BNW Brave New World
Samenzwering, verborgen agenda's en geheime geschiedenis. De zoektocht naar de wereld die achter de façade van alledag ligt.
Net als Ali Kanibali dacht ik de waarheid te hebben, maar het was niet de echte waarheid. Het zit allemaal anders dan ik had gedacht, de bijbel zegt dat de duivel zichzelf voordoet als een engel des lichts en dat het bijna de uitverkorenen kan misleiden. Ellen White was geen profetes van God, de wet van God was aan het kruis genageld, het maakt niet uit of je op sabbath of zondag naar de kerk gaat. De escathologische waarheden zoals wij ze kennen kloppen niet allemaal. Er komt geen zondagswet aan. Waar draait profetie dan allemaal om? Het gaat om het ware evangelie (genade door geloof alleen) versus het valse evangelie (genade door geloof+werken). Nu God mij wakker heeft geschud is het ook mijn taak om anderen wakker te schudden.Toen Jezus gevraagd werd naar het einde der tijden zei hij dat het zal zijn als aasgieren die om een karkas heenvliegen. Ik ben volledig overtuigd van het feit dat Ellen White misleid was door de duivel omdat Lucifer weet dat als het ware evangelie verbonden wordt met de geest der profetie uit de bijbel, dat hij dan kansloos is. De duivel haat het ware evangelie, en het ware evangelie is als het bloed uit Exodus 12 dat de mensen verzegelde, het is de Heilige Geest die ons verzegeld als wij aannemen dat wij niet de wet kunnen naleven en we accepteren dat Jezus voor ons gestorven is. Alleen als we in Hem zijn zijn we perfect, daarom kwam hij, om de wet te vervullen. Als je gelooft dat Jezus voor je zonden is gestorven dan kan je niet meer verloren gaan, dan is er geen oordeel meer, alleen voor eventuele beloningen voor de daden die we in het vlees gedaan hebben maar niet voor onze redding.
21Gods gerechtigheid, waarvan de Wet en de Profeten al getuigen, wordt nu ook buiten de wet zichtbaar: 22God schenkt vrijspraak aan allen die in Jezus Christus geloven. En er is geen onderscheid. 23Iedereen heeft gezondigd en ontbeert de nabijheid van God; 24en iedereen wordt uit genade, die niets kost, door God als een rechtvaardige aangenomen omdat hij ons door Christus Jezus heeft verlost. 25-26Hij is door God aangewezen om door zijn dood het middel tot verzoening te zijn voor wie gelooft. Hiermee bewijst God dat hij rechtvaardig is, want in zijn verdraagzaamheid gaat hij voorbij aan de zonden die in het verleden zijn begaan. Hij wil ons nu, in deze tijd, zijn gerechtigheid bewijzen: hij laat ons zien dat hij rechtvaardig is door iedereen vrij te spreken die in Jezus gelooft.
27Kunnen wij ons dan nog ergens op laten voorstaan? Dat is uitgesloten. En door welke wet komt dat? Door de wet die eist dat u hem naleeft? Nee, door de wet die eist dat u gelooft. 28Ik heb u er immers op gewezen dat een mens wordt vrijgesproken door te geloven, en niet door de wet na te leven. 29Is God soms alleen de God van de Joden en niet die van de heidenen? Zeker ook die van de heidenen, 30want er is maar één God, en hij zal zowel besnedenen als onbesnedenen op grond van hun geloof als rechtvaardigen aannemen. 31Stellen wij door het geloof de wet buiten werking? Integendeel, wij bevestigen de wet juist.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So there are good works that we SHOULD walk in. Not to gain salvation. Not to maintain salvation but because we SHOULD walk in them and grace, not law, teaches us what we should be doing, and how we should be doing it. We are taught by grace, not by the Law. We are saved by grace and we should also walk in that very same grace, not legalism.
Now all of this, this justification Paul talks about in Romans, is BEFORE Romans 3:25. Anybody in their right mind, if they believe the bible SHOULD get the picture. Salvation is NOT something you can gain for yourself and it is NOT something that you MAINTAIN for yourself. God has not given us a salvation maintenance program. The very people who teach that you can LOSE your salvation also teach that you can GAIN it by your own efforts and MAINTAIN it by your own goodness, and they ALWAYS go outside of the doctrine to the body of Christ, outside of Romans through Philemon to dabble around with the works of the Law in order to try to prove it. They are ignorant men with blinded minds, religiously speaking. Romans 3:25 is a problem for them because of their blindness:
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
And they jump on that verse with both feet. They totally disregard EVERYTHING that Paul has already said, and everything that he goes on to say, about Abraham, about Adam, about the ONE ACT of two men. The one act of Adam was disobedience unto death. The one act of Christ was obedience unto death. So they claim that this verse, Romans 3:25, proves that only your PAST sins have been forgiven. They just will not clear their minds and THINK. When God SET FORTH Jesus Christ, when did He do it? It was AD 33. In the year AD 33, if the calendar is correct, Christ died on the cross. The bible says that He died for our sins. The bible says that God made him to be sin for us. It says that God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself NOT imputing our sins to us but instead imputing them to Jesus Christ, making him to be sin FOR US. So IN AD 33, when Christ died FOR our sins, how many of YOUR sins were in the past? None of them! All of your sins were in the future. Your whole life and everything that you will ever do or not do, everything was all in the future, over 1900 years in the future, when Christ died FOR our sins. So just how many of your sins do you think that he DIDN'T die for?
How could you possibly go back and change history. How, no matter WHAT you do in the future, no matter WHAT you have done and have not done all of your life, HOW can you unravel time and unwind history and go back and get back there and have Christ NOT to have died for some of your sins. He is not talking about your past sins. He is talking about the sins of the past. He is talking about the sins which were covered by the blood on the mercy seat. He is talking about sins which were passed over because of the blood sacrifice in Israel. He is talking to Gentiles who call themselves Jews and who boast in the law. They know the law. They know what took place with the animal sacrifices by the Levitical priesthood. He is saying that Jesus Christ IS that propitiation. He is the fulfillment of what took place in the temple, behind the veil, at the mercy seat. In other words all those sacrifices under the Law of Moses were a type of and a foreshadowing of what Christ did. That's the very definition of the word:
Propitiation: Strong’s Concordance says:
It is an expiatory place or thing, that is an ATONING victim. Specifically, the lid of the ark in the temple, the mercy seat.
In other words, when the High Priest went behind the veil with the blood of that dead animal he sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat which was on the lid of the ark, in which were the tablets of stone containing the law, and it was a covering, it was an atonement for Israel's sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest did that. What Paul is saying to these legalistic Gentiles is that God was JUST in passing over Israel's sins. He was right. He was righteous in doing that. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. In other words, the Law was OUR (that's Israel's) schoolmaster to lead us to Christ:
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
So Jesus Christ, Himself, is the legal and justifiable means whereby God could rightly “pass over” Israel’s sins of the past. He is the propitiation. In other words God could pass over sins, of Israel, in the past andHe is shown to be just in doing that, because He provided the ultimate sacrifice. But more than that, Paul says that by Him we have received THE atonement. Not an atonement. Not a temporary, once a year covering of past sins, starting all over until the next year. But THE ATONEMENT.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
So I hope by this discussion you understand a little more about the Gentiles called Jews in Rome and how Paul is bringing them out of the Olive Tree. He is bringing them from their standing by faith IN Christ, to an understanding of the faith OF Christ, and giving them the spiritual gift of the gospel of Christ.
Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
Romans 16:27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
FORBEARANCE: is Patiently waiting for the payment of a Debt.
As we have taught, the word "REMISSION" (as used in Romans 3:25) refers to the passing over of a debt. This leads us right into the word "FORBEARANCE," for the verse reads:
"WHOM GOD HATH SET FORTH TO BE A PROPITIATION THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD, TO DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE PAST , THROUGH THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD."
What Romans 3:25 is saying is that God set Jesus Christ forth to be a satisfying sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins, which declares two (2) truths:
1. It is by the propitiation of Jesus Christ that God declares the Old Testament Saints Righteous.
Notice the phrase "SINS THAT ARE PAST." These are not our past sins but the sins of those who lived and died before the Lord Jesus Christ ever came into this world. Now that He has come and made a satisfying payment for all of mankind's sins, God can now declare those Old Testament Believers righteous. Before Jesus Christ died, God instructed them to offer an animal sacrifice for their sins. But as we learned in our last study, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Romans 3:25 now informs us that from the time of Adam until Christ, God was passing over the Old Testament Believer's sins, patiently waiting for the time when Jesus Christ would come and actually pay off their debt of sin. Now that he has accomplished, God can declare them righteous.
It is like when we buy a new car on credit. We find the car we want to purchase and sign the papers applying for a loan. After checking our credit and finding it good, we are handed the keys to the car and we drive off. In these days, it is 4 to 5 years before that car is actually paid off.
In Genesis 3:15, God promised to take care of man's sin debt. Since His word is good credit, the Old Testament Believers were saved back then even though their sins were not paid off until hundreds or thousands of years later by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The second truth which "propitiation" declares is found in Romans 3:26, which says in part:
"TO DECLARE, I SAY AT THIS TIME HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS . . ."
2. It is by the propitiation of Jesus Christ that God declares the New Testament Saints Righteous.
We have taken note of the phrase "SINS THAT ARE PAST" in verse 25. Now notice the phrase "AT THIS TIME" in verse 26. In verse 25 we have seen the basis through which God can declare the Believers of old righteous. Verse 26 now declares that same basis to be true today. God declares the Believers--who live after the cross--righteous as well. The only difference is that we now know how God can be just in saving believing sinners, whereas those before this age did not know.
GOD IS (BOTH) JUST, AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THEM WHICH BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST!
Since the one time full payment and satisfying sacrifice for sins has been made, there is no longer any need for animal sacrifices, nor any works on man's part to be offered to God for his sins. Roman's 3:27,28 concludes the whole matter. Since our salvation was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ's work on the Cross and not by our works and since God declares the believing sinner righteous upon faith in the blood of Christ, then there can be no boasting on our part. We are just sinners saved by grace. The conclusion is:
"...A MAN IS JUSTIFIED (DECLARED RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD) BY FAITH WITHOUT THE DEEDS OF THE LAW!"
PRACTICAL POINT:
Are You a Believer? A conclusion has been made in the Scriptures. It is not in agreement with many churches, religions, or denominations, but it is the truth because it's God's conclusion. The Bible says: (Romans 3:4)
"LET GOD BE TRUE, BUT EVERY MAN A LIAR"
Make sure you're not trusting in your religion, church, your baptism, your upbringing, your background, morals, ethics, or your goodness to save you, because they can't. Trust only in Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary to save you. It's the ONLY WAY!
Notice from the picture above that for a person to turn to Christ in Heaven is to turn one's back on sin and hell. Does a believer have to repent to be saved? Absolutely! But it's a repentance of the heart (a turn-around of our heart) concerning Jesus Christ and our sins. Whereas before we did not believe on Christ, now we do! Whereas before we lived in sin with no conviction, now we are convicted for our sins. It is uncommon that new believers simply clean up their act right away; it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work in one's heart. It's a lifetime process of growing. We grow with the milk of God's Word (1st Peter 2:2).
We are all woeful sinners (Romans 3:10,23). To be saved, a person MUST realize their sinful condition. It is NOT enough simply to commit your life to God or decide to turn over a new leaf. This is self-righteousness and a false gospel. To be saved, you must confess to God (not to men) that you are a wicked sinner in need of forgiveness, and then believe on Jesus Christ to forgive you (Acts 10:43).
What a Wonderful Saviour!
Do you need to give up your sins to be saved? No; but you must acknowledge them for what they are, wicked sins. You see friend, most people refuse to acknowledged their sinful condition. I've heard a young woman say that since Adam and Eve were naked in Eden that pornography must be acceptable with God. She is woefully wrong. Some people justify immoral sex on the basis that God made the body beautiful. This is wrong thinking. Others seek to justify smoking cigarettes on the basis that it grows from God's earth, so it must be acceptable. This is of course absurd. Poison Ivy also grows naturally, should we rub it all over our bodies? Many people attempt to rationalize their sins; but God's Law never changes. Pornography is of the Devil. Substance abuse is sinful. Adultery is sinful. The Bible (Law of God) condemns our sins and we have no excuses.
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." —Romans 3:20
Do you have to give up your sins to be saved? No, just your unbelief. I get upset when people teach "Lordship salvation." What is that? Lordship salvation is the false doctrine that you must make Christ the "Lord" of your life to be saved, that you must repent and depart from sin. That is impossible! There is no such thing as a believer who does not commit sin. We are all woeful sinners. If I have to give up a certain amount of sin to be saved, then how much do I have to give up? Just because a person accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour does not mean they are above sin. As a matter of fact, getting saved is just the start of a lifelong process. Try as hard as you may, you are going to walk in the flesh at times and sin. I have often said, "Christians at best are people, and people at best are sinners." We can walk in the Spirit at any given time; but the fact is that we're not always going to do so because we are sinners.
answer is No! You do NOT have to stop sinning to be saved. No one can stop sinning (Romans 3:23)! No one can live above sin—no one (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. You do NOT have to give up anything to be saved except your UNBELIEF. However, you DO need to realize your sinful condition and "confess" (or admit) to God that you are a sinner, deserving of hell. This is Biblical repentance, i.e., "a change of mind."
To be saved, a sinner simply needs to become "guilty" before God (Romans 3:19). Repentance is NOT forsaking one's actual sins, for that would be self-righteousness? Repentance is acknowledging that I am guilty of violating God's holy Law, and that I deserve to be punished in Hellfire for my own sins. Thus, realizing one's need for a Saviour. This is exactly what Galatians 3:24 teaches, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
A person who is convicted about their sin won't have the joyous attitude that they can continue living in sin and still go to Heaven. I would greatly doubt the salvation of anyone who rejoices that they can continue living in sin. This is one of the favorite arguments of Lordship Salvationists. The truth is that God holds believers accountable for their words and actions (Romans 14:12; 1st Peter 4:17; 2nd Corinthians 5:10).
Repentance is a turn of mind. When you turn to Christ for forgiveness, you have just turned your back on sin.
What is Biblical Repentance?
Repentance is a turn-around of mind! Whereas we were heading towards hell-fire and destruction, we realized our sinful condition and turned to the loving Saviour Who shed His precious blood for our many sins (1st Peter 1:18,19). Repentance is a change of heart. Before we were saved, sin was magnified in our life while Jesus was diminished. Now that we've been born-again, Christ is magnified and sin is diminished. As we grow in the Lord, this trend should continue to where Jesus becomes everything to us, and sin nothing.
