Category Archives: Uncategorized
Tomorrow…
Tomorrow…
Tomorrow is a sea of uncertainty,
One step closer to heaven
A minute less until you see God’s face.
Tomorrow is a gift from above,
despite is yesterday was rough enough.
Tomorrow God will provide a shinning star,
His light for you to follow,
His providence you will discover
if you give your life as you know it.
Tomorrow you will find yourself
in a heavenly realm,
where the emerald pastures are only in dreams,
where you will find your savior…
closer than He seemed.
Tomorrow is an empty page,
what story will you write?
a story you orchestrated?
Or the journey of the one who gave you life?
A poem to my son, Franky.
“Baby Boy”
Baby boy when I first saw you,
I understood the meaning of love.
To look into your eyes and see,
the treasure God has foretold.
Holding you for the first time
was the best feeling ever.
Knowing you were all mine,
motivated me to be so much better.
Child you are like a star.
A royal priesthood set apart
from the start of the world
Let all you’ll ever be, rise up…
and glorify the Lord.
When I saw your tiny hands,
I realized how fragile your were.
When you first opened your eyes
I saw the heavens open up.
As you grow up
You captivate my heart each and everyday
the more time I spend with you
the more I see you live God’s way.
What a gift from God you are,
what a privilege you are mine.
What an honor to raise a godly man,
Son be a blessing to everyone you can.
My advise to you my love…
Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
Let your walk match your talk,
evangelize the world,
seek the Lord’s face everyday,
love your neighbor as yourself
and live life, only God’s way!
Franky,
I love you sweetheart, you are one of the greatest treasures the Lord has entrusted me with. Please follow
closely the Lord’s footsteps, give Him your heart, obey His teachings and share His love and light
everywhere you go my love.
“Be just like Jesus”.
I love you very much!
Mommy
God’s letter to YOU…
Would you?
By: Laire Lightner
You ask me how much I love you?
Would you give your child for me?
Would you, being royalty…
Come to earth as I did?
Would you have the patience I have shown to you?
Would you stand by me if I broke your heart?
Would you still love me if I walked away from you?
Would you believe in me right from the start?
Haven’t you seen me ignite the sun before your eyes?
Have you missed the starry sky?
Have I not kept all of my promises?
You ask me how much I love you,
my answer is…
For YOU I died!
Would you surrender your all to me?
Would you trust me with your life?
Have I not shown you my sovereignty?
Or am I just your God from afar?
Have you not seen the flowers I have sent you?
How about Jupiter and Mars?
Did my Son forget to tell you…
Out of the billions I’ve created,
YOU are by far my brightest STAR!
Why the rapture is on the Feast of Trumpets.
The Rapture of the Church during the Feast of Trumpets…
This has to be on the top of my list when it comes to the rapture of the Church, the tribulation and the feasts of trumpets! Amazing sermon!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
The Truth behind vaccinations!!!! YOU NEED TO READ THIS!
Vaccinations are not safe on the contrary they are very dangerous.
Before becoming a mom to my 2 girls, I worked in the medical field since 05. I worked with a bright Dr who had been a medical researcher. He did extensive research on this matter and the results were astounding. After 5 years of researching vaccinations Dave and I have decided not to vaccinate our children (none of our 3 kids get vaccinated). After meeting 3 different families with children who were born healthy and at their 6 month old cocktail of vaccinations became impaired, we decided that we would not risk the health of our children. It is our duty as parents to research what is the best for our children and their health. After all you have been entrusted with them and for lack of understanding about what vaccines really contain and how it affects the human body we are shooting into their little bodies the very things we are against. Are you against abortion? Well let me tell you that vaccinations contain aborted human fetus among many other things you are not aware of. I encourage all parents to truly do their homework on this subject. This is not a small issue…this is huge! Autism has increased at an alarming rate since vaccines were made mandatory. That is a FACT! I will post articles and links you can go to and research it on your own. A very trusted Dr to go to on this matter is Dr. Mercola. You can google him.
The Truth About Vaccines
by Terri L. Saunders
It is common modern practice to vaccinate children beginning in infancy, supposedly to protect them against a variety of diseases which “threaten” mankind. In truth, however, it is these very vaccines that are threatening the health and genetic integrity of the human race. Before the advent of vaccines, many childhood diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough were adequately handled by the immune systems of children raised in a drugless society. It was not until the beginning of mass immunization of children in the 1950’s that these same diseases appeared to cause grave injury or death. In fact, in 1950, before routine vaccinations became a reality, the United States had the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world. By 1986, the U.S. infant mortality rate dropped to 17th place and by 1995 the U.S. had fallen further to 24th place.
There is a vast difference between natural immunity acquired as nature intended it and the invasive immunization practice derived from vaccination. Immediately after birth, newborn infants who are breast fed, receive antibodies through their mother’s milk. When a child or adult gets a disease naturally, the virus or bacteria travels through the nose or mouth into the lungs and into the circulatory and lymphatic systems, providing antibody and cellular protection. In contrast, when concentrated pathogenic microorganisms are injected directly into the body, they bypass the natural defense system and disease sets in. This challenges the immune system, and immunity is often short-lived.
When one understands what exactly is in these vaccines and how they are made, one would wonder how vaccines could possibly be of any benefit to health. Vaccines are produced from either dead or live attenuated (weakened) disease microorganisms. In the dead vaccines, viruses or bacteria have been have been inactivated by heat, radiation or poisonous chemicals. However, there is no guarantee that all of the microorganisms have been killed. If just one microbe survives it can multiply very rapidly and actually create the disease. This has been known to happen. In fact, every case of polio during the 1980’s was caused by the polio vaccine.
Vaccines created from live attenuated viruses and bacteria are made from the pus of animals that have been infected with disease and then butchered. In these vaccines, the live virus must be weakened by passing the virus through animal tissue several times to reduce its potency for human use. The measles virus is passed through chick embryos, the polio virus through monkey kidneys, and the rubella virus through the dissected organs of an aborted human (yes human!) fetus. The weakened germ is then stabilized by adding drugs, antibiotics, and toxic disinfectants such as neomycin, streptomycin, aluminum hydroxide, formaldehyde, and thimerosal (a mercury derivative). Studies have shown that even microscopic dosages of some of these substances can lead to cancer, neurological damage, and death.
Because of the way vaccines are prepared, additional contaminants may pose more serious concerns. During the serial passage of viruses through the animal cells, foreign genetic material (animal RNA and DNA) is transferred from one host to another. This biological matter is then injected directly into the human body. According to some researchers, this could change our genetic makeup.
The vaccine development process also allows undetected animal viruses to jump the species barrier. This actually happened during the 1950’s and 1960’s when millions of people were infected with polio vaccines that were contaminated with Simian Virus #40 contracted from the monkey organs used to prepare the vaccines. This virus is a powerful immunosuppressor and trigger for the HIV virus. It is said to cause a condition similar to AIDS, and has been found in brain tumors, leukemia and other forms of human cancer.
Are vaccines effective in preventing disease? The evidence proves that they are not. According to the international mortality statistics, there was at least a 95% decline in the incidence and severity of these diseases before the introduction of their vaccines. Measles has apparently returned, with a death rate twenty times higher than before the measles vaccine became available. Before England passed a mandatory vaccination law in 1853, the highest death rate from smallpox in any two-year period was 2,000 cases. However between 1870 and 1872 alone, 45,000 people died from smallpox. Not surprisingly, deaths from smallpox fell dramatically after people began refusing the shots.
The DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus) vaccine is perhaps the most controversial childhood vaccine. According to pediatrician Dr. Lendon Smith, nearly all doctors have seen whooping cough (pertussis) in children who have been fully vaccinated with this shot. Side effects for the DPT shot range from high fever, continuous high-pitched screaming, severe rashes, diarrhea, choking, apnea, seizures, mental and physical retardation, and in many cases, death. A study done by Dr. Michel Odent found that children receiving the pertussis vaccine were more than six times more likely to develop asthma than children not receiving the vaccine. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was virtually unheard of until this vaccine was routinely given. The Japanese noticed this relationship and began delaying DPT vaccination until two years of age at which time SIDS disappeared. In the U.S., SIDS deaths average 8,000 per year. American babies still receive their first DPT shot at two months of age.
Other known vaccine-related side effects are attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, arthritis, hydroencephalopy (fluid buildup on the brain), multiple sclerosis, meningitis, ulcerative colitis, crohn’s disease and chronic fatigue syndrome. Some of these diseases may not surface for up to forty years. The Gulf War Syndrome has also been linked to vaccinations and drug experimentation done on soldiers. It is interesting to note that, while military personnel from several countries participated in this war, only the U.S. military suffers from this syndrome.
Authorities will often warn of dangerous epidemics pending in a fear-based campaign to get parents to vaccinate their children. In 1991, newspapers in Placitas, New Mexico warned of a dangerous whooping cough epidemic, but only three cases of whooping cough were discovered, all in children who were vaccinated.
Because of the extensive cases of vaccine-induced injury and death, and related lawsuits against the companies who produced the vaccines, The National Childhood Injury Act was created in 1986 to compensate families whose children had been injured or died from vaccines. From July, 1990 to March, 1994 more than 34,000 cases of injury were reported, including hundreds of cases of brain damage and over 700 deaths. These numbers represent only 10% of actual cases, since according to the FDA, 90% of doctors do not report vaccine reactions. Compensation comes from a federal fund, not from the vaccine manufacturers. It is funded by a percentage of the cost of each vaccine, paid for by the patient at the time the vaccine is given. This practice effectively exempts both the government and vaccine manufacturers from taking responsibility for vaccine damage.
In spite of all the evidence against the efficacy and safety of vaccines plans are in the works for a “super vaccine” or “magic bullet” vaccine containing raw DNA from forty different kinds of bacteria and viruses. This vaccine would be given to all newborn infants and time-released in the body throughout life.
By now, it should be clear that vaccination is not an effective form of immunization. Only nature is capable of immunizing the body. Injecting vibrant healthy bodies with virulent microorganisms is an assault to the immune system. In countries such as Sweden and Australia where vaccination is not mandatory, parents are free to make the choice to vaccinate their children without hassle. In the U.S., where most people are not told that they have a choice, it is possible to refuse immunization based on religious exemptions or personal convictions. Each state has its own policy for waiving vaccinations. For children and even adults who have been vaccinated, there are natural therapies that can build the immune system and, in many cases, reverse the damage done by vaccines.
For a simply presented, yet highly informative book on vaccines, I highly recommend Immunization, Theory vs. Reality, by Neil Z. Miller. As more people realize the truth about vaccines, perhaps we can eradicate this practice altogether, and ensure a safe, healthy future for our children.
This is an insert from an article on Time.com
“Spurred by claims that vaccinations can be linked to autism, increasing numbers of parents are raising questions about whether vaccines, far from panaceas, are actually harmful to children. When the immune system of a baby or young child is just coming online, is it such a good idea to challenge it with antigens to so many bugs? Have the safety, efficacy and side effects of this flood of inoculations really been worked through? Just last month the U.S. government, which has always stood by the safety of vaccines, acknowledged that a 9-year-old Georgia girl with a preexisting cellular disease had been made worse by inoculations she had received as an infant, which “significantly aggravated” the condition, resulting in a brain disorder with autism-like symptoms.”
