AWAY TILL FRIDAY

 AWAY TILL FRIDAY

SAVED WITHOUT CHRIST - SAVED WITHOUT LAW???

 

Saved Without Law?

Can some people obtain eternal life apart from Christ and the law of God?

by Keith Hunt "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law" ( Rom.2:12 ). "There you have it !" say some. "Those who do not know God or Christ or the word of God, will perish in hell! Or, God will judge them by their own law and conscience as verses 14 and 15 show. They will get to heaven or hell, a different way than those who do know the Lord." This is a common explanation of Rom.2:12-16. But do these verses really say the above teaching that some proclaim ? First notice, verse 12 does not say "have sinned without the knowledge of God, or Christ, or the Bible." It does not say, "shall perish in hell." The word hell or eternal punishment or heaven does not appear in verse 12. Nor do these words appear in verses 14 and 15. The words used are, "sinned without law" and "shall also perish without law." The use of those words does not teach what some want to teach. Secondly, there is nothing stated in verses 14, 15 that says anything about people governed by their ideas and conscience (even if some do hit upon some laws of God) going to heaven or being cast into ever-burning hell. Thirdly, we should understand that Paul has a parenthetical thought in this section of his letter. The end of verse 12 should continue with verse 16 ".... shall be judged by the law. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Now, with that background - with getting out of our mind words that are not there, let us be willing to understand what Paul is saying from the context. He has been talking about individuals who did know God in chapter one - notice it in verse 21, and 28. "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.....And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge......." He goes on in chapter two to warn those who know but will not do, and condemn others, that they shall not escape God's judgment. He warns them that unless repentance is forthcoming they will experience the wrath of God. Paul tells them that it makes no difference who they are - Jew or Gentile - all people will be dealt with on equal terms by God ( verses 1-11 ). So you know God - you know His will - you know His law, and are vainly confident you can teach others who are in darkness, Paul says to the enlightened. But he is also telling them that they are hypocrites - understanding but not doing gets no favor with God. Paul is here hitting the physical Jews right between the eyes. They had the knowledge of God and His law but they were not repentant or obeying the law - they HEARD but they were not DOING. They had the physical sign (circumcision) of the flesh that they belonged to God, but their heart and mind did not belong to Him. And that, Paul tells them is the real proof of being a true Jew as far as God was concerned - it was real repentance and a willingness to do the law of God that counted. If the Gentile was willing to repent and obey God would he not be accepted as the genuine child of God, even though he was physically uncircumcised - sure he would be Paul tells them. And the repentant Gentile would bring judgment against the unrepentant Jew ( verses 17-29 ). This whole section of Paul's letter is to is WARN those "in the know" as we say. Paul is admonishing - rebuking - those who know God and His law, that they stand in grave danger of receiving the wrath of God when on judgment day they stand before Jesus Christ. THIS IS Paul's MAIN purpose through this section of his letter. He wanted those who knew better to REPENT!! Paul was not here entering a theological exposition on, "Will those who do not know God, Jesus and the law, be saved by living a good life in their particular societies?" Paul was not at all here trying to teach or convey that a "good" Moslem, Communist, Buddhist, or member of a demon worshipping tribe in Africa, would "get to heaven" if they lived a "good life" by the standards of their laws, even if some of their laws happen to be some of God's laws. That is not the point Paul was getting at. Paul was trying to get some people who were "in the know" about God and His law to realize it was no good at all to be a physical Jew as far as eternal life was concerned if there was no genuine REPENTANCE and a doing from the heart the law of God. For he told them, ".....there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned WITHOUT LAW (not knowing God's law) shall also PERISH (a common Greek word here meaning - to die) without law......." (verses 11,12). God is quite fair to all people - those not called in this lifetime to know the Eternal and His law (1 Cor.1:26; John 6:44, 45 and request the in-depth article "The White Throne Judgment") will die in ignorance - will die the first death neither saved nor lost. But Paul goes on to warn those "in the know" that, "as many as have sinned IN THE LAW (knowing the law of God) shall be judged by the law (their attitude towards repenting and doing the law will be made evident). In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ (at the last trump - first resurrection and return of Jesus to this earth - Rev.11:15-18; 1 Cor.15:50-54 ........... " ( verses 12, 16 ). Those now called by the Father to know Jesus and the law are having their opportunity for eternal life (verse 7), but if they willfully sin and will not repent - if they will only hear but will not DO (Heb.10: 26-31), they will be judged before Christ at the first resurrection as sinners - will not even be in the first resurrection, but will face indignation and wrath in the lake of fire and the second death ( Rev.20: 14, 15 ). Paul's parenthetical thought in verses 13-15 is again to shame those in the know and hammer the point home some more. He tells them they are only hearing and not doing. They are Jews and have been given the great privilege of knowing God and His law but to their shame they do not do the law - verse 13. And to make their shame worse, the Gentiles, who were not given the knowledge of the law in the way the Jews were given it, do by common sense some of the things contained in the law of God, and are more conscious in their hearts of breaking these laws. This puts the unrepentant, hypocritical, hear but don't do Jew, in real bad shape as far as eternal life is concerned. Paul uses the example of the Gentiles being more conscious of law than those Jews he is addressing to shame them and show them what a spiritual mess they are in, and NOT to teach that people who do not know God or His law, but live a "good life" by the standards of their particular society, will make it to God's Kingdom, at the coming of the Messiah in glory. There is no contradiction here by Paul with what Jesus taught when He said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter he shall be saved......" John 10:9. And, "All that the Father GIVES ME shall come to me......no man can COME TO ME, EXCEPT the Father......DRAW HIM......no man can come to me except it were given to him of my Father" (John 6:37, 44, 45). There is no contradiction here by Paul with what Peter taught when he said concerning Jesus, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). There has from the beginning been only ONE WAY to eternal life. Come to KNOW the true God and His law - REPENT of sin - in FAITH look to the atoning SACRIFICE of Jesus, and be willing to DO the commandments of God. ...............................................