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3, 5)
“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)
“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
These verses are quite clear about the issue: before forgiveness can occur, the condition of repentance must be met. Call me crazy, but I don’t think future sins are forgiven. If they were, why does Scripture say they won’t be forgiven unless they are confessed? HAAA DEZE GAST IS BLIND! REPENTANCE BETEKENT NIET STOPPEN MET ZONDIGEN MAAR EEN VERANDERING VAN HOUDING!
Consider these Scriptures:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:21-25)
“For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)
These verses make it clear that only our past sins are forgiven (the ones we have repented of).
Dr Charles Stanley writes:
“God forgave us long before we ever asked for it. He pardons us for sins we will never confess (1 John 1:9).”
9 But he said to me, j“My grace is sufficient for you, for kmy power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that lthe power of Christ may rest upon me.
forgive any sin. The doctrine of atonement is what explains salvation and forgiveness of sin. God imputed Christ’s righteousness to those who humbly ask for forgiveness of sin (Isaiah 53:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He paid the full price for our sin, and believers are forgiven fully for every sin they commit—past, present, and future. There is also daily forgiveness as we confess our sins and forsake them for our sanctification. If you compare any sin to the murder of Jesus, it pales in comparison, yet Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
The concepts of salvation and forgiveness are inextricably linked. Fortunately, God’s grace is sufficient for any and all sin, whatever sin you put in the blank. Receiving forgiveness is up to the individual. That is the first issue; will you receive the salvation (forgiveness of sin) that Christ is offering? If the answer is "yes," then you are fully forgiven of all debt of sin (Acts 13:38-39). This forgiveness comes by faith in Jesus and God’s grace alone, not by works or good deeds (Romans 3:20,22). Salvation begins by humbly acknowledging that we will never be good enough to get into heaven on our own merit and that we need forgiveness. Accepting Jesus Christ means believing that His death and resurrection paid the penalty for all sin ever committed and that it is sufficient to cover all sin (2 Corinthians 12:9).
So, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has already forgiven all your sins. If you have not, confess your sins to God, and He will cleanse you and restore you to fellowship with Him (1 John 1:8-9). Even with forgiveness, you may still experience feelings of guilt. Feeling guilty over sin is actually a natural response of our conscience, and it is there to remind us not to repeat sinful patterns. Understanding that Jesus is fully capable of forgiving any measure of sin is the hope of our salvation. Understanding forgiveness is the cure for guilty feelings.
Knowing that forgiveness is really a beautiful, graceful gift from a God who loves us allows us to see how truly wonderful He is. When we contemplate our own sin and how wretched and unworthy of forgiveness we are, it becomes clear that God is loving, compassionate, and worthy of our worship. Our sinful pride that resists asking for forgiveness is what stands between us and a relationship with a caring Savior. But for those who ask for forgiveness, they can believe that Jesus is sufficient and eager to forgive and save them from their sin, and they will ultimately enter into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).
Question: "What is justification?"
Answer: Simply put, to justify is to declare righteous, to make one right with God. Justification is God’s declaring those who receive Christ to be righteous, based on Christ’s righteousness being imputed to the accounts of those who receive Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Though justification as a principle is found throughout Scripture, the main passage describing justification in relation to believers is Romans 3:21-26: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
We are justified, declared righteous, at the moment of our salvation. Justification does not make us righteous, but rather pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice covers our sin, allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished. Because as believers we are in Christ, God sees Christ's own righteousness when He looks at us. This meets God's demands for perfection; thus, He declares us righteous—He justifies us.
Romans 5:18-19 sums it up well: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” It is because of justification that the peace of God can rule in our lives. It is because of justification that believers can have assurance of salvation. It is the fact of justification that enables God to begin the process of sanctification—the process by which God makes us in reality what we already are positionally. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
Question: "What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?"
Answer: Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance. In the Bible, the word repent means “to change one’s mind.” The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions (Luke 3:8-14; Acts 3:19). Acts 26:20 declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.
What, then, is the connection between repentance and salvation? The Book of Acts seems to especially focus on repentance in regards to salvation (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). To repent, in relation to salvation, is to change your mind in regard to Jesus Christ. In Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2), he concludes with a call for the people to repent (Acts 2:38). Repent from what? Peter is calling the people who rejected Jesus (Acts 2:36) to change their minds about Him, to recognize that He is indeed “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Peter is calling the people to change their minds from rejection of Christ as the Messiah to faith in Him as both Messiah and Savior.
Repentance and faith can be understood as “two sides of the same coin.” It is impossible to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior without first changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. Whether it is repentance from willful rejection or repentance from ignorance or disinterest, it is a change of mind. Biblical repentance, in relation to salvation, is changing your mind from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ.
It is crucially important that we understand repentance is not a work we do to earn salvation. No one can repent and come to God unless God pulls that person to Himself (John 6:44). Acts 5:31 and 11:18 indicate that repentance is something God gives—it is only possible because of His grace. No one can repent unless God grants repentance. All of salvation, including repentance and faith, is a result of God drawing us, opening our eyes, and changing our hearts. God's longsuffering leads us to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), as does His kindness (Romans 2:4).
While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, repentance unto salvation does result in works. It is impossible to truly and fully change your mind without that causing a change in action. In the Bible, repentance results in a change in behavior. That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). A person who has truly repented from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19-23; James 2:14-26). Repentance, properly defined, is necessary for salvation. Biblical repentance is changing your mind about Jesus Christ and turning to God in faith for salvation (Acts 3:19). Turning from sin is not the definition of repentance, but it is one of the results of genuine, faith-based repentance towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
Question: "Why do we need to confess our sins if they have already been forgiven (1 John 1:9)?"
Answer: The apostle Paul wrote, “To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:6-8). This forgiveness is referring to salvation, in which God has taken our sins and removed them from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). This is the judicial forgiveness that God gives us upon receiving Jesus Christ as Savior. All our past, present, and future sins are forgiven on a judicial basis, meaning that we will not suffer eternal judgment for our sins. We still often suffer consequences of sin while we are here on earth, however, which brings us to the question at hand.
The difference between Ephesians 1:6-8 and 1 John 1:9 is that John is dealing with what we call “relational,” or “familial,” forgiveness—like that of a father and a son. For example, if a son does something wrong to his father—falling short of his expectations or rules—the son has hindered his fellowship with his father. He remains the son of his father, but the relationship suffers. Their fellowship will be hindered until the son admits to his father that he has done wrong. It works the same way with God; our fellowship with Him is hindered until we confess our sin. When we confess our sin to God, the fellowship is restored. This is relational forgiveness.
“Positional” forgiveness, or judicial forgiveness, is that which is obtained by every believer in Christ. In our position as members of the body of Christ, we have been forgiven of every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit. The price paid by Christ on the cross has satisfied God’s wrath against sin, and no further sacrifice or payment is necessary. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it. Our positional forgiveness was obtained then and there.
