WHAT IS THE TRUE WORD FOR….. #1

 

What is the True Word of God? #1

It is Written

WOULD HAVE BETTER BEEN CALLED, "WHAT IS THE TRUE WORD FOR 

LIFE, DEATH, AND BEYOND" - Keith Hunt 

Part One by John Leier When I was young I was told about God our creator. I was told that He was our Father and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God was my Savior. I was instructed that the only way to go to heaven after I died was through the church. My parents were instructed, and believed the same. We were told if we left the church, we would go to an ever burning hellfire. At that time, I was told what the Bible said but I was never encouraged to buy a Bible nor was I ever encouraged to read one. All my knowledge about God came through the church and from my parents who never read the Bible, and they belonged to the church. I found out after I came to a little knowledge of the word of God, (after reading the Bible) that the church was not the sole communication with our Holy Father in heaven. It was some time later that I learned that we were saved through the resurrected Jesus Christ. Also, I learned that a church does not save you. One is saved by grace; it is a gift of God and not of yourself. "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" Ephesians 2:8. I also learned that this gift of salvation, through grace, was not obtained by any work one can do. Since it's a gift, we cannot obtain it ourselves or of ourselves, and we cannot work for it. How then can we receive this gift of salvation from God? The apostle Peter answered this at the time of Pentecost. For all those who were pricked in their hearts, realizing their sinfulness, Peter said: "Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" Acts 2:38. This is of course, an action on your part. Because of this, you will be able to receive the remission of sins with the promise that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Power) from God. Remember, you must first be called by our Father in heaven. "So the last will be first, and the first last. for many be called, but few chosen" Matthew 20:16. "For many are called, but few are chosen" Matthew 22:14. Then one might ask, who then can be saved? Scripture asks for us to have patience. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he, is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" Hebrews 11:6. Remember that if you diligently seek after God He will reward you. I also learned this, that knowing about God is not salvation, nor is being baptized as an infant, or even as an adult. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and 1 will raise him up at the last day' John 6:54. As a very young child, I knew about God, and I know now that God was always there, and that at times He would help me. However, I still needed to accept Jesus Christ into my life. I needed to let Jesus be the focal point of my life. Boy! What a stubborn character I was, and still am. None the less, I seek to know more about God and what He would have of me. I believe He will guide me by His Spirit (power). It is not by any church doctrine, nor by tradition of man. I find life a struggle here on earth. Jesus said: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" Matthew 5:5. The meek in our society, at this time, just seem to be overrun. Yet, I have this hope that God will help us overcome. He will see us through these difficult times. That is His promise to any who call upon the Lord, in Jesus' name. Here the true translation of "name" is, "authority." That is, to believe in His Authority. "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" Hebrews 13:5. Given a free will, you must realize that you can leave your Savior; He will not leave you nor prevent you from leaving Him. However, if you leave Him, it will be a very great loss to you. THE NEED TO READ THE BIBLE After reading the Bible through, I found that what I had been taught was not quite what the Word of God reveals. One must really be an individual before God and be open to His Holy Spirit (Power) to help us understand what the nature of His being is. Our Father has revealed to us through the Scriptures, that we are the dust of the earth. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" Genesis 3:19. "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust' Psalm 103:14. We are dependent on God our creator, but in His divine wisdom He has given us a free will, we must choose the way we should go. "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" Joshua 24:15. By reading the Bible with a sincere desire to know more about our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, you will know the truth and it will make you free. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" John 8:32. "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" II Timothy 2:25. "I have not written unto you because ye do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth" I John 2:21. WE TRY TO BLAME OTHERS You must choose to do good or to do bad. Now we can reason that since there is Satan, that Satan (also called a serpent) makes us do things which are against the will of God. But, Satan cannot make us do anything, but he tries through temptation. Even Eve blamed the serpent. "And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is it that thou hast done? And the woman said, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" Genesis 3:13. I ask, Why? Why do I not have the strength always to do that which is right? What is the answer? Satan is present in many forms, he comes as a light to deceive us and to convince us in many ways that which is against the will of God is the very things we ought to do. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" II Corinthians 11:14. Many writings and doctrines are simply not true. We must search the Scriptures and pray for wisdom in discerning what the truth is. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" James 1:5. "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" Acts 17:11. Many churches do not want you to search the Scriptures to see if their doctrines are according to the writings in the word of God, the Bible. And Satan will try to convince us that God is cruel. He wants us to believe that if you don't shape-up you will burn for all eternity (that is to put a false sense of fear in you, not a respectful fear of our eternal God). Yes, this popular belief is taught by many Christian churches. But consider, that it is also taught by many non-Christian religions and most pagan beliefs. There is a thought here that those who come unto God out of fear of eternal sufferings in hell will not see the Kingdom of God. It is most important that you come unto God out of love. Look at the following verses with this in mind: Perish means-to cease to exist, and in the Strongs Exhaustive Dictionary, the Hebrew meanings for #586 and #5487, means to "terminate." Also, #2704 from the Greek Dictionary means, "to destroy fully." "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish" Matthew 18:14 "i tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" Luke 13:3 and 5. "That whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlastinq life" John 3:15-16. When you believe, this everlasting life begins at the return of Jesus Christ. It will be given to those who have endured until the end, and it will be according to the will of God at the resurrection of the believers. It is for those that are in the graves and those who are alive at His coming. His coming is described in the following passages. "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality' I Corinthians 15:51-53. The Bible passages tell us that we are mortal and we do not have immortality at this time. Of our existence, many error and say Adam was created with an immortal soul in him, when in fact Adam was created a living flesh. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" Genesis 2:7. Look at the last words "became a living soul." When we look it up in the Hebrew Dictionary from Strongs Exhaustive Concordance, looking at numbers 1961, 2416, and 5315, it gives the translation as "became a living flesh." Also: "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" I Corinthians 15:54-55. "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" II Thessalonians 2:10. "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believeth not, when she had received the spies with peace" Hebrews 11:31. (Rahab was saved alive in the flesh but she was not given immortality at that time.) "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" II Peter 3:9. (Remember, that perish means "cease to exist.") "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils" Job 27:3. (The breath, or air that we breathe, which is the "Spirit of God in my nostrils," is the breadth of life. This is the same that was given to Adam when God created him.) "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" Genesis 2:7 (Breathed means "to puff, to inflate, or blow hard," the Hebrew Dictionary from Strongs Exhaustive Concordance, looking at #5301; see also, #5397, meaning "a puff, i.e. wind, vital breath." PLEASE DO NOT BECOME DULL OF HEARING "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing" Hebrews 5:11. All the above I call to your attention because there are so many denominations who have doctrines that say mankind has an immortal part of him. Look at the truth of Scripture. It is Satan that has introduced into Christianity the concept of immortality. He made it appear that our Creator, God, was so foolish that He could do nothing more than assign the rebellious sinner to everburning hell-fire. This in turn, would project God as being a cruel being. The Bible states that all who rebel against God, as well as Satan, will be destroyed in the very end because of our loving, merciful Creator, God. But, God is Spirit! "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" Proverbs 16:25. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" John 4:24. It is very important to know what the Bible reveals to us. We must know who mankind is in relation to God, our Creator, so that Satan can not deceive us. Satan, the devil, cannot make you do anything; he wants you to accept his lies. However, Our Father's Spirit is greater than Satan. I ask you then; Is God cruel? By no means is God cruel. Satan's deceiving, false beliefs, has made God like a wild beast who would have no mercy on its prey. And, there are churches that sincerely believe that God will condemn people if they do not follow after their doctrines. But the Truth of the Word tells us: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things" Romans 1:22-23. This inspires me to try to understand just what God's revelation of Himself, is to us. I find God is a loving God, desiring to have all of mankind, which He created, to have a free will. He, God, desires that all mankind come to the knowledge of truth. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come" John 16:13. For this we must read and search the Scriptures, being aware that there are also some mistranslations and misinterpretations, and miss understood Bible passages, as well as, inaccuracies that may have come from the way we were raised-up to believe-by the doctrines of men. To understand, we must have love, one for another. This love is an outgoing concern for another person and with our relationship to God and His Word, the Holy Scriptures. What about all those who have lived and died not knowing about the Holy Scriptures, are they eternally lost to an ever-burning hellfire, without having a chance to know the truth? No! Through God's just judgment, none will be forsaken; they will have a chance to choose. This concludes Part One of "What Is The True Word Of God In The Bible," - watch for Part Two of "What Is The True Word Of God In The Bible-Our Just God" where John will pick up this thread and show how God is just and that His yoke is worth bearing unto eternal life. The following verses also refer to that calling of God: Romans 8:28, 30; Romans 9:24; I Corinthians 1:24; I Corinthians 7:17; Galatians 1:15; II Timothy 1:9; I Peter 1:15; I Peter 5:10; II Thessalonians 1:11. John Leier resides in Minnesota. John states "I asked myself if there was something that made it impossible to perceive God's relationship to man? Remembering what I read in Scripture helped me to realize that our great God did not leave us to wander around aimlessly, but in fact, gave us guidance in the Bible. These statements are for those who call upon Jesus' name and God asks us to reason together with Him for He is not far off. Be positive that your spirit is in accordance to the complete will of God." All Quoted Scripture is from the KJV. April--June 2011 - ACTS - a magazine published by the CoG7thDay out of Meridian, ID. USA To be continued