You Must Be
Born Again (spiritually)
John 3:16
SALVATION
* No church, religious organization,
or ritual can give you the born
again experience--only Almighty God the creator
can.
Salvation is a gift that is made available to those who repent, believe and
confess that Jesus is Lord and that He died and rose from
the dead to save
mankind (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9-10). This gift cannot be earned through good
deeds or by simply being "good" (Ephesians 2:8; 1 Timothy 1:9). It is a matter
of faith (acting out on what you believe according to God's Word concerning
salvation).
These articles are NOT sponsored by Andrew Wommack Ministries, but it is
a good ministry with good teaching CDs and videos:
http://www.andrewwommack.org/
WHAT'S ON THIS WEB PAGE (Articles
by B.T. Firebird):
Jesus Christ: Creator or Created Being?
Bible Prosperity vs Spiritual Poverty (IF
I'm poor, God loves me more! (THAT'S A LIE)...but then
again--BALANCE--God Almighty is NOT a genie!
The Presence of Evil and Tragedy on Earth...It's NOT the Creator's
Fault...it's the fault of Satan, his evil
spirits, and the selfishness of human beings
Unforgiveness is worse than the addictions to Crack, Crystal Meth,
gambling, or
alcohol abuse (and the addiction to lying...like most
politicians)
What happens when a human being dies
(the Bible definition of death? Is there consciousness
after death? The
dead know nothing...are you sure?
Why do many believe that Eve was the one that is responsible for getting the
human family into sin (evil)?
Jesus Christ: Creator
or Created Being?
bywritten by B.
T. Firebird
THE KEY QUESTION:
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?
For those who believe any of the
following: The Bible is full of contradictions, you hate "organized religion", you
feel
the Bible needs to
be
de-mythologized (because you think the Bible is a glorified
sword & sorcery fantasy novel just
like J.R.R. Tolkien's,
"The Lord of the Rings"), you
doubt the existence of God
because
of all the tragedy in the world
(or in your personal life), you're an
atheist, deist, humanist, or you believe in
reincarnation...it doesn't matter.
What matters is...WHO DOES THE BIBLE SAY
JESUS CHRIST IS?
In the book of Revelation, Jesus wears many hats and has
several titles, here are some
of those names / titles:
The Faithful
and
True
(Rev. 19: 11), The Amen (Rev. 3:14),
The Bright
Morning Star (Rev. 22:16),
The Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16),
King of Kings (Rev. 19:16) , the
Lamb (Rev. 5:6,8,12 & 13), the
Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5), the Lamb of God
(Rev. 21:14, Rev. 22:1,
& John 1:29),
the Alpha
and Omega (Rev. 22:12, 13, the First and the
Last (Rev.
1:17, 18 &
Rev. 22:13),
the
Beginning and the End
(Rev. 22:13 with
Rev. 1:8). Before Adam and Eve. Before Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob came into existence. Before the
planet Earth
existed,
the person we
now
call Jesus the Christ, the Hebrew Messiah,
was referred to in the holy scriptures
of the
Bible as THE WORD OF GOD
(John 1:1, 14 and Revelation 19:13).
THE ONE WHO IS TO RETURN
OR COME BACK TO EARTH...THE
ALMIGHTY
Revelation 1:8,"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,"who is, who
was,
and who is to come back [RETURN],
the Almighty." Some Bibles
have these words in red letters...they put the words of Jesus Christ in
RED-letters.
All throughout
the book of Revelation, there is ONE
person
who keeps saying
HE is going to RETURN
or COME BACK AGAIN
(Revelation 3:11, 15:15, 22:7, 12).
That is the
same person who said,"I am
the Alpha and Omega,
the First and the Last...
WHO IS TO
COME BACK, the Almighty."
Understand this, God the Father's
presence
and power (His Spirit) fills
the entire universe,
He doesn't
have to
COME BACK
or
RETURN anywhere. Jesus Christ rose
from the
dead--we Christians believe--
in His physical human body that is
glorified and
transformed
by the grace
of God the
Father and the Holy Spirit.
Who has to
return?
Revelation 22:20,"...I am coming back soon [ RETURNING ]."
Amen. COME LORD JESUS [CHRIST].
Don't
skip
over this fact, it says in Rev. 22:20,"...Come Lord Jesus..."
Revelation 4:8,"...Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was,
and
is, and is to come [back]. Revelation 3:11,"Look,
I am coming [back] soon...him who overcomes, I will make
a pillar
in
the temple of MY GOD." Jesus Christ is
quoted in Revelation 3:11
and not God the Father because Jesus says,"...in
the
temple of MY God." (Notice the phrase "MY
GOD").
Jesus promised to RETURN or come back to the Earth.
Mark 14:62,
And JESUS said,"...you shall see the Son of man...coming [back]
in
the clouds
of heaven." Jesus Christ,
the Messiah,
referred to HIMSELF as the Son of God AND
the Son of Man.
Revelation 1:7,"Look, He comes [back] with clouds, and every
eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him..."
(Parenthetically, I should put my 2-cents in at this
stage and say that in my
opinion, I believe that every eye will
see
Jesus Christ returning in the
clouds by the following ways: The naked eye just literally seeing the Lord in
the sky.
The
naked eye seeing the Lord in the sky via television, the
internet, and on folk's cell phones. But I'm not
dogmatic
about the web, cell phones, and television. The key is they'll see Jesus the
Christ
return with THE NAKED EYE).
God the Father
was never pierced...Jesus was pierced when He hung on the
cross...AND He will RETURN to Earth.
Acts 1:11,"...this
same Jesus, which is taken up into heaven, shall so come
[back] ...as you've seen Him go into heaven."
So, who is the one
speaking in Rev. 1:8? "I am Alpha and
Omega, who is, who was, and who is to come [back], the Almighty."
Revelation 4:8,"...Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and
is to COME [back]." NOTE the pattern of
WHICH WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME in Rev. 4:8 and compare that with
the pattern of "who is, who was, who is to
come" in Revelation 1:8.
Titus 2:13,"...we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great
God and savior,
Jesus Christ...".
For those who believe that Jesus Christ is an angel, they interpret Titus 2:13
as including BOTH God the Father and Jesus
Christ." However, Titus 2:13 is only talking about Jesus Christ being
"our great God and savior". Yes, it's grammatically and
contextually consistent that Titus 2:13 is talking exclusively about Jesus
Christ being "our great God and Savior". How do I
know Titus 2:13 is ONLY talking about Jesus Christ? How can I be
sure? Read the next verse: Titus 2:14,"Who gave Himself
for us to redeem us from all wickedness..." The apostle Paul said in
Titus
1:3,"...the command of God our savior." Then Paul
says in Titus
1:4,"...from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior."
Keep reading this article and you'll come to the segment about God
the Father and the Lamb of
God (Jesus the Christ) SHARING power (authority).
PATTERNS OF OPPOSITES REFERRING TO
JESUS CHRIST
Notice the patterns: Alpha and Omega, First and
Last, Beginning and End AND
Root and Offspring...of David. All these titles refer to Jesus
Christ.
In the English language, what is the opposite of the letter
"A"? Answer: The letter "Z".
"A" is the first letter, "Z" is the last letter.
Jesus Christ, the son of God, is also called in the holy
scriptures,"...Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith..." Hebrews
12:2.
AUTHOR AND FINISHER...get it?
Another title that
fits right into the patterns above of start and completion.
Do you see the patterns of opposites applied to Jesus Christ, the son of God the
Father? Again, all titles for Jesus Christ.
Maybe you didn't notice the tie-ins of these titles before. Now you're seeing the CONNECTIONS!
This might be a
revelation to some folks but
it's not, I, B.T. Firebird, am only stating
the obvious:
THE ENTIRE BOOK OF REVELATION IS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST:
Rev. 1:1:"The
revelation OF Jesus Christ..."
GIVEN by God the Father. The entire book of Revelation talks about
Jesus Christ from beginning to end. The book of
Revelation tells us WHO Jesus Christ is, what He's
done, and what He's about to do.
THE FIRST AND
THE LAST, ALPHA AND OMEGA GIVES THE WATER OF LIFE
There are many scriptures throughout the
Bible that point to the divinity
of Jesus Christ, but let's just focus mainly on
the book of Revelation
for the moment.
Rev. 21:6,"...I am the
Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who
is
thirsty, I
will give to drink without
cost from the spring of the water
of life..." What the person
is
saying in Rev. 21:6,
does it sound familiar? John 4:10,"...whoever drinks the water
I
shall
give
him shall
never thirst...the water I
shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life."
Who is the "I" in
John 4:10? Who is
the "I am" in Revelation 21:6?
It's Jesus the Christ (the Anointed
One). Do you doubt this?
I hope not.
How do we know Jesus
Christ
is the Alpha and Omega and the First and the Last? Revelation 1:17, "...I am the First and
the
Last...I was dead...behold I am
alive for ever..." When did God the Father
die? God the Father didn't die.
It was
Jesus Christ, who is
both divine and human, He died on the cross (a form of capital punishment). Some
would
ask,"What
IF Jesus Christ is
the Beginning
and the End, First and the Last, but NOT the Alpha and
Omega?" Well,
in the book of Revelation,
the same person who
says He is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, First and
the Last,
doesn't always say
all three titles (SEE Revelation 1:8, Rev. 2:8, 21:6,
Isaiah 44:6, & Isaiah 48:12). If you look at
Revelation 22:13,
you'll
see that it's NOT necessary for this person to keep saying all three of
His titles ALL the time.
Only two titles are declared in
Revelation 21:6 (Alpha and Omega and Beginning and End).
Only one title is
stated in Rev. 17. But be assured that
the same person
that
said He is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, and
First
and Last, has ALL THREE TITLES and is in
fact Jesus Christ. Still have doubts that Jesus Christ
is speaking in
Rev. 1:8? If YOU, the reader of this
article, said: "I'm only just the alpha and omega, I'm not the
first and the last."
Would your statement make sense in light of Rev. 22:13?
Either you would have all three titles or none of those titles in light
of Revelation 22:13. Does this logic appeal
to your reasoning or could a person only be
one or two of the titles and not
have all 3 titles? There's one person
speaking in Rev. 22:13. We have to believe that person in Rev. 22:13
has all 3
titles--
ALL THE TIME
and that it is not necessary for that person to keep saying
all three titles every time. Do you agree?
Isaiah 48:12,13,"...I AM He; I am the first and I am the last.
My own hand laid the foundations of the Earth."
WHO'S HAND? The hands of an
angel? The hands of angels
laid the foundation of planet Earth? NO! ONLY
Almighty
God's hand.
How can God Almighty claim to be the
sole creator of the universe IF angelic
hands helped
Him co-create the universe? I'd love to hear
your explanation. You might explain it like this: "God
Almighty, Jehovah,
had angels help Him create the universe, it was a corporate effort,
BUT!--Jehovah gets FULL credit for being the Creator."
All I have to say to you is: Are you "high" on illegal drugs?
Do those drugs taste good or what?! Are you voluntarily crazy?
Because there ain't no way, no how, angels helped God create the universe!
I don't know how many ways the Bible can say it.
I love to be redundant on this matter...I'll say it again and again and
again: God created the universe by Himself without help.
Isaiah 44:24,"...I am the Lord who made ALL THINGS, who ALONE stretched
out the heavens, who spread out the Earth
BY MYSELF." Is the elevator of understanding not going up all
the way up to my penthouse? Is my intellect missing something?
Maybe I'm a couple of slices short of a pizza pie.
From what I understand, God is saying He done did it all by Himself!
(Sorry, that's not good grammar, (He done did it all by His lonesome), but you get my point...no one ever accused me
of being
a grammarian). How do you interpret Isaiah 44:24?
Jehovah created an angel and then asked that angel to help Him create
the universe??? You have a very interesting
"Christian religion" IF that's what you believe?
TWO FIRSTS AND TWO LASTS???
God says HE is the First and the Last--recorded in the Old Testament book, by
the prophet, Isaiah
(Isaiah 44:6 & 48:12).
Does
that sound
familiar? Jesus Christ said HE was the
First and the Last according to Revelation 2:8,"...the words
of the First
and
the Last, who died and came to
life again..." So, according to your thinking, Jesus is
an angel,
a minor god,
that is the First
and
the Last AND God the Father is Almighty God is
also the First and the Last. Can you have "two firsts" and "two lasts"?
It's like having two football players on the same team both wearing #1 on
their jerseys.
For identification purposes,
that could
be problematic. Here's a gentle
reminder: In Rev. 2:8, the First and
the Last said He died...God the Father never died.
* The New International version of the Bible is used for the
scriptures in the paragraph above.
YAHWEH AND THE
TETRAGRAMMATON ( YHWH )
The Tetragrammaton is the Hebrew letters transliterated
as YHWH. Here are some legitimate names of
Almighty God: Elohim, El, Eloi, Eli, Adonai, Yah (We have the word
"Hallelujah" ( Jah = Yah)
The Hebrew word Halleluyah
means PRAISE THE LORD in English.
Jesus NEVER called God the Father, "Jehovah", even
when He was dying on the cross.
On the cross,
Jesus called
God the Father, ELI. "...Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani..." =
"My God, My God why have you forsaken me".
Eloi and
Eli are forms of Elohim.
The word "Jehovah" was invented by
someone GUESSING what the vowels are for the Tetragrammaton,
it is NOT a legitimate name for Almighty God, the God of
the Old and New Testament. Here's a dictionary definition:
Jehovah = an alteration of Yahweh
[The American Heritage College Dictionary copyright 1993 page 727].
AN ALTERATION OF Yahweh?
AN ALTERATION??? The word "Jehovah" is an
alteration of Yahweh!
I, personally, would be SCARED to GUESS and place vowels in Almighty
God's sacred name YHWH. Wouldn't YOU?
"I know something you don't know. God's has a
personal name and
that name is Jehovah!" No it isn't!
You learned that Almighty God's personal name is "Jehovah" because you were to
doggone lazy to read, study and
find out more about the Tetragrammaton on your own. SOMEONE showed you
in the Bible where the word
LORD
was
mistranslated "Jehovah", and you felt privileged because you
thought you
learned something that few people know.
IT'S WHAT YOU LEARN AFTER YOU THINK YOU KNOW IT ALL THAT
REALLY COUNTS.
Why don't you get excited over the name Yah or Yahweh, not the made up, invented word "Jehovah".
The letter "J"
is
NOT in
Hebrew. The name Jesus is a European translation of Yoshua (Joshua).
Some so-called "giant intellect" in the early
centuries A.D. inserted vowels in YHWH and thinks he discovered the
European
equivalent of God's sacred
name from the Tetragrammaton.
I hope and pray I'm not that arrogant as to
guess
what
the vowels would
be for the
Tetragrammaton. This is NOT the game show,"Wheel of
Fortune", where
you try to
guess the vowels in the Tetragrammaton! This is Almighty
God's sacred name! Why tamper with
it?!
The vowels of the Tetragrammaton were lost to time so LEAVE THE TETRAGRAMMATON
(YHWH) ALONE!
In good time, the Lord will reveal
the vowels in YHWH.
Besides all that,
there's ONLY one name we Christians need
to
really promote and
be concerned
about here in the
New Testament
times: the name of Jesus the Christ (Read
Acts 4:12,
Philippians 2:9-11) We are JESUS'S WITNESSES
not
"Jehovah's" Witnesses...read Acts 1:7,"...and you shall be my
witnesses...to
the ends of the Earth."
Jesus Christ
is being quoted in Acts 1:7...now compare that with Matthew
28:19.
So, if someone came up to me, puffed up with pride with a big cheesy smile on
their face and told me
God's real name
is
"Jehovah". I would tell them: "Jehovah
is NOT Almighty God's personal name! Never was!"