Confession of sin will help to keep us from the discipline of the Lord. If we fail to confess sin, the discipline of the Lord is sure to come until we do confess it. As stated previously, our sins are forgiven at salvation (positional forgiveness), but our daily fellowship with God needs to stay in good standing (relational forgiveness). Proper fellowship with God cannot happen with unconfessed sin in our lives. Therefore, we need to confess our sins to God as soon as we are aware that we have sinned, in order to maintain close fellowship with God.
A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus.
- The crowd tells Jesus that Moses commanded that a woman
like this should be stoned to death.
- They ask Jesus what is the right thing to do.
- Jesus says, "go ahead... but let the person WITHOUT SIN
throw the first stone."
- Jesus stoops down to the ground and begins to draw in the
dirt with His finger.
- One by one...the crowd--oldest to the youngest--came and
dropped their stones and walked away.
- Then Jesus says to the woman, "Where are your accusers? Is
their not one person left to accuse you?"
- The woman answers, "No, my Lord."
- Jesus says, "Then neither do I, GO AND SIN NO MORE".
NOTE #1:
JESUS CANNOT AND DOES NOT LIE.
Question:
Does this woman have a chance at never sinning again?
Do you?
Could you?
If this adulterous woman was told by Jesus Christ to go and
sin no more...then she didn't sin again OR JESUS IS A LIAR.
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Question: If you accept and come to Jesus Christ can you sin
again after that point?
YES OR NO?
Answer: NO!!!
HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE?
GET READY FOR SOME TRUTH!
NOTE #2:
Once you have come to Jesus Christ, you can't sin anymore
because
HE HAS PAID FOR YOUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE SINS!
ANY SINS THAT YOU COMMIT AFTER ACCEPTING HIM ARE SINS
OF THE FLESH AND DIE WITH THE FLESH.
Question:
If I accept Jesus Christ, which of my sins are taken off of
me and placed on Jesus?
Answer:
ALL OF YOUR SINS PAST, PRESENT, AND THAT YOU WILL COMMIT
IN THE FUTURE!
Sins are of the flesh. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ,
then you still live in the flesh and commit sins of the flesh.
YOUR FLESH WILL DIE ONE DAY.
Coming to Jesus Christ or NOT coming to Jesus Christ
determines where your SPIRIT/SOUL will go!
If you come to Jesus Christ, then your sins are paid for by
Jesus' death on the cross and your soul goes to HIM.
IF NOT, YOUR FLESH AND SOUL STAY AND DIE TOGETHER ON THIS
EARTH WITH ALL OF THE WORLDLY SINS THAT YOU HAVE COMMITTED!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Question:
If you rob a bank, will you go to heaven?
Answer: Yes, if you have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ.
Question:
If you kill someone, is it possible to go to heaven?
Answer: Yes, if you have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ.
Question:
Do homosexuals and bi-sexuals get into heaven?
Answer: Yes, if they have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if they have not accepted Jesus Christ.
The bottom line is to run to Jesus Christ, accept Him with
all your heart and ask Him to forgive you and your sins!
Question:
Will I or will I not get into heaven?
Answer:
Must Jesus die again for your sins to be forgiven
or have you already been forgiven if you have
accepted Him. CAREFUL! ARE YOU REALLY HIS??
IF NOT-- YOU'RE DEAD, IF SO-- YOU'RE FORGIVEN!
Romans 5: 8-11
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,we
shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
There is another way into heaven...
adhere to the 10 commandments
but don't mess up...EVEN ONCE!
Matthew 5:20
"For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
If you are still living by the 10 Commandments (The Law),
then you are going to die by The Law.
You break 10 commandment law all the time, every day!
Everyone has, everyone will, and everyone does
all of the time!
If your relying on The Law (and /or your good works)
YOU'RE DEAD!
Everyone who does this is DEAD!
THE DEAD ARE JUST THAT..DEAD, THEY WILL ALWAYS BE DEAD!
HERE IS YOUR CHANCE NOT TO DIE!
John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:
•Romans 7:4
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
•Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held;
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
•Romans 7:8
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
•Romans 8:10
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
•Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
If we don't learn to worship Him in SPIRIT, we have no means
to worship Him at all.
Our final comments. . .
We do have a strong position in regards to committing sin.
Some would say that this paper makes it sound like sin
and wrong acts are O.K.
WE ARE NOT SAYING THAT!
BUT, THE PEOPLE AND THOSE CHURCH'S GETTING HUNG UP ON SIN
NEED TO GET THEIR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!
YOU AND ME GET INTO HEAVEN BY MEANS OF:
1) Living perfectly by adhering to the 10 Commandments
PERFECTLY.
(This is Old Testament and we have failed miserably,
how about you?)
2) Accepting (or FAITH"ing") in Jesus Christ and asking
for His forgiveness.
(This is New Testamnet and His burdens are light. HALLELUJAH!!)
OUR STANCE ON SIN (AND DOING THE RIGHT THING) IS THAT YOU
SHOULD ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING REGARDLESS OF THE
CIRCUMSTANCE,WITHOUT QUESTION, AND WITHOUT LOOKING FOR
ADMIRATION.
JUST KNOW THAT IF YOU FAIL, IT DOES NOT KEEP YOU FROM
GETTING INTO HEAVEN. NOT ACCEPTING JESUS CHRIST IS WORSE
THAN ANYWRONG DOING THAT YOU COULD DO ON THIS EARTH!!!
IF YOU ARE LIVING OUT OF THE FLESH AND LIVING "WORLDLY",
THEN THE SINS OF THIS WORLD WILL LOOK VERY APPEALING,
AND YOU WILL ENGAGE IN WRONGDOING.
IF YOU LIVE SPIRITUALLY THEN THESE WORLDLY SINS WILL NOT
SEEM SO APPEALING AND YOU WILL NOT FIND YOURSELF
ENGAGING IN WRONGDOING.
INTERPRETING OUR STATEMENTS TO MEAN THAT BY ACCEPTING
JESUS CHRIST IS THE TICKET TO HEAVEN AND YOU CAN NOW
GO AND COMMIT ALL OF THE WRONGDOING YOU WANT IS FOOLISH...
CHANCES ARE YOU HAVE NOT ACCEPTED JESUS CHRIST AT ALL!
BUT TO GO AND PREACH AND TEACH PEOPLE THAT THEY MUST LIVE
"RIGHTEOUSLY" IN ORDER TO GET INTO HEAVEN IS WRONG AND
IS NOT THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY!!
THESE PEOPLE NEED TO PIPE UP!
The Message of Jesus Christ and Christianity
OR
The Good News of the Gospels
IS
1.GOD IS NOT AGAINST YOU.
2.GOD SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO PAY FOR ALL OF YOUR SINS.
3."YOU ARE WRONG, I LOVE YOU, I DIED AND PAID FOR YOUR
SINS, MY BURDENS ARE LIGHT....FOLLOW ME!"
John 3: 16-21
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son,that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does
not beleive is condemned already, because he has not
beleived in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not
come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds
may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
We are told that Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”, meaning that Satan will try to convince us that God could never love us. We need to recognize those thoughts as lies and instead choose to believe what God says. What God says about us in His Word (the Bible) is truer than anything we could think or feel. Jesus said that those who build their lives on His word are those whose lives stand strong and secure, able to weather anything in life (see Matthew 7:24-27).