The truth about vaccines and autism!
http://www.autismtruth.org/Archived/60minutes_112004.html
Vaccine Truth.
The Hidden Truth about Vaccines.
http://informationliberation.com/?id=13924
Dr. Russell Blaylock ~ The Truth behind the Vaccine cover up.
http://www.wnho.net/vaccine_coverup.htm
Parents you have the legal right NOT to vaccinate your children! It is called a religious exemption. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, after understanding what there vaccines are doing to a child’s immune system and what they contain (human fetus) among many other dangerous substances, I can’t reconcile my faith with such practice. They are contradictory to one another. Once again friends there is so much information out there on this matter. Do not listen to the FDA or the pharmaceutical companies. They make their money out of your choice to vaccinate! Go to people that have nothing to gain in informing you of the truth behind such practice.
Doctors speak out against vaccinations.
http://www.naturalnews.com/SpecialReports/VaccinesFullStory/v1/VaccineReport-EN.pdf
Dr.Joseph Mercola interviews a top NY pediatrician .
Principles you need to know before vaccinating .
MDs articles on vaccinations.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/articles4.html
Microbiologist on deadly vaccines.
Chronic Diseases: Who is killing us and how?
The Truth about the Polio Vaccine!
http://www.thinktwice.com/Polio.pdf
Aluminum & Vaccine Ingredients.
http://www.nvic.org/Doctors-Corner/Aluminum-and-Vaccine-Ingredients.aspx
How Vaccines are made…
The KJV ONLY controversy…the claim to be the ONLY true Bible!
The KJV is not the ONLY true BIBLE!
To start off I want to state my position on this matter. Neither my husband (David) or I believe the KJV is the ONLY true bible. After diligent study, there is no evidence to such claim. To us and many believers it actually sounds cultist, KJV- onlyers are the only believer’s who claim THEIR translation is the ONLY true bible. You will never hear someone who reads the NASB, NIV or NTL claim such thing! KJV onlyers do not claim to be the most accurate but the ONLY true bible. I will let you come to your own conclusions…but when asked KJV onlyers “was there a bible before 1611?” They answer, No. Some things to think about while researching this matter is why, if the 1611 KJV is said to be the true Bible included the apocrypha? Why do KJV’ers not read the Apocrypha today? So if the KJV has errors in it, which can be proven and have been are KJ’ers saying God made errors???
Dr. John Ankerberg, the BEST debate I have ever heard on the KJV only controversy!
This series brings respected Bible translation scholars and there are 6 parts to this series you will enjoy!
Dr. James White
This is Dr. James White’s ministry and he has a book called The King James only controversy. I recommend downloading the power point presentation and reading the book. Below is a review of the book.
Please visit this website and read…
http://vintage.aomin.org/kjvo.html
Great website on articles by TRUSTED scholars on the KJV Only controversy!
http://www.alwaysbeready.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=174&Itemid=143
Where did the KJV come from??? You will be surprised to find the ties to the Catholic church and the fact that the 1611 version INCLUDED the apocrypha!
http://www.scholarscorner.com/Critical/kingjamesonly.html
The KJV Only controversy continues…this is a quote from this article which I can testify to, the most spiteful, proud and arrogant people I have met have been KJV Only people which is very sad indeed.
“Among the most virulent and spiteful of the comments we’ve received were those that came not from Muslims, Mormons, or Catholics; but rather from Christians in the KJO (King James Only) camp.”
http://www.contenderministries.org/biblestudy/kjodebate.php
Great site for FACTS!!!!
http://www.bible.ca/b-kjv-only.htm#proof
The TRUE genealogy and genesis of the KJV Onlyism!
http://www.bible.ca/b-kjv-only.htm#bloodline
Undisputable, universally recognized errors in the KJV.
http://www.bible.ca/b-kjv-only.htm#errors
I could have written on the matter after all the research done but I will allow the scholars to do the talking themselves. Thank you for reading and I pray you come to the truth of God’s Word.
Grace to you!
Why so many denominations and what they stand for.
Let’s start by giving the most accurate definition of a cult for the christian.
Cult: a group of people polarized around someone’s interpretation of the Bible & characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the christian faith. Particularly the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ.
Dr. Walter Martin
I ask for your grace on this article as I tried to break them down by doctrine,justification beliefs and who they believe Jesus is.There is a lot of information so please make sure you read all of it that you can get a clear understanding of how these cults operate.
People in other denominations say it’s unfair for us to call them a cult. What is unfair friends is for the religious cults to bring in new meaning into the orthodox christian faith & teachings, thus changing the true biblical orthodox christian faith yet still calling themselves “christian”. Either change your theology or change your name!
No person or organization can call themselves “christian” if they don’t embrace the central tenets that gave rise & definition to the term Christian. If they don’t adhere to those tenets they can be classified by definition Anti- Christ. Devotion to a particular ideology means embracing and being faithful to specific beliefs. The Bible has specific foundational beliefs that are expected to be believed if you claim to be a Christian. We are commanded in scripture to contend for the faith & truth in order to avoid error. How do we avoid error? By comparing a certain belief to the scriptures as an absolute. For a true christian is not an option to defend the faith, it is a biblical command.
The ABSOLUTE authority of the Bible (the 66 books).
Jude 1:3 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
The faith was handed down to the saints once and for all meaning there will be no need to revise the faith in order to be more relevant to a specific group or age. It has been given once and for all.
Now this passage clearly states what we must be on the look out for. ANY gospel contrary to the one the apostles taught! Those who have departed from the faith teach a different gospel, from demons!
Gal 1:6I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
1 Tim 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
Matt 7:15,16 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
Acts 20:28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
Whoever wants to add or take away from the foundational christian principles, by definition have departed from the faith. There are those who will try to twist & change the faith and we are called to expose those false teachers/teachings. The apostles were more concerned about false teaching springing up from within the church than from the outside. See Acts 20: 29,30, 2 Peter 2:1, Gal 1:7 & 2 Cor 11:15. Over 25 times in the Net Testament alone, God warns us about the potential for deception. From satan, false teachers and from within ourselves.
You can look these scriptures up on the subject. Matt 24:4 & 24:24, Mark 13:5, Luke 21:8, Rom 16:18, 1 Cor 3:18, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Cor 15:33, Gal 6:3,7, Eph 4:14 & 5:6, 2 Thess 2:3, 2 Tim 3:13, Titus 1:10, James 1:22, 2 Peter 2:13, 1 John 1:8, 1 John 3:7, 2 John 1:7, Rev 12:9, Rev 13:14, 18:23, 19:20, 20:3,8,10.
For something to be true, it has to be 100% true. If anything is 1% false, it is a lie & this makes them the most dangerous religions because of it’s proximity to the truth.So if any of these denominations claiming to be christian change the truth by 1%, what does it make them? Some may say ” they interpret the bible differently” according to scripture there is an absolute truth, not many truth’s according to interpretation. The gospel taught by the apostles! Period!
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The cults have capitalized upon the failure of the Christian church to understand their own teachings & to develop a workable methodology both to evangelize & to refute cult adherents. It is astonishing the number of christians who have no idea what the bible truly says, they take one passage and run with it without properly interpreting the text in context with sound biblical doctrine. We are an ignorant church, because we look for pastors/teachers to do the homework for us instead of getting in the word ourselves and presenting ourselves approved to God. We want to be fed instead of becoming a scholar of the Word. Therefore we waver and get tossed about depending on the teaching we “think” we want to adhere to or we “feel” is truth. Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.”
Now what are some marks of a cult? These are just a few…
Any organization who ADDS to the 66 books of the Bible or claim to have some new revelation or KEY to interpret the bible. Thus they are the only ones to be able to interpret it. Anyone who subtracts from the trinity of God or the deity of one or more members of the Godhead. Those who multiply the works (necessary for salvation). And those who divide the loyalty of followers from God & the universal church by focusing on salvation as an exclusive province of their specific group.
Cult vs Religion
Even though they deny the cardinal doctrines of the christian faith, they call themselves christian. They go as far as to say they are the purest/truest religion. A world religion like Hinduism does not claim to be christian.
Who is Christ to some of these Cults?
Well the Jehovah Witnesses believe Christ is a created being. He was the archangel Michael before He became Jesus and now He is the archangel Michael again. He is subordinate to the father.
Mormons believe that Jesus is the Spirit brother (older brother) of Lucifer.
The first thing any false teacher needs to do is to get rid of the authoritative power of scripture, since this would keep him from executing authority over others. He has to mute he Word of God, to gag God in His Word.
If anything is contrary to scripture is wrong. It anything is the same as scripture, it is not needed. If anything goes beyond Scripture, it has no authority. Dr. Curtis Crenshaw
Anyone or any group who claimed to have NEW revelation to interpret the Word after Jesus is absolutely wrong. Heb 1:1-2 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” God HAS spoken, past tense. Everything has been revealed!
A great example of this is this… “The watchtower founder stated that if you read the scriptures by themselves they would go into darkness. But if they read “his” writings along with the bible they would be in the light”. There kinds of organization claim that you need them in order to properly understand the bible.
“Thus the bible is an organizational book & belongs to the christian congregation as an organ, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the bible. For this reason the bible can’t be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.” The Watchtower 10/01/1067 Pg 587
This is another quote from the watchtower, when they say “they” in this quote they are speaking of christians.
“They say that is is sufficient to read the bible exclusively either alone or in small groups at home. But strangely through such bible reading , they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom’s clergy were teaching 100 years ago.” The Watchtower 08/15/1981
Now we are going to go over to the Church of latter day saints (mormon church) and revise some of what they say about the bible.
The mormon church believes that the Bible is the word of God as long as it is translated correctly (by of course one of their teachers) & that the book of mormon IS the word of God. They have another 2 books (Doctrines and Covenants & The pearl of great prize), they believe that the mormon 3 books are higher revelation than the Bible and the Bible is the only book among the 4 with errors. Joseph Smith was the so called “prophet” of the mormon church who stated that the Bible was lost and that he was given the true and entire bible by God.
Bruce R. McConkie stated: “The Bible does not contain correct information”. Joseph Smith’s bible contains thousands of adds,deleted text and rearrangements. You can actually use the book of mormon to lead someone out of mormonism for it contradicts itself.
Once you believe you have to look outside the Bible (like an additional key) in order to understand Truth. You open yourself to everything and anything floating around doctrine wise.
Now let’s move on and go into the Pentecostal doctrine.
Pentecostals believe in the Oneness of God thus denying the Trinity of the Godhead. They practice modalism. This means they believe Jesus was the father himself just had a different name. They are a cult as defined in the beginning of the article. The early church actually called it heresy.
Now where are there hints of the trinity in the Bible? Everywhere! See Gen 1:26 and Isaiah 48:16
We will cover Isaiah 48:16. If the passage is interpreted in it’s natural and normal meaning, there are 3 persons in this passage who are all God. But how can God be sent by God unless there are several persons within the Godhead? Makes you wonder huh? Since the father sent the son in trinitarian theology. This is exactly the kind of passage one should expect to find!
