Archive for the 'Religion' Category

Part 2 and Part 3

These three posts will be mainly exploratory. The question is; why is man made in the image and likeness of God? We’re not claiming to know the answer, but the exploration will be a worthwhile study. The answer may be found in the ongoing revelation of the Father’s redemptive plan. It’s hard to know where to start. But we should first see what God’s image and likeness are (or is)?

Accepting that God is sovereign, that His will is done in all things, that He works all things for good to those that love Him (Romans 8:28), and that He will get His glory in all, we seek to know more about God. This exploration has been undertaken before but probably from the wrong end. Discovering who we are, the object, is putting the cart before the horse. God existed first; He will do as He pleases with His image and likeness. Exploring God from the point of view of trying to understand who we are as His likeness will only lead to pride, humanism, or making God into our image; all of these are folly, the last being blasphemy and rampant in American Christianity. We are sinners, our perception damaged, we can only rightly glimpse what Adam was, and we know not what we have yet to attain in the fullness of time. There are some things that maybe no man can know until we see Him as He is, and even then, will we comprehend? When asking what is the image and likeness of God, the underlying question is, who is God?

He’s unknowable by mere men, for He is the God, the all of which cannot be contained. We know He exists, interacts, chastens, creates and sets down, brings seasons to us and nations, instructs, loves, and praise His holy name; saves. The closer you draw to Him, the more you see of Him, and the more it breaks us, uplifts enlightens, and confuses us.

This is why most Christians shrink away; He is holy, and who can search Him out? When the Apostle who Jesus loved finally saw Christ as He is, John fell at His feet as dead (revelation 1:17). Every time we approach to within one breath away from the Ancient of days and the truth of who and what He is, we’re undone; He’s unsearchable, His ways are unknowable, but the Spirit reveal them (1 Corinthians 2:9-11). The better you know Him, the more you know that you don’t know. But the insights and glimpses of the glory and majesty, raw power, and tender love that Holy Father God has for His own; He’s worth searching nonetheless. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.” – Hebrews 10:31

“8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” – John 14:8-9

Leaving off “who is God,” let’s seek to know His goal from the start. This we fathom must be in His word. We have His Holy Bible. So what is knowable is revealed. We suffer until the fullness of the realization of all that Christ has inherited for us. And it’s not much to suffer; His word is precious and blessed; indeed, it is holy. No man can attain unto the end of the knowledge held therein.

These first three verses from John are the declaration from the outset that we have the word of God and nothing more. Always be suspicious of special revelations of God, both personal and claiming additions to Cannon (2 Peter 1:20).

“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” – John 1:18

God is a Spirit. No man has seen God at any time. Here, with the woman at the well, is a glimpse of where we’ll head. God has been from the beginning, seeking a people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only later shall we see Him.

“23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:23-24

We’ll provide some verses that may point to God’s plan from the start. Unquestionably we are blessed in the New Covenant. How dimly and far off did they seek a country (Hebrews 11:13-14), knowing almost nothing but walking in faith as though using braille? Those that lack faith today are without excuse; our Christ is risen, millions professing His name, and His New Covenant written, Romans 10:17 declaring, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Brothers and sisters, read His book!

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26

We’ve tried at times past to approach this question from the perspective of the triune God. Let’s see what our three parts are then we’ll know God? But that fails utterly, for only is Christ made in the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3). And to understand WHY God created us in His image is not a physiological or psychological examination of ourselves. This is the fate of every religion devised of men; it’s selfish, prideful, and in the end, it’s dead, cast into hell.

“Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?” Luke 12:24

There is no lack of resources, none! For 5000 years, as men have explored, replenishing the earth to now 8 billion people, God has provided at every turn, bar none. The clever and inventive made startling discoveries beyond the imagination of generations prior. These entrepreneurial endeavors made the next several generations possible. Holy God has provided every single time. Yet men mean of spirit, devoid of creativity and imagination, and above all lacking the faith of God have claimed the system, as the moderns say, is unsustainable. These losers have always claimed such things, and they always get the ear of rulers. They are bankrupt of mind, the middle management of civilization lacking the testicular fortitude even to imagine from where men have come. Again, by the faith of the Almighty, there is no lack of resources that your faith in God through Christ cannot supply.

The fantastic and spectacular and incredible inventions and ingenuity of the machines, methods, and procedures have enabled men to be sustained. They thrive to the point of luxury in the extreme, even for the working man. It’s from the pits of hell to deny that God will provide. It just isn’t so; He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust, feeds the birds of the air, arrays the lilies of the field in splendor to gaze upon. How could you doubt Him? Having never sustained real work within government, the mid-level failures need to be fired and taken to the woodshed. They are an army of busybodies always hindering the blessings of the abundance that God provides. Let’s go to mars!