If you’ve asked God to forgive you and to come into your life — you are forgiven!!! His word says so. Thank Him for His forgiveness and begin to rejoice in your secure relationship with Him. He is able to change areas of your life that don’t line up with His desire for you. 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord
So, what are the terms of the New Covenant for Christians if not the Decalogue? What constitutes the will of God in the New Covenant so we may know what God requires of us? Where do we as New Covenant believers go to find out what God's will is for our lives? Are we justified in bringing the Old Covenant Decalogue over into the New Covenant making that the basis of our Christian conduct? Are we justified in bringing Moses over into the New Covenant and making him the instructor of God's New Covenant people? In the light of the above the answer to these questions must be a definite ‘No' because the New Testament not only teaches us that Moses and the Torah have come to an end but that Christ and "the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2) have replaced them. On the mount of transfiguration God Himself declared from heaven that Jesus was the One to supersede Moses. He said, "This is my Son…listen to him" (Luke 9:35)
Yet, as we have seen, Puritan-Reformed theology and some other denominations teach that the Ten Commandments are still the rule of life for the New Covenant believer. They say that Christ structures our faith but Moses structures our ethics. Thus do they go to Christ for grace but return to Moses for ethics. This understanding is clearly written in their creeds. But we have also seen that the Ten Commandments are the law of Moses or "the words of the (Mosaic) covenant" (Exod. 34:28; cf. Deut. 4:13) and as such belong to the old redemptive history that proceeded from the Exodus.
On the other hand, the law of Christ belongs to the new redemptive history that proceeds from Calvary. The New Testament does not therefore send the Spirit filled believer back to Moses to learn his duty. Nowhere is he exhorted to study the Torah as his rule of life. On the contrary, he is shown how God's redemptive act in Christ is to determine the way he is to conduct himself in all human relationships. This is clearly seen in Paul's epistles. In these he firstly reminds the believers of God's saving grace in Christ. Then, in the light of the Gospel, he exhorts them to holy living by means of specific commands.
God's will versus Law
There can be no doubt that under the New Covenant a fundamental transformation has taken place in regards to the question of ethics. If anyone is in Christ, "the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul gives clear evidence of this in that when he deals with the question of norms for the Christian life, he very seldom refers to the law, and then only in a secondary way (1 Cor. 9:7-12; 14:21, 34). In the ethical chapters of the letter to the Romans (chaps. 12 ff.), the term "law" does not occur except once (13:8-10), and there Paul substitutes for it the command to love as its New Covenant equivalent.
Neither is there any mention of the law in Paul's letters to the Thessalonians or in 2 Corinthians. Instead, he speaks in his admonitions to the believers of "the will of God" (1 Thes. 4:3; 5:18; 2 Cor. 8:5). In these passages he seems to make it a point to avoid using the term "law." Thus in Romans 12:2, he sums up the whole body of Christian ethics as a matter of "testing and proving what the will of God is" (cf. Col. 1:9). Synonymous with the will of God is the notion of what is "acceptable to God" or "pleasing to God" (Rom. 12:1; Col. 3:20).
In Ephesians the law appears only as "the law with its commandments and regulations" which Christ has abolished (2:15). Elsewhere in the epistle we find references, not to the law but to "the will of God" (5:17; 6:6). In the book of Hebrews, similarly, the term "law" is used only to refer to the Old Covenant law system. As for Christians, they are to do "the will of God" (10:36; 13:21).
So, in practically all the passages thus far that deal with the question of norms for the Christian life, the term "law" is avoided. The implications of this are clear: a distinction is being made between God's New Covenant "will" on the one hand, and the Old Covenant "law" on the other.
Commandments versus Law
As regards this matter of Christian ethics the apostle John is even more consistent and terminologically explicit. In his Gospel the term "law" always signifies the Law of Moses known as the Jewish Torah. On the other hand, God's will (or Christ's will) for the believers is invariably designated by the term "commandment," never by "law." John teaches that the Law of Moses points to Christ (Jn 1:45) and that it is superseded by Christ as the final and supreme revelation of the will of God (Jn. 1:1-18). For this reason the supreme rule of life to the Christian community is NOT the Old Covenant Law (or Torah) but the Word that comes directly from God to his Son in the commandments of Jesus (see especially John 10:18; 13:34 and repeatedly in chapters 14 and 15).
As stated above, the apostle John always refers to the Law as the Law of the Jews. On the lips of Jesus the Law invariably becomes your Law, their Law, i.e. the Law of the Jews (Jn. 8:17; 10:34; 15:25). John puts similar words in the mouth of Pilate (Jn 18:31), of Nicodemus (Jn 7:51) and of the Jews themselves (Jn 19:7). In this way does John associate the law with the Jews and the Jews only - and correctly so because the Scriptures are clear that it was given only to the Jews (Deut. 4:13; 5:2, 3).
Therefore, John never uses the law as a rule of life for the Christian community, because Christ, to whom the Law pointed (Jn 1:45), has come. He has superseded the Law as the ultimate revelation of God's will (Jn 1:1-18). To now consider the law as the ultimate revelation of the will of God for us as Christians means to have misunderstood the function of the law or never to have understood it at all.
There is no question that Christians are obligated to do the will of God, not as revealed in the law, but as revealed in the person of Christ. He is indeed the Word of God incarnate. In the words of Jesus the will of God, which Christians are obligated to do, is not "the law" but the "command" or "the commandments" that come to us through Jesus. We see this clearly in the following statements of Jesus: "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (Jn. 13:34). "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (Jn. 14:15). "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me" (Jn. 14:21). "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love" (Jn. 15:10). "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). "You are my friends if you do what I command" (Jn. 15:14). Thus, the commandment of Jesus that his disciples keep is NOT the Law of Moses; it is the command to love one another as he has loved them.
We also see this in the relationship between Jesus and his Father. Jesus states: "For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life" (Jn. 12:49, 50). "But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me" (Jn.14:31). "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love" (Jn. 15:10). Thus, the commandment of the Father that Jesus kept is NOT the Law of Moses; it is the divine command that Jesus lived by. This governed the divine mission of his life.
Likewise in John's epistles, the term "law" is entirely lacking. The same is true in the book of Revelation where the term "law" does not occur at all. Christians are designated as "those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus" (Rev. 12:17). John does speak, just once, of "keeping the law," but here he is referring to the Jews: "Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law" (Jn. 7:19). The phrase "keeping the law" is never used by John with reference to New Covenant believers.
We see then that John makes a strict terminological and theological distinction between law and commandment. The law was given by Moses (Jn 7:19) or by God through Moses (Jn 1:17), and it was given only to the Jews. But now God gives – both to his Son and through him – the commandments that constitute his will for New Covenant believers. John therefore avoids using the term "law" for the will of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ because of its tendency to become impersonal and legalistic.
Such a connotation cannot do justice to the goal of supreme love to God and impartial love to each other which Jesus set forth as the centre of God's will for His children. For this reason John uses the word "command" or "commandment" instead because the believer lives in a faith union with Christ who kept his Father's commandments and because the believer keeps Christ's commandments by reflecting that same kind of sacrificial love in relation to others. But because Christians are still saddled with the sinful nature in this life, the divine command to love needs divine guidance. This guidance is found in all the concrete exhortations (commands) given us by the apostles in their epistles.