HIS REAL NAME IS "JEHOVAH"??? REAL
NAME? REAL???
An alteration of YHWH and guessing what the
vowels are...His REAL name?
Someone says,"Well the person who came up with "Jehovah" made an educated
guess as to
what the vowels may be."
Educated
guess or not, you don't mess around with
God's sacred name so that your ego can
be stroked by human praise.
There are certain things we humans should back away from and leave alone!
I respect the Bible
as the written
word
of God. I respect the word YAHWEH, but
I believe the made-up word "Jehovah"
does NOT
have the linguistic
integrity that other names of Almighty
God have. Names such as Elohim, Adonai, El, and even the
Greek word Kurios.
BIG GOD...little god BELIEF SYSTEM
The problem with believing that Jesus is just a minor-league
god AND an angel is that you have a belief system that gives
you
the following: A Big God (God the Father,
the Almighty)
and a little god (Jesus Christ, the Word was "a god").
A
Big Savior
(God the Father)
and a little savior (Jesus Christ, an angel). A
Big Creator (God the Father) and a
little
creator
(Jesus Christ, an angel).
The bottom line with the Big God little god issue is that Almighty
God said,"You
shall have
no other
gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) IF Jesus were a
little god who helped God the Father co-create
the
galaxies--you'll have
a
BIG GOD...little god polytheistic belief system.
Polytheism is the belief (in this case acknowledging
and
accepting their godhood) and worship of more
than one god. The ancient Greeks were polytheists because they had a
pantheon
of major and lesser Gods: Zeus, Aphrodite, Hermes, etc.
Believing that Jesus Christ is an angel or
was an angel automatically makes your
belief system:
polytheistic. Why?
Because you have an angel that you
consider "a god" helping God the Father
CO-CREATE the
universe. Also, this lesser
deity is referred to in the holy scriptures as a savior (Titus 1:1 & 2)
and "the Way, the Truth, and
the Life."
Big savior...little saviour.
There's only ONE savior, God Almighty, right?
SEE Titus 1:3 & 4,
Titus 3:6,
1 Tim. 4:10, 2 Pet. 1:11,
Phil. 3:20, John 4:42, & Acts 5:31.
Isaiah 43:11,"...I am the LORD, and apart from (besides)
me there is no SAVIOR."
The Little Saviors Argument:
Someone says,"Think of Noah, Abraham, Moses and other prophets of God in the
Old
Testament as
little saviours under God the Father, the ultimate saviour.
Than you can see how WE view Jesus Christ.
Jesus is
a little saviour UNDER God the Father. See how simple
that is?" NO, IT'S NOT THAT
SIMPLE.
The problem with the above argument is that Noah, Abraham, Moses
and the Old Testament prophets DID NOT
create the stars, planets, and moons in the universe. When you
come across a scripture that says any of these prophets helped
God the Father co-create the universe, please let me know--IMMEDIATELY!
Because I just gotta know!
John 1:3,"All things
came into
existence by Him (Jesus Christ); and apart from Him not even one
thing came into existence."
(New World Translation -
1961).
Not one blade of grass, mountains, water, air, trees, moons, planets, and all
the trillions and
trillions of stars...was created without Christ Jesus.
The argument made above somehow doesn't sound that good now.
THE JUDGES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
JUDGED OVER HUMAN DISPUTES AS GOD DOES
Let's clear up why some are called "gods" in the Bible.
First of all the Bible (both Testaments) does not teach polytheism.
In today's grammar the word gods would be put in quotes just like the New
International Version does in many scriptures.
Jesus posed two tough questions for the stuffy
Hebrew
religious officials, who in many cases thought they were the intellectually
superior elite and tried to defeat Him with tricky "theological" questions about
the Law. Here are the two questions:
A. Jesus told these religious leaders that Psalms 82 says,"You are gods".
Jesus quoted this verse in John 10:34. Jesus said
this in response
when the Pharisees
/ Sadducees told Him that
you being a human being are making yourself into God.
B. Jesus asked them, why did David say,"The Lord
said unto my Lord."? There are two Lords mentioned
in this scripture.
Actually, Jesus turned the tables on these arrogant intellectuals, and
gave them something to think about! Good for you, Lord!
:)
THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD
Psalms 110:1,"...The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand..."
Do you realize what this
scripture is saying? It's like saying,"My Yahweh said to
my Yahweh, sit on my right hand."
1 Corinthians. 8:5 says Jesus Christ is LORD. Rev. 19:16
says Jesus Christ is LORD OF LORDS.
Kurios, the Greek word for LORD, IS
equivalent to the Old Testament names for Lord = Adonai, El, and Yahweh.
Almighty God said, I will have NO other gods before me.
When a person or inanimate object is called a god in the Bible
there's a reason for it:
1. Human beings acknowledge
and worship a person or thing as God or a lesser god.
2. The person was in an office of ruling or judging,
acting like one of the functions of Almighty God.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians. 8:5 there are lords many and gods many, but they are NOT really God or gods at all.
The JUDGES in the Old
Testament were referred to as "gods" BECAUSE one of the
functions
Almighty God has is to
judge
over Israel and the nations.
The judges of Israel didn't attain godhood or became deities. The judges
did NOT co-create
the universe with the Almighty Creator.
Human beings did NOT acknowledged the judges as God-appointed gods in a
Hebrew pantheon. Israel was monotheistic.
Here in the United States, we have a Supreme Court of all Supreme Court,
the final authority over all the other state and regional supreme courts.
The jurists of the Supreme Court would be similar to the judges of the Old
Testament. 1 Corinthians 8:5 and Galatians 4:8.
John 10:34,"...I said you are gods (judges / leaders / rulers). Psalms 82:1
&
6,"... you are gods..." In other words, you have the God-like
ability to judge in human legal and social conflicts. Israel
wanted a human
king, but before that Almighty God was their King. God
appointed judges to rule over human disputes, but
before that, God made His judgments known primarily through His prophets.
God did not get rid of the office of prophets when
He appointed judges to Israel. Genesis 3:22,"...the man
has become like one of us, knowing (and judging) between
good and evil..." Anytime you see a person or thing referred
to as a god, it's because they are self-deified or acknowledged by
sentient
beings as a god. Some religions teach that human beings
can obtain godhood (like the cult religion of Freemasonry). Some
human beings are called gods, but in
reality, they are NOT gods; they have to flush the toilet, brush their
teeth, and blow their
noses just like every other human being.
PRINCE = RULER
Matthew 9:34,...the Pharisees said,"It is by the PRINCE of
demons that he drives out demons." Rev.
1:5,"...Jesus Christ...the
ruler of the kings of the Earth." In Rev. 1:5, the New
International Version of the Bible uses the word RULER instead of prince.
The Bible says that Satan (once called Lucifer) is
the god of this world.
It means
Satan is the
RULER (prince) or
governor
of the system of evil on this planet John 12:31
& 2 Corinthians 4:4. Matthew 4:8 & 9, "...the
Devil...showed Him
(Jesus Christ), all the kingdoms of this world...and said,"All these things will
I give you..."
It
does NOT
mean that Satan
created the planet Earth OR co-created
the universe with Almighty God. Satan is referred
to as
"a god" because there
are beings in creation who are dumb enough to acknowledge Lucifer/Satan
as a deity (supposedly a so-called god who gives
knowledge freely when the God of Abraham does not) for example the
religion / cult of FREEMASONS or Masons believe
this lie. Satan
is a self-deified
corrupt angel who is totally
obsessed with being LIKE GOD
ALMIGHTY. You're
not going to be ENLIGHTENED
by the so-called god
of light,
Lucifer, now called Satan (Enemy). Satan is bent on
deceiving and destroying ALL human beings! Satan has
all the
charm and charisma of Rev.
Jim Jones. (Do you
remember the mass murders at Jonestown, Guyana?
"Reverend"
Jim Jones was a wolf in sheep's clothing (an
anti-Christ) who
deceived many of his
followers into drinking
poison as a "revolutionary act of suicide"; he murdered
hundreds.
Jim Jones was a smooth-talking forked-tongued
demon-possessed person
with a god complex).
All Satan
can do
is
steal, murder, and destroy (John 10:10).
There have been many
human
beings
in history that have
been declared gods:
the Caesars of Rome, the Pharaohs of Egypt...more recently in
history, Emperor Hirohito (1901 - 1989) was
declared
a
god by some in Japan. Emperor Haile Salassie
(1892 - 1975)
is still considered by some today as a god.
Some have made
gods out of rivers, mountains,
trees, works
of art, jewelry,
Hollywood celebrities, professional-sports
athletes, billionaire business execs and CEOs, etc.
They are legends and gods in their own minds, NOT in reality!
GOD THE FATHER IS THE ARCHITECT AND
THE ANGELS ARE HIS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS???
The Bible says Jesus Christ
created ALL THINGS (John 1:3,10). Philippians
1:16,"...ALL
THINGS were created
by
Him [ Jesus Christ ] and FOR him..." How does that scripture
sound to you? Does it sounds
like Almighty God OR
an angel? By the way,
if you think that God the Father
was
the architect and His angels were
construction workers who
helped Him build the universe
(planets, stars,
etc.), then
you
haven't read Isaiah 44:24. This verse says,"...I AM the LORD
who made ALL THINGS,
who ALONE stretched
out the heavens, who
spread out the Earth BY MYSELF...."
Almighty
God doesn't need
angels to
help Him "build" or construct the universe. I
don't mean to sound like a wise guy,
BUT that's why
they call God...THE ALMIGHTY (all powerful).
Angels are spirit creatures who are assigned to help
Almighty God's servants and children. Holy angels protect us, guide us,
encourage us...all UNDER the umbrella of God's grace.
Genesis 1:1," In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth..."
NOT...In the beginning God Almighty created the
heavens and the Earth with
the help of an angel, a lesser god, named Gilligan! Let's
get real, please! Get real!
We have God the Father's testimony [what He said about Jesus Christ
] of what the WORD OF GOD
(now
known as Jesus
Christ)
did to co-create the Heavens and the Earth: Hebrews 1:10,"...In the beginning,
O Lord, YOU laid the foundations
of the Earth, and the heavens are the works of YOUR HANDS..."
That's pretty
deep (profound) when God the Father comes
right out and says that Jesus the Christ
created
Earth and the heavens! Did you ever seriously think
about this verse? Or
did your religion help you gloss over it? If you can't
TRUST God the Father's testimony about Jesus Christ, then who can
you trust? Let's rewind and run over it again:
God the Father SAID THIS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, that Jesus Christ
LAID THE
FOUNDATION
OF PLANET EARTH.
Does that sound like angels were
construction workers that poured
the foundations of this planet, Earth?
Angelic construction workers helped God. They wore hard hats and
helped God build
the Earth just like the Egyptians had thousands pull blocks of
stone and build the pyramids of Africa (Egypt). God is
an old
white man who sits on His throne with a long cloud-white
beard and wears a neon-white robe like Zeus and
God needs all
the help
He can get. Right?
WRONG!
God is Almighty...preeminent in His authority over
the universe.
How many angels did
it take to help Almighty God co-create the universe? Easy question...the answer is: ZERO!
God the Father, the Word of God (now known as Jesus Christ),
and the Holy Spirit of God ALL had a hand in creating this
universe
or multi-verse. I'm not leaving out the Holy Spirit.
I devote an entire segment on who the Holy Spirit is...keep
going.
Rev. 4:11,"You are worthy, our Lord and God...for You have created ALL THINGS...because
of your will
they were created."
Colossians 1:16,"...all things were created
by Him, and FOR Him (Jesus Christ)."
That scripture can also read like this: "...all
things were created by Jesus
Christ and for Jesus Christ."
My question to you the reader:
How many things did Jesus create?
Half of the universe?
One-third of the universe?
No, ALL THINGS in the universe...the universe itself!
I remember driving
up the coast
of
California
until I came to the giant redwood forest. One of the roads I
drove on goes right through a
tree. I
actually drove a
car right through a tree, a giant
redwood tree! At another point
in my vacation in the state of California, I
walked inside a
giant
redwood tree--it was a gift
store for tourists.
My brain had a hard time understanding
a tree so big you can
shop inside it
and
another tree that
a person can drive a car through it! BUT!--whether I
believe it OR NOT, DOES
NOT CHANGE THE REALITY OR NATURE of the redwood trees.
Maybe your mind is "flip'n out" just as
my reasoning did,
but on the topic
of whether
Jesus Christ is a special angel OR
if He truly is
the Creator of ALL THINGS.
WHAT DOES THE TERM, "FIRSTBORN" MEAN ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE?
Jesus is referred
to as "the Firstborn
of every creature" (Colossians 1:15).
The New International Bible reads,"...the firstborn
over all creation..."
this verse refers to Jesus Christ.
FIRSTBORN in the Bible refers to POSITION OF INHERITANCE OR
ORIGINATOR.
By NO means does Jesus being the Firstborn of every creature suggest
that He was created by God the Father. No way, Jose'!
Please be patient, I'll share with
you why the term Firstborn of every
creature does NOT mean first one
created. Jesus Christ is also called the
"firstborn among many brethren"
(Romans 8:29).
Colossians 1:18,"...firstborn from the
dead."
To explain why Jesus Christ is the
firstborn of several things, let's go to Colossians 1:1-20. The
Apostle Paul is talking--by
the inspiration of
God's Holy Spirit--about the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ -
Col. 1:18,"...that in ALL THINGS He might
have the preeminence." Jesus Christ CREATED ALL THINGS...Jesus
Christ is BEFORE ALL THINGS...BY JESUS ALL
THINGS CONSIST...it all points to the preeminence
of the Word of God. Let's explore more Bible examples of
what it
means
to be firstborn.
FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD: Who is this
term referring to? It refers only to Jesus Christ
and His relationship to everyone
that physically died--HE was
the first one
to
rise from the dead in a body glorified and transformed by God
the Father and the Holy Spirit
never to taste physical death again.
Jesus Christ has the PRE-EMINENT POSITION over all human beings who have
died. WHY? Revelation 1:18 tells us why,
because Jesus Christ now holds the KEYS OF DEATH.
Jesus has full and total AUTHORITY...pre-eminence over DEATH and HELL. Jesus being
the firstborn of the dead doesn't mean He was the
first
human
being to die, nor does it mean
that He
was the first one
to be raised from the dead. The power of
the Creator's grace
is recorded in both the
Old and New Testament
as raising several people from the dead. But
then those same
people died again.
The dictionary definition for the term "First Lady" means: the
foremost woman of a specified profession.;
it speaks of
a position.
Firstborn of
every creature or
creation MEANS Jesus Christ's relationship to
creation is...He is pre-eminent
over all creation. A father who
is king, empowers
his
son to INHERIT or have the same power he does.
Jesus Christ
was born of a woman, he is a human
being, and is the
only begotten Son of
God the Father and his FIRSTBORN
due to inherit
ALL of God
the Father's power, wealth,
and glory.
What do you think the term KING OF KINGS
means? It means that Jesus Christ has
the preeminence
over
every king who
ever lived on Earth or is currently living on Earth. The key word,
dear reader, is
PRE-EMINENCE.
A firstborn child in Old Testament times received the parent's blessing and positionally became the HEAD
of the
family in time.
The firstborn child ultimately became
preeminent over the family.
JESUS CHRIST IS THE "BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD" (REV. 3:14)
"See what I told'ya! Rev. 3:14 says Jesus Christ
is the "Beginning of Creation of God". This proves Jesus Christ,
formerly called Michael the Archangel, is God the Father's FIRST created
being. The first creature ever made."
No, it
doesn't.
The original Greek word which some European scholars translated into the word "beginning" does NOT suggest that Jesus Christ
is God the Father's first created being.