Nothing is lacking but faith in our Holy Creator. The history books are the stories of rulers and their wars; despite them, look at what men have achieved in just 5000 years! Look! You hold what would have been considered a supercomputer in your hand, telling you how terrible everything is. Something doesn’t connect; two and two are not adding correctly! The only thing between us and a future of blessings in the Kingdom of God are sad little men devoid of the knowledge that God is true and faithful.

I’m warning you that you better get to work this very day or lose your civilization. It will cost something, maybe nearly all you’ve got to serve Christ, but the alternative is that you’ll lose it all anyway but for God’s ongoing grace.

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Don’t Plant Churches, Build Covenant Communities

Christianity, in their [the soft peddlers of the new religion] view, requires no change of behavior, and therefore it requires no change of culture. If it is “not a religion,” then it doesn’t address the whole of man, and therefore the whole of man can remain unchanged; ideas do not have consequences.

Getting saved not many years back, I thought that surely the Christians had a plan; they were the good guys, right? They’d know how to end the tyranny; after all, churchmen started the revolution against the king. They would know the ancient wisdom and instruction found in the Holy Bible. Wrong, on all counts, heartbreakingly wrong; set to wandering from “Church” to “Church,” ever more convinced that the people in them weren’t aware of the God that calls and converts from sin.

We have the owner’s manual to living under heaven, the answer to which can be found within every knowable thing. But the discovery was disheartening; American Christianity was weak and had an incoherent world-life view, backbiting, and sniping across all levels and denominations, hyper-personalized phony spiritualism, near deification of “the devil,” and no plan whatsoever or even the ability to acknowledge the state and rate of decay within the body of Christ and civilization. Less than 10 percent of professing Christians know anything about anything other than what their governments through media outlets tell them. Are they converted at all?

It is worthy to note that Christianity is the only religion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that has such discussions within itself. Muslims do not believe that a man can be a Muslim and remain faithful to his non-Muslim cultural practices. Neither do Communists believe that a conversion to Communism can leave a person unchanged in his cultural ways. Every other faith looks at itself in a comprehensive way and has comprehensive requirements for its adherents. It is only Christians who willingly abandon the comprehensive demands of their own faith and surrender the new converts to the cultural traps of their old faiths.

[…]

Missionaries are never instructed in a comprehensive worldview that builds a new Christian culture within the old pagan culture…Seminaries never offer courses about the broader applications of the Christian faith in areas like family, business and economics, history, education, civil government, welfare, etc. A missionary seldom has any answers beyond the elementary level of personal salvation and church worship.

Even the Churches are doing it, spawning middle-managers, functionaries of the feel so nice new religion. Can He find ten just men?

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And, Buy Me a River

Via WRSA, Western US water resources are discussed, and effects on energy and agriculture are examined. All famines are man-made.

“The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” – Proverbs 21:16

It’s a fearful thing to observe; it’s heartbreaking. Those that hear the Gospel and don’t respond, the truth of God’s mercy falling on dead ears, God’s message of love and hope to all men being shrugged off as though it were just another tall tale. Having never understood and never responded, you remain in the world of death and darkness.

Worse still by far are those having tasted of the promise for a little season of joy in the Lord but wander back into the realm of the dead, choked by the things of this world, trodden underfoot, the way of understanding falling on stone that the seed of the Word of God could gain no purchase their heart. You wouldn’t come to the table to fill your soul to bursting with the love and peace of God.

Is the light not glorious enough? Are God’s miracles not enough? How do you stand satisfied with a little and not seek after much more; you must not like the light of the blessing of first hearing from the Almighty and the sweet taste of salvation. You walked away again, returning as the dog to his vomit. Worse yet, and as tragic as the grace of God is glorious in abundance, are those poor souls that let the seedling of the knowledge of Christ germinate and don’t with great eagerness seek of God that He would nurture and grow you to a mighty fruit-bearing Christian soldier.

Those poor souls heard personally from the Almighty and left it. It’s shocking and confounding; how, why? What could they be thinking in wandering away? Truth be told, the Churches are full of them. They joined the club but rejected God’s joyous elating fearful, terrifying presence in their conscience. Perhaps they saw the change and liked the damnation of the things they know, strange as that may seem.

“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” – Romans 3:11

There is none that understand; nobody seeks the total transformation of God, oh you might seek religion, but you are out of the way living among the dead, damned into outer darkness.

But you know your sin and know the depths to which you have plunged, now hear of the grace of God to come by our Lord Jesus Christ who would save your soul bringing you unto the knowledge of the truth, God can acquit you.

