentionally altered, as has the new supposed TR Bible, The Modern English Version (and the New King James for that matter). Now why would anyone try trick good Christian men and women into reading a Bible that we thought was based on the TR but really isn’t? As Paul said in a verse I cited above, we are not unaware of satan’s devices.

****Why is your ESV different then your NASB, which is different than your NIV? The answer…is ca$h. In order to receive a copyright on a new version, the law requires that it be 20% different than all other versions. So, the editors of the new versions simply grab a thesaurus and go to work, changing whatever words they can (is the Holy Spirit really a “helper??” My hamburger needs helper but I need a Comforter!) and rephrasing other passages. Do we really need all of these new versions? Of course not – but the editors and publishers want your money and are more than happy to nip, tuck and carve up God’s eternal word to get it…and the plan seems to be working well.

If one studies the history of the KJV’s translation process, it is clear that prayer played a very large role. Furthermore, the translators never profited from its sale.

***Mark of the Beast Issue***

The ESV, NIV, NASB, etc. all say that the mark of the beast will be “on” your hand, like a scannable tattoo (See, Revelation 13:16). The KJV, however, says that the mark is “in” your right hand or forehead. “In” and “on” are not the same things, and thus, someone is lying to us. I believe that the ESV etc. will be used to try and prove to people that the implantable chip we will all be required to have, is not the mark…when actually it is. The smoke of the torment of those who are tricked into taking the mark…will ascend forever. Throw away your new versions and tell everyone you know to do the same. I wrote a brief article on this issue: The Mark of the Beast: A Warning, and on how the new versions delete key words regarding repentance and sin:Repentance, Salvation and the new Bible versions: Yes, it really does matter

Additional Resources:

A New Article on the Many Heresies of Westcott & Hort

NIV Deletions and changes

NIV Chart Showing Deletions and Changes

Favorite Scripture #6: One of The Many Reasons Why Jesus Christ is Great…And I am Not

September 27, 2015Favorite Scriptures, Knowing God, The WordKnowing God, Portraits of Jesus Christ in the word, The wordSola Scriptura

One of my all-time favorite scriptures is 1 Peter 2:21-24, which so beautifully and powerfully captures the essence of who Jesus Christ was while he was on this earth:

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 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.”

This passage speaks to my heart about the supreme greatness of Jesus because it illustrates his perfect obedience to the Father, and his unwavering humility, even in the midst of the most horrific of suffering. As our magnificent saviour hung on a cold wooden cross, iron spikes protruding from his hands and feet, all in the presence of his gloating and triumphant enemies…he did not retaliate, speak a word in his defense, or even threaten his tormentors with what was going to happen to them at death. Instead he silently entrusted himself to the one who judges justly…his Father.

Jesus knew that in obedience to God and as an example for us, he must endure unfathomable suffering and humiliation at the hands of his most bitter enemies…and so must we…so must I.

The primary lesson I absorb from this passage is that, for me to truly be Christ-like, I must be willing to quietly endure even the pettiest of rejections I face as a follower of the biblical Jesus. Really – anything I suffer for his name is petty compared to what he went through on our behalf – yet sadly, it is difficult and even agonizing at times not to defend myself. My pride rises in my throat as I seek to defend my name, my reputation. But wasn’t Jesus of no reputation? Didn’t he allow himself to be mocked and even abused for the very same sin that rises in my wicked heart as I speak his truth?? As Paul said so eloquently: oh what a wretched man am I! Who will rescue me from this body of death? …

…Jesus Christ. He alone bore my sin in his body on the cross so that I might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds I have been healed. I believe Lord and I am so thankful for who you are and what you did for foolish, prideful me. I forgive those who have hurt me…help me to per-fect that forgiveness in my heart just as you so willingly forgave me while I was yet a sinner. Do not let my love grow cold but help me to fix my eyes on you as you truly are in your word, as I speak your scriptural truths in gentleness and love, and as I run this race with endurance, hand in hand with you, my saviour and my Lord.

Favorite Scriptures #1: Paul’s Perspective on the Purpose of Life

The Written Word of God: What Did Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles Say About the Written Word of God?

False Prophets and Teachers: Wolves Among Us

AUTHORITY: Whose Authority Should A Believer Be Under?

July 15, 2015False Prophets and Teachers, Knowing God, Responsibilities as Believers: Sound DoctrineFalse Prophets and Teachers, Knowing God, Leadership in Christ, The wordSola Scriptura

Authority: Whose Authority Should A Believer Be Under?

There is a strong movement amongst church and Para-church leaders to push professing Christians under the umbrella of a group or a “leader.” I believe that the scriptures do, with great clarity, point to submission to government entities as long as they are affirming values that are objectively good and are punishing evil. (Romans 13:1-7). We are also exhorted to submit to our brethren in accordance with the biblical model given to us by Jesus, Paul and Peter. Christ centered leadership does not lord authority over others, as Jesus Christ himself showed us by serving the sick and the poor and by washing his disciples’ feet even as he was about to be brutally executed by his enemies.

Many of the well-known Christian leaders of our day reject any type of scriptural examination of their teachings, claiming that, as David spoke of Saul, so we are not to touch (or question) God’s” anointed.” Fortunately, we have the great apostle Paul as an example of how a leader is supposed to respond to a flock that tests his teachings. In Acts 17:10-12, it is clear that the Berean church was highly esteemed…because they tested EVERYTHING Paul taught them with the scriptures. They were not rebuked or rejected by Paul for daring to test his teachings. Instead they were considered to be more noble than other churches for examining his words, and have been recorded forever in the canon of scripture for that very act. May we find leaders who feel the same way about honest men testing their teaching in the refining furnace that is the word of God.

It is a very good (and sadly, a very rare) thing to have mature and honorable people in our lives who truly believe and understand the word of God. I am a firm believer that when the Lord brings us such people, they should feel the freedom to use God-breathed scripture to correct, train, teach and even rebuke us…getting us back on the straight path to Jesus Christ. The word of God should always be our final authority, as it was for the noble Bereans, for it will endure long after this earth and it’s inhabitants burn away. (1 Peter 1:23-24).

I personally long to know men and women of honor and truth with whom I can share this journey to Jesus Christ…believers who have put aside the deceptive lies of this world: wealth, status, sex, power, constant recreation, and instead joyfully subject themselves to the only one who judges righteously…Jesus Christ. But as noted above, such believers are few and far between as the wickedness of this world flows like an open sewer into the body, destroying the hearts and minds of even the most sincere followers of Christ.

Below are several scriptures that set forth the biblical model of authority, warning us that we should be cautious when submitting to fallible men, and reminding us that Jesus alone is our final authority. The scriptures also illustrate that biblical authority should not look like temporal authority. Instead it should look … like Jesus. I encourage those who read this to do so with a Bible in hand. This is far from an exhaustive study, but it does attempt to capture the primary theme of the verses that address this issue.