TEN COMMANDMENTS BEFORE MOSES

 THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  BEFORE  MOSES

by  Keith Hunt

BECAUSE  OF  WRONG  READING  OF  THE  BIBLE,  BECAUSE  PEOPLE  WILL  NOT  READ  THE  BIBLE  FROM  COVER  TO  COVER  -  GENESIS  TO  REVELATION  -  THEY  JUST  THINK  THE  GREAT  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  WERE  NOT  IN  EXISTENCE  UNTIL  THE  TIME  OF  MOSES.  NOTHING  COULD  BE  FURTHER  FROM  THE  TRUTH.  IN  THIS  STUDY  YOU  WILL  BE  SHOWN  HOW  TO  FIND  THE  TRUTH  IN  VARIOUS  PASSAGES  OF  GOD'S  WORD.  THE  BIBLE  INTERPRETS  THE  BIBLE.

THE  SIMPLE  ANSWER

Turn  to  the  book  of  Romans.  Chapter  5. We shall  pick  it  up  in  verse  12.

"Wherefore  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  the  world,  and  death  by  sin;  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  all  have  sinned."

The  context  makes  it  clear  Paul  is  talking  about  the  TWO  Adams  -  the  first  Adam  of  Genesis  one,  and  the  Second  Adam  being  Christ  Jesus .

It  should  be  plain  in  reading  the  first  few  chapters  of  Genesis  that  Adam [and  Eve]  disobeyed  God,  they  ate  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  they  were  forbidden  to  eat.  Paul  was  inspired  to  say  this  was  SIN!  Sin  entered  the  world  through  Adam.

Now  your  question  should  be  "What  IS  sin?"  And  you  must  use  the  Bible  to  give  you  the  answer -  the  Bible  INTERPRETS  itself;  otherwise  you  can  make  up  your  own  ideas  as  to  what  is  sin.  And  hence  sin  for  you  may  not  be  the  sin  others  think  are  sin.  God  tells  you  what  sin  IS!

YOU  WILL  FIND  THE  ANSWER  IN  1  JOHN  3:4  AND  ROMANS  7:7.  PAUL  SAID  HE  HAD  NOT  KNOWN  LUST  EXCEPT  THE  LAW  HAD  SAID,  "YOU  SHALL  NOT  COVET."

Now  what  law  in  the  Bible  contains  the  words  "Thou  shalt  not  covet"?  WHY  IT  IS  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENT  LAW  OF  EXODUS  20  AND  DEUTERONOMY  5.

FURTHER  PROOF  is  found  in  JAMES  2:10-12.  The  law  contains  the  commandments  James  speaks  about.

YOU  PUT  2  AND  2  TOGETHER  AND  YOU  INDEED  GET  4!

See  how  simple  things  can  be,  if  you  read  all  the  Bible,  letting  the  Bible  interpret  itself.

BACK  NOW  to  Romans  5.  Sin,  the  breaking  of  God's  Ten  commandments  entered  the  world  through  one  man [and  his  wife]  Adam,  when  they  took  what  was  not  theirs  to  take  -  they  STOLE - stealing  what  is  not  yours  but  belongs  to  someone  else  is  SIN.  AND  because  they  sinned,  they  earned  the  WAGES  of  sin  -  DEATH.  See  that  explained  for  you  in  Romans  6:23.

Going  on  in  Romans  5  and  verse  13.  "For  until  the  law [many  get  messed  up  here.  Paul  was  saying  until  the  law  was  codified  and  given  to  the  people  of  Israel  on  tablets  of  stone  through  Moses)  SIN  WAS  IN  THE  WORLD..."  Yes  sin  was  before  Moses,  before  the  law  was  codified  on  tablets  of  stone  and  given  to  ancient  Israel.  Notice  what  comes  next:  "BUT  SIN  IS  NOT  IMPUTED  WHEN  THERE  IS  NO LAW!"