Seek after Him, call after Him, hunger after Him, for God spits out the lukewarm as the unconverted having tasted and rejected salvation. You too, who tasted His grace in a bounty of riches, His mercy to those who wait no longer for the love of Holy Father God the seal of salvation in Christ Jesus can be set upon you. You can wander out of the way, but you can’t wander back to it. Pray, cry out to Holy God all of you; I want to believe, Lord I believe, quench mine unbelief! Grab the alter of Heaven and don’t let go; call upon the Lord Almighty for his mercy endureth for ever.

“He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.” – Proverbs 21:21

Jesus is righteous, merciful, worthy of honor and glory; giving Himself upon the cross, counted worthy of death yet meriting Kingship, he posted your due to the God of Heaven and Earth, the One who created and calls to you. God in these last days has spoken unto us by his Son, having risen from the dead and been made heir of all things, showing Himself the Saviour, Jesus is the way of life eternal, in His mercy you can find this life.

Here is the knowledge of truth; there is one God. Error abounds in this by those who proffer the lie that all men worship the same god simply a different understanding of that god. Well, if this is true, why not worship your dirty toenail? No, there is one true God, and the many rest are false. There can only be one God because there is only one Mediator of the Covenant made by God through Christ on the cross. One go-between, one Daysman, will plead your case before the mercy seat of judgment, making of you His own possession by ransom honored, the man Christ Jesus.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” – 1 Timothy 2:5-6

Now is the time; today is the day of salvation in Christ Jesus. His torture of the cross and resurrection unto life testifying century after century to those who come by faith; to taste that God is good, entering into the abundance of truth and love to worship of the one true and living God whose name, to those that truly know Him, is too terrible to utter.

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:3-4

Wander no more among the congregation of the dead. When God says something is good, it is good and acceptable in His sight; that you would come unto the knowledge of the truth of His compassion is God’s desire. When God created the heaven and earth, God saw that it was good. God making you a new creation in Christ can look upon you as a son reborn; it is good in God’s eyes for you that are being accepted by the Saviour, brought into everlasting life. Call upon Jesus, for He is the Mediator of merciful salvation.

Tagged Gospel Witness with the others of this irregularly posted series. Tools for witnessing here and here.

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” – John 12:32

The kindest thing you can do for a lost sinner is to be pointed and direct about their eternal soul’s condition and need for salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The conversation is truly between the lost sinner and the Holy Spirit of God under conviction; they must come to Christ by faith on their own. We don’t lead lost souls into a false sense of salvation. We are merely a messenger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many folks who fear sharing the Gospel don’t understand that you are not even responsible for the outcome of the conversation. Soul winners tell the truth, pointedly and plainly, so that God may use His sword, which is His word, to bring a lost sinner to the cross of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit speaks to the lost person’s conscience, while God uses the Bible verses you share to bring their faith. Your fear is unfounded; you tell people that the Bible says x, y, and z, and they agree or don’t. It’s between them and God.

He is faithful. If you begin this service to God, He will be right with you, teaching and guiding you. You will see the miracle of the moment of salvation as God saves those that He would.

The nicest thing a Christian can ever do is to tell a man that his sin has offended God, that for his sin, he is found guilty before God, who is the Judge, that for this guilt of sin, not sins but that he IS a sinner, he is condemned already to suffer death, and eternal wrath abides on him. But Jesus Christ already suffered that wrath for him upon the cross of Calvary, taking all the man’s accounts and settling them with Holy Father God, that on the day of judgment, God would see Christ’s purchased possession; a forgiven son of God who has been made joint heir with Christ in His kingdom.

Be a man, tell them with concern, but don’t hold back from the ugly truth of it all; the lost sinner is God’s enemy. But be ready, for those called of God will ask, how so? You must be prepared to show them to besiege God for forgiveness admitting guilt, and asking for life and life eternal that they may enter into the Kingdom of God and of His Christ. There’s no formula; belief by faith that Jesus paid it all upon the cross, plus and minus nothing.

Even when you “fail,” you don’t fail. Every contact made, every demonstration of outward faith to a lost sinner, every mention of the name of our Lord Jesus, every verse of scripture shared is a seed very well planted. God will nurture and grow those seeds in the lost sinner as He sees fit. God leaves His word’s pure and holy truth in the lost sinner’s heart. It’s impossible for you to fail, for God works in the hearts of men to bring them to repentance, not you; it’s God Almighty.

Contained in the Noahic Covenant are the rights of men from which our duties flow. As background for context to Genesis 9, read Genesis 8 starting around verse 19.

Interestingly, verse 22 of Genesis 8 says that seedtime and harvest shall remain until God takes the earth away. All famines are man-made, manufactured.