Matthew 23:8-12

In this passage, Jesus instructed a large crowd that they should not call anyone teacher or master, for Jesus Christ alone is our master. He also warned them that they (and we) are not to call anyone father other than our Father God in heaven. Instead, whoever is greatest among us must be our servant and whoever exalts himself will be humbled. In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus also emphasizes the fact that those in authority through Christ should be a servant, just as Jesus Christ came to serve mankind and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Luke 16:15

In this passage Jesus points out that what is highly esteemed by men is detestable in the sight of God.

Nowhere is the above statement truer today than in the church, where both leaders and laymen are enamored with the wealthy “Christian” businessman or the “Christian” celebrity athlete. Often authority and respect are erroneously given to a wealthy businessman not because their hearts and character have been tested with the refining fire of scripture, but because character is simply assumed because they have had temporal success. In my experience I have seen church leaders ignore the fact that many of these men have stepped on the necks of business partners – even ones who were struggling financially – to gain more power and wealth for themselves. Also, the fact that many of these men have often ignored or left behind wives and children as they built an empire for themselves that will soon burn away (Revelation 18:10-19), is forgotten, because in today’s church, cash and outward appearances are almost always king. Paul and Jesus, however, cared nothing for material wealth and had no place to rest their heads as they traveled from city to city on foot, in order to love and serve the poor with integrity. (See Paul’s thoughts on all things temporal: Favorite Scriptures #1: Paul’s Perspective On This Short Life (Philippians 3:7-14)) Are those in power in our spheres truly caring for the weak and powerless on a consistent basis as Jesus and Paul did? Not likely, because as much as it is talked about in our sanctuaries, it is rarely a significant item on the schedules of the men leading our churches since there is much fund raising and book writing to do.

John 2:24-25

Jesus did not entrust himself to men for he knew what was in men.

While Jesus was God, and was fully submitted to the Father while on earth, this statement by John makes it clear that we should be very cautious when trusting ourselves to others, just as Jesus was. Perhaps that is why Jesus, in John 14:26 (and 1 John 2:27) told us that the Holy Spirit, not rabbis or pastors, would teach us all things. We must all simply take the time to study the word of God ourselves, with the help of the spirit, and not delegate that duty to any man.

1 Corinthians 4:6

Do not think of man above that which is written.

This is an excellent verse, making it clear that Paul does not want any man to place him or any other elder above the scriptures. The word of God alone is our final authority, not man.

1 Corinthians 4:6

The head of every man is Christ

This unambiguous statement by Paul makes it clear that in Christ, men do not rule over men. Jesus Christ is our Lord and it is to him alone that we must give an accounting for our lives. Thus, we should get to know what is important to him straight from the fountain…avoiding the middleman where the fountain often becomes polluted.

2 Corinthians 1:24

In this verse Paul makes states that he did not want to have dominion over anyone else’s faith. He simply wanted to be a helper…a servant to his flock because each one of them, and each one of us, stand and fall based on our own faith.

In 2 Corinthians 11 and in Galatians 1, we also see that in both Corinth and Galatia, the people in the churches were easily submitting themselves to a different gospel and a different Jesus than the one Paul preached. Why? It was undoubtedly because they, unlike the Bereans, did not test what they heard from their leaders with the word of God. Even Jesus Christ himself used the word of God when he battled Satan in the desert after starving for 40 days. He could have easily come up with his own memorable and powerful phrase with which to hammer Satan. But Jesus Christ himself chose to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God in reminding Satan that, “It is written….” With those words, Satan fled.

Jesus and Paul both warned us, and Paul with tears, that we must be on guard, for many false prophets and teachers will arise from inside the church. These greedy and power hungry men lord their authority over the flock, and as Peter said, turn us into merchandise…a means to comfort, wealth, power and fame. I believe we can all say that we have seen far too much of that type of leadership in the body…some subtle and some not so subtle.

In Galatians 2, Paul also makes it clear how he feels about challenging authority if he believes that false practices or teachings are taking place. He did not mind challenging even the great apostle Peter – and in front of other believers. Peter was leading the church back into legalistic practices, some of which Peter himself ignored when it suited him. So Paul called him out in a very clear and direct manner, not demeaning Peter but calling the sin that was taking place sin, with no attempt to prop him up or protect him from what he had to face. Paul’s only desire was to honor and glorify God by making it known publicly that Peter’s actions were wrong and were infecting the body.

Neither Jesus nor Paul was a respecter of persons. They loved people but did not idolize them or place them on a pedestal. The scriptures are clear: only Jesus should be worshipped and treated as above criticism. Yet somehow today, some in the church feel that we should cover or down play the sins and false teachings of our leaders because it will hurt the body if they are exposed. Quite the opposite is true. There is nothing…nothing more beautiful than a good, strong leader in Christ owning up to his failures and being an example of humility and teachability to the brethren. That…is true power through the spirit of Jesus Christ.

It is also clear that Paul did not believe that he had to run every decision he made by other men. When he received his calling to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, he stated that he did not confer with flesh and blood before undertaking that commission. (Galatians 1:16). He, like Jesus, did not need to be told by fallible men what he knew the spirit was calling him to do. Is it wise to run important decisions by men we trust, who know the word and use it as their lamppost? Yes. But if there are no such men available, we are able to trust the word of God and the mighty Holy Spirit within us to lead us into all truth. (John 14:26, and 1 John 2:27).

Ephesians 5:21

Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of the Lord.

Again, Paul makes the point that in Christ, we who are growing towards maturity are not supposed to lord authority over each other. Instead we should mutually submit to the biblical wisdom and insight that our brothers and sisters have for us through knowing and fearing God. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, “follow me as I follow Christ,” meaning follow him to the extent that what he is doing is truly following Jesus. We do not have to blindly submit to the worldly advice and insights given to us by our friends and fellow believers, for each one of us are ultimately accountable to the only one who judges justly.

1 Thessalonians 2:4

Paul states that he and his brothers put their faith, not in men, but in the gospel, seeking to please God who tries their hearts.

I love that Paul emphasizes throughout his letters, that we must remain aware, at all times, that it is ultimately Jesus Christ to whom we are accountable. We must constantly live in a state of godly fear and awareness of his mercy, power and majesty as we remain in him, bearing fruit to the glory of the Father.

1 Timothy 2:5

There is only one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

This is another scripture that states clearly and directly that we, as believers, are beholden to no man, but are instead personally responsible for our own faith and must communicate our sin, our troubles and our thanksgiving to Jesus Christ himself.

Similarly, Hebrews 4:15-16, reminds us that we have a high priest in the heavens who can relate to our infirmities since he himself was a man. Therefore, we can approach his throne of grace with boldness so that we may obtain mercy from him directly in our time of need. Notice how there is no mention of going first to a pastor or brother. We all may, due to the sacrifice of Jesus’s body on the cross, approach him directly and with great confidence. Furthermore, Hebrews 12:1-3, tells us, eloquently and with great spiritual power, that we are to fix our eyes not on man…but on Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our faith who, for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it’s shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It is the Jesus of the Bible that we must focus or minds, our hearts and our eyes on, not man.

2 Timothy 2:15-17

In this passage Paul reminds Timothy that he has known the Holy Scriptures since he was a child, and that those scriptures are able to make him wise unto salvation. Paul goes on to tell him that ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and for instruction in righteousness so that he – and we – might be fully equipped for good works.