John Gill states when speaking on Isaiah 48:16: ” Here is a glorious testimony of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, Christ the son of God is sent in human nature & as mediator, Jehovah the father & the spirit are the senders of Him.” John Gill, Exposition of the Old & New Testament Vol 5 pg 281.
“With the coming of the Holy Spirit the word of the Lord became a new book. Truths which had been hidden for many years were made clear. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pivotal doctrines of the absolute deity of Christ & the baptism in His name became tenets of faith.” Articles of Faith of the UPCI.
They use special revelation as a means to have authority or hold the key to interpret scriptures. It is evil to pervert the word of God. To minimize the word under someone’s authority or another authoritative, “key book” is purely evil.
Jehovah Witnesses and who they claim Jesus is.
JW’s believe that Jesus was a created being. He is a smaller God not an eternal God. Jesus is not fully God and He was the 1st thing Jehovah created. What should we call this friends? Another interpretation of the Bible? They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, they just happened to have a different take on a few things? Heresy!
1 John 2:22″Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”
Col 1:15,16″He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.” This is the very passage JW’s bring up to confuse people into thinking that this passage states Jesus was the created firstborn. See the twist? Now the problem I have with this view other than Jesus IS GOD and was NOT created is this…IF Jesus was made, he had to be made apart from himself. Yet that verse (Col 1:16) tells us that NOTHING was made apart from Him. If he wasn’t made He is GOD. Only God is uncreated.
Now we said earlier that false teachers needed to change the word in order to mute God. Here’s a great example. In the New World Translation (JW bible) they added the word “other” to Col 1:16. Jesus created all “other” things. So Jehivah created Jesus and He in turn created all “other” things. Now this is a lie from the pit of hell, just look at the greek. They had to add to the word in order to reconcile their heretic view of Jesus.
John 8:58 states “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Did you notice the phrase he used? I AM. Now go to Exodus 3, what was the name GOD used? I AM! He in essence is saying, look I am HE that spoke to Moses in the burning bush, God himself.
Now this is where it gets VERY, VERY, VERY interesting and the whole doctrine of the JW’s falls apart! John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What do JW do with a passage like this? This is how they explain it. Jesus is a small god with a small g. They solemnly adhere to Jehovah as the only God. They say in this passage Jehovah is the All-mighty God & Jesus is a mighty god. OK??? You still have the problem!!! Is Jesus a mighty true God or a mighty false god? And if He is a mighty true God then you have 2 Gods in the same verse which is called polytheism, which ironically JW’s are against. They (JW) believe Jesus became the man Jesus when He was born in Bethlehem, before that He was the archangel Michael. And after His earthly life he became the archangel Michael again.
Now if someone came and beat someone up and I stepped out and said don’t worry, I forgive you. That would be a little presumptuous, wouldn’t it? Yet Jesus was in the habit of saying “I forgive you”. Only God can forgive sins.
Now the Mormon doctrine states that Jesus was the older brother of Lucifer. The heavenly father (Elohim) came down and married the virgin Mary and conceived Jesus naturally and they had more kids thus coming up with Jesus and Lucifer being spirit brothers.. So there is a heavenly father, a heavenly mother and their children. They believe atonement happened on the garden of Gethsemane, instead of at the cross. The mormon jesus was a married polugamist. And we have the opportunity to become gods one day.
“Jesus, being one body with God, may be called a second god, but he can by no means be God himself” Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Divine principle pg 211. This is the man who claimed to be the 2nd coming of Christ!
Now there are those who add works that need to be done necessary for salvation. Does Catholicism ring a bell? Pray these many Hail Mary’s, etc… I wrote an article on catholicism and why it is NOT christianity. That is why it is not in this classification of cults. This article can be found on this blog.
“The average non-christian cult owes it’s very existence to the fact that it has utilized the terminology of Christianity, has borrowed liberally from the Bible, almost always out of context & sprinkled it’s format with evangelical cliches & terms wherever possible or advantageous up to now this has been a highly successful attempt to represent their respective systems of thought as “christian”. On encountering a cultist then, always remember that you are dealing with a person who is familiar with Christian terminology and who has carefully redefined it to fit the system of thought he or she now embraces”. Dr. Walter Martin. The Kingdom of Cults pg 20.
Cults usually add works unto salvation because at the core they do not believe the deity of Christ. Something else has to be done (works) because Christ on the cross was a partial satisfaction to an infinite Holy God. Who is infinitely offended by sin!
How is a Jehovah Witness Justified?
This comes from their own literature: “Jehovah God will justify, declare righteous, on the basis of their own merit all perfected humans who have withstood that final, decisive test of mankind. He will adopt & acknowledge them as His sons through Jesus Christ”. Life everlasting in freedom of the sons of God. pg 400.
“Accepting the message of salvation & devoting ourselves & being baptized in water is only the beginning of our exercise of faith. It is only the beginning of our obedience to God. It sets us on the way to everlasting life, but it does not mean our final salvation.” This means everlasting life. pg 181.
In other words ultimate salvation is based on our performance not on what Jesus did on the cross! If that is not blasphemy I do not know what is!
Mormon’s justification (Latter Day Saints).
“As with all other doctrines of salvation, justification is available because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, but it becomes operative in the life of an individual only on the conditions of personal righteousness”. Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal NT Commentary, pg 230.
“The sectarian dogma of justification by faith alone has exercised an influence for evil”. James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, pg 20.
Mormon’s believe that in order to get saved there must be full obedience to all ordinances & laws of the mormon books.
Joseph Smith (Latter day saints founder) goes as far as to say that “There are some sins so grievous that man may commit, that they would place the transgressors beyond the power of the atonement of Christ. The blood of Christ would not cleanse them from their sins even though they repent. Therefore their only hope is to have their own blood shed to atone, as far as possible, in their behalf.” Doctrines of Salvation by Joseph Smith
This cult believes on salvation by progression – learning how to become a God- not by justification.
Pentecostal Doctrine and salvation beliefs.
“The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be…full salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the spirit gives utterance”. UPCI, Articles of faith fundamental doctrine.
The “process” of salvation for pentecostals goes as follows: You need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ ALONE ( for if you are baptized in the name of the Father and Holy Spirit, you are going to HELL), then you must speak in tongues to be saved. THEN, to retain salvation you must keep(obey) what they call the standards, which happen to vary from congregation to congregation. This is a very legalistic cult due to the fact your salvation is based on the length of your sleeve…just read some of the so called standards of some of the pentecostal churches!
“God marvelously confirmed our message as the gospel was preached in it’s fullness. The power which was hidden in the name of Jesus began to be revealed”. Highlights in Church History, pp, 62, 63.
Pentecostals deny the trinity of God. “The oneness doctrine is important because it upholds biblical Christianity”. Meet the United Pentecostal Church International, pg 58.
Most cults divide the primary loyalty from God to the organization. The cult states that through them God speaks, they are the channel or vessel through whom God speaks to them.
When a JW opens his Watchtower magazine, they are lead to believe what it says is from Jehovah, yet the address is Brooklyn , NY.
When Mormons hear the general authority say something as revelation from God they think God has revealed this, but it’s coming from a pulpit in Salt Lake City.
These are some examples of the division these cults cause:
Watchtower organization claims to be the ONLY vessel for salvation, there is no salvation outside the JW. They hold the keys to salvation. Not the Bible, but their organization!
“If it had not been for Joseph Smith & the restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no salvation outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”. Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pg 670.
Cult leaders alone have the correct understanding of scripture therefore salvation can only be found in their group or organization. They are the only way to salvation. Most cults believe that the early church was corrupted & the true way to salvation was lost until’ their founder showed up & recovered it. This allows them to dismiss the orthodox teachings they believed, they in turn went back and restored the TRUE gospel. Thus saying that the gates of HELL prevailed against the church & the gospel was lost. They restored it, therefore Jesus lied when He stated: Matthew 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
Beloved, there is a big difference between restoration and reformation. To restore is to find/fix that which was lost or in error. To reform is to purify that which we have. These cults “restored” the Bible, the reformation took the Bible and “changed/purified” the churches/people who were not adhering to the scriptures. Thus bringing back biblically sound doctrine, which is exactly what needs to happen TODAY!
WHO exactly did Christ die for? ~ Expanded!
The doctrine that Jesus died for the elect in particular, securing their redemption, but not for the world, arose as the implications of the doctrine of election and the satisfactory theory of the atonement were developed immediately following the reformation. A controversy arose that resulted in the pronouncement at the Synod of Dort (1618-19) that Christ’s death was “sufficient for all but efficient for the elect.” This did not satisfy many theologians, even some calvinists, and the controversy has continued to this day. Numerous arguments are used to defend the doctrine of limited atonement, but the following represent some of the most frequently found.
In the Bible there is a qualification as to who will benefit from the death of Christ, thus limiting it’s effect. Christ is said to have died for his sheep (John 10:11, 15), his Church (Acts 20:28), the elect (Romans 8:32-35), and his people (Matthew 1:21). God’s design are always efficacious and can never be frustrated by humans. Had God intended for all to be saved by the death of Christ, then all would be. It is clear that not everyone is saved, because the bible clearly teaches that those who reject Christ are lost. Therefore it stands to reason that Christ could not have died for everyone, because not everyone is saved. To argue that Christ died for everyone is in effect to argue that God’s saving will is not being done or that everyone will be saved, both of which propositions are cleraly false.
If Christ died for everyone, God would be unfair in sending people to hell for their own sins. No law court allows payment to be exacted twice for the same crime, and God will not do that either. God could not have allowed Christ to die for everyone unless He planned for everyone to be saved, which clearly He did not, since some are lost. Christ paid for the sins of the elect; the lost pay for their own sins. To say that Christ died for everyone logically leads to universalism. It is true not that all of those who believe in general redemption believe in universalism; but there is no valid reason that they do not. If they were consistent they would, because they are arguing that Christ paid for everyone’s sins, thus saving them.
Christ died to not just to make salvation possible, but actually to save. To argue that Christ died only to provide the possibility of salvation is to leave open the question of whether anyone is saved. If God’s designs are only of possibilities and not actualities, then no one is secure and everything is open to doubt. The Bible clearly teaches that the death of Jesus actually secures salvation for His people, thus making it a certainty and limiting the atonement (Romans 5:10, 2 Cor 5:21, Gal 1:4; 3:13, Eph 1:7). Because there is no conditions to be met in order to be saved (salvation is by grace and not by works) – not even the at of faith- both repentance and faith are secured for those for whom Christ died. If the design of the atonement were for everyone, then all would receive repentance and faith , but this is clearly false. Therefore, Christ’s death could have been intended ONLY for those who will repent and believe, namely, the elect. The passages which speak of Christ’s death for “the world” have been misunderstood. World means, all of humanity as a race (Jews and Gentiles alike), no christian would ever argue that there is ONLY one savior for ALL of humanity. Passages that say Christ died for ALL have also been misunderstood. The word ALL means “all classes” of people, not every individual. Furthermore, no one can come to Jesus except the father draws him to Him. The act of God choosing who he draws to Christ and who He does not in itself limits the atonement! We are all spiritually dead without God giving us the gift of faith and repentance, none of us could come to Christ without God allowing us to, thus making God the sovereign one over salvation. Free will does not save a man, God choosing to reveal Christ to them does!