To understand what governments men attempted to constitute after the Reformation, one must know from where the rights they spoke of stem. To say, “God gave us our rights” isn’t enough. The communists claim the same thing; they have a different god, same for the muslim man, and on and on.

The flood shows Holy God’s purposes in judgment, and it offers a view of His instruction in righteousness and God’s blessed object in grace and salvation. We contend that the Ten Commandments always existed, for they are holy and perfect, but were simply codified, written down into Law, when God handed them down to Moses and the children of Jacob.

Contained in God’s covenant with every living thing are the basic operating procedures the planet is under and an outline that men may live well one with another before God. Salvation (restoration and justification and reconciliation with God) was not by this covenant and never by the Law; it always comes by faith in Christ alone (Romans 3:28, Hebrews 11).

We’ll go through the first several verses of Genesis 9, bringing a light treatment as an outline. It’s too much to develop this fully. This is a background to understanding the laws and customs of post-reformation Western Civilization, which ended in communism and other socialist totalitarian regimes around 1900AD.

The American Church, and most Americans, are operating under the delusion that the Reformation remains the current state of affairs in the Churches and Western Civilization. They let the Church be nationalized by the Internal Revenue Code 501(c)3 in 1954, as under Constantine. They will learn the hard way. The Reformation ended, and your Churches are being made pagan dens of inequity. We can almost certainly state that more Christians in America won’t set foot in a corporate Church building than there are Christians, perhaps not total warm bodies but converted Christians, inside those buildings.

Verse 1:

“AND God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” – Genesis 9:1

In verses 1 and 7 of chapter 9, God promises that they will replenish the earth and later that every man will be descended from one of the three sons of Noah. There is a sense of regeneration here. It reminds us of God’s covenant with Adam.

From this comes the giving of lands to men and, therefore, property rights. If one is to replenish the earth, they must take it in possession.

Leviticus 25 and Numbers 34 forbade the Hebrews from releasing a paternal inheritance. The Jews weren’t to sell their family land, and all property was returned to the original family at Jubile(e) (Leviticus 25:10). That’s how important land is that God gives. The Hebrew Jubile was after 49 years.

The story of Jezebel is about a land grab and theft of lands. Naboth rejected king Ahab’s offer to buy his land, saying, “…I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers.” Instead of following the government, Naboth rightly chose duty to God instead of submission to an unlawful government decree. The story is in 1 Kings 21. When you hear of a Jezebel or an eminent domain or “federal lands,” remember that the first was about the theft of land by the government against the Law of God. How much land does the US government “own” today?

“The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” – Psalm 24:1

It all belongs to God, and He has given lands to men.

“The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” – Psalm 115:16

The government has zero right to tax your land under the Noahic Covenant with all men. It’s God’s land given to us, not the government.

“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” – Acts 17:26

Nations are distinct peoples, not some tower of Babel 2.0. God has set out the bounds of nations on the face of the earth.

Verse 2:

“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.” – Genesis 9:2

Compare with Genesis 1:26

Dominion was established in fear and force, and blood after the flood. The curse of the fall continues and even deepens in some ways. The so-called animal kingdom is delivered into our hand. The power of the dominion of men is predicated on men acting like men. After the flood, dominion over the animals is re-established as the dread of man is put into them. Animal and environmental rights are evil; they attempt to dethrone God by taking our dominion. God gives us authority over animals. Being placed under our jurisdiction, they have no rights. The “animal rights” movement is picking up steam globally. When we do not uphold our duties to God, our blessings are taken. Is God chastening us by removing our ownership of land and dominion over the animal?

Animals serve us, feed us, and we even keep them for pleasure. And animals are pretty neat. Thanks be to God for the animals He has blessed us with for all purposes and those that have been our companions.

Verse 3:

“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” – Genesis 9:3

Verse 3 establishes men as carnivores, eaters of meat. This and other verses may indicate that men were vegetarian before the flood. Verse 3 sets the pre-Mosiac Law dietary rules as they are now. The separate dietary laws for the Hebrews under the Law of Moses were rescinded by the New Covenant (Acts 10:9-16, 1 Timothy 4:4-5).

You have a right to eat the fruit of the land, both plant and meat, and the right to feed yourself and your family. This covenant also establishes the duty to work to feed your family. Meat and plants take work to produce for food.

Verse 4:

“But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Genesis 9:4

Verse 4 indicates we are not to eat (drink) blood. This is later codified in the Levitical Law, 17:11-12, 14.

Life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11).