The lesson here is that, if I am to mutually submit to another for instruction, correction and reproof, those admonishments must come from the scriptures…and not from the mind and heart of a man.

Hebrews 13:17

In this passage, Paul tells us to obey those that have “rule” over us for they are accountable to God for our “souls.”

Based on how the words “ruler” and “soul” are used in both this passage and in Romans 13:1-7, and based on what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 23:8-12(discussed above), it appears that this passage is addressing temporal rather than spiritual authority. Regardless, the Berean church established with great certainty that examining those who posses the gift of leadership with the word is a noble thing.

1 Peter 5:1-3

Peter instructs the elders to feed the flock of believers rather than to lord authority over them. He also encouraged them to be good examples to the younger brothers and sisters.

1 John 2:20,27

We all have the anointing from God and “know all things,” so we “need not that any man teach” us since the anointing from God will teach us instead. These verses are similar to Jesus’ statements in Matthew 23:8-12 and John 14:26, which are discussed earlier in this writing.

1 John 2:20 and 27 directly address two key issues as they relate to authority in the church today. First, they establish, with certainty, that there are no longer any specially anointed men who are not subject to a careful examination with scripture. While we all have different gifts and we can learn from each other…everyone who is truly in Christ is personally anointed by God. Secondly, these verses remind each of us NOT to delegate our responsibility to learn about Jesus Christ to an authority figure. We all are to seek God ourselves while he may yet be found and we must test everything we hear from men with the word, lest we be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. (Ephesians 4:14).

There are many men and women today who are desperately trying to obtain power and wealth by declaring themselves (or by having their cohorts declare them) apostles and prophets of Christ. They expect all believers to get in line under their self appointed headship and to obey everything they teach, including many so-called revelations, which often contradict scripture directly. One of the best examples of the obvious false teachings of both the Dominionists/NAR and Bethel, is their false eschatology, which is the exact opposite of the clear teachings of Daniel and Revelation. In Revelation 13:7 and in Daniel 7:21, 7:24, 8:24, and 11:33, it is clear that believers are NOT going to retake the world to usher in Christ’s return. Instead, the saints will be defeated by the antichrist, and Jesus will take his revenge in his time and in his way. It is not about us and our fleshly desire to reign. It is about Jesus Christ and his perfect plan, which takes place in his perfect timing.

There truly is only one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ, our wonderful and precious high priest who gave his body and his blood for us…cold and naked on a hard wooden cross. This great and wonderful God has given us the gift of his Holy Sprit, which will indeed teach us all things as we seek him with all of our hearts. (John 14:26). We must reject the worship of proud, charismatic men and must instead invest our hearts in the one thing that we know is true…the unchanging, everlasting word of God. Then we will be able to understand God’s perfect love and his will for our lives.

EPILOGUE

If we do find faithful believers who are truly following the model of a Jesus centered life, as illustrated by the apostles, by all means follow them as they follow Christ. But…know the word for yourself so that you, like the Bereans, are equipped to test everything, and do not fall for clever sounding phrases and thoughts sprinkled with the name of Jesus and other Christian language. Submit to committed followers of Christ as they teach you God’s eternal word…but understand this: all men will fade away and die, like grass in the hot sun (1 Peter 24-25), but the word of God endures forever. When we stand before God at the end of days, with everything laid bare before him, he will ask us if we truly loved him with all of our hearts, and if we did, why didn’t we take the time to test the things we were taught and practiced with the scriptures since many courageous men were burned at the stake so that we could have it by our beds and on our electronic devices. I hope that we are all able to tell Jesus, with great boldness, that we did love him and that we were not fooled by the call from proud and deceitful men to listen to their interpretation of the Bible and ignore our own, through the Holy Spirit. Seek the Lord in truth and with great earnestness while he may yet be found. Time is short my brothers and sisters. Make the most of it while there is still daylight….

Ecumenism part 1: Contend Vigorously For the Faith

Preach the Word Boldly, and do Not Be Ashamed of Jesus Christ

Tithing and the New Testament Church

LIMITED ATONEMENT And UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION: Does Everyone Have an Opportunity to Be Saved?

May 19, 2015Calvinism, UncategorizedCalvinism, Knowing God, The wordSola Scriptura

The reality of Calvinism versus the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3:36

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (the gospel of Jesus Christ, and not sovereign election or predestination!) is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

¹^{4 “}For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:¹⁵And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” 2 Cor. 5:14-15

…God our Saviour…will have all men to be saved , and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all…. 1 Timothy 2:3-6

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.33 This he said, signifying what death he should die. ” John 12: 32-33

^{9 “}But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

15 “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John‬ ‭3‬:‭15‬-‭18‬ ‭

An Analogy:

If my wife, rather than being human, was AI, and was programmed to run to the door, smile, hug and kiss me with great joy every day when I come home from work, it would mean exactly…nothing, because it wasn’t from her heart. It wasn’t her choice to marry me, hug me, smile at me or even love me.

Despite the semantic games, Calvinist teach that we are essentially robots, chosen by God to love him…forced to love him. That, of course, is not love at all. In order to have authentic love, we must have the freedom to hate, even to hate the God who made us and loves us. Satan made the choice to reject God’s love and his will…and so do most of us. Life is so much more than simple, gnostic FATE.

The idea that God, before time began, preselected certain unborn people to be destined for salvation, while certain other people were pre-designated for hell, with no opportunity to believe and repent, is clearly and outrageously false – and fails when tested in the refining fire that is the word of God. We are to look to the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) for guidance on all issues, and the full counsel of God, as found in the eternal scriptures, obliterates the idea of limited atonement, along with the other pillars of Calvinism. However, for the purposes of this article, I will focus on the error of limited atonement because it is a critical concept for believers since, if it is true, the Christian life of evangelizing, being a living example of Christ, and making disciples, has no value in terms of saving others from the flames…and both the piercing gospel of Jesus Christ (which is the power of God unto salvation, per Romans 1:16) and prayers for the salvation of others…are meaningless.

From the dawn of time, men and women have had free will, given to us by the hand of God. In his sovereignty, he chose to create humans, not robots. In the garden, Adam and Eve had the freedom to either obey God, or to listen to the deliciously wicked voice of the serpent. God did not make or want mindless creatures, but instead, He, in his unimpeachable sovereignty has given each of us freedom. This freedom is best illustrated by the opportunity we all have to choose life or death, good or evil (see, Joshua 24:14-15).

Far more often than not, we have chosen evil, but the idea that we are all preordained to go to heaven or hell, without a volitional element, makes the life and brutal death of Jesus Christ, as well as the commands of Jesus and the apostles, moot, a waste, a sham, a fraud, and an unfathomable cruelty perpetrated by a God who in reality has an unsearchable love for each and every one of His beloved children. We are far more than robots living an essentially meaningless, preprogrammed life. We are men and women who have received the gift of free will from the one and only God, and he wants us to use that will to seek him with all of our hearts. The evidence of his love and mercy…is everywhere (Ps. 19).