"Beginning" in this verse means ORIGINATOR, and that makes sense
since the one we
now call Jesus the Anointed One
CREATED ALL THINGS. ALL THINGS = creation.
Colossians 1:17,"...He [Jesus Christ]
is BEFORE
ALL THINGS.
Colossians 1:16,"..all things were created by Him and FOR Him.."
FOR Him? For an angel?
Or for Almighty God
the
Creator of the universe? So, the phrases "Firstborn
of every creature" and "Beginning of
the
creation
of God"
are talking
about the same thing: Jesus Christ is positionally
preeminent OVER creation as the
King of Kings and
Lord
of Lords. Jesus
said,"I AM the WAY, the TRUTH, and the
LIFE." Did you realize that
an angel would
be blaspheming if he
made this
statement? Only God the Creator can
make this statement.
Jesus, the Hebrew Messiah, said,"I AM THE RESURRECTION..."
(John 11:25).
It doesn't dawn on some folks
that no angel can make that kind of claim. For those that
believe that Jesus Christ
is an angel, they fail to grasp the
significance of this statement,"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
It's like water off a duck's back. Jesus is NOT
saying He'll POINT THE WAY to the truth. He's saying He
IS the Truth!
Only God Almighty can make
this
statement.
This truth will continue to elude you and bounce off your reasoning UNLESS
you
pray and ask God to reveal
Himself to YOU. It's not about religion OR an organization.
Who does the Bible say Jesus Christ is?
A "SHAKE & BAKE UNIVERSE"
There are two religions here in the United States of America that both taught at
one point in their
history that
Jesus Christ is
the brother of Lucifer (now called Satan).
I won't mention these two U.S.-born religions
outright, but one begins with a "J"
and the other begins with an "M".
Jesus Christ is not and never was the brother of Satan. His
brother?!
Will you pleassssse--stop it! The
Word of God CREATED Lucifer and all the angels. Jesus
Christ is not Satan's brother!
THE WORD OF GOD (now we call Him Jesus Christ) created
ALL the angels, which includes
Lucifer,
Gabriel,
and Michael. Hebrews 1:6, God the Father said ALL
the angels of God must worship Jesus Christ.
Even if you believe that the
word is honor
and not worship, it still doesn't
take away from the word,"ALL".
How many angels should honor Jesus? ALL.
Logically, if
ALL angels honor Jesus Christ, then Jesus
can't be an angel. "No, it means all OTHER angels should honor Jesus Christ because Jesus is angel
himself." So you're saying Jesus Christ is an angel that laid the foundation of
planet Earth and
co-created the
universe with God
the Father? You're
position is very weak scripturally, and not
even the elders in your
religion are gonna be
able to bail
you out of this weak position.
Remember that TV commercial many years ago:
Shake & Bake fried chicken. The mother prepared dinner
and everyone
was pleased with the results and
the daughter (a girl perhaps around 12-years old) pops up
beaming with pride and says,"Yeah,
but I helped". For those that
believe an angel helped God the Father create
the universe, you have a SHAKE & BAKE UNIVERSE.
God created the universe and an angel pops up and says,"Yeah, but
I
helped!". The way some folks think is,
God
the Father's favorite
angel sat on His lap and helped Him paint the universe.
Right?
I don't think so! As we used
to say in the
United States Army: "No such animal!". "You're making a
big
deal out of Jesus NOT being an angel."
IT IS
A BIG DEAL! This subject
will determine where some
folks spend eternity: in HELL or in
the New Heaven and
Earth. Jesus Christ:
Creator or Created Being.
THIS TOPIC IS OF ENORMOUS IMPORTANCE.
THE TERM CO-CREATOR?
Do
you understand what the term "co-creator"
means?
If I painted a surrealistic (Dali-esque) landscape
or dreamscape, and you (the reader) added (painted) some
flowers in
that landscape,
how could I claim to be the sole painter? If
I were an egomaniac, I could say that
I did this painting
all by myself,
but I would be wrong AND
self-deceived. IF I sculpted a bust,
and YOU just did the nose, how
could I
state that I
am the sole sculptor? IF I
wrote a screenplay (script for motion pictures), and
YOU co-wrote
additional dialogue in some
of the scenes, how could I claim to be
the sole scriptwriter? If I
insist that HBO,
Warner Bros., Paramount, Disney, etc.
just carry me in the rolling credits as the
sole scriptwriter, than I would be wrong.
(By the way, this does happen in Hollywood, the land of
faker than fake people, fake emotions, and fake
marriages. Seven
people could write one screenplay
and only one or two people could be "credited" for it).
But the Bible ain't Hollywood! There
are even rumors that William
Shakespeare "stole" some story ideas for his plays from others of his time.
But let's get
back to our topic. Here's my
statement:
All human beings should know that Almighty God
must have FULL credit for
EXCLUSIVELY creating the universe.
THE WORD OF GOD
AND THE POWER OF YOUR WORDS
Psalms 3:6,"By the WORD OF THE LORD were the heavens made..." The Word of God created the universe.
Then
at a point in time in human history, the Word of God
humbled Himself and
became a human being--voluntarily took
a
demotion. The Word of God became a human being by being born
of a
human mother, BUT at the same time did
NOT lose His divinity because
HE created ALL THINGS and is
Almighty God. The Word of God is not merely
a title.
Your words are YOU. Your words reflect your will, feelings,
beliefs, character, and THOUGHTS. So it is with
Almighty God the Father, His Words or Word equals HIM.
When
you
have a person who constantly speaks lies and
foul language, then you must understand that those words
REFLECT that person's character. Ever hear the
statement,
"He didn't keep HIS WORD"? Meaning he
failed to
keep his promise which reflects on his integrity. Well,
God the
Father's WORD is His integrity.
Jesus said,
"Heaven and Earth will pass away but my WORDS will never pass away."
(Luke 21:33).
Your WORDS reflect your character, they tell people WHO
YOU ARE. The Word of God is God.
John 1:1,"In the beginning was the Word (of God), and the Word was with God (the
Father) and the Word was God."
It should be translated: ...and the Word
IS God.
DECLARATIONS WE CAN AND CANNOT MAKE
There are certain declarations we can say and certain statements we CANNOT say.
For example, Jesus said that He and
God the Father are one. IF we are saying we are ONE with God the
Father, meaning in submissive harmony with His will
word, will, and Spirit...then that is true. Jesus said that God the Father is
greater than He is. We can
say the same.
God the Father is positionally over Jesus, who
is in the office of Mediator between God the Father and the human family
(all
human beings) and Jesus Christ is the HEAD
of the Body of Christ (all spiritually born again believers). We also can
state
that
God the Father is
greater
than we are. Jesus said that He is the Way, the
Truth, and the Life. No human being can
say
he is the
Way, the Truth,
and the Life. Even to say that the
organization
you belong to is THE TRUTH is blasphemy!
No
organization that considers themselves Christian, Pentecostal, Baptist,
Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist,
A.M.E. Methodist,
Mormons, Christian Science, etc. can say their
religious organization is THE TRUTH without
blaspheming God. Wanna
know what THE TRUTH is?
God is the Truth. God's will, word, laws, and promises are
the TRUTH and not
any organization
on this planet. God's church or body of believers
are the
people NOT the steeple.
People that are sold out to doing God's
will. There's a nasty word associated
with submission to God, it's a word that's
obscene and a curse word to some people. I'm
almost ashamed to say the word because I don't want to
gross anybody out.
The word is: obedience. Obedience to God's
will, Word, and Spirit is the key to life.
Sorry if I offended anyone.
HOW CAN JESUS CHRIST BE BOTH GOD THE FATHER AND THE SON?
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is NOT God the Father! I hope that's clear to you right now. There's a distinction between
God the Father and Jesus Christ.
There's a distinction among God the Father,
the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit.
Blasphemy
against Jesus Christ can
be forgive, but blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit, there's no forgiveness; it's an unpardonable
sin
(READ Luke 12:10).
2 John verse 9: "...He that abides in the doctrine of Christ,
he has BOTH the Father and the Son."
BOTH! BOTH
means two distinct objects
OR PERSONS.
When I say Jesus is God, in your mind it's like saying Jesus
Christ
is God the
Father. That's not what I'm saying.
Jesus didn't come into this world in His own name...He came in God the Father's name.
Here's the scripture that proves Jesus came in His Father's name:
John 5:43.
God the
Father's name
is NOT "Jesus".
For the relationship of God the
Father, the Word of God,
and the Holy Spirit of God, I give the comparison of a
geometric
figure later on in this article. Please keep reading, you'll
come to it. When I say the Father, the Word, and the Spirit,
a
person who thinks Jesus is an angel or "a god", will think of this mathematical
formula: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.
But think of
God the Father,
the Word
of God (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit
as being this mathematical formula: 1 x 1 x 1 = 1.
Presenting the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit as a 3-headed
computer-generated comic book monster
is meant to mock
and discourage anyone from
believing in
the TRI-UNITY of God the Father, the Word of God,
and the Holy Spirit as
distinct yet equal. They say,"Pagans believed in a
three-headed God walking on two legs." No one in their
right mind believes
in a three-headed monster god and the Bible does NOT teach this.
Again, this is meant to make fun of the Trinity and re-enforce
a God Almighty is ONE person belief system. But this
belief system makes God the Father Almighty God, Jesus Christ a lesser
god,
and the Holy Spirit, a thing. This belief system
does not take into account that Jesus Christ created the universe and is
called
God
many times in the Bible. How does this belief system reconcile a Big
God and minor god co-creating the universe?
How???
BAPTISM IN JESUS' NAME ONLY OR IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT?
Some folks are playing THE NAME GAME:
"You have'ta be baptized in Jesus name only in my
religion or you're lost!"
Oh really? Is that right?
These are the folks who believe that God the Father and the Holy Spirit's
name is: Jesus.
God the Father's name is NOT Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit's name is NOT Jesus.
For those who believe that a person must be baptized
ONLY in Jesus' name, please carefully read
John 5:43. Jesus Christ came in His Father's name which is
distinct from the name of Jesus.
We are to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ, the Word of
God), and the Holy Spirit
(Matthew 28:19). The phrase,"IN THE NAME OF" means
IN THE AUTHORITY OF. A name carries
authority. During Prohibition, someone would knock on
the door of a speak-easy and the person on the
other side would say: "Who sent ya?!" The person
knocking would respond by saying,"Joe sent me."
The doorkeeper would open the door and let them in because "Joe's" name carried
the authority of Joe.
It's like saying,"In the name of Joe, let me enter."
What's in a name? Plenty.
Some folks say,"Jesus said,"God the Father is GREATER than I,
therefore Jesus can't be God."
Another says,"My religion teaches that Jesus Christ is only a prophet."
Someone else says: "My religion teaches that Jesus Christ is
an angel, God's Son, but not
Almighty God."
Did you ever stop and consider that maybe your religion is WRONG in
identifying who Jesus Christ really IS?
"But my religion has all these books:
pink books, yellow books, blue books, orange books and even the ELDERS
in
my faith say
that we are God's
organization
of TRUTH on this planet!"
You're in
God's true organization AND you don't even understand that Jesus Christ
is the CREATOR
God???
Well, all I can tell you is that when you finally stand before Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, on
the Day of Judgment,
AND ALL HUMAN BEINGS WILL--don't say, having read this article, that you weren't
told that Jesus Christ,
was not Almighty God.
OR
that Jesus Christ was quoted in
Rev. 1:8 as saying that HE was
the Alpha and Omega...the
Almighty.
Can you see
yourself
telling Jesus Christ on that day,"But my religion told me you
were
just an angel." Talk
about being scared.
Standing before the throne of God, the Creator, and looking into Jesus's
eyes
and telling Him that you
thought...
YOU THOUGHT...MY RELIGION SAID...You were only an angel.
That will be a very scary moment for YOU.
"But my religion / denomination is so organized. Our religious services are
library quiet and
educational. Our members
are
well-informed and soft-spoken.
We even have mandatory
witnessing programs
and highly organized Bible studies.
We don't get overly emotional in our congregations and
we don't beg people to give offerings
like some churches."
Yeah, your church services are just like going to a wake!
You sing songs to God just like folks sing the National Anthem
during a sports event...like it' s a boring
Orwellian ritual. There's no life in
your singing or in your church services.
BECAUSE you're missing something!
You honor God the Father with your lips, but
your heart does not recognize
Jesus Christ as the Creator AND you refer to the Holy Spirit as a THING and not a person.
IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW ORGANIZED YOUR RELIGION, DENOMINATION, OR FELLOWSHIP
IS,
IF YOU
DON'T KNOW THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR...
YOU'VE GOT A
BIG INSURMOUNTABLE
PROBLEM in light of Isaiah
44:24,"...created...by Myself..."
Based on 2 Timothy 3:5, your religion/denomination has a form of
godliness, but in this case DENIES the power or authority
of Jesus Christ as the Creator (Rev. 10:6).
Genesis 1:1,"...God created the heavens and the Earth."...AND
ONLY GOD.
JESUS CHRIST SAID THAT ALL POWER
IN HEAVEN & EARTH WAS GIVEN TO HIM, BY WHOM?
"See, we told ya. Jesus said all
power was GIVEN to him by God the Father. That proves he's under God the Father,
Jehovah."
Yes, Jesus the Chirst, in the OFFICE of the Hebrew Messiah, is UNDER God the Father . Jesus Christ prayed
to God the Father.
Yes!--He
set the perfect example as a human being totally obedient to God the Father's will.
Jesus Christ has a human
nature. He's human,
but at the same time, keep in mind HE CREATED ALL THINGS
(John 1:3, Revelation 14:7, and Hebrews 1:10). In the
office
of Messiah, He put His deity (Godhood) on "HOLD" and completely relied
on God the Father and
the Holy
Spirit.
Then!--AFTER HE
ROSE FROM THE DEAD, He was RESTORED..."All power is given [BACK] to
me
in Heaven
and Earth."
(Matthew 28:18)
Before Jesus Christ was born of a human mother and became a human being,
Jesus
said that before Abraham
was [born] , "I AM" (John
8:58). So the one we know as Jesus Christ existed BEFORE
Abraham. You're
focusing
in on Jesus being a SERVANT of God the Father, but NOT on the fact that He
created ALL THINGS. Only God
created the
galaxies,
moons, and planets, no angel or minor "gods"
helped or assisted in any way. Jesus is the Prophet of all prophets,
Priest of all priest, King of all kings, and Creator of
all things.
Mathematical formula:
The Almighty declared that He created ALL THINGS by Himself (Isaiah
44:24) + Almighty
God cannot lie +
Jesus Christ created ALL THINGS,
therefore = Jesus Christ, whether we understand it
or not has to be Almighty God.
THE GEOMETRIC FIGURE TO COMPARE THE TRI-UNITY OF
GOD = AN EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE
God the Father, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit are
like an equilateral triangle (a triangle with 3 equal
sides).
Take away one side from the triangle and you don't have a triangle.
Almighty God said,"Let US make man in our image..."
in OUR likeness..." (Genesis 1:26).
Who is the "US"? In your religion or church, does the "US" mean
Almighty God was
talking with the angels? There you go again with angels helping God.
Are you saying that angels helped God
create human beings? Please...stop it!
ANGELS DIDN'T HELP GOD ALMIGHTY CREATE HUMAN
BEINGS!
Do you want to know who the "US" is in Genesis 1:26? God
the Father, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit (Mat. 28:19).
I hate to bust your bubble, but this tri-unity among God the Father, the
Son of God, and the Holy Spirit is NOT
THREE GODS...that's polytheism. It's ONE God Almighty existing in a tri-unity of three
persons. It's the one
geometric
figure,
an equilateral triangle, existing with the three equal
sides. Humans are triune: spirit, soul, and
body
and
the Creator is triune: Father, the Word of God, and Holy Spirit.