For Whom Did Christ Die?
By: John MacArthur
We come tonight to a wonderful theme in the Scripture, again the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for those of you, most of you, who are with us in our study of the gospel of Luke, we have been looking closely at the record of Luke, the historical record, as well as comparing the account of Matthew and Mark and John on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have looked at the details of His dying.
Tonight we want to talk a little about the theology of His death and ask the question and answer it from Scripture, “For whom did Christ die?” This is a very, very important question.
Now I know you people very well and you are noble Bereans. You search the Scriptures to see if these things that I say are so. And I also know that if I don’t cover every verse that weighs on this subject, you will line up afterwards to ask me about that verse. So in dealing with a subject like this, if I can borrow a French phrase, this needs to be somewhat of a tour de force(?), I need to cover the ground extensively so I can put your mind at rest because you are so incurably biblical. That, in case you didn’t know, is a great commendation. I expect that, I rejoice in that.
To begin with, what I want to say is what I am going to teach you tonight about this application of the atonement, answering the question, “For whom did Christ die?” is the view that has reigned supreme in the true church since the New Testament. It, along with the other essential doctrines of Reformed Theology, or Augustinian, or Lutheran or Calvinistic theology, has been affirmed by the church since its inception. What I am going to show you tonight is essentially what the early church believed, of course, because you’ll see it coming out of the New Testament. It is what was affirmed in the fifth century as being a true representation of New Testament teaching under Augustine against Palagius. It was again affirmed during the time of the Reformation by Luther in his conflict with Erasmus and further affirmed by Calvin in his conflict with Arminius. It has come down to us in our heritage which is Baptistic through the London Confession of 1689 and the Philadelphia Confession of 1743, being the substantial foundations for Baptists in America. And that is our tradition, our ecclesiology is baptistic rather than sacramental and Reformed. That’s why we baptize adults who believe and not infants.
And so, what I’m going to say to you is not anything new, it is something that the church has affirmed. In fact, the view that opposes what I will show you tonight has been labeled as heresy. It was so labeled at three councils early on in history, it was reiterated again during the time of the Reformation that the view contrary to this view is in fact unbiblical.
Now the question might at first seem an easy one, For whom did Christ die? Most people, I’m confident, in churches would quickly answer, “Well He died for everyone.” Most people in the church believed that on the cross Jesus paid the debt for the sins of everyone because He loves everyone unconditionally and wants everyone to be saved. That is not what the church has historically believed, but that is what the present version of the superficial church believes. Sinners, all of them, have had all their sins atoned for potentially. And that’s the key word. If they will acknowledge Christ and accept the gift. So we have then only to convince sinners to receive the salvation which has already been fully purchased for them at the cross. Since Christ died for everyone, everyone can believe and should believe and must believe if they’ll only will to believe. And in a contemporary concept, we work on the sinner’s will believing that the sinner has both the responsibility and the ability to activate a saving faith on his own and believe. If nowhere else, this is certainly indicated in the most popular of Christian books, The Purpose-Driven Life and The Purpose-Driven Church where Rick Warren says I can lead anyone to Christ if I can find the key to that person’s heart. It’s just a matter of moving their will.
That is the popular idea and that means that hell is full of people whose salvation was purchased by the death and resurrection of Christ. It means then that everybody in hell and everybody in heaven had the same thing done for them on the cross. The Lake of Fire will be filled with eternally damned people whose sins were actually atoned for on the cross, so the people in hell had the same atonement as the people in heaven. The difference was the people in heaven activated their will to accept that atonement. The people in hell did not.
Now if that sounds strange to you, it is…it is, that Jesus died for, paid for in full the sins of the damned, paid the penalty of divine justice for them just as He did for the redeemed is a very strange notion. And the sinner then determines whether that universally potential death is applied to him or not. This view would say Christ died to make salvation possible, not actual. He died to make it possible, the sinner then makes the choice. He didn’t really purchase salvation for anyone, He actually died on the cross and in some way removed a barrier to make salvation a potential. You will not find such language anywhere in the New Testament or the Old. The message that this would send to sinners goes like this…God loves you so much that Christ died for you, won’t you let Him save you? The final decision is up to you. In fact, God loves you so much that He gave His Son and hopefully when you see the sacrifice that Christ made, you will be moved emotionally to love Him back by accepting Him.
Now the problem with this is glaring. Here’s the problem. According to Scripture, sinners are dead…dead in trespasses and sin, separated from the life of God. They are blind. They are perishing. They’re in a state of perishing eternally. They are double blind because the god of this world has blinded their minds. In their natural state, they cannot understand the things of God, they are foolishness to them. Or to borrow the language of Romans 3, there is none who seeks after God, there is no fear of God before their eyes. This then affirms another doctrine that the church has always established as true and that is the sinner’s total inability. Luther’s great classic, The Bondage of the Will is still preeminent reading for anyone who wants to understand how bound the fallen human will is and how impossible it is for the dead double-blind sinner cut off from the life of God with no desire for God and no ability to seek after God and no fear of God before his eyes to all of a sudden pull himself up by his own bootstraps and take hold of a potential salvation that is hanging out there for him.
The Bible is clear that all are dead in trespasses and sins. That the heart of man is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. That all its imaginations are only evil continually. The mind is dark, the soul is dark, the heart is full of wicked corruption. The sinner on his own can’t do anything.
In John chapter 1 and verse 12, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name who were born not of blood.” It didn’t come from a human source. “Nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” If you were given the authority to become a child of God, if you were born into the family of God, it wasn’t because you activated human will. “For by grace you are saved, through faith, that not of yourselves.” First Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus.”
The doctrine of man’s inability necessitates the doctrine of God’s divine evasion. Salvation is from God, He must give light, He must give life, He must give sight, He must give understanding, He must give repentance, He must give faith, He must totally transform the sinner. And that’s what God does. And He does it to those whom He has chosen. Scripture is very clear on that as well.
Now since the sinner cannot will to believe on his own, since he can only believe if God enables him to believe, and since God enables to believe those whom He has chosen, it should be clear that the provision of sacrifice that Christ provided on the cross would be on behalf of those who would believe because they were given life because they were chosen. For those who would believe who are the chosen and the called of God, to whom God regenerates, gives life, the atonement was designed to apply.
Someone will say, “Wait a minute. You believe in a limited atonement.” Yes I do believe in a limited atonement and so do you. Let me help you with that.
We know the atonement is limited because not everybody believes. People die without believing in Christ. They die rejecting the gospel. They die without ever hearing about Christ and the only way to be saved is through faith in Christ. Sinners perish every minute and have through all of history. We all know the atonement is limited. Scripture is explicit about hell. Jesus said many are going to go there. So when somebody accuses you of saying, “You believe in limited atonement,” of course you do. The atonement does not apply to everyone.
And that leads to a second question…how is it limited? Well simply because not all are saved…not all believe. The only remaining question is…who limits it? Who limits it? The popular idea is that sinners limit the atonement because it’s a universally available atonement, limited only by sinners. But there’s a sense in which God limits it because God limits it to those who believe and nobody can believe unless He gives them faith. So what the New Testament really teaches is that God has limited the atonement by His sovereign election and sovereign grace.
The atonement must not be understood as some general potential atonement or Jesus should have said instead of “it is finished,” “it is begun.” Or I hope this works out for a lot of folks. Those who say the atonement is unlimited don’t mean that. They can’t mean that. They know the atonement is limited. They know that God limited it to those who believed. And sinners further limit it by not believing. But when you say you believe in an unlimited atonement, you even limit it in another way. This is a huge limitation. You say that the actual work of Christ on the cross in itself was not enough to actually save people. That is a very serious limitation to put on it. In other words, the atonement is limited in its power, in its nature,, in its effectiveness, in its actual achievement, actual accomplishment. It is less than a true and actual atonement. It is only a potential one. Christ, in fact, did not make a full and complete payment to God for the sins of anyone in particular, only potentially for everyone in general.
You have to say that because if you say Christ died on the cross for the whole world, and most of the whole world goes to hell, then whatever that atonement was, it was very limited in its power and limited in its effectiveness. So, those who limit the atonement most are those who believe in an unlimited atonement because they have now redefined the atonement to make it some kind of limited potential thing rather than a real atonement and hell is, in fact, full of people whose sins were sort of paid for.
It’s not at all biblical to think along these lines. We must agree that the atonement is limited. Yes, it is limited to those who believe. Those who believe are limited by the sovereign electing purpose of God. In that sense, the atonement is limited. It is limited to those who believe and that limitation is established by God and not by man since man can’t believe on his own. But the atonement is unlimited in the sense of its actual power and its actual effectiveness. Jesus did actually accomplish on the cross the atonement of those who are His own. The death of Christ is not a potential, general atonement, it is an actual particular specific atonement.
Now that’s the way we have to think about the atonement. Now I want to look, for a few moments, at what the Bible says about this and try to help you sort through some of the Scriptures. Of all those doctrines that are familiar to us in Reformed theology that have to do with the sovereignty of God, man’s fallenness and his inability and unwillingness and grace and sovereignty and election and perseverance and all those things, this particular doctrine needs the most careful scrutiny when you look at the Scriptures because so many times Christ has introduced this, the Savior of the world. And so many times He is referred to as the one who saves all. We have to take a look at what that means. What does world mean? What does all mean? What does many mean? And this could be a very long and detailed study, so let me sort of give you a good summary of it, I hope.
Now whenever you see the word “world” in the New Testament, you certainly know you could take it a number of ways…world could be simply the system, love not the world. That doesn’t mean people. That simply means the system. It could mean the eco, that would be the moral system, or immoral system, or system of sin. It could be the eco system, it could be speaking more in a physical level. It could mean humanity. We have to determine that in the context of every situation.
But to be sure, when it talks about Him being the Savior of the world and taking away the sin of the world, we know one thing, it does not mean every person who ever lived, or there would be no hell, there would be no judgment and there would be no warnings about those. So world is always qualified. Let’s look at some of those illustrations.
John 1…John 1:29, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Now that is very strong language. Takes away the sin of the world, removes it. Now how do you translate world? How do you understand world? Well what does it mean?
Does it mean He literally removed the sin of every person who ever lived? Of course not because 2 Thessalonians 1:7 and 9 and a lot of other passages say that when Jesus comes He is going to pour out retribution on most of the world, all of the world of unbelievers, having rescued His own. You have to qualify world, yes the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But if you go back to chapter 1 to verse 11 it says, “He came to His own and those that were His own didn’t receive Him.” Well He didn’t take their sins away. “But as many as received Him, He gave them the right to become the children of God.” So in what sense is He the Savior of the world? In the sense that there is no other Savior in the world. There is only one Savior. World taken in the sense of humanity here, He is humanity’s only Savior.