My primary problem with Calvinism and all other structures and belief systems superimposed on the Bible, such as hyperdispensationalism, covenant theology and pre/post-tribulation rapture, is that we tend to force every other scripture we find into the mold of those manmade paradigms, even if there are 20, 40 or even 100 scriptures that seem to contradict the 3 or 4 verses that support our belief. We tend to cling to our position as an idol, rather than seeking the “whole counsel” of God on a subject. Why? Because we learned it from a trusted youth leader, a long-time pastor or from a wise seminary professor. Instead of trusting men, who will fade away like grass (1 Peter 1:24-25), we must take the eternal word of God, as a whole, gathering all of the verses on a topic we seek to understand, so that we can study every single word Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, et. al. said regarding that issue. That is the ONLY way to truly understand the things of God. We must rely less on the teaching of men, no matter how much we love and respect them, and rely more and more on God’s everlasting word. As John 14:26 and 1 John 2:27 teach us, the Holy Spirit will teach us all things as we press deeply into His word.

My hope is that we will all obey the Apostle Paul’s command in 2 Corinthians 10:5, and cast down every pretense that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We must tear down the manmade structures that we place on the eternal scriptures, no matter the cost, and instead search the written word ourselves, diligently and in full, just as the Bereans did and were commended for it (Acts 17:11).

Below are an abundance of scriptures, most of which are self-explanatory, which establish the fact that every single person born on this earth has a chance to be saved. While I will never understand the thoughts and intents of the heart of God, or fully comprehend His foreknowledge, I do believe that Jesus, Paul and Peter have made it more than clear to all of us who truly seek Him in His word, that no one, pre-birth is designated for hell at the whim of God, and that everyone has an opportunity to recognize and choose the only one who can save us from the consequences of sin(Romans 1:18-21).

If your theology requires you to change the definition of these simple words: all, any, every, and the world…then you have a problem. That problem is not with me. It is with God.

Nullifying the plain meaning of multiple scriptures in order to make them fit into the theology of our favorite authors and teachers, is a dangerous thing. For God so loved…the WORLD. Yes, God actually loved the whole world, so he gave his only begotten son to redeem us all, yet most reject such a great salvation.

Psalm 19:1-4 In this passage, David states that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord and the earth shows His handiwork. Day after day they pour forth knowledge and night after night they pour forth speech. There is no language where their voice isn’t heard. Their words have gone out to the end of the world.

This scripture, in conjunction with Romans 1:16-21, teach us that, God has revealed himself to all through the beauty and power of creation. Therefore, we are ALL without excuse.

Psalm 97:6 The heavens declare His righteousness and all of the people see His glory.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest….

Anyone who is weary and burdened is invited by Jesus to come to Him for rest. He doesn’t invite those he’s allegedly already chosen. He wants and has invited us all.

Matthew 18:14 When Jesus is talking about children, He specifically states that it is not His Father’s will that even one of these should perish. Clearly, Jesus is sharing His (and the Father’s) hope that every single one of the children on earth will seek Him and find Him. His will is that none perish, yet many do, thereby confirming that we have a will that can reject God.

Luke 2:9-11 When the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds to announce Christ’s birth, he told them that he was bringing tidings of great joy which will be “to all people.”

***Luke 13:34***Jesus laments over the fact that He so desperately longed to gather ALL of His elect jews to Himself – but they refused to come. His elect jews willingly rejected the one who made them and was calling them home. I recommend reading this passage. It makes no sense in the context of Calvinism.

John 1:1-18 The gospel of John (along with Romans Chapter 10) is a tour de force against calvinism, tearing it down from every angle. This extended passage, which I believe is one of the most important in the entire Bible (because it establishes exactly who Jesus Christ was, is and is to come), is an excellent place to start in proving that Jesus came to save everyone who believes. Sadly, most reject his offer of salvation by grace through faith.

In the opening four verses, the Apostle John states, with great clarity exactly who our savior is, and he makes it abundantly clear that: Jesus “was the light of men.” Jesus was not the light of some men. He was not the light for certain chosen men. He was the light of all men. John then goes on to state that John the Baptist came as a witness to Jesus so that through Him all men might believe.(V. 7). Again, it was Jesus’ hope that every single person on this earth would believe in God…not just some men, not just certain preselected men, but all men. In verse 12, John also specifically states that anyone who receives Jesus, to him he will give the power to become a son of God. John is emphasizing the fact that there is a strong volitional element to salvation. Anyone who receives Jesus Christ can become a child of God. John 1:16 goes on to state that we have all received the grace of God. Men predesignated for hell, with no chance to choose between Jesus and the god of this world, would not have the opportunity to receive God’s grace, thereby making John and the scriptures liars. I believe the clear, specific words of John the apostle, over any man, no matter their reputation, popularity or academic background.

John 3:16-21 In this well-known passage, Jesus restates the point made by John in chapter 1, by saying that anyone who believes in the name of Jesus will not perish but will have everlasting life. Verse 17 goes on to state that God sent Jesus into this world not to condemn it but to save it. He did not come to save a few preselected people who were already marked for salvation. Why would Jesus come and die a brutal, torturous death to save people who were already saved? Why would Jesus and Paul tell us to preach the word of God, to make disciples, and to contend for the faith vigorously, if it was already predetermined who would and wouldn’t be saved? In the rest of this passage, we learn, from the mouth of Jesus Christ, the author of our salvation, that we all have a choice…darkness or light, good or evil. (See also, John 3:36, which is just as strong on this topic, and is quoted in the heading of this article).

John 5:22-24 Jesus states that all judgment has been committed to Him by the Father, and that it is the Father’s hope that all men would honor His Son. Jesus then goes on to state that whoever hears His words and believes that He was sent from the Father, has eternal life. Again, there are no limitations placed by Jesus or the Father on who can hear and believe in Jesus Christ, and Jesus specifically states that it is His Father’s actual hope that everyone would honor Jesus Christ. The only person who seems to place limitations on who can hear the word of God and be saved is John Calvin.

John 5:39-40

“And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John‬ ‭5:40‬

Jesus tells His fellow Jews that, while they search the scriptures daily, they do not choose to come to Him, the very one to whom the scriptures point. Jesus is making it clear that the study of theology doesn’t give anyone eternal life…but willingly coming to the one and only savior, Jesus Christ, does…and that is a choice we all have the opportunity to make.

John 6:45-47 Jesus again states that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life, not just a preselected few.

John 12:32 Jesus says that, if He is lifted up from the earth He will draw all men to Himself. Most will ignore Him, but Jesus says, with unmistakable certainty, that He will draw ALL men to Himself.

John 12:48 is another clear verse, spoken by Jesus Christ, warning us of the eternal consequences of using our freedom to reject His salvation:

“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

John 20:31

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

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Why do we have the scriptures? That we might believe and choose life. This is another clear verse explaining how God has given humanity certain things (like creation per Psalm 19:1-2; Rom. 1:19-21) to point our eyes, minds and hearts to him. Some heed the call of God…but most reject it and go their own way.