HOW CAN JESUS CHRIST BE THE
SON OF GOD OR THE SON OF MAN?
How does anyone become a son or daughter? There are two main ways to become a son or daughter:
1. Through birth (being born...the
biological child of....)
2. Through adoption (or becoming a ward)
At some point in time, in
history, YOU became a son or a daughter
to your parents.
It's the same with Jesus Christ, the Hebrew Messiah, HE became the unique SON
OF GOD when He was born
through a miraculous birth to a human mother--Mary. "For unto which
of the angels did He (God the Father)
say at any time,"You are my SON, this day, I have begotten YOU?" The
answer to this is easy:
God the Father never said that to any of His angels. Jesus is the unique
/ ONLY
BEGOTTEN SON of God the Father.
The Word of God,"...the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us..." John 1:14
Through physical birth, after Mary carried Him for 9 months, she gave birth to a
child: Jesus the Christ.
Mary was the biological mother of Jesus. This covers Jesus Christ's
humanity; He was a human being.
Mary was the biological mother of her child, Jesus the Christ, and
NOT the MOTHER of Almighty God.
Joseph was the legal
father, but not the biological father, of Jesus the Messiah.
The Son of God refers to Jesus's divinity and Son of Man
refers to His humanity. He's both human
and Almighty God at
the same time which makes it easy for Him to be the arbiter
between God the
Father and the human race or human
family
(any human being who ever existed). 1 Timothy 2:5,
"...one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
Philippians 2:6 & 7,"...being in the form of God,
didn't think it was robbery TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD...took...the form
of a
servant." Took the form of a
servant describes what Jesus did to
fulfill the Messianic
office.
THE WORD OF GOD IN THE OFFICE OF HEBREW MESSIAH
Almighty God didn't want any human
being to have
an excuse when they stood before His throne on the day
of judgment.
No one could say,"Almighty
God, you don't know what it's like to be a human being. You never
felt pain as a human, never
cried as a human, never felt rejection as a human." The office
of the Hebrew Messiah
resolves
many things: In that office,
the Word of God, now incarnate in
a human body, can be the mediator
between God the Father and humanity. In the office
of the
Hebrew Messiah, Jesus the Anointed
One (the Christ), is submissive to God the Father in order to show us how to
serve God. In that office
of Messiah, the Word of God, who was equal with God the Father, now has taken a
subordinate role,
for example like being Vice President to the President of the United States.
Jesus Christ set the perfect
example as the PERFECT SERVANT OF GOD, but at the same time, HE is
Almighty God.
So, when Jesus said things like,"I go to my God and your God..."
Prayed to
God the Father. Said on the cross: "My God...why have
you forsaken Me..." Jesus did that because He was in His office as
the Hebrew Messiah...subject to God the Father. But, read the
scriptures!--at the same time, God the Father testified that the one called
Jesus Christ (The Word of God), LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THIS
PLANET...EARTH...Hebrews 1:10. At the same time, Jesus created
ALL THINGS. The one we now call Jesus Christ, actually
made the planet Earth (John 1:10). An angel of God
CANNOT fulfill the office of Messiah
only someone who is both God and human at
the same time can fulfill the office of
mediator between God the Father and all human beings who
ever existed on this planet.
Folks who are indoctrinated to believe that Jesus is an angel are not grasping this TRUTH.
They are missing this truth, like
a person would miss the punch line of
a clean joke. It's not exclusively about
human reasoning. You're saying that IF the
human intellect cannot understand something, than it should be rejected.
That's not always sound advice, especially in light of
God's miracles. YOU DO BELIEVE GOD'S MIRACLES
HAPPEN TODAY? I do! There was a miracle in the Old
testament that
God performed: He made an ax head float
on water. Ax head floating??? That's not
reasonable. That's not
even logical.
But it happened.
The tri-unity among God the Father,
the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit
of God is not MYSTERIOUS...it's logical.
We don't need Detective Columbo, Perry Mason, the New Scotland Yard,
the F.B.I., or the
folks from C.S.I.
Miami or C.S.I. New York to figure out this tri-unity among
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who creates
ALL THINGS
is
Almighty God, based on Isaiah 44:24--PERIOD...end of argument.
I pray this article you're reading will help you understand
the tri-unity among the Father, Word and Holy Spirit.
IF JESUS IS GOD, HOW CAN GOD ALMIGHTY
DIE? (
ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, WHAT
HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE? )
"IF Jesus Christ is supposed to be God, then who ran the universe when His
human body was physically dead?"
Questions like this reveal that you don't have an understanding of what
physical death is.
It's nothing to be ashamed of because everyone, myself included, doesn't have an
understanding
of DEATH, unless we understand it from the holy scriptures through faith by God's grace.
First of all, DEATH in the Bible always refers to SEPARATION and not
a state of non-existence
or termination of consciousness.
THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING (Ecclesiastes 9:5) VS. THE RICH MAN & LAZARUS ACCOUNT (Luke 16)
Ecclesiastes 9:5, King Solomon makes this statement:
"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing..."
You can take this out of
context to say that the Bible teaches that those
who have physically died are in a state of non-existence.
But the
Bible does NOT teach that! King Solomon
is writing his opinion. You must understand, that the Bible is
the inspired
written Word of God, BUT
the Bible RECORDS individuals that make scriptural and un-scriptural statements.
For example,
the Bible says,"...a fool has said in his heart,"There is no God."
You can't take that scripture out of
context and
go around teaching that the Bible says there is no God!
The Bible DOES record statements
and actions of people who are very
selfish and who make un-scriptural and
foolish statements
and comments.
* NOTE from the Living Bible copyright 1973, page 527 on Ecclesiastes 9:5 and
other statements made by King Solomon:
"These statements are Solomon's discouraged opinion, and do not
reflect a knowledge of God's truth on these points!"
Moses and
Elijah not only appeared to Jesus and three of the disciples
but also spoke with Jesus (Mark 9:4-10).
They were so real that the disciples wanted to make dwelling places for them.
Question...how did the disciples know
it was Elijah and Moses? After all, Moses died and was
buried long before the disciples were born, and in those
days they didn't have digital photographs of the prophets of God.
How did they know? Jesus must have told them.
The Bible doesn't say Jesus said these are NOT really Elijah and Moses, it's
just a vision of them. Elijah was supernaturally
translated out of this world, but Moses died and was buried (Joshua 1:1 &
2)...just like the rich man & Lazarus (Luke 16:22).
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul said,"Absent from the
(human physical) body, present with the Lord."
Human beings are spirit, soul, and body (Thessalonians 5:23).
So, if the physical body dies and goes back to
dust, what part of human beings is PRESENT WITH THE LORD? There
breath??? Gimme a break!
Mark 2:8,"But Jesus having discerned immediately by his spirit
that they were reasoning that way..."
Notice in this verse, Jesus's spirit was NOT His
BREATH! Luke 8:55,"...her spirit came again and she arose..."
Romans 8:16,"The (HOLY) Spirit bears witness with our spirit (not our
BREATH), that we are the
children of God."
Luke 23:46, And Jesus called..."Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit."
When you understand that the human spirit
does NOT mean a human being's breath, then Luke 23:43 makes sense.
Besides--and I'm getting ahead of myself--
what do you think the angels carried of Lazarus in Luke 16:22 (the entire
account is Luke 16:19-31).
Did the holy angels of God Almighty carry Lazarus's BREATH???
No! They carried his spirit & soul.
Angels are spirits AND they carried or escorted Lazarus's
human spirit into paradise that very day.
For the sake of argument, let's say the holy angels of God carried Lazarus's
breath. OK? Since when does
a person's breath have ears to hear, a mouth to speak, and fingers to
touch? The Bible says the rich man
lifted up his eyes (he had eyes!). He spoke to Abraham
(he had a mouth!). He could hear his own voice and
Abraham speaking to him (he had ears!). So, logic says the
angels did not carry Lazarus's breath. Do you follow me?
If your religion says that the human spirit is your breath...then you have major
problems.
Solomon wrote,"The dead know nothing" and Jesus said the rich man & Lazarus
carried on conversations after they died.
Who's right, King Solomon in Eccl. 9:5 or Jesus the Messiah in Luke
16:19 - 31?
YES, what King Solomon said contradicts what Jesus said
OR does it?
The human body is completely shut down in death, including the memories in the
brain, but Jesus
said that the rich man & Lazarus carried on conversations AFTER the death
of the physical human body!
Do you know what I'm doing? I'm laying the foundation of my case to
provide Bible evidence that the Bible says
that there is consciousness after physical death. I'm going to
show you from the scriptures that physical death
is not being in a non-existent state or dreamless sleep. I'll give
you a hint, the physical human body DOES
look like it's sleeping when it has died. The physical brain which
has memories stored in it like a computer...
KNOWS NOTHING when the
human body dies.
BUT THE HUMAN SPIRIT & SOUL survive physical death.
So,
let's find out more about what
happens when a person dies. No worries...I've got some good
info on DEATH,
please keep reading.
1. Spiritual death means you are separated from God due to the
power & presence of evil (sin).
The First Adam stained all human beings with sin
(selfishness and evil). The Last Adam
Jesus Christ, the Word of God,
rescues human beings from sin through the born again experience.
The born again experience can ONLY be given by Almighty
God and not any religion or church.
The born again experience is a SPIRITUAL re-birth
from God for a spirit & soul corrupted by evil (sin).
The born again experience is NOT reincarnation!
Your body is the same (human body), you don't
transform or morph into another
physical form. God injects His life into your spiritually dead human
spirit.
2. Physical death means your spirit and soul separate from the human
body.
Think of the SOUL being the handle of a sword and the
SPIRIT being the blade.
HILT is the term for HANDLE of the sword.
We all know about the blade part of a sword.
In this example, the physical human body
would be the scabbard (sheath or case) which houses the sword
when it's not in use.
ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, WHAT
HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE?
When physical death occurs, the spirit and soul
SEPARATE from the physical body.
The sword (handle and blade)
WITHDRAWS from the scabbard (case for the sword).
Notice in my analogy that the sheath or human
body resembles the image/shape of the sword (soul & spirit).
The body goes back to dust. The only
one that can un-create a spirit & soul is Almighty God!
God is a Spirit, Satan is a spirit, angels are
spirits, demons are evil spirits, and humans are spirits that reside
in a house of flesh called the human body. Thessalonians 5:23,"...may your whole spirit, soul, and
body be kept blameless.
JESUS CHRIST REVEALS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER
SOMEONE PHYSICALLY DIES
"When a person dies they take an eternal
unconscious dirt nap.
Your body goes back to dust and that's it!"
No, that's not IT according to
the Bible.
The Bible teaches
the human body looks as if it's sleeping during physical death (John 11:11 & 14),
but the soul and spirit are
conscious
and survive physical death (Revelation 6:9,10).
Some folks confuse this and refer to the soul & spirit as being
asleep during physical death, but no, it's the human body.
Jesus said to one of the thieves when He was hanging on the cross,"...Today, you
will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
Some translations alter the meaning of what Jesus said, their translation
reads that Jesus said,"...Truly I tell you today,
you will be with me in Paradise." IT'S OBVIOUS
that Jesus was speaking to that person THAT DAY. How do
we know Jesus said the former,"Today you will be with me in paradise."?
2 Corinthians 12:1-4, the Apostle Paul related
the story about how 14 years ago, he went UP into paradise, BUT he didn't
know whether he was in his physical body
or OUT OF HIS PHYSICAL BODY (read verse 2 carefully).
Have you ever understood what Paul is saying here?
"But my religion teaches that you're in a state of non-existence when you die
physically. And God has you stored
in His memory banks and will re-construct you in the time of the
great resurrection." So, now Almighty God is a super
cosmic
computer? Oh, give me a break!
Stop it! The Apostle Paul
taught, under the
Holy Spirit's guidance,"We are...
willing...to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord.
(2 Corinthians 5:8).
What is absent from your human
body? What part of YOU
is ABSENT from your physical human body???
Your breath? No, your soul and spirit.
Yes, human beings
have
BOTH a soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12)."
"But my
religion teaches that a human's spirit is a human
being's BREATH."
My
response to you is: ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD.
God is
NOT interested
in a person's breath, He is
interested in saving living souls /
spirits...conscious beings. What is a ghost?
A dis-embodied
SPIRIT of a person. Let's deal
with the spirit = breath issue. We
have'ta talk about it...
HUMAN BEINGS BREATHE IN OXYGEN AND BREATHE OUT CARBON DIOXIDE
Your human spirit is your breath? Not
according to the Bible. What does the Lord God need with
someone's breath?
Do you think God needs to breathe air? God had to wear a
spacesuit when He created the stars because He couldn't
breathe in the vacuum of outer space, right? Think about it.
Do you think angels need to breathe air? Humans and animals
do.
An ocean of oxygen surrounds the Earth. That's how we
breathe. God is not interested in oxygen, carbon
dioxide, or
gases in general. There are nebulae thousands of
light years away from the planet Earth that have all kinds of gases in
them.
The Lord knows
about'em...these phenomenon in outer space.
He put'em there! God is a
Spirit, angels are spirits, demons
are evil spirits...SPIRITS ARE CONSCIOUS BEINGS, not someone's breath.
Humans are spirits that function in a suit
of flesh
just like a person would wear a diver's suit when he or she explores
the world underneath an ocean or lake. The diver's suit in this
comparison is the human body. What in
the world
does God the Creator need with oxygen and gases? John
3:16,"For God so
loved the world of humanity..." NOT...For God
so loved oxygen and gases of the cosmos so much, that He
gave us his unique Son. Does that mean that every
time a person belches or farts, he or she loses a little of their
human spirit? Give us a break, please!
Jesus said in Luke 23:43,"...Father, into your hands I commit my spirit...[THEN]
He breathed His last." When any human being
dies physically they breathe their last, but God is not interested in their
breath. He's interested in their spirit which is conscious and
alive.
Jesus said,"TODAY, you will be with me in paradise," to one of the thieves.
Maybe your religion believes in soul sleep or
that death is termination of all consciousness, but the Hebrew faith taught consciousness after Death.
What is the Lord gonna do
with your breath after you physically die--STORE
IT IN A SPECIAL JAR?
God is a spirit of all spirits.
God is interested in human spirits. Jesus said to God
the Father: "Into your hands I commit my
spirit..." This statement ties in with what Jesus said
to one
of the thieves,"TODAY you will be with me in paradise." Because
that's where their SPIRITS...not their breath...went after their
human bodies physically died. Your spirit is NOT your breath.
Revelation 17:3,"So the angel took me in the spirit
in the wildernesss..." [The Living Bible]. Sound
familiar? Luke 16:22,"...the beggar (Lazarus) died and
the angels carried
him to Abraham's side (bosom) (NIV). Luke 16:22,"Finally the
beggar died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham
in the place of the righteous dead..." Rev. 17:3 and
Luke 16:22 are two scriptures that talk about angels carrying or escorting
a human spirit to a place...NOT fantasy, not science fiction, not the
Twilight Zone, not a fable...but these events really happened
and the angels weren't carrying their BREATH. Please
understand that a person's breath is the closest comparison one can get
to what a spirit is like. But spirits, I must remind you, are
conscious beings, and not oxygen or any other gas. Let's run
through it again: demons are spirits and they are conscious beings.
Demons can inhabit and operate through a human body.
The man Legion had hundreds of demons in him. Angels are
spirits and not breath. God Almighty is a Spirit.
And human
beings are spirits as well that live inside a physical house called the human
body. When the physical body dies, the spirit and
soul depart and the body decomposes and goes back to dust.