In John 3:16 and 17 , “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through Him.” Again, are we universalists? Does the New Testament teach universalism? These are the kind of verses that universalists use, where everyone is going to be in the end saved, there’s no hell, there’s no judgment, there’s no damnation, we’re all going to end up in heaven. We know better than that because there’s explicit teaching in the Bible to the contrary.
So when it tells us here very clearly that the world should be saved through Him, it must mean something other than every human being who has ever lived. It simply means humanity, mankind, God has a love for humanity.
In John 4:42, these are very similar, this is Jesus talking with the woman at the well. She says, “It’s no longer because of what You said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the Savior of the world.” Again, it is not to say that Jesus has saved the world, it is to say again that He is the one Savior for humanity. There is no other Savior.
In John chapter 6 and verse 33, “The bread of God,” says Jesus, “is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” Again does that mean that the whole world has spiritual life, that the whole world partakes of the life of God that comes through Jesus Christ who is the true bread of life? Of course not. Again it is qualified to indicate this is the only source of life, the only source of salvation the world will ever know.
Verse 51, same chapter, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” He is again the only sacrifice the world will ever know, but only those who take of that sacrifice, eat that bread, will experience life.
In John chapter 12 verses…I think it’s about verse 47, 48, “If anyone hears My sayings, doesn’t keep them, I don’t judge him for I didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world.” Again in the end most of the people in the world are going to be judged. Few find the narrow way. But again the point is He comes to be the only Savior the world will ever know. Verse 48, “He who rejects Me and doesn’t receive My sayings has one who judges him.” He just said, “I didn’t come to judge the world, I came to save the world.” Turns right around and says, “But if you reject Me, you’re going to be judged.”
Chapter 14 of John, verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, one of the Apostles, said, “Lord, what then has happened that You’re going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Well what did that mean? It didn’t mean everybody who has ever lived in the history of the world, it simply meant to the public, to the general public. You’ve told us these things, the Apostles, You haven’t told the general public.
So, the term world is always to be qualified and you can’t just say because He’s the Savior of the world that that means that He has provided an actual atonement for the whole world or you’re going to have to end up as a universalist with everybody in heaven. So, if you don’t want to end up as a universalist, but you want to affirm that Jesus loves the whole world, died for the whole world, then you limit the power and the effectiveness of the atonement, make it only a potential thing that is activated by the will of the sinner which is impossible because the sinner can’t activate his own will because he’s dead. The testimony of Scripture with regard to world is consistent.
For example, even a statement like “all men perceive that John the Baptist was a prophet.” What do you mean “all men,” every person living in Israel? Every person in the world? “All” has to be qualified. Not everyone in Israel perceived that John was a prophet. Not everyone in the world perceived. The all is qualified. World is qualified by the context. In the twelfth chapter of John, verse 19, “The Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see you’re not doing any good. Look, the world has gone after Him.’” Well what did they mean by that? They meant the general public. And so, this is an important distinction to make.
Now frequently the world also is intended as a term to embrace Gentiles, okay? The Jews had this very isolationist mentality that they were the only people who were going to cash in on the promises of the Old Testament, they were the Covenant people of God, they would receive all the blessing. And the Gentiles would not. And so frequently they are reminded that He is the Savior of the world, meaning not just Jews, but Gentiles. So you’re talking about general humanity, mankind, but in particular Jesus is saying when He says these things so many times about the world, that this includes Gentiles. That is absolutely unmistakable.
I thought of another verse. Luke 9:25, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world.” Well world doesn’t mean if he absolutely owned the entire planet. So that word is always to be qualified, understood in a qualified way.
In the fifteenth chapter of Acts and verse 6, this shocking reality, “The Apostles, elders, came together to look into the matter after there had been much debate. Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth a Gentile should hear the Word of the gospel and believe.’” This is a jolt to the isolationists in Israel. God bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit as He did to us, made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. “We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are.” Again, there’s only one Savior for the world. There’s only one gospel for the world. That God loves the world, people in general, Jew and Gentile.
In 1 John there’s a verse that we want to look at, 1 John 2, “My little children, I’m writing these things to you that you may not sin. If anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He Himself is the propitiation, the hilasterion, the covering, the mercy seat for our sins, not for ours only but also for those of the whole world.” What do you mean the whole world?
Now look at the language. He is the propitiation, that is not a potential, that is an actual satisfaction. The word means a covering. He is a real covering, not a partial covering. He is the mercy seat. He propitiates God. He satisfies God, an actual satisfaction, an actual propitiation, not for our sins only…what are you talking about?…Jews, but for the whole world, every tongue, tribe, nation, people, Gentiles. Compare that with Revelation 5:9 where they’re all gathered there. Propitiation…very strong, actual satisfying of God’s just wrath, Jesus placated God’s anger and judgment for our sins, turned away God’s wrath forever for any Jew and any Gentile who believes.
Second Corinthians 5 verse 19, real familiar passage, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not counting their trespasses against them.” That can’t possibly mean the planet, that can’t mean all of humanity. Whatever world is, it is only for those who have had their sins forgiven, who have had their guilt erased, who have been reconciled to God and are forever free from condemnation…those who believe.
Why does he say world? Because it’s important that we know there are no distinctions. In Christ there’s neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female, bond or free. Christ didn’t ever say in the New Testament through the revelation of the Holy Spirit to the writers of the New Testament that He paid the penalty in full for everyone’s sins, that He actually satisfied God’s wrath for every person who ever believed, but they’re still going to go to hell. He, rather, provided a full hilasmos, a full atonement, a full propitiation for those who would believe, whether Jew or Gentile, any nation, any people.
Similarly there are New Testament usages of the word “all.” Just a couple of those because again people will go back to that and ask the question, Romans 5, for example, verse 18, “So then as through one transgression…talking about Adam’s sin…there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” Well those two alls are different. In Adam, all died. And that’s all. In Christ, all being made alive is a qualified all because it can’t mean every human being. The all, first of all, means every human being. Secondly, it means only those who have been justified and given life. “For as through the one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners,” and Paul there switches from all to many just to loosen up those words a little bit, “and through the obedience of one, the many will be made righteous.” All and many are interchangeable and they illustrate simply the impact that one person’s act has a massive effect on people. Adam’s did and Christ’s did as well. But the all who sinned is a much greater number than the all who are justified and given life.
Well you say, “What about 1 Timothy 2:4 through 6?” “God our Savior who desires all men to be saved.” God desires all men to be saved. Well if God desires all men to be saved, then why aren’t all men saved? You say, “Because God doesn’t get what He wants.” Really? He doesn’t get what He wants. He’s up there wringing His hands because sinners won’t activate this potential atonement?
The all men that God desires to be saved are the all men that God determined to save. He determined to save whom He desired to save. Christ was a ransom for all who would believe and all who would believe would believe because God would give them life. The use of the word “many” in the New Testament is helpful, just maybe one passage on that one. Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many.” One place it says all, one place it says many. The fact that those words are used interchangeably means there’s some freedom in those terms. They’re simply intending to show not absolutely all, but many. Many then is a word that is used synonymously with all which then defines all as meaning many. As in Adam, it’s fair to say many died. They did, many. As in Christ, many are made alive, many from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
I think you get the picture. These words are qualified by what we clearly understand the New Testament teaches.
Now that takes us to another section of Scripture that I’ll just kind of give you quickly, that is definite in its reference to the atonement. Listen to Matthew 1:21. “And she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus,” this is very important, “for it is He who will save…what are the next two words?…His people from their sins.” It is He who will save His people from their sins.
Turn to John chapter 10…John chapter 10, verse 11. “I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for…what?…the sheep.” Again, definite atonement, definite sacrifice. Verse 14, “I am the Good Shepherd, I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, Gentiles, not of this fold. I must bring them also and they shall hear My voice and they shall become one flock, Jew and Gentile, with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me because I lay down My life that I may take it again.”
Verse 24, “The Jews gathered around Him and were saying to Him, ‘How long will You keep us in suspense? If You’re the Christ, tell us plainly.’ To which Jesus responded, ‘I told you and you don’t believe the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me but you do not believe because you’re not of My sheep.’”
Pretty clear, isn’t it? “I lay down My life for the sheep. My sheep hear Me. My sheep follow Me. You don’t because you’re not among My sheep.” Verse 27, “My sheep hear My voice. I know them, they follow Me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” And that, of course, takes us to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or the security of those who are saved.
In the eleventh chapter of John, in verse 50, Caiaphas, high priest, speaking, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish.” Now He didn’t say this on His own initiative, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, so writes John. And not for the nation only, but that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad, meaning not just Jews but Gentiles. Consistent with how the word “world” is intended to be understood, He has died for the people, the nation Israel, those within that nation who are His sheep as well as those He will gather who are scattered abroad in other nations.
The seventeenth chapter of John and there are lots of Scriptures that have this specificity, 17:6, “I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me and they have kept Thy word.” They who followed Christ did so because God chose them and gave them to Christ. “Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee, for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them and they received them. Truly understood that I came forth from Thee, they believe that Thou didst send Me. I ask on their behalf…listen to this…I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom Thou hast given Me, they are Thine.” Very specific again, intercessory prayer on behalf of the elect, chosen by God to be given to Christ and not intercession on behalf of the rest of mankind. Very specific.
Verse 12, “While I was with them I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me. I guarded them, not one of them perished.” Special care protection for those chosen and given to Christ. Verse 24, “I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am in order that they may behold My glory.” He intercedes on behalf of those whom the Father has chosen and given to Him saying, “I long for them to be in heaven and behold My glory.”
Christ knows His sheep. Gives His life for His sheep. Gathers His sheep, secures His sheep and brings His sheep ultimately to eternal glory.
Is Jesus the justifier of everyone? Listen to Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified is a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” And there it is again. He…His death is an actual propitiation, an actual satisfaction. This is to demonstrate His righteousness through the forbearance of God. He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time. And here it tells you who He propitiated for, who He died for, “That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” He provided a sacrifice only for those who would put their faith in Christ. Since man cannot do that on his own, they are the ones whom God gives life.
There are many other texts that we could look at. Perhaps Titus 2, and I’ll give you just a couple more. “Looking…verse 13, Titus 2…for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus who gave Himself for us…for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession.” A people of His own possession.
Down in verse 4 of chapter 3, “When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us. He poured out on us…verse 6…richly the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Savior.” First Peter 2:24, “He bore our sins.”
It is not a matter of potential atonement, it is an actual atonement on behalf of us. “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust in order that He might bring us to God.” The called, the chosen are the ones for whom Christ died.
One writer says this, “An opposing view tells us that Jesus died for multitudes that will never be saved, including millions who never so much as heard of Him. It tells us in the case of those who are lost, the death of Jesus represented in Scripture is an act whereby He took upon Himself the punishment that should have been ours was ineffective. Christ suffered once for their sins but they will now have to suffer for the same sins forever in hell.” This idea of the atonement has the initial appearance of being very generous, but the more closely we look at it, the less we are impressed. Does it guarantee the salvation of anybody? No. Does it guarantee that those for whom Christ died will have an opportunity to hear of Him and respond to Him? No. Does it in any way remove or even lessen the sufferings of the lost? No. In reality this view of the atonement doesn’t atone, merely clears the way for God to accept those who are able to life themselves by their own strength.
