The Great Hypocrisy in the Church: Nowhere in God's Word Do We Find . . .

[brotherjim]

There is no easy way to state the Truth here . . .

. . . and their is no painless way for any Christian to receive it as Truth . . .

. . . but, nowhere in God's Holy Word does it say that by being "saved," "redeemed," etc., we will automatically inherit eternal Life.

Nowhere, not one place.

Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures does it equate the New Birth, in and of itself, with eternal salvation.

Nowhere, not one time.

It's just not there.

Yes, it is nearly unfathomable how virtually the entire church today believes that someone has eternal Life when they are born-again, but the Word simply never says that. No, never.

Granted, the Bible is clear that the New Birth is a required first step of Grace.

But God's Word also clearly states what additional steps of Grace are needed for eternal salvation.

Luke 10:25-28:

"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted [Jesus], saying, 'Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'

"He said unto him, 'What is written in the Law, how do you understand it to be?'

"And he answering, said, 'You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.'

"And He said unto him, 'You have answered correctly: this do, and you will live.'"

And, since we know elsewhere in the Word it says that "by the [fleshly] works of the Law shall no flesh be justified,"  we know that our required obedience to the NT Commandments of Love must be done by Grace and Grace alone.

While the Christian today, by and large, believes they will obtain eternal Life just by the New Birth alone, they have no scriptural foundation whatsoever for this belief. Such is merely a personal opinion and has no foundation in God's Word and its promises.

While the born-again believer thinks that they have come to intimately know God and have maintained that intimacy, God's Word says otherwise.

I John 2:3-5:

"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments.

"He that says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His Commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.

"But whoever keeps His Word, in him verily is the Love of God perfected: hereby we know that we are in Him."

So the only Standard upon which the church is given whereby they can all agree, the Bible, clearly and simply states that even if we think that we know God, if we are not living in obedience to the NT's Laws of Love, we are deceived.

Paul warned about such a perverted, beguiling form of the Gospel in 2 Cor. 11 (which many are also deceived to believe that he was writing about salvation by faith vs. works - which, true, is yet another perversion).

While many parts of the Bible are not clear as to their meaning, God knew the requirements for eternal Life were of such a priority that He left us undeniably clear scriptures whereby we could know exactly what we must do in order to obtain eternal salvation.

1 John 4:16-18:

"And we have known and believed the Love that God has to us. God is Love; and he that dwells in Love remains in God, and God in him.

"Herein is Love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is [perfect in Love], so are we in this world.

"There is no fear in Love; but perfect Love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears [the Day of Judgment] is not made perfect in Love."

(But of course, since the born-again Christian has already been beguiled and deceived into thinking they already possess eternal salvation, they, sadly, lack this fear of their Day of Judgment.)

Only when we have obtained the additional steps of Grace required, whereby the Love of God is then perfected in our hearts, do we have any justifiable right to expect the fullness of eternal rewards on Judgment Day.

Until and unless we have obtained by Grace the Love of God perfected in our hearts - which requires the specific, miraculous removal of all those enemies to Love that still remain in the heart of the Christian - the Christian will not receive:

1)  Entrance into the New Heaven

2)  A crown of Life

3)  Access to the Tree of Life

4)  Etc. (The other benefits of eternal salvation/eternal Life.)

The church is in clear violation of the most basic foundation of theology. If any allegedly true doctrine does not line up with all other scriptures, then we can know it is a doctrine only of man and not of God. And the doctrines of men cannot give anyone eternal Life.

It is plain and clear from just the above quoted passages alone, not to mention the preponderance of additional scriptures that are in agreement, that the widely declared Gospel of the evangelical and charismatic church today is not the true Gospel of Christ Jesus according to His Words.

[Allegedly] In His Grace of Love for the potentially eternal souls of mankind, brother jim

Copyright © 2003 by brother jim (brotherjim@mail.com). May be freely shared if this notice is included, and if done so without any charge.

[brotherjim]

Whoever,

After posting this same above thread starter on a half dozen Christian forums, I realized it was not complete enough for someone to fully understand.

So taking from among the couple hundred responses the general misunderstandings, I can offer a bit more.

The Word of God contains a number of promises to man of "eternal/everlasting Life." Every one comes with a qualifier attached, telling who exactly qualifies to receive this promise.

Sometimes the qualifier is vague, it telling us that we must "believe" in something in regards to Christ Jesus. So since they do not exactly say what must be believed, we must assemble all such scriptures. When we do, we do find some that say exactly what is needed to qualify for the promise.