In view of the above, it is of fundamental importance that a theological distinction be drawn between "law" and "commandment" in terms of Christian ethics. We see in John's Gospel and epistles as well as his Revelation a consistent pattern, namely, the fact that the "law", as Paul delineates it in contrast to the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, does NOT constitute the ultimate revelation of God's will for his New Covenant people. Rather, the law must be seen as a limited and temporary form of God's will given to His Old covenant people Israel through Moses – a form that has been replaced by Christ and "the law (commandments) of Christ" (Gal. 6:2) under the New Covenant. This distinction between "law" and "commandments" as regards God's will is therefore of fundamental importance for a proper understanding of the relationship between the Old and New Covenants and God's dealings with his people in each of these dispensations.
The end of the law. The law not only had a beginning and a specific purpose, it also had an end:
a) Concerning this end Paul says, "It was added…until the Seed…had come" (Gal. 3:19). Its purpose and function was therefore but temporal from the time it was added till the Seed had come. Now Paul also tells us what he means by the Seed: "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds', meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed', meaning one person, who is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). According to Paul the seed is Christ. We may therefore substitute the word "Christ" for "the seed" and read, "The law was added…until Christ…had come" (Gal. 3:19). So, when Christ finally came, the dispensation of the Law (Moses, or the Old Covenant) had fulfilled its function in history. Thus could Paul say that "Christ is the end of the law…" (Rom. 10:4).
b) The end of the Law can also be seen by the fact that the Decalogue belongs to the Old Covenant. This is plainly stated in Deuteronomy 4:13: "He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets." The question that needs to now be asked is whether the Old Covenant is still in force or not? If not, then neither is the Decalogue that constituted the heart of the Old Covenant (Exo. 34:28; cf. Deut. 4:13) with the Sabbath as its seal (Exo. 34:16, 17). In 2 Corinthians 3:5-14 we find the express mention of the Ten Commandments in connection with the abrogation of the Old Covenant. Throughout this passage, Paul depicts a clear-cut contrast between the Old and New Covenants. He clearly states that the Old Covenant, "the ministry that brought death", was that "which was engraved in letters on stone," i.e. the Ten Commandments. He then declares that this "was fading away" because "in Christ is it taken away."
c) The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews also confirms that the Law has come to an end. He states: "For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law" (Heb. 7:12). The law (or Torah) was an integral part of the Old Covenant that God made with the nation Israel at Sinai. This included the Decalogue that was placed inside the ark of the (Old) Covenant. Thus, when the Old Covenant priesthood was changed (annulled), being superseded by the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ (Heb. 7:15-17), this of necessity would change (annul) everything belonging to it, including the entire Old Covenant law system. So, with the abrogation of the Old Covenant is the annulment of the Old Covenant priesthood and with the annulment of the Old Covenant priesthood is the annulment of the Old Covenant law system (the Torah) including the Decalogue.
d) The end of the law is further confirmed by the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) that was convened to decide the relationship of Gentile Christians to the law. The apostles there recognized the leading of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28a) and unanimously decided that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised and keep the law. It decided that only four items from the law (three ‘ceremonial' and one ‘moral') would be imposed upon the Gentiles (who were never under the law) in the interest of a peaceful co-existence between them and Jewish Christians who wanted to retain their culture and continue under the law as a way of life (Acts 15:20). So the purpose of this decision was purely pragmatic while Jewish and Gentile believers worshipped together. Gentile Christians were not burdened with anything else from the law (Acts 15:28, 29). In view of this we must not therefore isolate circumcision in this context as if that was the sole problem at the time as some have done.
Protestantism and some other denominations a distinction is made between what is called ‘the Law of God' and ‘the Law of Moses' - the former referring to the Ten Commandments and the latter to the so-called ‘ceremonial law,' that is, the laws concerning ordinances, offerings, feast days, the dietary laws, civil laws and the laws pertaining to the tabernacle and the priesthood. But this distinction is cosmetic because the Scriptures do not make such a distinction between the Law of God and the Law of Moses. For example:
a) In Nehemiah we read, "…the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel…They read from the Book of the Law of God…to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God…" (Nehemiah 8:1, 8; 10:29). According to Nehemiah the ‘Book of the Law of Moses' is the same as the ‘Book of the Law of God'. In other words, the law given to Israel by God is the same as the law given by Moses because God gave His law to Israel through Moses.
b) Luke 2:24 says, "…and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeon's.'" Where does the Bible speak of the offering mentioned in this verse? In Leviticus 12:8 - that part of the Old Testament that Protestantism calls ‘the law of Moses'. Yet Luke declares that this offering is commanded "in the law of the Lord." Clearly, the law of Moses and the law of the Lord are one and the same. (Cf. Mark 7:9, 10; John 7:19).
c) In Leviticus 19 God again confirms His Law to Israel through Moses. The Ten Commandments are repeated in principle: 1st commandment (v. 32); 2nd (v. 4); 3rd (v. 12); 4th (v. 30); 5th (v. 3); 6th (v. 17); 7th (v. 29); 8th (v. 13); 9th (v. 11); 10th (v. 35). Mingled amongst these are commandments about sacrifices (v. 5); harvest (v. 9); clothing (v. 19); priests (v. 22); first-fruits (v. 23); spirit mediums (v. 31); Gentiles (v. 34), etc. Therefore, the distinction made between the Law of God (moral) and the Law of Moses (ceremonial) is superficial and not substantiated by the Scriptures. "The law" embraces "the whole law" (Gal. 3:10; 5:3), i.e. the Torah.
It is quite clear from these examples that the "Law of Moses" and "the Law of the Lord" are used interchangeably in the Scriptures. The Decalogue is an integral part of the legal code or Torah given to Israel. This constituted God's will for them under the Old covenant. According to Jewish scholars the Torah contained 613 commandments pertaining to civil, dietary, sacrificial, and moral issues. These commandments constitute a unit referred to in the Scriptures as "the law of Moses" (Neh. 8:1; Mal. 4:4; Acts 15:5) or just "Moses" (Mark 7:10), "the law of the Lord" (Neh. 9:3; Luke 2:22-24), "the written code" (Rom. 2:27, 29; 7:6), "the written code, with its regulations" (Col. 2:14), and "the law with its commandments and regulations" (Eph. 2:15).
But the most common designation for the law of Moses is simply "the law" – called the Torah in the Old Testament (Neh. 8:9, 13, 14) and the nomos in the New Testament (Luke 2:22-27). When the New Testament writers speak of the law, they invariably speak of the Torah, i.e. the law of Moses. Therefore, to make a distinction between the Law of Moses and the Law of God for our own convenience and to prove our point is man-made and artificial.
In Deuteronomy 18:18-22 (NIV), we read:
Jeremiah 23:30 (NIV), we read:
“Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.”
You should read from verse 25 to the end of the chapter to get the full warning from the Lord. At the end of the chapter, He warns of the disgrace that will come to false prophets.
Did Ellen White steal words from other authors? The answer to this question is a resounding “Yes.” This fact has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. A number of books have been written on this subject. For Patriarchs and Prophets, she stole text from Edersheim’s Bible History. For Desire of Ages, she stole text from The Life of Christ by William Hanna, The Great Teacher by John Harris, and several other authors. For Steps to Christ, she stole text from Night Scenes in the Bible by Daniel March, God’s Will Known and Done by Almon Underwood, and others. For the Great Controversy, she copied text from Life Incidents by none other than her husband, James White, who also plagiarized. He copied the text of his book from the writings of J. N. Andrews, Uriah Smith, and Sylvester Bliss! It is not known whether James White had permission to use his colleagues’ text or if Ellen White had permission to use James White’s text. What is known is that she proclaimed herself the author and received royalties from it. It has been proven that besides having stolen most of the material for her most well-known books, many of the health remedies that she claimed to have gotten from God had been used for decades before she wrote about them.