Acts 7:51 When Steven, “full of faith and power” is explaining the prophesies of Jesus from the Old Testament to the Jewish council, he informs them that, just like their fathers, they resist the Holy Ghost. Steven would not need to waste his time preaching this message to the Jews if it were predetermined who would and wouldn’t be saved. He also makes it very clear that their forefathers chose to resist the Holy Spirit, which is of course a voluntary act. In both Deuteronomy 30:19-20 and Joshua 24:15, God commands His people to choose…this day life or death, blessings or curses…thus, even in Old Testament days, God gave men the choice as to whether or not they would follow Him. Most of them chose the golden calf, Molech, the queen of heaven or Ashtoreth worship over the Living God, just most people today choose their idols over salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. We all have the ability to resist or accept the unchanging truth of our great God. He speaks to our hearts through His eternal word and through the glory and beauty of creation, so that all of us are without excuse. See, Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:19-20.

Acts 10:34-44 When Peter was sharing the gospel with Cornelius, he stated that God is not a respecter of persons, and that every nation that feareth Him and works righteousness, is accepted by Him(we saw that with Nineveh in the OT when they repented after hearing the word from Jonah) . In verse 43, Peter teaches that through God’s name, whoever believes in Jesus shall receive the remission of sins. We also see throughout Acts and the epistles that Peter, Paul and many other Apostles spend their lives relentlessly preaching the gospel throughout the world knowing that all men everywhere have an opportunity to hear the truth of Jesus Christ and be saved.

*****Acts 17:24-31 In this powerful passage, where Paul is preaching to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens, he lays out, in very clear terms, the fact that God, who made everything, created each person at a specific time and in a specific place that “they should seek the Lord and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.” So even the godless Greek philosophers were placed on earth at a specific time and in a specific place, so that perhaps they too might seek God, find Him an be saved. This is true for every person ever created…says Paul: Acts 17:24-31

²⁴^”“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;²⁵Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;²⁶And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;²⁷That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring…³⁰And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:³¹Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

Romans 1:16 This verse is self explanatory. The power of the God unto salvation is NOT predestination. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which ransoms men from the flames of hell: 16 “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.” The great passage on Grace in Ephesians 2:8-9, also makes it clear that we are saved by “grace through faith,” not by “grace through predestination.”

Romans 1:19-23 Paul essentially restates what David said in Psalm 19, that all men are without an excuse when it comes to knowing God because God has revealed Himself to everyone from the dawn of time, through the glory and power of creation. Yet men choose to ignore what God has placed right in front of their five senses, and instead choose to degrade each other and embrace the darkest of sins.

**Romans 4:5 The calvinists claim that choosing to believe the gospel is a work, thus, true believers don’t choose to trust Christ but he alone chooses them. This verse makes it as clear as is possible, that choosing to believe is NOT a work because Paul contrasts belief with works:

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans‬ ‭4:5‬ ‭KJV

Romans 5:18 Just as judgment came upon all men by Adam’s sin, so by the righteousness of Jesus, the free gift of justification unto life came to all men.

***Romans 8:29 In this verse Paul explains predestination as “foreknowledge,” just as Peter defines the “elect” as those God “foreknew,” in 1 Peter 1:2. The point is, that God did not preselect men to go to heaven or hell, but he, in his omniscience, “foreknew” who would choose to believe on his name, and those who would reject him. See below:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ….” 1 Peter 1:2

Romans 8:32 Paul states that God the Father delivered His Son to death “for us all.”

Romans 10:4 Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believes.

Romans 10:9-10 “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead (NOT” If thou art randomly preselected by Jesus for heaven before time began”), thou shalt be saved. For it is with the heart that man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Romans 10:12-17 Paul teaches us, without any limiting language, that the Lord is rich toward “all” who call upon him (vs. 12) and goes on to state that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (See also, Joel 2:32) Paul then implores the Roman church to preach the gospel, since the only way that people can believe in Jesus is by hearing the word of God. He states, “How shall they believe in him of whom they haven’t heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans10:14). This point is emphasized again in verse 17: “So then faith cometh by HEARING, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

Paul does NOT say that people believe in Jesus Christ because they are part of the “elect.” He makes it clear that people will not, and cannot believe…unless we preach, and they hear…the word of the living God.

In summary, Paul is telling us in Romans 10, with clear and powerful language, that salvation wasn’t accomplished at the pre-creation whim of God, but instead he exhorts us to go out into the world and preach the gospel in order to give more people an opportunity to hear the story of Jesus Christ, who ransomed us from hell with his blood, and perhaps, through hearing the truth, might be saved.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

***1 Corinthians 5:11 “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”

The passage above is one that motivates me to evangelize perhaps more than any other. Not only is the terror of the Lord on the day of judgement very real, but Jesus Christ has called us to labor tirelessly to “persuade” people, via the gospel, to repent. If the false, Calvinist understanding of predestination were indeed true then this scripture(along with many, many others) is a lie because no one could be persuaded.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 Christ died for all (it says that twice), thus if any man be in Christ he is a new creature and all things become new.

2 Thessalonians 2:12 Those are damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.

Who is damned? Those who choose not to believe.

1 Timothy 3:6-7 God’s wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, for He gave Himself as a ransom for all.

1 Timothy 4:10 We labor and suffer reproach because we trust God, who is the savior of all men.

1 Timothy 4:16 We must be careful how we live and with our doctrine for in doing so we shallsave both ourselves and our hearers. Clearly, our words and actions may have a bearing on who is and isn’t saved.

Titus 2: 11-12 11″For the grace of God which bringeth salvation has appeared to ALL men, 12 teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world….” The grace of God THAT BRINGS SALVATION has appeared to everyone. This is one of many passages that could not possibly be any more clear on the fact that God offers his grace to everyone, and he offers it for free.

Hebrews 2:9 Jesus, was made a little lower than the angels and was crowned with glory and honor so that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.

James 5:19-20 James tells us that many of our sins will be covered if we, through the truth, convert a sinner from the error of his ways, saving him from death. Jude 1:22-23 also emphasizes that by our actions, as followers of Christ, men can be pulled from the fires of hell.

2 Peter 2:9 God is long suffering toward us and is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:15 “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation….”

‭Peter makes it clear once again – God’s long suffering towards us actually leads to salvation. How? It his patience with our wickedness…his long delayed judgement, that gives us all the time we need to consider his gospel and repent. He wouldn’t need to be long suffering towards us – and his long suffering certainly wouldn’t lead to salvation – if each of us didn’t have a choice to make with our hearts. That choice is…the short term pleasures of sin, or the blood of Jesus Christ? Choose this day who you are going to serve.

1 John 2:2 Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 5:1 “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God….”

Once again, the apostle whom Jesus loved, teaches us exactly who is saved. It is those who believe that Jesus is who He said He is.

Revelation 22:17 ^“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” At the very end of the Bible, THIS is what Jesus Christ wants us to know: whosoever is thirsty, whosoever will, let him take the water of life…freely! The offer of salvation to everyone, without limitation is being made abundantly clear one last time. Please, come to him and choose the saving blood of Jesus Christ, as the clock of of time…winds down.