James, who most agree was the Pastoral head of the church at Jerusalem during the so-called Jerusalem Counsel, determined, by God, that the abundance of grace in Christ Jesus was found sufficient for the Gentiles. Specifically at question was circumcision of the flesh. But other questions of the Gentiles were also wisely answered. Did they refer back to the covenant with every living thing? We don’t know. But the correct choice, as God always makes, was determined.

“Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: 20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” – Acts 15:19-20

The death cults drink blood.

Verse 5:

“And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.” – Genesis 9:5

Verse 5 further indicates that we should care for the created beings under our charge. And, each man has an appointment with death. Holy God sets this appointment (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Further established is that we have no right to take our own life. Your life is not your own (Psalm 24:1). It belongs to God. And further yet, predation is established among the animals, and capital punishment is indicated.

Verse 6:

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Genesis 9:6

Capital punishment is made clear. This becomes codified in the Sixth Commandment of Holy God given to Moses: “Thou shalt not kill.” – Exodus 20:13

The Six Commandment didn’t annul Genesis 9:6; it is further established for the Hebrews and is enjoined. This means that the duty to protect life flows from the responsibility not to kill with impunity.

Verses 7-10:

“7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. 8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.” – Genesis 9:7-10

Not only is abortion murder under this covenant with every living thing, but it violates God’s command(s) to be fruitful and multiply. Women’s liberation wrecked God’s Law, destroying the subjection (roles as arranged by God) of men and women to each other (Ephesians 5). We’ll discuss subjection to each other and obedience to God (for they are not the same thing) in posts on Family and State, including Romans 13.

Every living man is under this covenant. We contend that the Noahic covenant remains in effect as evident in nature and human behavior and as established in New Covenant doctrines. For space, we didn’t cite every pertinent New Testament verse showing this covenant to remain in effect; that’s your job. Where this Law is abridged or rejected, sin abounds. America has wandered so far from its founding because she has forgotten the purposes of the duties and liberties granted under this Covenant from Holy God given to all the seed of Noah’s sons.

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:18

The body of Christ, which is His Church, is for believers; it’s not a mixed multitude that results from softened, accommodating churches. The Church is in retreat across America and dead in the rest of Western Civilization as a feminine pantywaist sissified Christianity is afraid to hurt someone’s feelings. The world is dying under the weight of the sin curse; billions are on their way to the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Why would God do that? Because He’s God. It’s offensive! He is holy and needn’t seek to know men’s feelings about who He is.

Concern for the lost is no reason to reply against God as though the clay had some power over the potter. We don’t need to take it easy on them; they don’t need to be coddled; lost sinners need to hear the truth.

We’re losing our civilization because Christians won’t be salt and light, speaking righteousness to all men. The churches everywhere have compromised to suffer their feelings that take offense at the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus and His word are a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; too bad. If the word of God hurts someone’s feelings, that’s between them and God. No man is responsible for another man’s feelings. This would bring total ruin to civilization, and it is. Their feelings are theirs and theirs alone. The churches are turned into whited sepulchers full of dead men’s bones.

There was a signal moment in each of these churches. Somebody asked that the blood of Jesus Christ not be discussed so much. Or, somebody asked not to talk about sin so often, death, or hell. Somebody said; don’t ask spiritual questions that might cause anxiety. Perhaps it was one of these or some other, but that’s how it started. And it happened, at some point, the leadership relented, allowing a toehold for the spirit of antichrist, and all manner of sin and ungodliness came sweeping through the door shortly thereafter because nobody was allowed to be offended.

If Jesus Christ hadn’t offended the wise, making Himself despised, you never would have heard of Him because that’s not Christ. The American church allows the world to dictate what it does appeasing every manner of unrighteousness.

The Gospel is an offense? We should be offended by the full-scale surrender of the churches to the comfortable experience of conscienceless feelingless protection. The Church is dying for this very reason, and with it, your country! The Gospel is offensive because it eats at the center of all religion, leaving a man helpless before the Almighty, entirely at His mercy. That’s the scandal of the cross; there’s nothing any man can do.

Everywhere they’re headed for outer darkness to burn, they’re condemned already, and there’s nothing they can do but depend with all trust in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep them from the harm. The cross is an offense to them that perish!

Where does it end? It ends, at least partly, in a church run by the women and children, making it all about feelings and a comfortable, inclusive experience for everyone. Why aren’t Christ’s men filled with holy righteous indignation at this offense against His holy name?

These feminized churches soft-peddling the new religion have crawled back behind the gates of hell, but the Gospel is coming for them. The true Church is coming for them all, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; shall not withstand the onslaught of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No man will glory in His sight. Every man must choose; will they be destroyed in their wisdom?

“26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.” – 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Free to have and use tools for telling people about Christ: Background on how to Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a Gospel Primer with specific step-by-step instructions. These posts are tagged Gospel Witness, so you can find them all as they are posted over time.