A famous quote of Ellen White, found in numerous books of hers, and often used to make people obey the rules of the church, was lifted from The Great Teacher, by John Harris. It says, “Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard.” (See Acts of the Apostles, p. 12.)
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.
You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
Besides the predictions of Christ’s return in 1844 and twice in 1845, Ellen White made a number of other predictions that did not come true. One notable one occurred in 1849, when a pestilence broke out. She wrote in the Present Truth (the forerunner of the Adventist Review) that this pestilence would take many lives. She predicted that “soon the dead and dying will be all around us.” Not long after the pestilence began, it ended.
In 1850, Ellen White wrote in the book, Early Writings, about the nearness of Christ’s coming. On page 67, she predicted that the
21Gods gerechtigheid, waarvan de Wet en de Profeten al getuigen, wordt nu ook buiten de wet zichtbaar: 22God schenkt vrijspraak aan allen die in Jezus Christus geloven. En er is geen onderscheid. 23Iedereen heeft gezondigd en ontbeert de nabijheid van God; 24en iedereen wordt uit genade, die niets kost, door God als een rechtvaardige aangenomen omdat hij ons door Christus Jezus heeft verlost. 25-26Hij is door God aangewezen om door zijn dood het middel tot verzoening te zijn voor wie gelooft. Hiermee bewijst God dat hij rechtvaardig is, want in zijn verdraagzaamheid gaat hij voorbij aan de zonden die in het verleden zijn begaan. Hij wil ons nu, in deze tijd, zijn gerechtigheid bewijzen: hij laat ons zien dat hij rechtvaardig is door iedereen vrij te spreken die in Jezus gelooft.
27Kunnen wij ons dan nog ergens op laten voorstaan? Dat is uitgesloten. En door welke wet komt dat? Door de wet die eist dat u hem naleeft? Nee, door de wet die eist dat u gelooft. 28Ik heb u er immers op gewezen dat een mens wordt vrijgesproken door te geloven, en niet door de wet na te leven. 29Is God soms alleen de God van de Joden en niet die van de heidenen? Zeker ook die van de heidenen, 30want er is maar één God, en hij zal zowel besnedenen als onbesnedenen op grond van hun geloof als rechtvaardigen aannemen. 31Stellen wij door het geloof de wet buiten werking? Integendeel, wij bevestigen de wet juist.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So there are good works that we SHOULD walk in. Not to gain salvation. Not to maintain salvation but because we SHOULD walk in them and grace, not law, teaches us what we should be doing, and how we should be doing it. We are taught by grace, not by the Law. We are saved by grace and we should also walk in that very same grace, not legalism.
Now all of this, this justification Paul talks about in Romans, is BEFORE Romans 3:25. Anybody in their right mind, if they believe the bible SHOULD get the picture. Salvation is NOT something you can gain for yourself and it is NOT something that you MAINTAIN for yourself. God has not given us a salvation maintenance program. The very people who teach that you can LOSE your salvation also teach that you can GAIN it by your own efforts and MAINTAIN it by your own goodness, and they ALWAYS go outside of the doctrine to the body of Christ, outside of Romans through Philemon to dabble around with the works of the Law in order to try to prove it. They are ignorant men with blinded minds, religiously speaking. Romans 3:25 is a problem for them because of their blindness:
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
And they jump on that verse with both feet. They totally disregard EVERYTHING that Paul has already said, and everything that he goes on to say, about Abraham, about Adam, about the ONE ACT of two men. The one act of Adam was disobedience unto death. The one act of Christ was obedience unto death. So they claim that this verse, Romans 3:25, proves that only your PAST sins have been forgiven. They just will not clear their minds and THINK. When God SET FORTH Jesus Christ, when did He do it? It was AD 33. In the year AD 33, if the calendar is correct, Christ died on the cross. The bible says that He died for our sins. The bible says that God made him to be sin for us. It says that God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself NOT imputing our sins to us but instead imputing them to Jesus Christ, making him to be sin FOR US. So IN AD 33, when Christ died FOR our sins, how many of YOUR sins were in the past? None of them! All of your sins were in the future. Your whole life and everything that you will ever do or not do, everything was all in the future, over 1900 years in the future, when Christ died FOR our sins. So just how many of your sins do you think that he DIDN'T die for?
How could you possibly go back and change history. How, no matter WHAT you do in the future, no matter WHAT you have done and have not done all of your life, HOW can you unravel time and unwind history and go back and get back there and have Christ NOT to have died for some of your sins. He is not talking about your past sins. He is talking about the sins of the past. He is talking about the sins which were covered by the blood on the mercy seat. He is talking about sins which were passed over because of the blood sacrifice in Israel. He is talking to Gentiles who call themselves Jews and who boast in the law. They know the law. They know what took place with the animal sacrifices by the Levitical priesthood. He is saying that Jesus Christ IS that propitiation. He is the fulfillment of what took place in the temple, behind the veil, at the mercy seat. In other words all those sacrifices under the Law of Moses were a type of and a foreshadowing of what Christ did. That's the very definition of the word:
Propitiation: Strong’s Concordance says:
It is an expiatory place or thing, that is an ATONING victim. Specifically, the lid of the ark in the temple, the mercy seat.
In other words, when the High Priest went behind the veil with the blood of that dead animal he sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat which was on the lid of the ark, in which were the tablets of stone containing the law, and it was a covering, it was an atonement for Israel's sins. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest did that. What Paul is saying to these legalistic Gentiles is that God was JUST in passing over Israel's sins. He was right. He was righteous in doing that. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. In other words, the Law was OUR (that's Israel's) schoolmaster to lead us to Christ:
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
So Jesus Christ, Himself, is the legal and justifiable means whereby God could rightly “pass over” Israel’s sins of the past. He is the propitiation. In other words God could pass over sins, of Israel, in the past andHe is shown to be just in doing that, because He provided the ultimate sacrifice. But more than that, Paul says that by Him we have received THE atonement. Not an atonement. Not a temporary, once a year covering of past sins, starting all over until the next year. But THE ATONEMENT.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
So I hope by this discussion you understand a little more about the Gentiles called Jews in Rome and how Paul is bringing them out of the Olive Tree. He is bringing them from their standing by faith IN Christ, to an understanding of the faith OF Christ, and giving them the spiritual gift of the gospel of Christ.
Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Romans 16:26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
Romans 16:27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
FORBEARANCE: is Patiently waiting for the payment of a Debt.
As we have taught, the word "REMISSION" (as used in Romans 3:25) refers to the passing over of a debt. This leads us right into the word "FORBEARANCE," for the verse reads:
"WHOM GOD HATH SET FORTH TO BE A PROPITIATION THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD, TO DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE PAST , THROUGH THE FORBEARANCE OF GOD."