So in summary, as we think about this, the death of Christ was a real true actual satisfaction of divine justice so that the sinner for whom Christ died is really, not potentially, provided an atonement into which that sinner will enter by the sovereign power of God at the moment when God regenerates that sinner and gives him faith. Not apart from the sinner’s will, but in accord with the sinner’s will, activated by the power of God. The death of Christ then was definite, particular, specific and actual on behalf of God’s chosen people. It was limited in its extent by the sovereign purpose of God. It was not limited in effect. It was the work of God and Christ to actually accomplish redemption, not just make it possible. Christ procured salvation for all that God would call and save. Sinners do not limit the atonement as to its extent, God does. And God put no limit on it as to its effect. It fully saves all who will believe. Jesus actually took the penalty and paid in full for the sins of those who believe. This is why there is no condemnation. This is why we persevere in faith. This is why you can’t lose that salvation because it was paid for in full.
All these great doctrines of grace tie together perfectly and biblically.
Father, we have had a wonderful evening tonight thinking about some of these things and there’s much more to be perused in the Word. But, Lord, I just pray that perhaps there’s a freshness to the way we look at the cross, seeing it not as a point of frustration where You gave Your Son to pay the penalty in some strange way for the whole human race, and most of them would never receive the benefit of that, but rather to look at the cross as something very specific, very particular, actual, a real atonement paid for in full for all who would believe because You would grant them life out of their deadness, sight out of their blindness, understanding out of their ignorance, faith out of their unbelief so that in the end it’s by Your doing that we are in Christ Jesus and You receive all the glory.
It is a kind of sacrilege to diminish the power and the efficiency of the atoning work of Christ to make it something less than it really was. And when it came to an end, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Paid in full on behalf of all His sheep.
None of the above is my writing yet my husband and I believe this is biblically sound doctrine! To hear the full sermon series go to http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/90-363_For-Whom-Did-Christ-Die.
Rapture & Apocalypse TRUTH…The Harpazo!
Warning: This is an expository view of what the Bible says about the rapture.
I want to start by saying I miss blogging!!! I love sharing what I have studied, letting the Lord speak through me as His servant and helping as many in their walk with the Lord as I can. My husband and I have been doing some extensive studying about the rapture of the church (eschatology), it happens to be a field of interest to both of us. I want to post what we have found in our studies of the Word of God. We have been on vacation and will be for a while, thus having lots of time to study the Word and to spend time in prayer. I pray that you are blessed and that you may have a clearer understanding of the rapture and second coming of our maker and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. So just bare with me while I try to relay to you all that is in my notes! 🙂 Here we go!!!
Many people say the word “rapture” is not in the bible. Well let me prove you wrong my friend! In the Latin Vulgate the word in 1 Thess 4:13-18 for rapture is rapiemur– the proper tense of rapio. Our english words rapt and rapture come from the past participle of rapio.
The promise of the rapture can be found in John 14.
1“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. (As an interesting side note count how many times the word you is mentioned).
Now, Jesus had to leave in order for the Holy Spirit to come. John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” In the 2nd coming the Holy spirit IN the church must leave that Jesus may come.
Let’s go over the Jewish wedding because this is parallel to the rapture and 2nd coming…
The wedding starts with the Ketubah, or betrothal agreement ( This is the new covenant that has been established, 1Cor 11:25,26 )
The payment- purchase price is set and made ( the price has been paid 1Cor 6:19,20)
The bride is set aside (we as the body of Christ are to be set apart for Him, sanctified Eph 5:25-27, 1Cor 1:2 and 6:11, Heb 10:10 and 13:12.)
The bridegroom departs to prepare a room addition in His fathers house for His bride ( what Jesus is doing, John 14)
While the bridegroom is away, the bride is preparing herself for his imminent return. Usually his return would be at night (midnight), he came with escorts and a shout and a surprise gathering would take place. ( 1 Thess 4:16, 17 the church is preparing herself right now for the imminent return of King Jesus, the day or hour of His imminent return is unknown, he is coming with the shout of the archangel and the trump of God, to “gather” us to Him (rapture) and the wedding feast to take place! Hallelujah! This is why beloved we need to pay close attention to the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. We must be ready for His return at any minute.
After this they would go into the bridal chamber to consummate the marriage. (after the rapture we will go into the chambers while the tribulation is going on (Isaiah 26:20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course. Also see Zephaniah 2:1-3 this also speaks of the rapture).
Notice that the wedding and the marriage supper are 2 separate events in the Jewish wedding and they are 2 separate events in the Lord’s return and marriage to His bride.
After they went into the chamber, the bridegroom came out and announced the consummation of the marriage. THEN the 7 day Marriage Supper would begin. (See Jude 14, Matt 9 & 22). After the rapture, the 7 year tribulation period will start (we do not know how soon after the rapture, due to the fact that a world leader coming from Assyria which is modern day Iraq ( the ancient city of Babylon was in Iraq as well) has to raise to power and become the world leader). The bride will hide in the chambers during the 7 year tribulation and come back WITH the Lord in His 2nd coming. And after we will have the Marriage Supper in which the tribulation saints will be guests.
The are 7 raptures in the Scriptures.
Enoch ~ Gen 5:24, Heb 11:5 , Elijah ~ 2Kings 2:1, 11, Jesus ~ Mark 16:19, Acts 1:9-11, Rev 12:5, Philip ~ Acts 8:39,
Paul ~ 2 Cor 12:2-4, Body of Christ 1 Thess 4 : 17, John Rev 4:1.
We must pay close attention to the OT patterns. They point to a pre-trib rapture.
Enoch & the flood of Noah in Gen 5:24
Issac’s absence after his offering in Gen 22:19 – 24:62
Ruth during the threshing floor scene in Ruth 3:7-9
Daniel’s absence from the fiery furnace in Daniel 5
Let’s take Noah’s flood as an example…there were those who were preserved through (only 8 ppl), those who perished through the flood and those who were removed prior (Enoch). You can say, well Enoch was just one person. My answer to that is the church is ONE body as well! 🙂
In 4 of those 7 the word Harpazo is used.
Rev 12:5, Acts 8:39, 2 Cor 12: 2-4, 1 Thess 4:17.
In the example of Rev 12:5. The woman is Israel and the child is Christ… “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.”
The process…the resurrection
Resurrection – 1 Thess 4: 13-18 (Job wrote of his conviction of the resurrection in Job 19:25-27).
1 Cor 15:50 “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” This verse clearly states the need for the resurrection.
Paul seemed to include himself among those who looked for Christ’s return 1 Tim 6:14
The physics of immortality
Dimensionality ~ 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” In however many dimensions the Son of Man is in we will be like Him and see Him ad He is. Immortal.
In 2 Cor 5:2 the greek word for dwelling is oiketerion and is only used 2 times in the bible. The other one is in Jude 6. This word is speaking of a “clothing the body”.2 Cor 5:4 states “For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” He is describing this “earthly dwelling or habitation (body)” as a tent. When we go from a mortal body to an immortal one we will go from a tent to a building…per say.
The rapture is the next expectation with no preceding expectation. Nothing needs to happen to trigger the rapture of the church. There is no event that needs to take place before the rapture. The rapture is the NEXT things on God’s time table.
The Doctrine of Imminence
Believers are taught to expect the Savior at any moment, Phil 3:20, Titus 2:13, Heb 9:28, 1 Thess 1:10 , 4:18 and 5:6 & Rev 22:20.
Expresses hope and a warm spirit of expectancy 1 Thess 1:10
Should result in a victorious & purified life 1 John 3:2, 3
Back in the apostolic era, Jewish converts were reminded to occupy until’ Jesus came back for His return was to be soon. Luke 19:13 “And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’ Heb 10:37 “FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.”
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The people I have encountered today who happen to believe the Church (Body of Christ) is going to go through the tribulation period have failed to do their homework on 2 simple questions.
1-) Who is the “Church”? 2-) What is the tribulation period designed to accomplish?
Once you do your homework you will see that the church is not appointed to wrath and that the tribulation period is the Lamb’s and God’s wrath poured out with the purpose of bringing Israel as a nation to repentance. This period has nothing to do with the Church. The body of Christ has been purified by the blood of the lamb and does not need any more purification. To say that we (the church) must endure the tribulation in order to cleanse us, test us and purify us is a heresy and nothing short of the purgatory view of catholicism.
The “tribulation” the church goes through is brought about by the world and satan. The Tribulation (7 year period) of the last days is brought about right FROM the throne of God. Where the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse originate. For someone to say this is not “of, from” God is to question the sovereignty of the Most High and shows a tremendous defficiency in your study of eschatology. Believers are not appointed to wrath ( 1thess 5:9 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”) neither the wrath of the Lamb or the wrath of God. NEVER, NOT once throughout history has God EVER judged righteous along with unrighteous with the same judgment! Did He with Noah? Enoch? Lot? and the list goes on. For us to say that the church will go through the coming tribulation which is so violent and horrendous that men’s hearts will fail in fear, is to say that we have an unjust God who does not know how to judge rightly and therefore punishes the righteous along with the unrighteous! Are you saying that? Consider.
Now let’s deal with the rapture verses vs the 2nd coming verses. If we study these verses we can see that they contradict each other. In one verse the Lord is coming and only His own will see Him and in the other He is coming with great glory and the whole world will see Him. So if you are saying that the rapture and trib is the same ONE event then how do you reconcile the contradictions? mmmm. Makes me wonder how so many mid-trib and post trib people reconcile these kinds of contradictions, they must be ignoring part of the bible and creating a whole doctrine based on “some” verses. Friend, we can not create any doctrine with just some verses of the bible. We must examine the character of God and what He has shown throughout scriptures. What the says about a topic and it ALL must be in harmony for as we know scripture does not contradict itself.
Luke 21:23 points to the Tribulation Period being a time of wrath upon “this people” – another reference to Israel and the Jewish people.
Rapture Verses!
John 14:1-3 1 Thess 5:23 Rom 8:19 2Tim 4:1 Phil 3:20-21
1Cor15:1-53 2 Thess 2:1,3 1 Cor 1:7-8 Titus 2:13 James 5:7-9
1Thess 4:13-18 1 Tim 6:14 1 Cor 16:22 Heb 9:28 Col 3:4
1 Peter 1:7,13 1Thess 1:10 1 John 2:28, 3:2 1Thess 2:19 1Thess 5:9
Jude 21 Rev 2:25 Rev 3:10
Old testament rapture verses…
Isaiah 26:19, 21 , Zephaniah 2:3 and Psalm 27:5.
2nd coming verses!
Dan 2:44-45 Dan 7:9-14 Dan 12:1-3 Zech 14:1-15 Matt 13:41
Matt 24:15-31 Matt 26:64 Mark 13:14-27 Mark 14:62 Luke 21: 25-28
Acts 1:9-11 Acts 3:19-21 1 Thess 3:13 2 Thess 2:8 2 Peter 2:8
2 Peter 3:1-14 Jude 14-15 Rev 1:7 Rev 19:11, 20:6 Rev 22:7, 22:12 & 22:20.
Both of these groups contradict themselves, study them closely and you will see for yourself. The second coming of Christ is in 2 parts. The first is the rapture where we meet the Lord in the air and the second part is the 2nd advent when we come with the Lord and His feet touch the earth. The rapture is in secret for His bride, the 2nd coming is for everyone to see and all the tribes will mourn.