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“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10

If you are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, having received the Lord as your Saviour, then you have a duty to share that faith with lost souls by being a witness for Jesus Christ. Holy God ordained these works for you before you were saved. Jesus did not save you for no reason. He saved you for good works in the Kingdom of God to bring glory to His holy name.

“Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.” – John 4:29-30

After hearing the good news, the very first thing the Samaritan woman at the well did was to go tell the whole town and bring them to Christ.

When Jesus was just twelve years old, He told Joseph and His mother that serving the Father was the most important thing.

“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” – Luke 2:49

Soul winners are disciples that continue the mission of Jesus Christ, seeking that which was lost. Christ offers the lost sinner salvation through forgiveness from sin so that they might be saved from death and wrath and hell. As was Jesus, we must be about our Father’s business.

Some of the worst opposition to your service of the Lord may come from family, friends, and other Christians. They are either not truly born again or are hearers of the word only, deceiving themselves (James 1:22). Pray they would repent and also serve. The job is to conquer the world in the name of Jesus Christ, bringing salvation to all nations by wielding the sword of God, which is His word. Go through them, over them, or around them. Lead, follow, or get out of the way!

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” – John 15:5

If you abide in Christ, you will see the power of the Holy Spirit firsthand to beholding mighty blessings when you share the Gospel leading souls to Christ. Pray, asking God to use you, give you boldness to proclaim the truth of salvation in Christ, and go before you convicting the lost of their need for salvation.

There is no checklist, process, specific method, system, or program that saves a lost soul. And no rite or ritual, or particular words or prayer that saves a lost sinner. Jesus Christ saves lost sinners by grace through faith in His finished work on the cross, plus and minus nothing. Your job is to go and tell them.

“4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:4-8

The poor souls that fear God, they know. Not those who fear before God as believers, but those who fear the change that will happen to them if they trust God. They fear the loss of their old self, and mostly they fear the loss of their favorite sins. You know that your life will change when you make the leap of trust in Jesus Christ. Forthrightly, we’ll state; that you won’t miss your sins or your previous life. You’ll marvel at your new self in wonder as you consider why you ever disbelieved. The same God, who by His Son can forgive, will give you new desires, aspirations, and goals in this life; you won’t even care except to think how very silly it was that you waited to call upon Jesus.

Sure there are some weird Christians. There are also some odd Led Zeppelin fans, weird soccer moms, and strange people at your last job. There are also some pretty down-to-earth Christians. God calls men out of every type, tribe and tongue, background, education, and prior belief system; you name it; Christians used to be just like them, just like you.

Your fear is unfounded; it’s better to have sought Christ, accepted the change of heart and mind, to no longer be a servant of your sin. You can be free from the bondage that sin holds over you. Can you not see how sin has you in bondage, convincing you how much you’ll miss it? The knowledge of God Almighty and being made free in Christ Jesus isn’t worse. That’s an absurdity. What has sin ever gotten you but debt, torn relationships, pain, and misery while forging your way in this despicable and wicked world beset by evil? And worst of all, the hold sin has over you is filling you with the fear of accepting God. Your sin is a liar.

Many a wretched man, murderers and whoremongers, have come to Christ, and all men are liars, but the fearful they know it’s all true, they sense it correctly, you will change. But you’ll be well glad of it; rid of the service of your sin, which is slavery. Jesus is freedom, true freedom; no government, not even self-government, has an easier yoke than Christ has upon His own.

He has made you aware of Him by your refusal. Isn’t that interesting? You know that God is real; otherwise, you wouldn’t hold on to your current state so hard. Faith is trust in the unknown, having seen only a glimpse. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you will change; you know it. God has shown you that glimpse of His promise.

Both the change now and the offer of eternity are true; they must be, for He is God, the author of life and the creator of all things. Who are you that God Almighty, giver of all knowledge and truth, would reveal Himself to you, and you what; hang on to this wicked and depraved sinful world?

That’s why the fearful and unbelieving are damned to hell because God has told them, God has told you, that your desires and heart will change. Still, you have chosen pleasure for a season that continually ends in misery and always leads to the need for more sin over the grace of God who reached across time and the expanse of His creation, showing you a peek at His offer. How much more the miserable an end of you, knowing the truth, having been personally contacted by God, and rejecting Him. It will not go well with you when you finally meet Him. What will you say?