Jesus Christ, the one who was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were made; the one in whom is life and that life is the light of men; the one who gave us grace and truth; the one who bore our sins in His body on the tree; the one whose head and hair are white like wool as white as snow and whose eyes are like blazing fire; The one who holds the keys of death and hell; the one who someday will appear in an open sky, riding on a white horse wearing a robe dipped in blood with a name written on Him which no one knows but He Himself; the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and the author of such a great salvation, makes it clear, through His own words and the words of His Apostles, that He wants every single person born on this planet to be saved from the flames of hell. Why would He waste so much time teaching the jews about the dangers of hell if it was already predetermined who would and wouldn’t go there? Why would he give us the great commission or have us pray for the salvation of others, if everything was already set in stone? Why would he have allowed his son to be brutalized and murdered if we are all simply preprogrammed, predestined robots?

Because of His surpassing love, He gives all people everywhere an opportunity to repent and turn to Him. He even sends the gospel to pagans who are searching for the one true God (Cornelius, Lydia, and the Ethiopian Eunuch). However the road is narrow…and few find it because few want it. Let us all seek the kingdom of God through His everlasting word, unpolluted by the doctrines of demons and men, and let us joyfully share it with others who might also choose the glorious gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.

EPILOGUE

I strongly recommend that each one of us ask God to tear down ANY man-made belief system, which we have placed on His glorious word, no matter who taught it to us. Jesus promises us in John 14:26 (and John says essentially the same thing in 1 John 2:27), that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things, so I humbly suggest that we pick up our KJV Bibles, and ask the Spirit to destroy any preconceived notions we have about anything related to God…and then simply read.

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. Revelation 3:20

*A note on freewill and the Old Testament: As John 3, and Romans chapters 4 and 10 indicate so clearly, salvation is and has always been accomplished by FAITH in the God of Israel and the triune God fully and finally revealed in the New Testament. God is interested in the heart of a man who hears and responds to the word of God (see, 10:17). Since Jesus came to earth, in order for us to be saved, we must believe in our heart that he, fully God and fully man, paid for our sins with his blood, and was raised to life by his Father. There is nothing in these verses (or John 3) that implies anything else. Romans 4 and Hebrews 11 also make it clear that it was always faith and only faith that saved a soul from hell, even in Old Testament times(see, Romans 4:2-13 and Hebrews 4:1-7). Wicked pagans and harlots, such as the citizens of Ninevah, Nebachadnezzar, and Rahab were saved – not because they were jews (they were not Jews) but because they believed in the true God of heaven, and it was credited to them as righteousness.

Anyone who has read Judges, the major and minor prophets and the books of Moses can see that most jews didn’t care one bit about the God who chose them and redeemed them from slavery time and time again. Therefore, they were not saved even though they were God’s chosen people. God, through his prophets, begged them to choose Him and turn their hearts back to the one who and destroyed the mightiest army on earth (Pharaoh’s army) and delivered their forefathers from 400 years of slavery in Egypt…but they would not. Their hearts were hard and they refused to exercise their God-given freewill to “choose this day” and “turn their hearts….” Therefore, God have them what they wanted, and allowed them to be overrun by their enemies time and time again.

Ezra 6:19-21 is another excellent passage illustrating that even pagans who separated themselves from the filthiness of their heathen gods and turned to the God of Israel, were accepted by Him.

No verse quite sums up the tenor of the entire Old Testament, and the freewill-rejection by the elect Israelites, of a God who loved them deeply, and pursued them with all of his heart, like Luke 13:34

³⁴O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

God longed to gather them to Himself, as a mother hen does with her chicks…BUT THEY WOULD NOT. No passage could ever summarize freewill, and how 99% of the world uses its freedom to respond to God than this one.

Faith in the one true God has always been the only factor that saves. Even the Magi, who came from somewhere in the far eastern regions of the known world, traveled thousands of miles to honor the baby Messiah prophesied about in the Jewish scriptures. These distant pagans did what few Jews did. They read and believed the word of God… and were rewarded not only with eternal life, but by meeting in person the God who could save them.

God has always been available to the hearts of those who want to find him, no matter where they are. Cornelius, Lydia, Apollos and the Ethiopian Eunuch are more examples of New Testament gentiles who wanted to know the one true God and sought him with their hearts, so God sent his gospel to them. That…is how He works.

Two more for the road:

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭7‬:‭51‬ so much for irresistible grace.

“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:”Proverbs‬ ‭1:24, 29‬ ‭

Romans 9, and the God of Incomparable Love

Excellent Article: A Brief History of John Calvin and his Theology

All 5 Points of Calvinism Refuted

An Excellent sermon on Romans 9: Adrian Rogers

The Bible version controversy analyzed and explained

Piercing The Darkness: Preaching the Gospel in Key West, Florida

What Exactly is the Gospel?

ECUMENICISM: Jesus Christ as He is in the Word, Is the Only Way to God

Tithing and the New Testament Church

GOD, ADAM AND THE GARDEN: LOVE AND TRAGEDY…IN PARADISE

April 1, 2015Knowing God, Sin, The WordKnowing God, sin, The wordSola Scriptura

GOD, ADAM AND THE GARDEN: LOVE AND TRAGEDY IN PARADISE

When I recently read the first few chapters of Genesis, I felt the full measure of God’s overwhelming creative power and love for me as He, and the Holy Spirit (see Gen. 1:2) designed and built a beautiful, and glorious habitation for His beloved new creation – man. I felt the intimacy of God’s thoughts towards us as He created thick green grass to cover the barren earth, and a multitude of seed-yielding herbs and fruit trees to provide us life-giving food, sweet and delicious to the taste. God then created lights in the heavens to govern both the day and the night – for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. God also made a multitude of creatures to fill the earth, the waters, and the sky with abundance. He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth … and He saw that those things He made were good.

Then God formed man in His own likeness, and gave him dominion over all of the glorious things that He had just created, and He blessed us and told us to be fruitful and to multiply. God then viewed all that He had carefully labored over… and He saw that it was very good.

After God made Adam from the dust of the ground, He put His mouth up to Adam’s face… and gently breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and Adam became the first living soul. Genesis 2 goes on to state how God Himself went and “planted” a garden in a place called Eden, designed specifically for Adam, with every tree that is “pleasant to the sight” and that was “good for food.”

As one who loves to plant palm trees, bamboo and other tropical vegetation, the above passage touches a deep place in my soul, painting a beautiful and intimate picture of the God of heaven and earth personally designing and building a gorgeous and life-sustaining garden for man. God specifically created it so that, not only are there an abundance of plants which are perfect to sustain him physically, but there were also many trees, shrubs, and flowers which were placed there by God solely for Adam to enjoy with his other senses – his eyes, his nose and his tongue. When I picture this garden, I envision lush green coconut palms blowing slowly in a soft, warm wind. I see huge, grand Canary Island date palms; purple and translucent Hawaiian Ty; thick pink, white, and yellow oleander; and waves of flowering purple, lavender and orange bougainvillea, all surrounded by endless open spaces full of thick, lush dark green grass.