Let’s talk a little bit about Daniel 9. For us to understand eschatology we must master the last 4 verses of Daniel 9. During Daniel’s intense prayer for his sins and the the sins of his people Israel, the archangel Gabriel interrupted his prayer time and gave him the vision.
Dan 9:24 gives us the scope
Dan 9:25 (69 periods of 7 years) that have been fulfilled
Dan 9:26 The interval , this shows it is not a continuous 70 weeks of years
Dan 9:27 Describes what is to come in the 70th week, or 7 year tribulation period. There is more details of Christ’s 2nd coming in the old testament and new testament than any other event in the bible. The tribulation’s main focus is the Jewish people. Jeremiah 30:7 describes it as Jacob’s trouble.
Why can’t the rapture happen mid or post trib? Because this violates the doctrine of imminency the bible teaches over and over. If the rapture were to happen in the middle do you not think we would know when it is coming? That is to say that the first half of the trib will precede the rapture, therefore we must look out for the seals and the antichrist. Where is the element of surprise? The parable of the 10 virgins? There will be no surprise when christians see the antichrist make a covenant with Israel, worldwide food shortage, 25% of the population (4th seal) will be killed by sword, famine, and plague to name a few, and the 3rd temple being rebuilt, 2 OT witnesses (we know one of them is Elijah) and chaos! And you are telling me that if we will be here to see all this tale place, Christ has to warn us for that day NOT to overtake us as a thief in the night? Really? He needs to warn us that it will be like that days of Noah when people were drinking and marrying…etc. Do you think with worldwide genocide and people asking for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb…life will be as normal? Ummm you may want to think again. Mid-post tribulation theories are just a heresy and clearly people that believe such theories have not diligently studied and have no idea of God’s character. It’s like Jesus us saying ” Come let’s get married, let me beat the daylights out of you and then we will have supper!!! Yea!!! Ridiculous isn’t it! That sounds like Jesus, right? NOPE! Not the bridegroom I know!
A few side notes:
Luke 16:16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” John the Baptist was the close of the OT, the law and the prophets were until’ John. This does not mean that the law is done away with. By no means, the law is done away with for salvation and justification only. For only by grace we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus. Yet those who love the Lord will obey His commands, those who love Him will live lives to honor the law because they love Him not because they have to keep the law for means of salvation.
Not all saints are the same…there are the OT saints, the Church and the Tribulation Saints.
Now what’s are some of the problems with the Amillennial View? Let’s find out!
1- Messianic promises throughout the OT.
2- Destiny of Israel in God’s Covenant
3- Promise given to marry by the angel Gabriel (The child will rule in the throne of David)…the throne of David was not around in those days!
4- Numerous reconfirmations in the NT (of Jesus reign on earth for a thousand years).
Post-Trib Problems!
1- The marriage supper is a snack and not a supper!
2- Denies the NT teaching of imminence (we are taught to expect Him at any moment).
3- Requires the church during the 70th week (Israel and the church mutually exclusive- Daniel 9:24)
4- Church experiences the Lamb’s wrath as well as God’s wrath (promised NOT to experience – 1 Thess 5:9 & Rev 3:10)
5- How can the bride come with Him if she is getting raptured?
6- Who is going to populate the millennium if the saints are gone and the unbeliever’s wiped out?
7- Who are in the “sheep and goat” judgment on Matt 25?
8- How can the virgins of Matt 25 buy oil without the mark of the beast?
Are your wheels turning now people? The same problems occur with the mid-trib point of view. These two views deny the doctrine that Jesus taught himself of the need to be watchful for His IMMINENT return.
Pre-tribulation rapture is the only way to defend the doctrine our Lord taught of Imminence!
The Anti-christ CAN NOT be revealed until’ after the rapture – 2 Thess 2:6-9 “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,”
Who is the restrainer? Who is the ONLY ONE who can restrain sin? GOD – The Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwelling in the church needs to be removed that the man of sin be revealed!
There is an outline of the order of events in 2 Thess 2.
Apostasy
The restrainer removed (the Body of Christ)
The man of sin revealed
The day of the LORD
For those of you who say the pre-trib rapture is “new” let me enlighten you to the fact that the early and NT church believed and taught pre-trib rapture! Along with NT teachings, the pre-trib rapture can be found in the Epistle of Barnabas (100 AD), Irenaeus- in against Heresies, Hippolytus – a disciple of Irenaeus (2nd Century), Justin Martyr – Dialogue with Typho and Ephraem- the Syrian (4th century) to name a few. If you do your homework diligently, you can track pre-trib views all throughout church history to the early church.
We know that revelation is in Chronological order.
The lampstands are identified as the church (Rev 1:20) They are in Heaven when John arrives (Rev 4:5). The 24 elders are identified as the redeemed (Rev 5:9, 10), they worship before the Lamb, Jesus receives the scroll, opend it and the tribulation begins when the scroll is unsealed.
The 70th week or 7 year tribulation period is detailed in Revelation 6 – 19.
Prophetic profile of the 7 churches in revelation
1- Apostolic church ~Ephesus
2- Persecuted church ~ Smyrna
3- Married church ~ Pergamun
4- Mideval church ~ Thyatira (this represents the catholic church promised to go through the great tribulation – Rev 2:22)
5- Denominational church ~ Sardis
6- Missionary church ~ Philadelphia (will NOT go into the tribulation Rev 3:10)
7- Apostate church ~ Laodicea
10 reasons why pre-trib!
1- Promise of Rev 3:10. To keep us from OUT OF (Gk- ek from which we get the word exit from) the hour of testing that is coming to the whole earth.
2- We are not the object of God’s wrath Rev 6:16, 1 Thess 5:9
3- Escape (not endure) Tribulation Luke 21:36 “But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Gk word for escape is ekpheugó, which literally means to escape or fled.
4- Look UP (not look out) Luke 21:28 “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
5- When war is about to break out they call the embassadors home! We are the embassadors of Christ! 2 Cor 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
6- He says in the twinkling on an eye, not an extended activity!
7- We meet Him in the air not on earth ( that is the 2nd coming)
8- The marriage supper is in heaven and it includes the raptured before ~ We come back with Him! Rev 19:11-14
Beloved I pray the spirit of God convicts each and everyone of you reading this that hold any other view of the rapture and tribulation to truly study the Word and get to know God’s character. I pray that this has been a blessing to you as well as an encouragement. Our redemption draws near! The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is coming VERY soon for His bride! He who is faithful and just will not pour our His wrath on His bride before marrying her! Amen!
God HATES the wicked yet loves all humanity…
God Hates Evil People.
The most overlooked, avoided, and denied attribute of God is His hatred of evil people. Don’t be deceived. Hatred of evil is a righteous attribute of God. Acceptance or accommodation of evil is an unrighteous attribute of Satan.
One common phrase in Christian circles is the “unconditional love” of God. False-teaching pastors tell unrepentant, unbelieving evil people that God loves them unconditionally. People with a prison ministry often tell inmates on death row that God loves them. People tell convicted rapists that God loves them. People tell homosexuals and lesbians that God loves them. They say that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. These statements are all false doctrines not supported by Scripture. You cannot understand the awesome love, grace, mercy, and holiness of God while rejecting His jealousy, wrath, anger, hatred, and justice.
God’s love is absolutely conditional as clearly stated in the Bible.
Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith [it] [is] impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and [that] He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God required the shedding of Jesus’ blood for the remission of mankind’s sin. God did not just willy-nilly forgive mankind as suggested in the blasphemous false doctrine of “unconditional love.” God requires faith in Him and faith in His Son. God’s love is very conditional. The awesome number of humanitarian projects of the atheists are worthless to God without faith in Him. A person cannot please God with good works, righteous living, and giving to the poor without faith in Him. God requires faith. God hates the generous humanitarian who is an atheist. God loves mankind, not the individual sinner. Yet, while we were yet sinners God provided a way for us to have eternal life with Him. God requires faith.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Telling someone that God loves them unconditionally is perhaps the most blasphemous statement one can make. Unconditional love means Jesus’ sacrifice for us was unnecessary. Unconditional love means faith in God and Jesus Christ is not necessary. Unconditional love means that God sinned in throwing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden because He could have simply forgiven them unconditionally. Unconditional love means God made a mistake by bring Noah’s flood upon the world because it was a conditional response to mankind for their sins. The “unconditional love” doctrine is extremely evil because it blasphemes God’s holy attributes. God never exhibits unconditional love and neither should we. Evil doers must always be punished, never forgiven unconditionally. God requires every individual to repent from their evil ways, confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. Every person who fails to do and believe God’s plan of salvation will be thrown in the Eternal Lake of Fire to be tormented forever.
God certainly does hate. God hates those who are unrighteous as well. God does not love the sinner. God hates pride. God hates a liar. God hates a murderer. God hates a person who develops evil plans. God hates people who are swift to do evil. God hates a perjurer. God hates a person who tries to stir up discord among the true Body of Christ. God hates divorce except for adultery. God does not love the evil person. God is not looking at the sin. He is looking at the person. The sin is not a separate entity apart from the sinner. The Bible shows throughout that God never separates the sinful person from the sin. Everyone will be held accountable and judged accordingly by a Holy God. The unconditional love of God does not exist. It is nonsense and false teaching. God’s rejection of sinful people runs throughout the Bible, from Genesis to the Lake of Fire in Revelation. God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ will throw all unbelieving evil people into the Lake of Fire in the last days. Some of the many verses about God’s hatred of evil people are:
Proverbs 6:16 These six [things] the Lord hates, Yes, seven [are] an abomination to Him: 17 A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, 19 A false witness [who] speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
Psalms 5:4 For You [are] not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. 6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalms 11:5 The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind [Shall] [be] the portion of their cup. 7 For the Lord [is] righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
Psalms 45:6 Your throne, O God, [is] forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness [is] the scepter of Your kingdom. 7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Leviticus 20:23 `And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them.
Hosea 9:15 “All their wickedness [is] in Gilgal, For there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes [are] rebellious.
Amos 6:8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself, The Lord God of hosts says: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up [the] city And all that is in it.
Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, `In what way have You loved us?’ [Was] not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; 3 But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage.
Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.” 17 You have wearied the Lord with your words; Yet you say, “In what way have we wearied [Him]?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil [Is] good in the sight of the Lord, And He delights in them,” Or, “Where [is] the God of justice?”
Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son [He] [says]: “Your throne, O God, [is] forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness [is] the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”
God hates people who worship false gods. God hates people who kill their sons and daughters as in abortion. God hates the abortionist. God hates the mother and father of an aborted baby. God hates people who put to death the elderly before his natural death. God hates people who pervert justice or take a bribe. God will not acquit the wicked.