Some memories are stored in the physical brain housed in the
physical body, but that goes back to dust, and the body looks like it's sleeping
when a person is DEAD.
THE RICH MAN AND
LAZARUS...FABLE OR FACT?
Where did Lazarus and the rich man's SPIRITS go after their bodies
died and were buried?
Yes, it's implied that BOTH the rich man and Lazarus's human bodies
were buried.
Luke 16:22b,"...the rich man also died and was buried." What did the
angels carry? They carried Lazarus's human spirit.
How does the account of the rich man and Lazarus fit in with your belief
that,"...the dead know nothing..."? (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
According to Jesus, He tells the true story of the Rich
Man and Lazarus. This was not a fairy tale
or fable (fabulous story).
This is what happens after physical
DEATH. I guess you would have
a problem with Jesus Christ being Almighty God IF your
religion teaches
that physical death
means termination of existence. That would be a BIG problem indeed!
But the Bible
teaches
that
their is consciousness after physical death. See what Jesus said in
Luke: 16:19-31.
Examine the account Jesus told.
After
physical death, Lazarus
was carried by the angels (his soul & spirit)
into "Abraham's Bosom", a dimension of waiting and
comfort for
spirits/souls
separated by physical death. ANGELS DIDN'T CARRY
HIS BREATH! The rich man went
to a place
of punishment and misery. If there's no consciousness
after
physical
death,
WHY would
Jesus tell us this account? Jesus didn't
tell fairy tales,
that would have destroyed
his
credibility
as..."I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life."
Some may say: "Jesus told
a symbolic story; it
wasn't real."
Symbolic of what?!
No, Jesus
is the Truth and tells the truth, not fantasy stories. The account
of the rich man
and Lazarus really happened;
this
IS a
glimpse of what
happens AFTER a person dies. Note that both the rich
man and Lazarus's
human bodies were buried,
but
their souls and spirits--ABSENT FROM THE BODY--lived on...were
conscious. The rich man could speak, hear, and
reason
even though his human body was buried in the ground and looked like
it
was sleeping prior to it decaying and going back
to dust. Jesus would not make up a fantasy story to illustrate a spiritual truth...that would be totally not in His character!
Aesop told fables (fantastic and fabulous stories to teach a moral), but
Jesus Christ, |THE TRUTH, told TRUE stories. The story of
the rich
man and Lazarus makes people who believe Jesus is an angel
UN-COMFORTABLE. It doesn't fit in
with what their magazines
and pamphlets teach. The Bible
teaches life after DEATH
and your religion is not going to change
that.
So, you
go back to the Elders in your church /
congregation, and you tell them that Paul said that he went up into the
THIRD HEAVEN and that he didn't know whether he was in his human
body or out of it. Your elders will talk around the issue,
but
they'll never deal with
it HEAD ON.
No fantasy story...no fairy
tales, NOT science fiction, NOT the Twilight Zone...
the Bible teaches consciousness AFTER DEATH. I challenge
the elders in your religion to prove otherwise.
After physical death, your human
spirit will have the following:
Mouth.....................The rich man and Abraham spoke after
their human bodies were dead and buried (Luke 16:24,25).
Eyes........................Luke 16:23,"...in hell he lifted up his eyes.
Fingers.....................Luke 16:25,"...send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water..."
Ears.........................Abraham spoke to the rich man and vice versa
Memory...................Abraham told the rich man,"...Son, remember in your
lifetime" (referring to when he was in his human body).
Here's something I want to share with you that some criticize
the account of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
Some may say,"This story is ridiculous because no one in their right mind would
ask for someone to dip their finger in water
just to cool someone's tongue".
I can answer this! First of all, Jesus only gave us the
highlights of this conversation. I believe in the actual event,
there was more begging and pleading on the part of the rich man. I
personally believe that in reality, the rich man begged for
a pitcher of water, buckets of water, and even to get him out of that part of
Sheol (Hades) that was torment. I don't
believe it was a one-time request. But you must understand that the
Bible records foolish and arrogant statements made
by men and women. The recording of these statements was inspired by
God Almighty, not the statements themselves.
Yes, no one would start off asking for a very small amount of water; they
would first ask for a bucket, canteen, or pitcher
full of water...then as their requests are denied, they would ask for the least
amount. Like I said, we only have the highlights
of this record of the rich man and his conversation with Abraham...we don't have
the entire conversation. The entire
conversation would most likely fill several pages of the Bible. Do
you understand what I'm saying?
So, King Solomon says,"The DEAD know nothing or are conscious of
nothing..." This statement is King Solomon's
opinion about death. King Solomon also said, Ecclesiates
1:1,"...everything is vanity!" The Living Bible,
Ecclesiates
1:1,...The author Solomon,"...In my opinion, nothing is worthwhile; everything
is futile..." This statement from Solomon
is simply NOT true, but it's recorded in the Bible. God didn't
created this planet so that nothing is worthwhile and all
is vanity and future! The Bible records this statement from King
Solomon, but it's not true. Job came up with some
bogus statements while he was operating under tremendous pressure from his wife
to curse God and die and the death
of his servants and biological children. Job made some dumb
and vain statements to the point where God Almighty
Himself visited Job in a whirlwind to straighten him out! King
Solomon got straightened out too, that's why he said
at the very end of the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13,"...Fear God
and keep His commandments." That's
the smartest thing Solomon ever said in my opinion. But
yes, the Bible RECORDS human beings making vain
statements totally not inspired by God the Creator and taking foolish actions
from getting drunk to incest. It's recorded
in the sacred scriptures (the Bible), but NOT inspired or
encouraged by the Almighty. God wants us to honestly
see human behavior, the good, the bad, and the ugly and all the shades in
between.
THE DEAD NO NOTHING??? NO!
Those who have died know a lot, perhaps a lot more than we who are
alive in this dimension of time in our human bodies. Jesus
couldn't raise HIMSELF from the dead if He weren't
conscious someWHERE! Jesus said He would raise his body
up from the dead...you can't do that in a state of non-existence.
John 2:19 - 21.
It's gonna dawn on you slowly that your religion has NOT been
teaching you correctly about the subject of DEATH
and that Jesus is God Almighty the Creator.
PARABLES, FABLES, AND FAIRY TALES,
DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?
"The Lord of the Rings" with Bilbo Baggins and
Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Elrond...this is fantasy fiction.
Professor
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien) created a very
detailed world with languages and geography which drew from
existing books such as the Old Testament, Beowulf, and
European folklore (Norse mythology, leprechauns, elves, trolls, etc.).
"The Lord of the Rings" (both Peter Jackson's movies and
Professor Tolkien's novel)
is a super-sophisticated fairy tale.
The movies Shrek 1, 2, and 3 are fairy tales.
But do you know the difference between a parable and a fairy tale?
Jesus has to fabricate a fantasy story when He knows there's no consciousness after a person dies--just to illustrate a TRUTH?
This statement above went right
over your head. Take a moment to
really think about what I just said.
Jesus doesn't exaggerate or tell lies, so why should He make up a fictional story if He
knows people don't hold conversations after
they
die?! THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING. Think about it! You're problem is:
You don't know the difference between a parable and a
fable. Do you?
The
wolf said to the three little pigs respectively: "Then I'll huff and
I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!" That's a fairy tale.
A fox fails to reach grapes hanging high up on a vine.
Before the fox walks away it says in a human voice: "The grapes are sour anyway!"
This is a fable, a fantastic story that makes a moral or
cautionary point, often using animal characters that speak and act
just like human beings. IF Jesus knew that
human beings are in a state of non-existence after they physically die,
WHY WOULD HE TELL the account of the
rich man and Lazarus??? Jesus tells parables, real-life
stories that
illustrate a spiritual truth. Jesus did NOT
tell fables or fairy tales.
BALAAM AND THE TALKING DONKEY
Parenthetically, I must mention the incident in the Bible that
the donkey spoke in a human language
either Aramaic or Hebrew to the prophet Balaam. Numbers
22:28,"...and the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and she
(the donkey) said
to Balaam," What have I done to you to make you beat me
these three times?" This is NOT a fable.
The incident is
related in Numbers 22:21 - 39. God
performed a miracle and gave the donkey the temporary gift of
speaking in a human language. There are two major times in the Old
Testament where God gave the gift of tongues: At
the tower of Babel and
to the donkey to speak to the prophet Balaam.
The gift of tongues at Babel was not a curse, but given to frustrate the evil
plans of men united for an evil or ungodly purpose.
Besides, if God can give the gift of tongues to a donkey, mule,
horse, zebra, or a JACKASS, then you shouldn't have any problem
receiving this spiritual gift! Whoever heard of a
talking
horse, right? I remember the weekly TV show
when I was a kid featuring the "talking" horse,"Mr. Ed." That
was a fable/TV comedy, Numbers 22:21 - 39 is NOT a TV comedy!
So, I'll make this statement (which you're not
gonna like):
If God
can give the gift of tongues to a jackass, He can give it
to YOU. Don't feel like a jackass or horse's
ass about God's
spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians chapter 12). Don't reject them! Just
be open to His gifts. I said be
open
to the Almighty's
gifts
NOT Satanic or demonic gifts...we reject Satan's gifts! WE can neutralize folks who have demonic gifts,
just like the Apostles did (Acts 16:16 - 20) HOW? By accepting God's spiritual gifts. We're here to
destroy the works of the Devil. Some Christians acknowledge the
existence of demons and demonic gifts and reject
God's spiritual gifts because they THINK God's spiritual gifts ENDED IN THE
FIRST CENTURY. The only thing that
ended is your ability to reason clearly. So, Satan can give Satanic
gifts to some folks, but God is limited...God can't
give spiritual gifts to His children in the 21st Century. Are you
stupid?! OK, well why don't you just stop giving your
spouse anniversary gifts. Stop giving your children Christmas gifts.
Stop giving your loved ones birthday gifts. AND
here's what you tell them, genius, say to them: "I
only give gifts to you during the first ten years of your life or of
our marriage." Stupid isn't it?
And your family member would look at you like a nutcase...because you
would be!
Satan
has been clever enough to trick the leaders of your denomination into throwing out the baby and the bath water in reference to God's
spiritual gifts. Let's face it, the reality is, you are scared of
the
the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in
1 Corinthians chapter 12 because you really don't know how they're supposed to work.
Take the gift of prophecy for example. In your dumb thinking, you
believe that gift means predicting the future. And
your question is: "Why do we
need someone to predict the future when the
Bible tells us the future?" Right? Hey!--the
gift of prophecy is NOT just predicting the future! Your reasoning
is pathetic! God is loving, He'll always be giving
His servants and children gifts throughout eternity. Later on
you'll read my segment on the tongues of men that talks about
the gift of tongues.
But let's hurry back to our topic
on DEATH and Jesus
Christ: Creator or Created Being.
HOW CAN SOMEONE RAISE THEIR OWN
BODY FROM THE DEAD...IF THEY'RE DEAD?
So, who ran the universe when Jesus Christ died? Answer:
God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ's soul and
spirit went to "Abraham's Bosom"
(a dimension where souls/spirits go)--still
conscious and then He rose from the dead
just like
Lazarus in the true account Jesus gave in Luke
chapter 16:19-31. Have
you noticed who
participated in Jesus resurrection from
the dead?
Did you ever think
about that OR are you
in a religion that tells you how to think? John 2:19,
Jesus
said,"...destroy
this temple (meaning his physical
body), and in three days I will raise it up."
I WILL raise it
up??? I??? I...I will???
Question for
those
of you
who
think physical death means going into a state of
non-existence: How could Jesus raise Himself
from the dead
IF
He didn't exist
after He died physically? YOU cannot
raise your human body from PHYSICAL DEATH IF Death
means being
in a
non-existent state, right? Am I right or
wrong? What I'm saying,
is it logical or absurd?
You tell
me.
JESUS RAISED HIMSELF FROM THE DEAD...SO WHAT DOES
THAT TELL YOU ABOUT DEATH?
It should tell you that your religion is dead wrong
about what DEATH is IF they believe it means cessation
of consciousness.
Are you listening to me? IF you're angry right now,
don't be angry at me. Be angry at your religion for teaching:
THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING.
You're struggling with questions that are really easy to answer, but your
religion or denomination
is only pointing out seemingly contradicting issues, such as: How
can the Son of God be God the Father?
Who ran the universe when Jesus Christ died IF
he's supposed to be God?
This article you're reading
right now, "Jesus Christ: Creator OR Created
Being" should answer
your questions.
So, you'll run back to the elders in your congregation and point out this
article to them and they'll say:
"The
scriptures clearly say that Jesus Christ is an angel, Michael, who said God
the Father is greater
than I. Jesus Christ cannot be
God the Father if he's the son
of God. That would be against
human reasoning." This statement is not strong enough to
defeat
Isaiah 44:24 or the fact
that Jesus Christ is not an angel, but the Creator of the universe.
You're gambling with your life,
where
you will spend eternity, BASED ON what your elders in your
fellowship tell you, when
they don't really know the
scriptures themselves. Just because
a person wears a suit and a tie, is well groomed and soft spoken doesn't mean he
knows the
holy scriptures. Don't gamble your life in a religion that
doesn't know who Jesus Christ is because you could DIE outside the
truth. The truth is not any organization, denomination, or
religion on this planet.
The TRUTH is God's written word and
His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did Almighty God LIE when His testimony is recorded in Isaiah 44:24,
HE SAID HE CREATED
THE PLANETS, STARS, MOONS...EVERYTHING...BY HIMSELF...ALONE!!
Either God Almighty created everything without help OR He lied
because angels helped Him.
The concept of the Almighty being an architect and the angels being
construction workers helping
God "build" the planets, stars, etc...is un-scriptural and
contradicts God's testimony of creating
the universe BY HIMSELF.
ALMIGHTY GOD'S WILL (A WILL
IS A COVENANT OR
TESTAMENT)
A person makes a WILL, so that when physical
death occurs, family members inherit certain possessions.
As long as the person who made the will is alive,
the will doesn't come into effect. Well, the New
Testament
is a covenant, a contract, a legal will for the
heirs of God Almighty's salvation. Jesus Christ is
Almighty God
incarnate in the flesh, and when He died, the Will or testament of the
Almighty went into effect. Hebrews 9:16, 17,
"For where a testament (will) is, there must also of necessity be the death of the
testator (person who wrote and signed
the will). For a testament is of force after
men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator
lives."
John 1:12,"But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God..." Jesus stated in
John 3:7,"...You MUST be born again." Romans 8:17,"And
if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs
with [Jesus] Christ..." SEE Romans 8:15.
Through the born again experience from God's Holy Spirit, we are
children of God, and legally entitled to inherit whatever God wants us to have.
The idea of only 144,000 are
born again is ridiculous! Jesus said to Nicodemus, YOU must be
born again, and that was in the FIRST CENTURY.
Jesus never lied. Nicodemus, a Hebrew, needed to be born
again! God is no respecter of persons, ALL HUMAN
BEINGS need to be born again. IF Nicodemus, who
lived in the first century, had to be born again, then why would
God select just a remnant of white Europeans from Europe and the United States
JUST TO BE THE 144,000???
Almighty God would never have anyone that's from Australia, Asia, India,
Russia, or God forbid--Africa!--the
DARK CONTINENT, to be born again, right? Do you see
how absurd it is to believe that only the 144,000 are
born
again? The rest of us poor dumb bunnies don't have to be
born again, right? YES WE DO. You must be
born
again--spiritually. When you're spiritually born again, by
God's Spirit, you are Abraham's seed.
Galatians 3:29,"...IF you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise."
The 144,000 are no doubt living today in the 21st Century and will play a major
role BEFORE Jesus Christ comes
BACK to EARTH otherwise known as THE SECOND COMING (RETURN).