I had never noticed the fact that, after creating the garden, God gives Adam his very first job, a job, which I greatly envy. “The Lord God took man, and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15). What a great and innocent vocation – to tend to all of the beauty and glory that God specifically fashioned for him, all the days of his life. If only….

Besides the fact that God actually designed and planted a lush beautiful garden specifically for Adam, where he could live and reign forever, enjoying the beauty and glory of creation each and every second, the verse that struck me the most about God’s intimate and personal love and delight in man, was Genesis 2:19. In this verse, it says how God formed all of the birds and animals, and brought them to Adam “to see what he would call them.” I envision God, like a loving, deeply interested father, sitting back and watching with a big, warm smile, as His precious son Adam, thinking and imagining for himself, perhaps for the first time, comes up with creative names for all of the living creatures God made just for him. It reminds me of watching my little daughter with a new doll wrapped up perfectly for Christmas, opening it, naming it, smiling joyfully at it, and holding it close to her heart…and then giving it her very favorite name. The feeling I get as a father when I see this, is just a little taste of what God must have felt as He finished His six days of creating this wonderful planet, and watching as His plans, His purposes, and His dreams for mankind are fulfilled through Adam.

But God didn’t want robots to fill this glorious place that He carefully and lovingly designed for us, so He gave Adam and Eve free will. He allowed them to decide whether or not He, the God who made every single thing on the earth for them, was enough. Would they choose to love Him? Would they choose to trust Him? So God planted a tree, that if eaten from, would give them the knowledge of good and evil – and He specifically told them to enjoy all of the other trees and plants but not that one.

God loved them (and us) so much that He did not want us to lose our innocence and be burdened with the knowledge of evil, and He gave us every opportunity to avoid it. He simply hoped that we would be content tending the garden, enjoying the beauty, the peace, the love, and the friendship that Adam and Eve had with each other and with all of the animals, and He wanted us to walk closely with Him…in the cool of the evening.

But it wasn’t enough for Adam, and it wouldn’t have been enough for me. The unceasing beauty and majesty of creation – which speaks loudly to the hearts of each and every human through the soft clouds and a warm summer wind – is not enough. No. We, in our selfish ambition and desire to be as gods, prefer to close our eyes and hearts to God, and to pursue the cravings of our flesh. As a result of Adam’s choice, he and Eve were ejected from the garden God designed for them, and the ground was made firm and difficult to till so that they would have to eat from the sweat of Adam’s brow…and the intention of God, to make them immortal in their innocence, was shattered, and God declared that from dust they were created and to dust they shall return (Genesis 3:19, 22, 24). A cherubim and a flaming sword were placed at the entrance to the garden, preventing mankind from ever accessing the tree of life again…until Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, provided us a way back to intimacy with God through His precious blood shed in agony on a hard wooden cross.

What a great tragedy mankind turned out to be. We continued to hurt the heart of God even after the garden to the point that, just before the world was destroyed by a flood in Genesis 6, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth and it grieved Him at His heart.”

The fact that we have the capacity to so wound the heart of the living God, shows me in a tangible and powerful way, just how much He does love us and just how grievous our sin is to Him. This same God, who made us in His image, and placed a rich and verdant garden in which we could have dwelled forever in unceasing peace and beauty, was pierced deeply and personally because of our unceasing wickedness. And to consider that, despite the fact that every inclination of our hearts was evil, He still sent His one and only Son to live spartanly and die brutally, shows that His love and desire for our hearts has not waned. May we return that love to Him by seeking His face and His face only, and recalling His wonderful plan for us at the dawn of time. For if we truly repent and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will, one glorious day, be restored to Him and to His eternal kingdom, and there we will finally eat from the tree of life, and we will live and reign with Him in paradise forever.

Heaven: Your Best Life…Later Part 2

Grace, Obedience and Salvation: The Narrow Road

Favorite Scriptures #1: Paul’s Perspective On This Short Life (Philippians 3:7-14)

FORGIVENESS: TO THE MERCIFUL, GOD SHOWS HIMSELF MERCIFUL

March 12, 2015Forgiveness, The WordBrokenness, Grace Obedience and Salvation, Knowing God, The wordSola Scriptura

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven… 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

Matthew 5:43-46

There is neither a greater, nor more difficult calling by Jesus Christ, then the call to forgive even our worst and most spiteful enemies. Jesus himself exhibited this most difficult act, while hanging cold, naked and in agony on a cross. His ability to forgive those who destroyed his body and humiliated him in front of his enemies was truly the product of a life of love, trust and obedience to his Father in heaven…and only when we do the same through the power of the Holy Spirit can this beautiful and powerful fruit of the Spirit be birthed in us.

The Lord’s Prayer is, in my estimation, one of the most important passages of scripture because it consists of Jesus, the guy we pray to (jointly with his Father), telling us exactly how to pray. Every time I read it however, I get hung up on a few certain verses….

12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…. 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I would much prefer it say, “forgive us our sins forever, and punish quickly and with great and unfettered vengeance, those who have dared to disagree with us or hurt us.”

But it doesn’t say that because that is not the heart of our great God. As long as we live on this earth, we are called to love – and even bless our enemies, not just with words and gritted teeth…but in the depths of our heart. To truly do that, I believe that we must know Jesus as he is in the word, and seek to comprehend exactly what it is that he did for us during his 33 years on this planet.

There are many verses that describe the love of Christ, and his death for us while we were sinners, but to me, the passage below seems to capture his mercy, his love, his obedience and his surpassing greatness, perhaps more than any other pre-Revelation passage:

23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:23-24

Surrounded by his taunting enemies, hanging cold and naked on a cross, Jesus Christ, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who could have called down twelve legions of angels to save him, instead chose to suffer, bearing our sins…my sick and wicked sins…in his body, so that I might die to those sins and live for righteousness…for by those wounds, I am healed. Therefore, I must, by his Spirit, also learn to forgive, and even to suffer in forgiveness, just as he did for me.

The parable of the unmerciful servant below is an excellent illustration of what exactly Jesus expects from those who love him:

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

The unmerciful servant sounds a bit too familiar to me. Sadly, it is like a huge, cracked mirror held up to my face.

I know that I must forgive, in the deepest places of my heart, the people who have hurt me, especially those who have hurt me the most. Why? Because Jesus has forgiven me for so much – yet I so easily forget all of the people that my gossip, slander and selfishness have maimed. I have committed so many sins against both God and man that if I truly know Jesus as he is in his word, I will seek to become even more aware of those sins, and of his great, unmerited mercy, towards me so that I might, through the spirit, share that beautiful gift of mercy with those who have hurt me.

I cannot fake forgiveness, but what I can do with the help of Jesus, is make a decision in my mind and in my heart to forgive someone, knowing that even if I still ache inside from the rejection or shame, the choice is made – and it is final. To walk in that forgiveness, I simply ask the Holy Spirit to help me love the one who hurt me and to destroy any root of bitterness growing in my heart. I also make a point of praying for the person who wounded me, never asking that I would be justified in their eyes, or that they would see things my way, but that the Lord Jesus might take hold of them and show them more and more of his love and eternal power. Really, it is the same prayer I pray for myself. And when that bitterness starts welling up like a poisonous fountain, I ask that God would send his consuming fire to burn it up…and he does. Sometimes it is a constant battle, but knowing the life, love and death of Jesus Christ through his word, and knowing the sacrifice our Father made to allow his precious son to come to earth and suffer years of rejection and abuse, makes it a little bit easier.