Deuteronomy 12:31 “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
Deuteronomy 16:19 9 “You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 “You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16:22 “You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates (idol worship).
Leviticus 18:21 `And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through [the] [fire] to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I [am] the Lord (child sacrifice to false gods).
Nahum 1:3 The Lord [is] slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit [the] [wicked].
We are commanded to hate evil as God hates evil. God hates people with a perverse mouth.
Psalms 97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord [is] to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.
People like to consider themselves to be more loving, more merciful, and more forgiving than God. They love everyone no matter how evil the person may be. They will forgive a murderer. This attitude is pride, and God hates pride. God demands justice. Don’t be deceived. God loves the righteous person, but He hates the evil person. Acceptance or accommodation of evil as practiced by many people is an unrighteous attribute of Satan. These people are enemies of God.
People consistently misunderstand and misuse John 3:16-21.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
TV evangelists, pastors, and others commonly proclaim to the unbeliever that “God loves you so much that Jesus would have died for you personally.” These evangelists and pastors are false teachers. They try to use John 3:16 above as justification for this false doctrine that is not in the Bible. John 3:16 does not say that God loves each individual in the world no matter how evil he may be. That would be inconsistent with Scripture as we have already read above. God loved the human race enough to send His Son to take upon Himself the sins of the whole world. Jesus’ death on the cross reconciled the human race to God in a reversal of the separation caused by Adam’s sin and disobedience. Jesus spoke to evil people in parables to prevent them from understanding the truth. Jesus certainly did not tell these evil people that He would die for them personally.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned– 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift [is] not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift [is] not like [that] [which] [came] through the one who sinned. For the judgment [which] [came] from one [offense] [resulted] in condemnation, but the free gift [which] [came] from many offenses [resulted] in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense [judgment] came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act [the] [free] [gift] [came] to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Loving an evil person is an offense to God and a sinful act. Hating an evil person is a righteous act. You will hate evil people if you are a child of God, but you are a child of the Evil One if you love evil people. James 4:4 shows the seriousness of being cozy with worldly people. Keep in mind this is New Testament doctrine and is as severe as any found in the Old Testament. God does not change His attributes.
James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [you] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [you] double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and [your] joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Jesus Hated the Scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus was extremely harsh with many people. He called the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, murderers, serpents, and a brood of vipers full of lawlessness. Jesus told them they would not escape the condemnation of Hell. Jesus was not always sweet, loving, and kind. Jesus hated the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus did not exhibit “unconditional love” as so many false teachers claim.
Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead [men]’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 “and say, `If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ [guilt]. 33 “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: [some] of them you will kill and crucify, and [some] of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 “that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Jesus Will Cast the Unbeliever Into the Lake of Fire.
Throughout the book of Revelation Jesus punishes the sinner. Sin is never separated from the sinner in Scripture. It is illogical and contrary to doctrine to say Jesus loved these sinners. Everyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life (saved) will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
False teachers often claim the unbeliever will be judged during the White Throne judgment on a sliding scale according to the degree of his sins, but the Bible teaches that God does not give the unbeliever a varying degree of punishment according to his sins. All unbelievers whose names are not in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire. The atheist who managed a orphanage all of his life will receive the exact same punishment as the atheist who was a child mass murderer. God is just. God is not punishing them for their varying degrees of sins. He is punishing them all equally for their rejection of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death and their unbelief in His resurrection.
Revelation 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent. 6 “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is [the] [Book] of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
James 4:4 says that anyone who has a friendship with the sinner is at enmity with God. Obviously, loving the sinner is worse than having a friendship. We are to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to the sinner, not love them into Hell.
James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
But Jesus said to “love your enemy, do good to those who hate you..” Luke 6:27. Yes, He did, and God said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30, and Deuteronomy 32:35. The lesson here is clearly written. We are not to avenge ourselves, but we should trust God who will avenge the evil ones whom He hates. You should not rip a verse out of context while ignoring the rest of Scripture. Doing so is false teaching.
Luke 6:27 ” But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 “bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 “To him who strikes you on the [one] cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold [your] tunic either. 30 “Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask [them] back. 31 “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. 32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “And if you lend [to] [those] from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. 37 ” Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Romans 12:19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but [rather] give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance [is] Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Hebrews 10:30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in [due] time; For the day of their calamity [is] at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.’
False Teachers say, “God Hates the Sin but Loves the Sinner.”
It certainly is not true that “God hates the sin but loves the sinner,” as commonly preached by false teachers. This phrase is not in the Bible. Sin is never separated from the sinner as if it were an independent entity. People are never separated from their sin as if they were independent from their sin. God is saying He hates the people who get divorced when He says He hates divorce. People are what they do. People who do evil things are evil. They cannot be separated from their evilness. A woman who does whorish things is a whore. A man who steals is a thief. God hates the thief who steals, and God hates the harlot for her harlotry. God does not hate stealing while loving the thief. No, God hates the thief. Pastors who teach that “God hates the sin but loves the sinner” are false teachers.
God is Often an Angry of God.
God often gets angry with mankind and individuals. The Bible is full of examples of God’s anger. God became angry with Adam and Eve and threw them out of the Garden of Eden. He became angry at the people building the Tower of Babel. He expressed His anger by scrambling their speech and dispersing them around the Earth. God brought the great flood in Noah’s time in His anger because all the people were evil and wicked except Noah and his family. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in His anger and wrath because of their homosexuality. God became angry with Moses because of his disobedience and prevented Moses from entering into the Land of Promise.
Many modern-day false teaches have “prison ministries” where they tell prisoners on death row and other prisoners that God loves them. This is absolutely false. God hates these wicked people every day as clearly stated in Scripture. God will punish them in due time even though they may escape a just punishment in the courts. The following verses are just a few of many found from the beginning to the end of the Holy Scriptures.
Psalms 7:11 God [is] a just judge, And God is angry [with] [the] [wicked] every day. 12 If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready. 13 He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts. 14 Behold, [the] [wicked] brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. 15 He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch [which] he made. 16 His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.
Exodus 4:14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 “Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
1 Samuel 11:6 Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. 7 So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent [them] throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.” And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
Jeremiah 49:37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies And before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, My fierce anger,’ says the Lord; `And I will send the sword after them Until I have consumed them.
Lamentations 4:11 The Lord has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, And it has devoured its foundations.
Most modern-day “Christian” parents tell their sons and daughters who are homos, drunks, druggies, whores, and thieves that they love them no matter what they do. This is the false doctrine of “unconditional love.” These parents are enabling, supporting, and loving their children straight into Hell. It is no surprise that children of these parents are so evil. The word “Christian” is placed in quotes because the parents most likely do not know the gospel themselves, and they also are destined to Hell. Simply believing Jesus died for your sins will not get you into Heaven. The demons believe that. Pretending you are righteous and pretending you keep the commandments will not get you into Heaven either.
Insert by Bible Life Ministry.
PS. This is just one of the attributes mentioned on this study. It is very lengthy and they go over all attributes of God , exp God is a jealous God, He is a Just God, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent …etc. It is just too lengthy to do here. So I just wanted to explain one of the attributes of God which is Anger, and most Christians do not believe so.
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This is an article posted on the Christian Apologetic’s & Research Ministry site.
Does God hate anyone?
by Matt Slick
The universalists repeatedly say things like, “God loves us all so much that He will save us all”; or “He hates the sin, but loves the sinner”; or “God is love, and will not send anyone to hell.”
Universalists teach that God is so full of love, that He simply cannot send anyone to eternal hell fire. It is against His infinite love. They want God to forgive all, even those who openly reject Him and die cursing God.
I must admit, it is nice to think of God’s love being so infinitely great that all will ultimately be saved. Hell is a terrible place and I don’t want anyone to go there. But it does not matter what I think. It matters what the Bible says.
God is love (1 John 4:8), but God also punishes the sinner and hates all who do iniquity. God is not one sided. He is not simply an infinitely loving God. He is also infinitely just. He must deal with sin. He must punish the sinner.
In the truth of God’s word, we find that the Lord has provided one way by which we may be saved. That single way is through Jesus’ sacrifice. For all who trust in Him, salvation will come. But to those who turn away, God’s wrath abides upon them: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” (John 3:36).
Does God hate anyone?
Does God hate anyone? The answer is yes.
* Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity,”
* Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
* Lev. 20:23, “Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.”
* Prov. 6:16-19, “There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”
* Hosea 9:15, “All their evil is at Gilgal; indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more; All their princes are rebels.”
Are these verses hard to read? Do they make you feel uncomfortable? They should. God hates sin. But, He does not punish sin. He punishes the sinner. Sin cannot be tied up and thrown into a fire. It cannot be put in a box or glued to a stick. It is rebellion. It is rebellion in the heart. It is breaking God’s Law. Sin occurs inside the heart and mind of people. Therefore, God must punish the sinner. Why? Because He is both Holy and Just and the person who sins offends God. God’s Holy and Just character will not allow Him to ignore this offense. Why?….
God’s Law is Perfect
When God said, “Let there be light,” it happened. When He commanded that the oceans be, they came into existence. God’s word is powerful. What He says is never futile, empty, or without power.
The Law is a reflection of God’s character. It is pure and perfect. It is powerful. The Ten Commandments reflect God’s holiness and justice. These commandments are not without punishments. A law without consequences is only an empty slogan.
To sin is to break God’s Law and offend His character. To sin means to challenge His character and authority. It means you go against His word. But God is not a liar. His word is true. He has said He will punish the lawbreaker.
But, praise be to God, that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us (Rom. 5:6). There is no way we can appease God. That is why God became one of us (John 1:1,14; Heb. 2:17), to take our place and become sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). Therefore, people have two options:
1. Trust Jesus, God in flesh, as your savior and put your faith in the sacrifice that He made on the cross and in nothing you do.
2. Reject the cross and let the penalty of the Law fall upon you.
Either God pays, or you do — forever. Which will it be?
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” (Heb. 10:26). If there is no sacrifice available for you, then God’s wrath abides upon you because He hates sin and your sin is not removed (John 3:36). Trust Jesus alone or the wrath of God will abide upon you forever.
Conclusion
The sobering fact is that God is so holy and righteous that He hates the sinner (Psalm 5:5; Lev. 20:23; Prov. 6:16-19; Hos. 9:15). Some say that we should say that God only hates the sin but loves the sinner. But, the above scriptures speak contrary to that. But it is also true that He is love (1 John 4:8). It is better to accept the love of God found in Jesus than to reject it and suffer His wrath.
In conclusion, Jesus is not this effeminate guy holding a lamb portrayed in many churches. He is Love but He is also the LION of Judah! Get right or get left! STOP SINNING! He is not a lovie dovie God! He is HOLY, Righteous, Mighty, HOLY, Just, HOLY….and after all that Just and HOLY again! Stop using God’s love as an excuse to sin, He knows your heart and He clearly stated IF you love me obey my commandments. If you are sinning (living in a life of sin) you are NOT a true believer. God is NOT for you and He will destroy you for your wickedness and practicing lawlessness like the pharisees!
Beautiful By Laire Lightner 
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