"God made a legal will (testament)???
When did God die?" I Corinthians 15:3,"...Christ
died for our sins..."
The Lamb of God, who is sacrificed and sheds His blood to deliver us from all
evil (sickness, racism, greed, hatred....).
1 John 1:7,"...the blood of Jesus Christ ...cleanses us from all sin."
So, the WORD OF GOD, now called Jesus
Christ, who created ALL THINGS, became a human being and died to
rescue us from legally belonging to the
"god" (ruler) of this system of evil on this planet, Satan.
God made Adam the ruler of this world (God told Adam to
fill the Earth and SUBDUE IT and RULE (Adam was a ruler) over
the soil, plant life, and every creature on this
planet
(Genesis 1:28). When Adam
disobeyed God, he turned this planet over to Satan (formerly Lucifer the
Anointed Cherub
angel). That's
why Satan
tempted Jesus with the kingdoms of this planet. Satan told Jesus," All this
will I give you if you
bow down and
worship
me." (Matthew 4:8). All what? All the
kingdoms of this planet were legally Satan's. Satan
became the "god"
or
ruler
(prince) of the system of evil on this world when Adam messed up in
the Garden of Eden.
When
God
died as a
human
being, He broke the power of Satan as ruler of this world.
Rev. 1:18,"I am He that lives,
and was
dead...and have
the
keys of hell and death." Hebrews
2:14,"...that through DEATH He might destroy him that
had the
power of Death, that
is,
the DEVIL (Satan)." Satan
had the power of death on Earth. Satan had the keys of
hell
and death on this planet.
But
Jesus Christ's sacrifice on
the cross--NOT A TORTURE STAKE--but a CROSS, broke
Satan's stranglehold over the
Earth and those who inhabit it. Jesus said," Behold,
I give you authority (power)...over ALL
the power of
the enemy (Satan)...." (Luke 10:19).
Jesus Christ's, death, burial, and resurrection BROKE Satan's power
on this
planet! Satan was the ruler
(prince or KING) of planet Earth because Adam abdicated to Satan
through disobedience.
But Jesus Christ is the
KING OF ALL KINGS (including Satan as prince
(ruler) of this world (John 12:31 & John 14:30).
John
16:11,
"Of judgment, because the PRINCE OF THIS WORLD is judged."
GOD THE FATHER AND THE WORD OF GOD SHARE
POWER
NOTE that God the Father and the Lamb
(Jesus Christ) SHARE everything in the book of
Revelation.
Rev. 21:22,"...the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple of it."
Rev. 22:3,"...the throne of God and of the Lamb..."
Hebrews 1:8, God the Father is
speaking about Jesus Christ, His Son,"...Your throne, O God, is forever
and ever..."
Do you actually understand all that's happening in Hebrews chapter one?
God the
Father is speaking about Jesus Christ in
verses 5 -14.
God the Father and the Word of God
shared power before
the Earth was created, and they'll do the same
in the New heaven
and Earth
according to
the book of Revelation.
WORDS AND TERMS THAT ARE NOT
IN THE BIBLE
The word," Trinity" is NOT in the Bible, but
neither are the words or terms: theocratic,
circuit servant,
kingdom hall (to mean a church fellowship), mass, and "Sunday school".
The terms rosary, holy water, and sign of the
cross are not in the holy scriptures. The
clerical terms Pope, monsignor, monk,
friar, nun are NOT in the Bible
either,
because the clerical titles for officers in Christianity are as follows:
deacon, Bishop,
Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist,
Teacher, and Pastor. BUT, even though the word "Trinity"
is not in the Bible, doesn't
mean that Almighty God is not triune and that a
tri-unity doesn't
exist for God the Father, the Word of God, and the Holy
Spirit of God. Human beings are triune:
spirit, soul,
and body and so is our Creator. Some
of the titles freemasons use such as: "The Grand Exalted..."
are just like the titles
in the Ku Klux Klan. Some of their titles: The Imperial
Grand Wizard". These masonic and KKK titles are blasphemous in
light of men's egos not being submitted to Almighty God.
Again, the word "Jehovah" is not in
the original Hebrew or
Aramaic in the Old Testament. Why call a
human being "Reverend", that's not a legit
title from the Bible and reverend
should just refer to God, the Creator (Psalms 111:9).
According to our Lord Jesus, who is the head of the body of Christ, we
should NOT use the term "Father" as a religious or
clerical title or call anyone Master, or Rabbi.
Jesus did away with those titles: READ Matthew
23:8, 9, & 10. It's OK to call your
step father or your biological dad, FATHER, but not as a
religious title. We Christians cry,"Abba", (means
FATHER). Let's try to use the
terms the Bible uses and not make
up words and fancy titles to stroke
our egos. Hello??? Anybody
home?
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT
A THING OR IMPERSONAL ENERGY
Do me a small favor will ya?
STOP CALLING THE HOLY SPIRIT "HOLY GHOST".
It really bugs me!
How would you like someone calling you a ghost?!
Relax!--it's not a SIN to call the Holy Spirit "Holy Ghost".
It's just inaccurate to refer to him as
ghost.
Take it easy...lighten up...don't condemn me, I apologize.
But we
who believe in the Bible as God's sacred written
Word, should strive to
be accurate--not make a god out of our intellects--
but make a sincere effort to
be accurate.
The word "Jehovah" is not accurate; it's an ALTERATION of
Yahweh...
SO WHY SHOULD WE USE IT???
I don't think the Holy Spirit appreciates it when we call Him a GHOST.
I think
He smiles and just shakes His head
at our immaturity, but He still LOVES us because God is LOVING.
The Holy Spirit took an active part in CREATION
(Genesis 1:1,"...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters...")
The same people who believe that Jesus Christ is an angel will say: "The
holy spirit is only an impersonal energy like the
wind. electricity, or electromagnetic energy; it's NOT a personality.
Some say," The Bible says in Acts 2:17 that He will
pour out his holy spirit
on all
flesh.
The holy spirit can be poured out. This proves the holy spirit is
NOT a personality."
God the Father in the Old Testament promised to pour out his Holy Spirit in the
last days (Joel 2:28).
God uses figurative language. Zephaniah 3:8,"...declares
the Lord...I will pour out my wrath on them...." Pour out
His Wrath.
The figurative term, "POUR OUT MY..." means that
the person speaking is going to take action by giving someone
something whether they like it or not. One of the figurative
street sayings we have today is: "I'm gonna open up a
bottle of whup-ass, and pour it all over you."
What this means is the other person is about to initiate a fistfight
or "beat up" the other person up. The Holy Spirit can't be a
personality because "HE CAN BE POURED OUT"???
The Holy Spirit takes a major role in these last days.
Acts 13:2,"...the HOLY SPIRIT said," Set apart for me Barnabas
and Saul for the work to which I have called them." The Holy Spirit
is speaking. The Holy Spirit said "I".
Acts 8:29,"...the [HOLY] Spirit said to Philip," Go near, and
join yourself to this chariot."
Acts 10:19,"...while Peter was still thinking about the vision, the [HOLY]
Spirit said to him," Three men are looking
for you...." 1 Corinthians 2:13,"...by which the Holy Spirit
teaches..." Ephesians 4:30,"...grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God..." (The Holy Spirit can be grieved...proof the Holy Spirit is a
personality and not a thing!).
Hebrews 3:7,"...as the Holy Spirit says," Today if you will hear His voice...."
Acts 5:3,"...to LIE to the Holy Spirit..."
You can't LIE to an inanimate object or to an
impersonal force such as the wind or electromagnetic energy.
You can only lie to a being, a sentient self-aware ("I think
therefore I am) person.
I've just given you scriptures proving that the Holy Spirit thinks,
talks, can be grieved and lied to...the Holy Spirit is
a person. The Holy Spirit is Almighty God. Your
"Christian" religion is wrong if it teaches the Holy Spirit is not a
person.
Don't CONTINUE to insult
the Holy Spirit by calling him a Holy Ghost OR refer to
Him as a THING!
The Holy Spirit is responsible for the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12),
the fruit of the spirit, guiding us, and empowering
us for preaching, teaching, and His miracles. The gifts of the Spirit are power
tools to get the job done. God is consistent, in
the Old and New
Testament times, He confirms the preaching and teaching of His WORD
(gospel) with miracles, signs, and
wonders.
We know demonic miracles and gifts exist, BUT we are here to destroy the
works of the Devil and his evil spirits. So...
It's really scary calling the Holy Spirit a thing.
Please, embrace the truth about the Holy Spirit before it's too late!
RUNNING BACK TO THE ELDERS IN YOUR CONGREGATION FOR ANSWERS
Obviously, what I'm saying about Jesus Christ being the
creator is not what your fellowship / religion teaches. So, I would
be
branded as someone who is AGAINST YOUR RELIGION. I would be considered a boogeyman, a bugbear, someone to be avoided
because my belief system is DIFFERENT than yours. The elders
in your church will only re-enforce the same things
they've been telling
you all along: Jesus Christ is a god. Jesus Christ said God
the Father is GREATER than he is. How can
the Son of God be God the Father? IF Jesus is God, who ran the
universe when he died? Your elders can
parrot the
teachings of your belief system, but how far does their understanding go?
Your religion puts so much stock in REASONING.
OK, so let's test the soft-spoken suit-wearing elders in your congregation that
are filled with so much knowledge and wisdom.
1 Corinthians 13:1, the Apostle Paul says,"Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels..." Stop right there. Do
your elders know that Christians spoke in the tongues of men (languages of men,
for example, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, etc.) AND
in the tongues
of ANGELS? The tongues of angels aspect is totally foreign to
your elders. They have no clue what this means.
What on Earth are the tongues of angels, right?
Hey, I'll be happy to tell your elders what the tongues of angels are:
It is a heavenly language, given by the Holy Spirit, that is
NOT any human language. The Bible says there are different
kinds of the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10). What's the
purpose of the tongues of angels? 1 Corinthians
14:2,"...he that
speaks in an UNKNOWN tongue, doesn't speak to men, but to God,
for NO MAN UNDERSTANDS HIM..." So, this is not
the
tongues of men, this is a supernatural gift from God called
the tongues of angels. What's the benefit of such a gift?
The
answer is in 1 Cur. 14:4,"He that speaks in an UNKNOWN tongue EDIFIES
himself..." Answer: It spiritually builds one up.
The elders in your church don't know this because every time you mention
the gift of tongues among the early Christians, they
quote the incident where
thousands where speaking in tongues,
the languages or tongues of MEN (Acts 2:4-18). Your
elders don't know anything about THE TONGUES OF ANGELS...only the
TONGUES OF MEN. Because they have a
superficial understanding of the holy
scriptures...programmed by the doctrines of their religion.
Here's another thing your elders don't know about: Your
religion is very aware that demons or evil spirits exist today.
They talk about movies that are "demonic" or inspired by demons.
BUT, how do your elders DEAL with people that are
demon possessed today?
The answer is: They arrange to have a Bible study with a person who
is demon possessed so that
they can invite them to be baptized in water and
become a minister in their belief system. That's NOT how Jesus
and the
Christians of
the early church dealt with demon possessed people!
Jesus commanded demons to come out of those that were possessed with demons.
YOU KNOW THAT. Yet!--your fellowship, your congregations, the people
in your religion have
NEVER cast any demons out LIKE JESUS has.
Is there intense demonic activity today in
the 21st Century? You'd
better believe it! Water baptize a demon possessed
person and they'll come up a wet demon
possessed person!
Water baptism does NOTHING to cast out demons!
You MUST understand this.
Here's the key: The servant is not above the
master. Jesus Christ is the master, He told us how to do things
and your
religion is NOT casting out demons. You can't have a Bible study
with a demon possessed person! You have to cast
those demons OUT! First things first, you must deal with the
demons inside a person. And your religion doesn't do
that. Highly organized Bible studies with soft-spoken people is NOT
the way Jesus taught us to deal with demon possession.
The elders in your church are not dealing with the issue THE BIBLE
WAY. You can't just witness to a person
who is
demon possessed and expect them to be free of the demons.
Jesus commanded demons to come out, the Apostle
Paul and Peter did, and so did the seventy that Jesus commissioned.
AND YOU HAVE TO! Demons don't come out
of a person because you have a Bible study with them or witness to them!
You just don't get it, do you?! And by the
way, demons know the Bible too...probably better than you do. Knowing the Bible is not enough, we
have to be DOERS
of the word. We preach, teach,
share, and witness the gospel, BUT we also cast out demons JUST LIKE
JESUS DID by commanding them to come out.
No one in your religion is casting out demons the Bible way...here in the
21st century. When was the last time
anyone in your
religion or congregation, commanded demons
to be cast out in the name of Jesus Christ? The answer
is: NEVER. And your religion KNOWS demons exist
today!
Demons are inspiring wars, corporate greed (the money vampires and war
profiteers), serial killers, serial rapists,
suicides, sexual perversion, and all manner of
depravity...and the elders in your congregation want to have a
Bible study
with demon possessed
people just to get them
water baptized??? The servant is NOT above the master,
we have
to deal with demon possession just
as Jesus did.
Jesus preached. Jesus taught. Jesus shared from His
Heart. BUT...Jesus
also commanded demons to come out.
IF Jesus wanted us to preach and water
baptize demons out of people, He would
have told us to do
that!
What makes you think that here in the 21st Century we can just tell people the
gospel and we don't have
to command
demons to come out? Are we better than Jesus Christ? You
can't intellectualize demons out of person! You
can't
appeal to a demon's reasoning or try to negotiate with demons. It has to be done the same way
Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
did it. Jesus said, they shall cast out demons IN
MY NAME! That was for the 1st century and BEYOND!
THERE'S SOMETHING MISSING IN YOUR RELIGION
I'll tell you what's missing. It's really
knowing who Jesus Christ truly is. He's NOT a lesser god, HE is the
Creator!
"Our religion is so organized." The mafia is organized!
That's why they call it: organized crime. Organization doesn't
mean that your religion is right. What do your elders really know???
I only mentioned the tongues of angels
and the topic of demon possession...I haven't even gotten started yet on
things your elders don't know. And it's not
a
KNOWLEDGE GAME. Our goal is NOT to be "puffed up with
head knowledge", but to know God Almighty in a
personal way and have a union and communion with God, the Creator.
It's not being religious or a "good person", or
mandatory witnessing because my religion says so in order to get "brownie
points" with God. The Bible says the beginning
of wisdom is knowing God in a personal way...NOT highly sophisticated man-made
rituals and building our intellects like the
Tower of Babel. And when you honor God the Father and
not recognize Jesus Christ as the Almighty Creator...you only
have HALF of the equation. Your formula is NOT going to
work.
THE CONCLUSION:
Is it really your heart's desire to know who Jesus Christ is?
Because if you get in the privacy of your room and pray and ask Almighty God to help you
understand
the scriptures and not let some religion dictate how you think and
reason...
you'll see
Jesus for who He truly is: "...who is, who was, who is to come, the
Almighty." (Revelation 1:8).
The Christian people
at http://www.kcm.org/
are NOT responsible
for my article,"Jesus Christ: Creator OR Created Being",
or any
articles that appear on this web page, but they can tell you how
to
become born again. Call one
of their counselors at:
1-800-575-4455
THE END (of Jesus
Christ: Creator or Created Being by
B.T. Firebird).