Since you know that the change in you will be authentic, why won’t you take the threat seriously? You know that your life will change and perhaps in drastic ways, but why do you fear that change more than the threat of death? Revelation 21:8 also tells us that the fearful and unbelieving “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Why do you hold onto this life, kicking against the call of the Gospel, knowing that your life will change? Yet you deny the eternal consequences, both the potential for peace with Holy God by accepting His offer, or by entering into eternal death, damned, being condemned already for you know your sin, having denied Him; your sin has found you out! If you know the one to be true, carefully examine by what both spiritual and logical fallacy you hold the other to be false. Either you’re made a new man now and enter into the eternal presence and glory of Holy Father God forgiven, or you stay a slave to sin and die, tortured forever.

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” – Revelation 21:5

Christ is making all things new, ending the curse of sin, and holding out the promise of a new heaven and new earth. “…God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain…” Those are the promises of life eternal; having shown you the faintest hints of the beginning of the guarantee, you must come by faith to be with Him at the end. Any Christian telling you that it’s no leap of faith is a liar; it absolutely is; for by grace are ye saved through faith. Why hold to your self-inflicted doubt, for God has shown you. God, by His Son, is making all things new. Not just a change in this life, but the rest of the promise; to not only be forgiven and remade into a new creature with a new spirit but to see God and to meet Him as a friend. If you know the one, you can see the other. Still, that knowledge comes after the day of belief and forgiveness, the day you finally submit, not to your sin, but to the God that created you and breathed the very breath of life into your soul who’s calling you out of the darkness of this present world into His light of truth. For every creature sings, “blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne.”

The change, the transformation, is quite miraculous. You can witness firsthand how the power of God will change your desires and conscience. God takes the most wretched of sinners and turns them into the kindest and most caring people. God takes those who may not be the dregs but sinners nonetheless and turns them into lifelong servants of the good, pouring themselves into helping others. But you can’t know His plan until He makes His covenant with you. Don’t be deceived by the Sunday churchgoers who live like hell the rest of the week; they are not converted. But you, having heard, called by God unto His great purposes, the conversion will be genuine. You’ll be created anew in salvation, and the old self is crucified with Christ unto death, the new man being raised to walk in eternal life, entering into the love and merciful peace of holy Father God.

The words of Jesus are true and faithful; God, the beginning and the end of all life and our faith, decided to offer eternal life and chose to make Christ judge of all things. It is done; Christ has risen from the tomb, ascending back on high, being alpha and omega the adjudicator of every soul’s decision, and you who have heard from God and rejected Him will burn. This isn’t His choice; you made the decision and brought this on yourself. He will pass sentence according to His word, for all the promises of God in Christ are yea, and amen, the fearful of that leap into faith will burn, you have His word.

But unto you, that heard and with an open heart, having sensed what change will come about, you should speak to God of the covenant He would make with you. He will give of the fountain of the water of life freely, that you would overcome this world in Him, given the presence of God in your conscience as He fulfills every aspect of His promises and covenants in you. You won’t miss the person you are now! This sin you crave will be gone. You won’t care about it anymore, and you will no longer desire it. That’s where the trepidation comes; God has revealed it to you; His power is manifest to convert you, removing your old heart’s desire and replacing it with the singular desire for Him and His kingdom, dominion, and rule transformed into a son of God. Take the offer; it’s all true!

Seated upon His throne, behold, He makes all things new; the old is cast into eternal death. But your reborn soul can enter Christ’s kingdom, He will be your God, and you shall be His son overcoming in His strength, leaving your fear and unbelief behind forever.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” – Revelation 21:7

You can overcome all things in Christ; your fear is unfounded, for His will works in the heart and mind of the new creation, His word saying; you shall inherit all things, He will be your God, you shall be His son. That’s God’s positive, affirmative, forward word, but you already knew you would change this way. Put your trust in Jesus Christ, the God of that first glimpse; your fear and unbelief are an unfounded lie.

“18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:18-29

Verses 18 through 21 remind the reader of Mount Sinai and the terrible presence of Holy God. See Exodus 19:12-20. But those that had put their faith in Christ as the church was birthed, and all Christians, have come to mount Sion, the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem is no comparison to the earthly. It’s the most excellent presence of the living God who dwells there, and those who God has called are already citizens, having entered into eternal life at the moment of the new birth.

Verse 25 says that you are to refuse Him not. How terrible was it for those that knew the truth and rejected Him on earth both under Moses and in the first century? Don’t turn away from Him that now speaks from Heaven.

You are to be salt, not honey. The word of God is sweet to the ear but bitter to the belly (Revelation 10:9), dividing both heart and soul asunder (Hebrews 4:12). But Christians won’t bare the sword of truth as they are supposed to by speaking righteousness into the world. Everywhere they are turning away. How can you refuse Him that speaks from Heaven? How shall you escape the damnation of God?