WOW  yes,  how  can  you  tell  someone  they  have  sinned,  if  there  is  no  law  to  say  what  sin  IS?  If  God's  law  did  not  exist  from  the  beginning,  then  Adam  and  Eve  did  not  sin!  But  Paul  was  inspired  to  say  Adam  DID  SIN!  And  so  came  under  the  death  sentence  for  sinning (Romans 6:23).

The  policeman  cannot  pull  you  over  for  speeding  and  charge  you  with  breaking  the  speeding  law,  IF  there  is  NO  speeding  law.  The  whole  scene  of  being  charged  and  appearing  in  court  for  breaking  any  law,  if  that  law  did  not  exist,  would  be  a  comic  scene  of  utter  laughter,  making  no  sense  at  all.

Paul  went  on  to  say,  "NEVERTHELESS  DEATH  REIGNED  FROM  ADAM  TO  MOSES." (verse 14)

Put  that  with  chapter  6:23  and  again  the  Bible  interprets  itself  -  DEATH  is  the  wages  of  SIN!  And  sin  IS  the  breaking  of  God's  law - 1 John 3:4 and Romans 7:7  and  James  2:10-11.

Paul  also  said  in  this  passage,  "FOR  ALL  HAVE  SINNED!"  (verse 12).  The  New Testament  makes  it  so  very  clear  that  ONLY  ONE  HUMAN  PERSON  has  NOT  sinned  -  Christ  Jesus  in  the  flesh.  He  alone  of  all  fleshly  humans  never  sinned,  never  broke  the  law,  the  Ten  commandments  of  God.  That  is  WHY  ALL  people  of  ALL  ages  from  the  beginning,  NEED  A  SAVIOR!

BACK  TO  ADAM  AND  EVE  AND  GENESIS

NOW  think  about  that  sin  of  Adam.  

At  the  beginning  Adam  only  knew  the  one  true  God.  When  he  went  to  the  side  of  the  great  deceiver,  Satan  the  Devil,  he  put  ANOTHER  god  BEFORE  the  true  God.  He  broke  the  FIRST  commandment.

Adam  and  Eve  only  knew  ONE  parent,  the  God  that  created  them  from  the  dirt.  When  they  sinned  they  broke  the  5th  commandment;  they  did  not  honor  their  parents [the  Godhead  beings].

When  Adam  and  Eve  sinned  they  STOLE,  they  took  what  was  not  theirs  to  take,  they  took  from  the  tree  that  they  were  told  not  to  touch  or  take  from;  they  broke  the  8th  commandment.

When  the  first  two  humans  sinned  they  bowed  themselves  to  another  god - Satan  the  great  deceiver.  They  broke  the  2nd  commandment.

When  they  sinned  they  took  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  They  knew  Him,  He  walked  with  them,  talked  to  them;  they  knew  He  was  God;  they  were  created  under  His  name.  God  had  said,  "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image."  They  were  in  effect  under  God's  name.  They  sinned  and  took  His  name  in  vain,  they  broke  the  3rd  commandment.

Adam  and  Eve  coveted  the  tree  and  the  fruit  thereof;  they  allowed  their  mind  to  go  against  what  they  were  told  was  out  of  their  bounds  to  partake  of.  They  allowed  themselves  to  covet  what  was  not  theirs  to  have.  They  broke  the  10th  commandment.

For  the  SABBATH  command  we  go  to  Genesis  chapter  2  and  verse  3.  God  BLESSED  and  SANCTIFIED  the  7th  day.  Sanctify  means  "to  set  apart"  -  it  was  the  4th  commandment  of  the  great  Ten.

Jesus  said  the  Sabbath  day  was  CREATED   for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath (Mark 2:27).  The Sabbath  command  is  part  of  the  Ten  commandments  -  a  part  of  what  is  called  SIN  in  the  Bible  if  you  break  any  of  them.  All  Ten  are  a  unit  of  law,  a  unit  that  defines  what  is  sin.  None  of  them  can  be  split  from  the  others,  they  are  a  whole  unit  that  defines  what  is  sin,  if  you  break  any  of  them, you sin.

We  notice  God  Himself  using  the  very  word  SIN  in  Genesis  chapter  4.  It  is  found  in  verse  7,  "....if  you  do  NOT  WELL,  SIN  lies  at  the  door...."  Again  you  should  be  asking  yourself  "What  is  sin?"  And  you  again  let  the  Bible  interpret  itself,  to  tell  you  what  sin  is,  and  we  have  seen  already  how  God  interprets  it  for  you.  No  need  to  guess;  God  tells  you  what  is  sin.  God  interprets  Himself.