Never once, not so much as one time, is eternal Life promised to those who were born from above (Jn. 3:3, AKA "born again" [KJV] - a misnomer), even though virtually the entire church has been beguiled into thinking that the promises do.

(Remember, salvation, the act of being saved, is not the same as eternal Life. Being saved saves us, protects and preserves us, from having to go to hell when we die, or otherwise suffering whatever wrath of God abides upon unbelievers. But then we are "redeemed" just before the New Millennium, and made to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, when He will separate "goat" "Christians" from "sheep" Christians, and deal with them accordingly [Matt. 25].)

But those promises of eternal Life that do specify the requirements tell us plainly, without any ambiguity, without any need for personal interpretation, clearly that unless the Love of God is perfected by Grace in our hearts, that which enables those born from above to, by Grace, walk in obedience to the NT's Two Commandments of Love, then we do not know Christ, have not remained in Him, and have ever right to fear our Day of Judgment (1 Jn. 2:3-5, 1 Jn. 4:16-18, etc.).

brother jim

[brotherjim]

A common objection to what the Word of God says in regards to those who alone qualify for eternal Life - they being those in whose heart the Love of God has been perfected by Grace and Grace alone, is someone asking:

"But doesn't the Word say that we are under Grace and not the Law?"

Yes, of course it does.

Sadly, however, the reason for this, God's intention behind this, has been misunderstood and therefore perverted by many.

We were not taken out from under the Law by Jesus, so that we could live life lawlessly and still inherit eternal Life. "God forbid."

Any social system would decay if there were not Laws by which all its subjects must obey. The reason for laws is so that all can live harmoniously together with the least amount of fear of being harmed or otherwise having to suffer injustices. No man is an island, and whatever one person does will always have affects on others.

Man is rebellious by nature, both before and after conversion. So laws only intensify this. Like the old adage: rules were made to be broken.

So the Lord, knowing that man could not obey the law because of his rebellious nature, gave us a different method by which we could obey.

Grace came so that we could obey the Laws of God by the additional Grace of Love.

God said man is no longer required to obey His Laws to be saved from the curse of the Law, so he gave man the free gift of salvation and whatever additional Graces so that he could obey the Laws of God voluntarily, by Graces and Graces alone. The power of sin had thus been broken, and man was made free to obey God by the additional Graces of God.

But ever since the church's first century "ten thousand teachers of Christ," man has perverted God's intention, and in order to feed his unrepented of lawlessness, man devised his own twisted gospel which says that a person born from above can continue in sin without fear of judgment, without fear of not receiving eternal Life. But the Word does not provide so much as one promise of eternal Life to such lawless believers who have trampled on the intended purpose of Grace.

"For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more sacrifice for our sins." (Para.)

While many of the passages promising eternal Life - not salvation, which is only the first step to said Life - are vague and tell us only to "believe" something about Christ, or that we have this Life by Grace, these passages don't specify what Grace - there are many - or exactly what must be believed.

While virtually all Christians today have merely surmised through intellectual conjecture that the Grace needed is only the born from above experience, and what must be believed is Christ's finished work that provides that New Birth experience, the Word never backs up such extreme presumptions. It never promises eternal Life just because we were born from above - although such New Birth is a necessary first step.

Most of the vague promises for eternal Life were spoken by Jesus, and the reason for their ambiguity is clear: man had not yet been given from the Father the full revelation of walking in God's Love. Such was ordained to be given at a later time through the apostles. Paul was the one who most wrote about this Love, him often using the examples of eating unclean meat to illustrate it. John also wrote in his epistles about the need for this Love to be perfected in our hearts as a required prerequisite for eternal Life. And remember, the Apostles were given the authority to bind in Heaven that which they bound in the earth.

So then God did not leave us without the full revelation of the true Gospel of Christ Jesus written in His Holy Word. He left us, through the Apostles, with the clearly defined requirements for eternal Life, namely us needing to be living in obedience to the NT's Two Commandments of Love, through the additional Grace of the Love of God being perfected in our hearts by Him (Luke 10:25-28, 1 Jn. 2:3-5, 1 Jn. 4:16-18, etc.).