HEAR samples of "religious"
audio plays:
An ENORMOUS CHURCH with very little
love...sound familiar? CLICK ON:
The Big, Big, Big Church
A pastor is on trial for misconduct by his denomination's governing elders. CLICK ON: The Outcast Ones
FOR MORE SAMPLES OF AUDIO SKITS & PLAYS... GO TO www.bradleyphoenix.com/playsandskits.html
RENT / LEASE
BRAD PHOENIX'S RELIGIOUS-MESSAGE THEATRE
SCRIPTS
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You can perform the "Outcast Ones" in
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3 actors (2 men and 1 woman) in chairs at a table facing
1 actor
(male or female), but you might want to cater-corner the actors so
that they are facing the audience. The script is about
12 minutes long, as a radio play. A
stage play may be about 15 minutes. I'll supply you with
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SEE
www.bradleyphoenix.com/lease.html - you'll find this
script and contracts for religious organizations on that web page.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MUSLIMS CALL GOD ALLAH AND THE SUBJECT OF EXTREMISTS
Islam is doctrinally and theologically different than what the Bible teaches. The
difference between Islam and
Christianity is like
apples and oranges. The
Muslim name Allah has linguistic integrity,
but Christians (disciples of Jesus Christ) don't call
Almighty God Allah. Muslims do not believe Jesus Christ
rose from
the dead. Muslims believe that the Koran is the
final
written
authority, whereas we Christians believe the Bible is the final written
authority. The Western Media constantly talks
about
"Moslem fundamentalist extremists" as terrorists. And
notice, there are no Jewish terrorists.
What about the
butchers
and murderers of the Spanish Inquisition and the so-called Holy
Crusades to make native people Christians at the
point of a sword? What about the Ku Klux Klan, an offshoot of
the witchcraft cult of Freemasonry, that burns Christian
crosses on people's lawns because they hate Africans, Roman Catholics,
Jewish, and Muslims human beings? The KKK are
not Christians, they are terrorists. They shot Medgar Evers in a
cowardly ambush. They blew up Black Baptist churches
in the South. They murdered people of color by
torture and lynchings. The KKK are demonically-inspired hypocrites and bound
for HELL.
Satanic scum who hate abortion blow-up abortion clinics.
I hate abortion and I think it's wrong, but a person is NOT
operating in the love
of Jesus Christ by blowing up abortion
clinics or nightclubs for homosexuals.
Our job as Christians
is to live the life of obedience according to the Bible and not to practice
murder and torture! We currently
have a U.S. President that endorses torture. Murder and torture is of Satan
the Devil. Why is Islam the fastest growing religion
in the United States of America? Because we Christians are NOT
doing what our Savior is telling us to do!
Yes, we Christians can get as angry as you want, but it's the
truth. There's adultery, lying, gambling,
stealing, drug abuse,
and racism...
in the Body of Christ AND it must
be purged out by God's Holy Spirit...God's holiness. Do you
agree or are you mad at me? Here's another thing that
bugs me: White Christian televangelists
talking piously about defending Israel because it's a
nation surrounded by Muslim Arabs. And SOME
of these same hypocritical Christian preachers don't want
Jewish human beings in
their country clubs, neighborhoods. and marrying their children.
On television, they are the defenders of Israel.
But in real life, they crack nasty jokes about cash registers being
Jewish typewriters, refer to Jewish men as "Jew Boys",
and other anti-Jewish sentiments...they're first-class
hypocrites that share the same racist viewpoints as the
Ku Klux Klan! OK, let's get
back to our topic whether Jesus Christ is Creator or an angel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PRESENCE OF EVIL AND
TRAGEDY ON EARTH...IS NOT THE
CREATOR'S FAULT!
by B. T. Firebird
It must be made clear that according to the Bible, no one evolves into becoming
the Almighty, nor is attaining
godhood an
acceptable objective or goal. The Bible doesn't
teach that Almighty God is an impersonal infinite ocean of energy
and
we are drops of that ocean...and like the Star Wars movies, all we have to do is
"tap into" THE FORCE (this infinite
impersonal positive energy field). The Bible
doesn't teach pantheism or deism; it teaches that human beings have a choice
to submit to a caring personal
Creator,
Almighty God (including the Laws of God).
STOP BLAMING ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE POWER AND PRESENCE OF EVIL AND TRAGEDY
IN THIS WORLD.
Stop hiding behind evil and tragedy in this world as an excuse not to serve the
Almighty Creator. God didn't just wind up the
universe like a clock and abandon the Earth and human beings as some deists and
agnostics believe. The Almighty Creator
does NOT like the evil and tragedy in this world. God does not like
the acts of corrupt politicians, who in corporate greed, get
us into unjustified
wars for
war profiteers (people who LOVE wars because their corporations make multi millions).
God
hates the results of evil:
Domestic violence, DUI, drug abuse, the homeless, crimes against humanity,
tsunamis that kill
thousands, earthquakes that
claim hundreds of innocent lives, tornadoes, floods.... 9-11 is NOT God's fault!
Jesus Christ reported a tower in Siloam that fell and killed
eighteen people (Luke 13:4).
Someone would say," Why didn't God the Creator do something?! God
could have stopped that tower from falling and
killing all those innocent people!" Question:
Was the tower in Siloam built in the name of Almighty God or was it
built
in the NAME OF COMMERCE (business and profit)? The
tower of Babel, was it dedicated to Almighty God OR
was it built for the pride of men? Genesis 11:4"...let us build
ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so
that we may MAKE A NAME FOR OURSELVES..."
The same could be said about the ROMS Titanic which sank in
1912. Was this ship built to honor God or the ingenuity
of men? When a structure is dedicated to business, profit, or
human pride, is Almighty God obligated to save that structure?
The answer is: NO. Almighty God instructed Noah to
build an ark, so God was obligated to preserve and save (salvation /
deliverance) not only the ark, but all the residents in that ark.
As a side note on the 9-11 attacks: The government had a pamphlet
talking about possible terrorist attacks and on the face of
pamphlet was the two World Trade Center Towers and one of them in crosshairs
(when someone shoots a rifle, it could have
a sniper's scope. When you look through a sniper's scope you'll see
the crosshairs. The crosshairs help you focus on your target).
How vigilant was the U.S. government in securing the World Trade Towers?
Marvin Bush, a relative of George W. Bush,
was a head person in security at the Trade Towers...up until 9/10/2001.
"Well, God stood by and did nothing about
the 9-11 attacks on the U.S.A." No, our apathy and
complacency made us stand
by
and not be as vigilant as we could have been
against terrorist attacks. Law enforcement agencies
here in the United States
are jealous of one another--competing with one another. The CIA.
doesn't like sharing information and cooperating with the
F.B.I , Secret Service,
and Congress. Often there are power struggles among
government entities such as the White House, Pentagon, Langley,
Naval Intelligence, Army Intelligence, Immigration, DEAD, etc...one hand
doesn't know what the other hand
is doing.
The price of democracy and freedom is
VIGILANCE. Vigilance against tyranny, fascism, fanaticism,
and terrorism.
I say
again, Almighty God is NOT responsible
for 9-11 or the evil on this planet. Human beings...we are our
own worst enemy.
God did
something
about the power and presence of evil and tragedy in this world: HE
SENT JESUS CHRIST and at the
same time the Word of God volunteered to break the
power of evil
(sin) and tragedy...to DESTROY THE WORKS OF
THE DEVIL (the works of Satan is the power of evil
and tragedy
on this planet (1 John 3:8). For those empowered
by the
grace of the Almighty Creator (spiritually born again),
WE
are
to counter the power and presence of evil--racism, homelessness,
heal the sick, cast out evil spirits
(even in the White House), oppose unjustified wars
by government officials, feed the poor,
come against serial killers, and even STOP tsunamis, tornadoes,
and other natural disasters.
ARE YOU SAYING THAT CHRISTIANS HAVE THE
AUTHORITY TO
STOP TORNADOES, EARTHQUAKES,
TSUNAMIS, MUDSLIDES, FORREST (WILD) FIRES, AND NATURAL DISASTERS???
YEP!--that's what I'm saying.
Reminder: We can only do this by the
grace of Almighty God and not because we're so clever, wonderful in our own
minds,
and powerful independent
of God's grace.
Natural and un-natural disasters...we who are empowered by Almighty
God, can counter these evils.
What did Jesus say to the raging storm? He said PEACE
BE STILL! Jesus's words neutralized the
storm and
replaced
it with good weather. God provides the miracles and blessings needed to
GET THE JOB DONE! Miracles do NOT happen
"once in a blue moon". Miracles happen as a result of FAITH in
Almighty God. I'm not talk's about demonic or Satanic
miracles, I'm only talking about the miracles of God, the Creator of ALL THINGS. What happened is that
WE
CHRISTIANS
dropped the ball and Satan and his fallen angels
have been having a field day--raising hell on Earth.
Once we Christians
stop being so "churchy", "pious",
Pharisaical, and filled with denominational arrogance, we can do
what God called us
to do
and make
a difference in this world.
LOVE & FAITH ARE NOT
BLIND!
Here's something that bothers me: The world says LOVE
is blind AND it talks about BLIND FAITH.
The love that God
gives is NOT and NEVER will be BLIND. It sees people and
things as they really are, but ignores condemning or hating based
on appearance.
The Bible says Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Faith in God is TRUST in God...in God's laws and in
his holy scriptures. Faith is not blind at all. Faith is
based on knowledge and obedience. Some folks pray like
gamblers
roll dice. "Maybe God's gonna answer my prayer, maybe NOT.
Maybe YES...maybe NO...maybe half way." That's
not Bible FAITH, that's just being flakey and wishy-washy.
Faith in God says,"I trust the laws and promises of God even
when things LOOK bad around me and the odds are against me." We walk by FAITH, not by what
our physical senses report!
BIBLE PROSPERITY VS. HUMAN GREED & POVERTY
True believers in Almighty God don't see God as a genie. I
stood on the door step of my pastor back in late 1980's and said:
"God is not a genie". My pastor has been using that in some of his
sermons since, but now, by the Grace of Almighty God, I'd like to give Part 2 of
that:
WE NEED TO BE GOD'S GENIE. We should be saying every
moment of the day,"Lord, what do you want me to do for you."
We are like waiters and waitresses, very attentive to the needs, orders and
instructions of Almighty God, who's like the person sitting at the table
in
a posh restaurant. When we seek ye first the Kingdom of
God, God meets all our needs: financially, romantically, socially,
materially,
intellectually, emotionally, and SPIRITUALLY. God gives us an
abundant life, not a life living from paycheck to paycheck...that's not an
abundant life. I noticed a so-called Christian website which
was against a "prosperity message" entitled: Suffer Little
Children. Are you stupid?
Yes, the rain of human suffering falls on all of us: heartaches,
losing loved ones through death, disobedient children, climbing divorce rate,
and
demon-instigated tragedies. But don't equate poverty with
righteousness. The poorer I am the more God loves me...that's really
really dumb!
Do you think Jesus Christ was poor? Abraham? Noah?
They weren't poor. If you listen to some religions you'd have
to roll around in
sackcloth and ashes every week so that God will smile down on you.
We don't take vows of poverty! The blessings of Almighty God
and
the miracles of God chase us down and overtake us BECAUSE we are walking
in obedience to God. The way some are taught in
their
religions or denominations, praying to God is just like rolling dice...sometimes
God will help...sometimes God will let you suffer and suffer.
Well, I got news for ya! Faith in God is not a crap shoot.
We walk by faith and God gives us healing, blessings, money, good friends,
a loving spouse, a good sex life, counsel for the depressed...every aspect is
COVERED by God. We walk by faith, not by poverty you
spiritual clown! Your dumb religious teachings gives
Christianity a bad name. BALANCE is the key!
We don't go around preaching
and teaching only about money money money money money...all the time.
We preach the authority of the believer! We preach
holiness and obedience to God's written Word! Money is not
needed in heaven; it's needed on EARTH. There won't be any
demons
oppressing and possessing anyone in heaven, that's only here on Earth in this
age. Besides, would you like to see your children live
in poverty so that they can love you? God the Father is loving
and giving, He wants us to have an abundant life that covers every
facet and aspect of our lives.
A preacher said something I agree with. The kind of prosperity God
gives us spills over into other lives.
If you're marriage is prosperous, it touches others. Someone needs
healing in their body because they are dying of cancer, God's grace
flows through you and that person is healed! The Bible says the
prayer of faith shall save the sick, it doesn't say maybe it will.
Someone
needs a job, and you tell them,"Here's some money to tide you over"
OR I know where you can work to tide you over until you find
something else". That's prosperity from God. We're
not interested in Satan's prosperity because it always leads to death,
confusion, and
self-destruction. A Hollywood celebrity has a great muscular
body, and has millions in the bank, but is dying of alcoholism or drug
abuse.
Is this true prosperity? No. God's prosperity never
leads to confusion, torture, murder, rape, depression,
theft, or suicide.
How do we get God's prosperity? By a nasty dirty word:
obedience. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and
ALL THINGS will be added unto you." I learned what that
really means: It means, seek to do God's will and obey God
Almighty in
every situation and no matter where you are. Seek to be governed
by God's Holy Spirit and his Word, and everything you need in life will be
in your life. In other words, you have a covenant relationship with
Almighty God when you are BORN AGAIN by His Grace. It's not
scriptural to take a vow of poverty. You're cup of
prosperity should be running over and not be half full or half empty.
"Is your
prosperity cup from God half empty or half full?" Neither! My
cup of prosperity from God Almighty is running over! Some
folks have God
dwelling inside them and they still keep asking God for more of His power.
How dumb can you get! God is Almighty. Hello!
God is inside you by His Holy Spirit, stop asking God for more power and for
goodness sake stop singing dumb gospel songs asking
God for more power!
I'm not prosperous because I'm so clever and intellectual. I'm not
and never will be smarter than Almighty God.
I'm relying on and submitting myself to Almighty God and in turn I have His
divine protection. To protect me from what?!
To protect me from car accidents, rapists, serial killers, muggers, con artists,
hurricanes, tornadoes, corrupt politicians,
and those who like me to have a microchip inserted into the fleshy area between
my index finger and thumb and receive
the mark of the beast, 666. We need God's divine protection,
divine healing, divine fruit of the Spirit, and divine prosperity...
anything God says I can have by His Word...I'll take it! God
Almighty is not my genie, I'm God's genie of obedience.
Every day I say: "Hey, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I'm ready and
willing". Like any obedient child should be.
Stop being a Pharisee and flow in God's
Prosperity...His ABUNDANT LIFE. What's God's
prosperity for? TO HELP OTHERS!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NEXT ARTICLE WILL
BE: WHY JESUS CHRIST IS NOT WHITE
(CAUCASIAN)
by B. T. Firebird
Stop frowning...it's time to be exposed to
information you've never heard before on this subject.
You're gonna love it! Actually you're
not gonna love it because it's gonna challenge the racism
and prejudice in your own heart and life. This is the mentality
among a lot of folks today:
"I don't care what color Jesus is, as long as He's white." "Talk of
Jesus's color tends to divide us."
"If Jesus Christ were non-white, it wouldn't bother me." Yeah,
right! OK, let's test what you know.
"The guy who helped Jesus carry the cross and the Ethiopian eunuch were black,
but everyone else was white."
That's not historically accurate! It's not true. The
role of black people in the Bible is much greater than you think.
Both Moses and the Apostle Paul were referred to as Egyptians IN THE BIBLE.
I can give you the scriptures right
now, but IF you have a good concordance,
stop being lazy and look it up yourself! Your brain glossed right over
it.
Do you know why? Because you're "programmed"
to believe that anyone of any importance in the Bible had to be WHITE
(Caucasian).
I'VE GOT NEW INFORMATION FOR YA....
THIS SUBJECT SHOULD MAKE A LOT OF
FOLKS VERY UNCOMFORTABLE! You love being
comfortable.
Set your brain on "automatic pilot". All the people in the Bible
were white. Angels are white. God is white...you feel safe.
Folks normally get uncomfortable growing up...it's called growing pains.
YOU'RE NO LONGER SAFE ANYMORE!