In  this  same  section  of  Genesis  4,  we  see  the  first  MURDER....Cain  kills  his  brother  Abel.  God  said  to  Cain  that  Abel's  blood  cried  to  Him  from  the  ground.  God  took  note;  He  was  not  pleased;  He  would  punish  Cain  for  his  sin.

Notice  Genesis  6  and  verse  5,  God  saw  the  WICKEDNESS  of  man  and  it  was  great  in  the  earth.  Now  you  should  be  asking  yourself  what  is  the  Bible  interpretation  of  "wickedness."  The  Bible  interprets  itself.  The  answer  is  found  in  Psalm  119: 53, "Horror  has  taken  hold  of  me  because  of  the  WICKED  that  FORSAKE  thy  LAW."

In  passing,  in  this  Psalm  note  verse  172  -  "...ALL  thy  COMMANDMENTS  are  RIGHTEOUSNESS."  One  of  the  Bible's  interpretations  as  to  what  is  RIGHTEOUSNESS!

PUT  THIS  WITH  GENESIS  18  WHERE  THE  WORD  "RIGHTEOUS"  IS  USED  BY  GOD,  AS  WELL  AS  THE  WORD  "SIN."  YES  READ  ALL  OF  GENESIS  18.

As  for  TRUTH....Jesus  said  God's  word  was  truth (John 17:17).  But  also  a  part  of  truth  is  "...ALL  thy  COMMANDMENTS  are   TRUTH!" (Psalm  119:115).

God  IS  truth.  So  using  Bible  interpretation  and  common  logic,  God  always  being  from  the  beginning  of  creating  mankind,  was TRUTH,  Himself  being  truth,  His  commandments  were  from  the  beginning  as  He  created  human  kind.

Now  notice  what  God  said  about  Abraham:  "Because  that  Abraham  obeyed  my  voice,  and  kept  my  charge,  my  COMMANDMENTS,  my  statutes,  and  my  LAWS"  (Genesis  26:5)

WITH  WHAT  WE  HAVE  SEEN  CAN  IT  BE  SERIOUSLY  THOUGHT  AS  GOOD  THEOLOGY,  TO  TEACH  AND/OR  THINK  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  OF  GOD  DID  NOT  COME  TO  EARTH  UNTIL  GIVEN  TO  ISRAEL  BY  MOSES?

SUCH  THEOLOGY  I  MAINTAIN  IS  FROM  PLANET  PLUTO [which  ain't  no  planet  any  more  they  tell  us]  -  JUST  SILLY,  CRAZY,  AND  FRANKLY  STUPID  READING  OF  THE  BIBLE.  ANYONE  TEACHING  SUCH  THEOLOGY  IS  A  DUNCE  IN  BIBLE  READING,  THEY  ARE  NOT  EVEN  IN  GRADE  ONE  IN  BIBLE  UNDERSTANDING.

WE  HAVE  MORE:

Read  the  passage  of  Genesis  12: 10-20.  Abraham  committed  falsehood  and  a  lie [some  may  say  a  half  lie  as  Sarah  was  his  half  sister] ,  but  nevertheless  a  breaking  of  the  commandment  against  bearing  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor,  was  hear  undertaken  by  Abraham.

Turn  to  Genesis  39.  read  verses  7-9.  Joseph  is  being  sexually  seduced  by  the  wife  of   Potiphar.  Notice  Joseph's  answer  to  her  in  verse  9, ".....how  can  I  do  this  WICKEDNESS,  AND  SIN  against  my  God."

WE  HAVE  SEEN  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  CALLS  WICKEDNESS  AND  SIN.

I  HAVE  PRESENTED  TO  YOU  VERSES  AND  THE  BIBLE  INTERPRETATION  OF  WORDS,  THAT  MAKE  IT  AS  PLAIN  AS  THE  NOSE  ON  YOUR  FACE,  THAT  THE  LAW  OF  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  WAS  FROM  THE  BEGINNING.

JUST  TAKE  A  CONCORDANCE  OF  THE  BIBLE  AND  LOOK  UP  ALL  THE  WORDS  LIKE:  SIN,  WICKED/NESS,  RIGHTEOUS/NESS,  COMMANDMENTS,  IN  GENESIS,  AND  THEN  WITH  THE  BIBLE  INTERPRETATION  OF  THOSE  WORDS,  THAT  I'VE  SHOWN  YOU,  THE  TRUTH  THAT  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  WERE  ON  EARTH  BEFORE  THE  DAYS  OF  MOSES,  SHOULD  BE  VERY  EVIDENT  TO  YOU,  UNLESS  YOU  HAVE  SOME  VERY  FALSE  THEOLOGY  TO  TRY  AND  UPHOLD.

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