In His Grace of Love for the potentially eternal souls of mankind, brother jim

brotherjim@mail.com

"Blessed are they who do His Commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the Gates into the [Holy] City. For outside is . . . whosoever loves and makes a lie."  - God through John in Rev. 22

[brotherjim]

The only Way that the Law is blotted out in the life of an individual:

"Owe no man anything, but to Love one another: for he that Loves another has fulfilled the Law."

"For all the Law is fulfilled in one Word, even in this; 'You shall Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

For:

"Love will cover the multitude of [our] sins."

But:

"If we sin wilfully after that we have obtained the knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin."

When we have allowed God to perfect His Love in our hearts, by Grace and Grace alone, by Faith in His ability to so do, only then does the Word "guarantee" us eternal Life (Luke 10:25-28, 1 Jn. 2:3-5, 1 Jn. 4:16-18, etc., etc.).

[brotherjim]

So, then, getting back to the Holy Word of God, the only Standard given to mankind from Heaven upon which all can agree and know what is Truth, and what is error . . .

. . . using the scriptures already referenced, quoted in past posts, which speak specifically of eternal Life and its exact requirements without any ambiguity or need of special interpretation, those passages which, among still others, tells man exactly what he must possess in order for him to one day inherit eternal Life, and cannot justifiably be misunderstood. . .

. . . let us then summarize them and bring this thread back to its topic, and premise of the thread's starter.

By now we should have clearly seen in God's Word that:

1) In order to inherit eternal Life, we must be in obedience to the NT's Two Commandments of Love. (Luke 10:25-28, 1 Jn. 2:3-5, etc.)

2) If we are not living in obedience to the NT's Two Commandments of Love, then we do not know Christ as we have assumed, are no longer remaining in Him, and the Truth does not exist in us. (1 Jn. 2:3-5)

3) If someone does not hear the Truth of these scriptures, then they do not know God as they may have presumed, and are living according to a spirit of error. (1 Jn. 4:6-8)

4) We cannot Love God and all human beings as commanded and required for eternal Life unless we receive the Grace to do so: it cannot be performed by works of the flesh. (Gal. 2:16, John 6:63, etc., etc.)

5) This Grace that is needed for us to obey the NT's Two Commandments of Love is specifically the Love of God perfected in our hearts by Him. (1 Jn. 4:16-18, 1 Jn. 2:3-5)

6) If this Love of God is not perfected in our hearts, we have every justifiable reason to fear our Day of Judgment, that Day when those who do will inherit eternal Life. (1 Jn. 4:16-18, Matt. 25)

7) The only people we are told of in the Word who have a right and access to the Tree of Life in the next age, that Tree which gives eternal Life when eaten from, are those that obey the NT's Two Commandments of Love. (Gen. 3:24, Rev. 22:14, Luke 10:25-28, 1 Jn. 4:16-18 by implication, etc.)

Anyone can read these referenced scriptures for their own selves, either in their Bible or in back posts where they were quoted, and see and know that the words above correctly convey the exact meaning of each scripture referenced.

If what you have been believing in is not the above true Gospel of Christ Jesus for eternal Life according to the whole counsel of His Word, then you are believing the Lie, having been deceived and beguiled by a false Gospel (2Cor.11, Jude, etc.). And even if everyone you know is believing the same thing, it is still a false Gospel, still a lie, for man cannot change God, His Holy Word, or His clearly stated requirements for eternal Life. It's that simple; it's that clear; it's that true. "Thy Word is Truth."

In conclusion, then:

When we come out into the full Light of God's Word (as compared to choosing to remain in darkness - John 3:19-21), allow It to reveal our remaining rebellion and disobedience, our refusal to Love God and all people as commanded, and then receive from Heaven the needed godly sorrow, repentance and deliverance, we are enabled by Grace to commit to Love, and become a candidate for instantly and miraculously receiving the fullness of His Love - just like when we who were were born from above.

Then, as we walk in obedience to Love's fullness, not making a mere idol of the heart out of it like we once also did with the New Birth experience, then eventually the Grace of Love will bring all other facets of our being into obedience to the whole counsel of God's Holy Word, and we will find ourselves one day with the Love of God perfected in our hearts. And if we then endure to the end, remaining in that perfection, we, and we alone, will inherit eternal Life and reign forever with Christ Jesus.

"Narrow is the Way, and few there be. . . ."

May each of you who read this allow the Heavenly Father to give you His Grace needed for you to face, realize and admit to the Truth of His Word, and be delivered from the Lie, in Jesus' Name, amen. Amen.

God bless, brother jim
brotherjim@mail.com