You're gonna be blown right out of the water...with TRUTH...in love.
:)
You're NOT gonna love my article, but it
will challenge your thinking...take you out of your COMFORT ZONE.
This might sound strange, but I don't want to come across as a smart ass,
wise guy, obnoxious, callous, or anything negative,
I THINK YOU NEED TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
and get information to open up your understanding on topics.
The Bible says as a person thinks...so is he. The more information
you have on a topic....I would never endorse books on
New Age, witchcraft, or the occult because that mess will
destroy you spiritually. I would encourage you to read the
Bible for yourself and pray and ask God Almighty, the Creator, to
open up your understanding. It's a good starting
point.
It's what you learn after you think you know everything that really counts.
Here's a few examples of history, test your knowledge:
What do we know about
HISTORY? DID YOU KNOW…
Joseph LaRoche, a black man aboard the RMS
(Haitian), died on the RMS Titanic in 1912; he was a
member of aristocracy.
Abraham Lincoln said that IF he could save the Union without freeing the
slaves...he would have done it. [I don't care for Lincoln]
According to the British Encyclopedia, Christopher Columbus was a Spanish
Jew who wanted little to do with Italy before he died.
According to the Bible, both Moses and the Apostle Paul looked like the
Black Egyptians.
The Statue of Liberty
was originally designed as a black
woman; the architect was a French
abolitionist.
Black Africans visited Central and South America long BEFORE Christopher
Columbus.
The term “The Real McCoy” refers to an
invention by a famous Black inventor--Elijah
McCoy.
Natives in the Americas, so-called Indians, were
taken back to Europe as slaves thanks to Christopher Columbus.
There were white people who also came over on slave ships
to North America
[You didn't know that, did you?]
Gerald Massey, British Egyptologist, wrote
in his book: A BOOK OF BEGINNINGS, said:
"The Features and hair of Buddha belong to the black race..."
Y'see, a lot of folks think that Buddha looked like
a sumo wrestler or Oddjob in the James
Bond movie,"Goldfinger" (1964).
During the Jim Crow laws, in certain regions in
the South, Black people couldn't laugh in public.
They had to laugh
in a barrel, and when they came up they came up
straight-faced. I believe that's where the term,
"a barrel of laughs"
originated. These laughing barrels may have
been regional, indigenous to certain areas of the South.
They may not
have been universally throughout the South, but they did in fact exist.
A horrible testimony to "white people" pretending
or claiming to be "good Christian people", and practicing the hatred of
Satan. Y'see, God Almighty, the Creator, is loving
and anyone who is racist, prejudice, and filled with hatred is of the Devil
(Satan). There will be millions of "white
people"
and "black people" that will NOT make it into the Kingdom of God
BECAUSE the Kingdom of God couldn't make it into
THEM. What is the Kingdom of God? Thanks for
asking, the Bible definition of the Kingdom of God is in Romans
14:17.
RACISM and COLOR PREJUDICE is a SIN
and God is against racism. But
there's so much racism, especially
in the United States of America. God bless
America? Don't think God doesn't see the hypocrisy and
racism in the USA.
SIDE NOTE: The FDNY (NYC Fire department are seen
as heroes of 9-11), and it's true. But there are always bad
apples that spoil the laughing barrel. A relative of
mine who works for the Port Authority says she knows about firemen
that robbed during the first bombing of the World Trade Towers about a decade
earlier. Recently, in the Newsday (a local
New York newspaper), it was reported that the FDNY was being sued for
discrimination in job hiring. Heroes on 9-11,
part-time robbers, and full-time discrimination in hiring. The law
suit was brought against the FDNY by the Justice Department.
Yes, the Department of Justice! Some bad apples can make
it bad for the rest! New York City's finest (police), can
shoot to death someone like Sean Bell, gun an unarmed man down in a
doorway with over 40 bullets, and ram the stick of
a plunger up a Black man's anal cavity in a police station's bathroom.
Corrupt judges, cops, firemen, politicians, and clerics
are
sapping the life out of the USA. The dragon of racism and
hatred is constantly rearing it's ugly head. Racism must end!
UNFORGIVENESS IS WORSE THAN THE ADDICTIONS TO CRACK, CRYSTAL METH, OR ALCOHOL
After all, if Jesus is NOT a white man, maybe some people might not want
to go to heaven and be with a "colored" Christ.
They may be highly un-comfortable with a brown-skin Jesus Christ.
They are comfortable with a blond-haired blue-eyed Jesus Christ who is
European looking. The Europeanized paintings of
Jesus always show Him lily white not even with a sun-tan. How the
heck can you be in the heat of the Middle East and not
even get a sun-tan? Caucasians get sun-tans on the beach here
in the USA. Well the Middle East is hotter over there.
You go over to the Middle East with milky white skin and that Middle East sun
will tear you up!
Jesus Christ is white??? You stand out in that Middle East sun
and you won't be white either. Hello?! Anybody home?!
Ohhhh, you're comfortable now with your beautiful church
building with it's expensive stained-glass windows and padded
seats with the soft Corinthian leather that smells Downey fresh, your
church's drive-through 1-hour service. BUT hearing that
Jesus Christ might NOT be Caucasian is not a comforting thought for
many folks who still harbor prejudice
INSIDE THEIR HEARTS. Racism in the BODY OF
CHRIST...are you serious? Deadly serious!
God condemns racism.
And what is this stupidness about? Here's the picture:
In one town, there's an Hispanic (Latino) Christian Church,
a Black
Baptist church, an A.M.E. Methodist church building, and several lily white churches. IF a Black
person entered the lily white
church, some of the members would
be talking about it for the next 40 years! "Did you know a
colored fellow came in our
church?" "Hey we had a black
come to our church." Heyyyy!--you have a sign outside your church
that reads: ALL
WELCOME. Take the sign down if
you don't mean it! Stop being a hypocrite and a racist!
Take the sign down. The Body
of Christ is one. We MUST
fellowship and work together and forget about our skin color and our
linguistic differences. In
other countries, they speak
their native tongues, but here in the USA, we should all be able to speak
English and fellowship with
one another...but we don't!
The Creator of ALL THINGS is not happy with us either.
We've erected these artificial cultural
fences around our
fellowships and denominations. It's sad. We'll be
spending eternity with one another, but we can't stand
each other here
ON EARTH! Racism and prejudice has to driven out of the
Body of Christ. NOW!
There was an argument put forth that Black people can't be racist because
they're not in positions of power. That's NOT true!
Any human being can be prejudiced or racist...and God the Creator HATES
racism. Want a Bible formula for racism?
RACISM = hatred, strife, FEAR, and unforgiveness.
Hatred and strife are the tip of the iceberg; fear and unforgiveness
are the great
percentage that's beneath the water's surface. Unforgiveness
accounts for a lot of the medical problems on this
planet.
Let's get back to the real historical Jesus, and not some European fantasy image
of a white Jesus.
I'll be honest with ya, IF Jesus was in the USA during the 1950's, early
1960's, they would have told Him to get in the
back of
the bus right along with Rosa Parks. Jesus would have
experienced the Jim Crow Laws of the deep South.
He already experienced the Jim Crow laws of the white-ruled Roman empire.
Get ready for a rude awakening when you stand before the throne of Jesus
Christ on the Day of Judgment!
Santa Claus may be white, leprechauns may be
white, hobbits may be white, the Keebler elves may be white,
but Jesus
Christ is NOT a white man.
You're racism and color prejudice is
going to poison your brain,
soul, and spirit all your life
UNLESS you pray and ask God Almighty to
remove the cancer of that racism
out of your pysche and soul. Almighty God is
eager, ready to bend over backwards to get the poison of
Satan's
racism and hatred out of your soul right now.
RIGHT NOW! Here's how you do it: Go
into the privacy of
your own bedroom. Shut the door because you don't want to be
disturbed. You can pray a prayer like this:
"Lord God, I'm a racist. I have hatred in me. Hatred
toward family members. Hatred toward people that are
of a different skin color. I apologize for disrespecting other human
beings. Please remove this racism and hatred out
of my soul.
Pour your love into me, Lord. Your written word says you are LOVE.
Lord, I don't understand how
you're going to do it,
but let your love replace the bitterness, fear, jealousy, hatred, and
unforgiveness in my soul.
Thank you Lord for doing it
right now as I pray. AMEN."
God is LOVE and LOVING (2 Corinthians 13:11, 1 John 4:7,8)
2 Timothy 1:7 says God has given us LOVE and
a SOUND MIND, NOT racism. Hatred for
Arab human beings, hatred of Jewish human beings, hatred for Asian human
beings, hatred for Communists, hatred for liberals, hatred
for conservatives, hatreds for Democrats, hatred for Mafia wiseguys,
hatred for police officers, hatred for corrupt politicians, hatred for
lying U.S. Presidents who send our troops into unjustified
wars to make war profits for their corporate vampire buddies....
The hatred and racism MUST stop NOW! But..
Wait a minute! Wait a minute!!
Just because you ask God to fill you with His love DOES NOT
mean that you
can't agitate for JUSTICE and for morality!
You don't stop fighting the corruption of city hall just because
you're
not supposed to HATE politically corrupt politicians.
You don't stop fighting against police brutality just because
you're not supposed to hate bad cops. Continue to
agitate for justice and challenge political corruption.
That's
our duty as God's servants AND citizens of the
USA. We don't stop fighting for human rights!
We don't stop
fighting for true justice not the "justice" and so-called
"democracy" that comes from the White House. The president
of the United States of America is a Christian, he goes
to prayer breakfasts a lot and he quotes the Bible.
YEAH, RIGHT! Politicians are not gods!
Watch them. Make them accountable for how our taxes are
spent!
We're the richest country in the world with homeless people, poverty, high
unemployment, and a lousy healthcare system.
I watched Michael Moore's film documentary,"SICKO". My
heart cries out,"Why can't the USA have universal healthcare!!
Someone says,"Then we'll be communist with socialism." England
and France are communist and they have universal healthcare.
Why can't we be like Canada's health care system?
Fight for justice! Here in America, we have the insurance
gangsters,
the banking gangsters, the medical gangsters, and the politician gangsters who
make a "killing" on American invasions and
starting "New Vietnams" (Iraq-nam) Did you ever wonder why the U.S. sent
troops to Vietnam? I asked a vet of Vietnam
who is
opposed to the war in Iraq (so am I), why was the U.S. involved in
Vietnam? He gave me a surprising answer. I
never
thought he would say this. I couldn't believe my ears.
I said I would do some research on his answer, but it shocked
me.
He said: "We were in Vietnam for their oil."
I went off on a tangent, but that's OK. Here's the
bottom line:
A man says,"I hate my mother-in-law, can
I still get into heaven?" NO!!!
Sounds like a joke, right? It's no joke..."NO!"
Almighty God, the Creator, is opposed to racism, fear,
hatred, and unforgiveness! The Bible makes it very very
clear:
You can't say you love God the Creator, who you never saw, and hate people of
different colors who you CAN see.
Every human being has a color, unless you're like Claude Rains and Vincent Price
who both played "The Invisible Man" in two
separate movies.
Stop being racist! There are all kinds of different people in
this world--get over it! White supremacists,
Black
supremacists,
Asians supremacists.... Supreme over what?
Everybody chews their food the same way and flushes the toilet the same
way. Supreme over what? Supreme as in MASTER
RACE? Ohhhh, don't start that "master race" manure!
Please!
If Adolph Hitler was such a "great" leader of a Master Race, than why did some
of his own generals plot to murder him? Or
haven't you thought about that? How deep a thinker are you?
Generals are thinkers...planners. Mussolini thought he was
"great" and wonderful too, and they murdered him and dragged
his arrogant corpse through the streets of Italy. All
human beings come
into this world very humbly and someone had to
clean the crap out of our diapers when we were babies and when we were too old
to take care of ourselves. We are the human
family...we need each other. I didn't say we were all going to
stop what we're doing
and hold hands and sing "Amazing Grace",
but doggone it, we have to start somewhere! The love of
God purges the poison of racism, bitterness, rage, hatred, hostility,
jealousy, and unforgiveness out of us. But! Don't think
that with the love of God reigning in your life that you should
become a doormat and a rug for people to take advantage of you and step
all over you. The love of
God does not make you
a "sitting duck" for the murderous arrows of sarcasm, put-downs, digs,
derogatory remarks, and racial slurs. The Lord is
our Shepherd when we are His servants. He protects us against these
things. He does NOT stop these things from coming
into our lives because THE RAINS OF SUFFERING FALLS ON
ALL OF US. Our prayer: God, deliver us from
ALL
evil.
Article / editorial by B.T. Firebird
OH BY THE
WAY...
WHY DO MANY BELIEVE THAT EVE WAS THE ONE THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING THE HUMAN FAMILY INTO SIN?
Where do you think Adam was when Eve ate the forbidden fruit?
(No one knows definitively if it was an apple
tree...please, stop giving apples a bad name
PLEASE! )
Do you think that after Eve ate of the forbidden fruit that
she had to walk 20 miles to give Adam some forbidden fruit?
No. Adam was standing right there with Eve.
Genesis 3:6,"...she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate
it."
Adam was the first to sin against Almighty God because he stood there while Eve
ate of the forbidden fruit.
Adam "used" Eve like someone would give some food to a
person to eat to see if they drop dead of poison.
Like a royal food taster, so
the king wouldn't get poisoned. Eve was
honestly conned or deceived by Satan,
but Adam stood silently
and cowardly by and used
Eve to taste of the forbidden fruit just to see if what the
SNAKE
had told him were true.
The SNAKE (Satan inspired) told Adam & Eve
that when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil
that they would
NOT die (Genesis 3:4)
NOTE that Satan didn't
appear as a dazzling angel
of light, he conspired with a member of the animal kingdom in
order
to deceive and seduce. IF Satan materialized out of thin
air and just appeared before Adam & Eve, then they
might
have been suspicious and called on the Almighty Creator. But they were familiar
with all the animals in the
Garden
of Eden because Adam had to name them.
There was already a bond of TRUST
between Adam and Eve and
all the animals
in the Garden of Eden.
Apparently snakes could communicate
because Adam & Eve weren't surprised
that
the snake was speaking to them.
They were more surprised by what the
snake had to say and NOT the fact that
the
snake was able to speak.
Maybe...just maybe, animals could "speak" to Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. The
communication may have been telepathic and not necessarily a human voice. Why do I say that? Because not
all the animals are equipped with vocal cords that can imitate the human voice.
Parrots and some birds can imitate
the human
voice, but dogs can't talk like human beings...they bark.
Let me know if you come across a dog that talks
like a human being. This is all speculation on my part,
I cannot be dogmatic about how animals communicated with
Adam and Eve. I'm only guessing. Some
interesting things went on the Garden of Eden, for example, Adam &
Eve HEARD
the sound
of the Lord God
WALKING in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8).
We know that God's presence
and power is
everywhere in the universe, so how did God "walk" in the
Garden of Eden? Perhaps similar to how He
allowed Moses
to see Him (SEE Exodus 33:18 - 21).
Adam--THE MAN--is directly responsible for getting every human being into
spiritual death. The Bible says the
First Adam got us into SIN
(selfishness, evil, depravity, etc.) BUT the LAST ADAM
(Jesus Christ) rescues us from
spiritual death and evil when we
accept Him and turn our lives over to Him (Romans 5:12 & 1 Corinthian 15:45).
Then
He gives us the born again experience. Which is a spiritual
re-birth to deliver us from spiritual death and
ALL evil. I'm acutely aware that some folks
have a "New Age" concept of human nature:
that human beings
are basically GOOD. The Bible teaches that
for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God
(Roman 3:23).
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.
Article / Editorial / Essay by B.T. Firebird