Christians, if that’s what they are, have been taught that the Kingdom of God is in some far-flung distant future only dimly lit, and to rest upon their ease, they will be raptured away. They learned this from the men taught in the American University system, which should rightly be called cemetery schools. They are where faith goes to die under the weight of the doctrines of men.

Look what God has given you: “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…” You should be filled with all joy to overflowing that you desire to tell all men of Christ and what great things He has done that they too may enter into the glorious presence of God; to know the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

The heavenly Jerusalem is now. Hebrews 12 says that it’s right now and available to all who would put their faith in Christ. Why have you turned away? You’ve been misled or lied to perhaps that Christ’s blood was insufficient. The blood of righteous able cried out unto God from the ground (Genesis 4:10), but verse 24 in our text says how much better is the sprinkling of the perfect blood of Christ that when applied by your belief through faith Christ’s blood cries forgiven, redeemed, and clean unto the Father in your stead. Why have you turned away? Why have you come short of the glory of God?

In verse 22 specifically, we see that the heavenly Jerusalem is now. Flee from your false teachers; turn back to your first love, the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness. Now, are we come to Sion, the city of the living God, great and terrible is He, for our God is a consuming fire, how will you escape the wrath having turned away!?!

Return to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant; your teachers are false; your Kingdom is not later, for Christ rules and reigns from one end of the heavens to the other that you might be filled with the truth to serve Him by building the city, this Kingdom, by the Spirit of God which is the Almighty in you. Judgment is now, from day to day, but you looked away and followed after another master. Lies, comfort, and ease are not better than the living God.

How can Hebrews 12:22 exist now and Revelation 21:2 be later? The Bible doesn’t contradict. Indeed He comes again, and the final order with Him, but these things were to have shortly come to pass in Revelation some two thousand years ago, or Hebrews 12 isn’t true. If the Holy Spirit is God, and surely He is, and you have the Holy Spirit, then why are you waiting for another generation to build His kingdom? His kingdom cannot be moved, so why have you left it?

Jesus said in the gospels that he would do no great thing because faith was lacking. In your shrinking away, you’ve reduced your faith and thereby the power of God in you. The Kingdom awaits and with it a Christian a country, but you don’t believe because devils have told you that it can’t be done, the Kingdom is not yet, while they tell you to wait for The Antichrist (the which there is no such person), to stand in a temple that no longer exists! Why do you seek antichrist instead of the heavenly Jerusalem? Who do you actually worship?

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” – Hebrews 12:28

You are to be salt, not honey; the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not a social gospel, and the declaration of His truth in righteousness, not a weak and beggarly defeat. This is the building of the Kingdom now. What’s wrong with you that you won’t serve the living God? Why do you shrink back from the mark of the high calling of Christ Jesus for you? Who has told you to be a consumerist of Christianity, for they are false!

Why are you not now being made meet for the Master’s use? Why won’t you consume the Bible as a ravenous child crying out to the Father for sustenance that you may live? Why won’t you pray down the power of God that you might bring forth fruit by the thousands to conversion at the foot of His cross? Why have you once believed and turned away from He that now speaks from Heaven? What’s wrong with you, are you converted to the way or not?

Christianity isn’t about an experience, you narcissistic feelings seekers. It’s not about you at all. It’s about Him, the mediator of a new and better covenant. It’s not better because it’s easier; it’s a better covenant because He is better than the blood of dumb animals. Christ having been made sinful man, yet without sin, so that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him, He speaks now from Heaven. When you see Him, you will know just how small you are? It’s about His Kingdom, His designs, and His purposes. Why are you not trying to fulfill the full measure of all that He called you to? Do you seek to feel good now to stand before Him later with nothing to show? That’s not Christianity.

“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” – Hebrews 12:27-28

Why are you shaken when you’ve been brought forth out of darkness into the glorious light of Christ Jesus? You are to have been the fruit that remains, being part of the Root, which is Christ; you are now a branch to bear fruit to glorify His holy name. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.

“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:62

The same Christ that forgave and saved you can forgive and restore you now. You may be willing to die for Christ, but will you live for Him?

Via SurvivalBlog.

“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.” – John Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

The notion that 51% of the population can give a giant wedgie to the other 49% is wicked.  On the other hand, there is this.

“We are on the brink of a dramatic change; we are about to abandon the traditional system of money and replace it with a new one, Digital Blockchain CBDC, which will give us greater clarity over every single transaction.” – Economist Pippa Malmagren, speaking at the 2022 World Government Summit.

And I would add, the ability to manage and approve those transactions, as well as provide opportunity for graft and corruption (like bailing banks out with your wealth).

Sin infects every form of government.  It’s all considered building the Tower of Babel to God.  Only nations under the rule of His law-word can survive.