Each of us has been deeply and even catastrophically wounded by others, including those we love and trust. But in many ways, through Jesus Christ, those wounds are a gift in light of eternity, because they force us to seek his face, since often, only his love can salve the pain. I have also found that deep wounds, especially those caused by the ones I trust, cause me to look intently at my own sin and the hurts I have inflicted on my close friends and family. When I consider the darkness of my own deceitful and wicked heart, it truly does make me more grateful to Jesus for inexplicably saving me…vengeful, selfish, proud me…and it pushes me to desire conformity to his likeness even more, so that when I am scorned and gossiped about, I, like Jesus and through Jesus, can put aside vengeance, and instead entrust myself to the only one who truly judges justly.

While only Jesus Christ can save souls, the wounds we receive from other people, especially the deep ones can be used as instruments of mercy to draw others to him, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We must all grasp the depth of our own selfishness in order to understand the depth of the love and mercy of God, which, through his precious son, has freely offered to us all. In a small way, our human mercy, extended even to those who despise us, is an opportunity to show that beautiful and eternal gift to others who may have no other chance to see it. May Jesus Christ help me grasp my own sinfulness so that I might, through his spirit, share this great gift of mercy.

The purpose of this short life is to know and love the one true God, and his son Jesus Christ. It is not, as I often think, to avoid pain and slink into heaven as quickly and as safely as possible. It is funny how my personal journey to seek Jesus as he truly is, became harder but much more focused, intense and authentic, during and after being rescued from my greatest failure and deepest pain. What the Lord did in my heart during that time period reminds me of the story of the Pharisee and the prostitute in Luke 7:36-50, where Jesus tells the self-satisfied and scornful Pharisee, that the prostitute who is washing his feet with her hair loves much because she has been forgiven much. Were her sins worse than the Pharisee’s? Not likely – they were just more obvious. But God judges the deep things of the heart, and she was clearly more aware of her sin, and understood what a beautiful gift it was to be forgiven by God. I too have been forgiven much…may I also love much.

I strongly believe, that, in order to truly understand Jesus Christ, we must always be aware of our sin – not out of a sense of failure or guilt, but as proof that the Holy Spirit in us, since Jesus told us in John 15, that after he departed the Spirit would convict us of sin. We must continue to walk in repentance, so that we don’t become like the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, where our love and awareness of him wanes to the point where he is just about ready to spit us out of his mouth. The closer we are to him, the easier it seems to capture sinful thoughts and deeds before they metastasize. Thus, it isn’t a burden, but a joy to live in a place where the death and resurrection-life of Jesus are woven into every aspect of our existence.

EPILOGUE

If we only love and forgive those who love us or apologize to us, then we really are no different than the world. Jesus tells us, in no uncertain terms, that in order to be forgiven by him we must forgive others…with our hearts and without condition. The only way to authentically do that is by understanding the life of Jesus Christ, who bled and died for our many sins. How can we not, through the power of the Holy Spirit, forgive those who have hurt us, making the choice to free them from the chains of guilt and unforgiveness, and freeing ourselves from the poisonous vine of bitterness?

Each time that someone who has wounded us comes to mind, regardless of whether they have apologized to us, according to the clear mandate of scripture, we are to take that thought captive, and bless them, praying sincerely, that they might grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus. That is the only way to squelch the bitter and spiteful voice of revenge that rears itself in our flesh. And as we do this, with our eyes firmly set on Jesus, we will come to understand even more deeply, the height, breadth and depth of his love and mercy towards us. Because, he did after all, bear my sin in his body on the tree, so that I might die to sin and live for righteousness…for by his wounds I am healed. May we generously extend that same love to others.

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“Greater works than these shall he (we) do….” What is the meaning of this scripture?

February 26, 2015False Prophets and Teachers, Knowing God, The WordFalse Prophets and Teachers, The wordSola Scriptura

What Does the Scripture Mean: “Greater Works than these shall he do….?”

John 14:12

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12 (KJV)

Jesus Christ says, In Matthew 18:8-9, that if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better to live this life maimed than to have two hands and two feet and to be cast into “everlasting fire.” If that wasn’t clear enough, Jesus goes on to state that even if one of our eyes is causing us to sin, it is better to pluck it out and throw it away than to have two eyes for this life, but to be cast into the fires of hell for eternity. In John 5:5-14, Jesus heals a man who had been infirm for 38 years, and after finding him in the temple a few hours later…said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14)

The point of the above passages seem to be that physical health – and even bodily wholeness – pale in comparison to having our hearts turned away from sin, and fixed instead on the eternal things of God. Jesus Christ, the maker of both heaven and hell (John 1:1-5; Matthew 25:41; Colossians 1:16), is telling all of us, in no uncertain terms, that we must focus our minds and our hearts on the things of God and not on temporal things, because ultimately, everything temporal…even our physical bodies, will burn in hell if we choose the short term pleasures of sin over the everlasting love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

When I consider the previously referenced passages in Matthew 18 and John 5, in light of John 14:12 (quoted at the top of the post), and the life of Paul, it seems clear that the “greater things” Jesus is referring to, are eternal things…. things that draw the hearts of men away from the temporary and deceitful pleasures of this world, and into a real and permanent relationship with the Living God, through the death and resurrection of our great Lord. By the mercy of Jesus, and by his great sacrifice, we have the ability to, as co-laborers with Christ, draw others away from that infernal place called hell, which God prepared for Satan and his angels, to an eternal kingdom…one that can never, ever be shaken…and to treasure that can never perish, spoil or fade. By the grace of God, this great and everlasting inheritance will belong to us – and to those we help lead to repentance, not by healing their bodies or by performing signs and wonders, but through boldly sharing the unfettered power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth….” Romans‬ ‭1:16‬ ‭

The scriptures clearly testify that healing sick bodies and even raising people from the dead (which of course our omnipotent God can do through us if he so chooses), are small and temporary things in light of eternity. Jesus says that the angels in heaven cheer for even one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7), so how much more valuable is a life dedicated to “greater things” such as drawing others to the cross of Jesus Christ, opening up a door for them to eternity in heaven? While a life of relentlessly sharing the gospel message of Jesus Christ in gentleness and confidence through the power of the Holy Spirit will not make us rich or famous, we will be serving our great God, who is a consuming fire…and we will be fulfilling His first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) by loving both God and man.

EPILOGUE

I encourage myself first, and everyone who reads this brief article, to consider everything – every word and every action – in light of eternity. Any little thing we do for the Kingdom of God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is far greater than even the greatest thing we do for the flesh. May the Lord God, our merciful and loving Father, help us to see everything in this short life in light of the cross…until that glorious day when we meet Him in the air to be in the paradise of God…forever.

19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:19-20

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 1 Corinthians 4:18

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“Greater works than these shall he (we) do….” What is the meaning of this scripture?