What Romans 3:25 is saying is that God set Jesus Christ forth to be a satisfying sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins, which declares two (2) truths:
1. It is by the propitiation of Jesus Christ that God declares the Old Testament Saints Righteous.
Notice the phrase "SINS THAT ARE PAST." These are not our past sins but the sins of those who lived and died before the Lord Jesus Christ ever came into this world. Now that He has come and made a satisfying payment for all of mankind's sins, God can now declare those Old Testament Believers righteous. Before Jesus Christ died, God instructed them to offer an animal sacrifice for their sins. But as we learned in our last study, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Romans 3:25 now informs us that from the time of Adam until Christ, God was passing over the Old Testament Believer's sins, patiently waiting for the time when Jesus Christ would come and actually pay off their debt of sin. Now that he has accomplished, God can declare them righteous.
It is like when we buy a new car on credit. We find the car we want to purchase and sign the papers applying for a loan. After checking our credit and finding it good, we are handed the keys to the car and we drive off. In these days, it is 4 to 5 years before that car is actually paid off.
In Genesis 3:15, God promised to take care of man's sin debt. Since His word is good credit, the Old Testament Believers were saved back then even though their sins were not paid off until hundreds or thousands of years later by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The second truth which "propitiation" declares is found in Romans 3:26, which says in part:
"TO DECLARE, I SAY AT THIS TIME HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS . . ."
2. It is by the propitiation of Jesus Christ that God declares the New Testament Saints Righteous.
We have taken note of the phrase "SINS THAT ARE PAST" in verse 25. Now notice the phrase "AT THIS TIME" in verse 26. In verse 25 we have seen the basis through which God can declare the Believers of old righteous. Verse 26 now declares that same basis to be true today. God declares the Believers--who live after the cross--righteous as well. The only difference is that we now know how God can be just in saving believing sinners, whereas those before this age did not know.
GOD IS (BOTH) JUST, AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THEM WHICH BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST!
Since the one time full payment and satisfying sacrifice for sins has been made, there is no longer any need for animal sacrifices, nor any works on man's part to be offered to God for his sins. Roman's 3:27,28 concludes the whole matter. Since our salvation was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ's work on the Cross and not by our works and since God declares the believing sinner righteous upon faith in the blood of Christ, then there can be no boasting on our part. We are just sinners saved by grace. The conclusion is:
"...A MAN IS JUSTIFIED (DECLARED RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD) BY FAITH WITHOUT THE DEEDS OF THE LAW!"
PRACTICAL POINT:
Are You a Believer? A conclusion has been made in the Scriptures. It is not in agreement with many churches, religions, or denominations, but it is the truth because it's God's conclusion. The Bible says: (Romans 3:4)
"LET GOD BE TRUE, BUT EVERY MAN A LIAR"
Make sure you're not trusting in your religion, church, your baptism, your upbringing, your background, morals, ethics, or your goodness to save you, because they can't. Trust only in Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary to save you. It's the ONLY WAY!
Notice from the picture above that for a person to turn to Christ in Heaven is to turn one's back on sin and hell. Does a believer have to repent to be saved? Absolutely! But it's a repentance of the heart (a turn-around of our heart) concerning Jesus Christ and our sins. Whereas before we did not believe on Christ, now we do! Whereas before we lived in sin with no conviction, now we are convicted for our sins. It is uncommon that new believers simply clean up their act right away; it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work in one's heart. It's a lifetime process of growing. We grow with the milk of God's Word (1st Peter 2:2).
We are all woeful sinners (Romans 3:10,23). To be saved, a person MUST realize their sinful condition. It is NOT enough simply to commit your life to God or decide to turn over a new leaf. This is self-righteousness and a false gospel. To be saved, you must confess to God (not to men) that you are a wicked sinner in need of forgiveness, and then believe on Jesus Christ to forgive you (Acts 10:43).
What a Wonderful Saviour!
Do you need to give up your sins to be saved? No; but you must acknowledge them for what they are, wicked sins. You see friend, most people refuse to acknowledged their sinful condition. I've heard a young woman say that since Adam and Eve were naked in Eden that pornography must be acceptable with God. She is woefully wrong. Some people justify immoral sex on the basis that God made the body beautiful. This is wrong thinking. Others seek to justify smoking cigarettes on the basis that it grows from God's earth, so it must be acceptable. This is of course absurd. Poison Ivy also grows naturally, should we rub it all over our bodies? Many people attempt to rationalize their sins; but God's Law never changes. Pornography is of the Devil. Substance abuse is sinful. Adultery is sinful. The Bible (Law of God) condemns our sins and we have no excuses.
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." —Romans 3:20
Do you have to give up your sins to be saved? No, just your unbelief. I get upset when people teach "Lordship salvation." What is that? Lordship salvation is the false doctrine that you must make Christ the "Lord" of your life to be saved, that you must repent and depart from sin. That is impossible! There is no such thing as a believer who does not commit sin. We are all woeful sinners. If I have to give up a certain amount of sin to be saved, then how much do I have to give up? Just because a person accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour does not mean they are above sin. As a matter of fact, getting saved is just the start of a lifelong process. Try as hard as you may, you are going to walk in the flesh at times and sin. I have often said, "Christians at best are people, and people at best are sinners." We can walk in the Spirit at any given time; but the fact is that we're not always going to do so because we are sinners.
answer is No! You do NOT have to stop sinning to be saved. No one can stop sinning (Romans 3:23)! No one can live above sin—no one (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. You do NOT have to give up anything to be saved except your UNBELIEF. However, you DO need to realize your sinful condition and "confess" (or admit) to God that you are a sinner, deserving of hell. This is Biblical repentance, i.e., "a change of mind."
To be saved, a sinner simply needs to become "guilty" before God (Romans 3:19). Repentance is NOT forsaking one's actual sins, for that would be self-righteousness? Repentance is acknowledging that I am guilty of violating God's holy Law, and that I deserve to be punished in Hellfire for my own sins. Thus, realizing one's need for a Saviour. This is exactly what Galatians 3:24 teaches, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
A person who is convicted about their sin won't have the joyous attitude that they can continue living in sin and still go to Heaven. I would greatly doubt the salvation of anyone who rejoices that they can continue living in sin. This is one of the favorite arguments of Lordship Salvationists. The truth is that God holds believers accountable for their words and actions (Romans 14:12; 1st Peter 4:17; 2nd Corinthians 5:10).
Repentance is a turn of mind. When you turn to Christ for forgiveness, you have just turned your back on sin.
What is Biblical Repentance?
Repentance is a turn-around of mind! Whereas we were heading towards hell-fire and destruction, we realized our sinful condition and turned to the loving Saviour Who shed His precious blood for our many sins (1st Peter 1:18,19). Repentance is a change of heart. Before we were saved, sin was magnified in our life while Jesus was diminished. Now that we've been born-again, Christ is magnified and sin is diminished. As we grow in the Lord, this trend should continue to where Jesus becomes everything to us, and sin nothing.
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3, 5)
“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)
“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
These verses are quite clear about the issue: before forgiveness can occur, the condition of repentance must be met. Call me crazy, but I don’t think future sins are forgiven. If they were, why does Scripture say they won’t be forgiven unless they are confessed? HAAA DEZE GAST IS BLIND! REPENTANCE BETEKENT NIET STOPPEN MET ZONDIGEN MAAR EEN VERANDERING VAN HOUDING!
Consider these Scriptures:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:21-25)
“For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)
These verses make it clear that only our past sins are forgiven (the ones we have repented of).
Dr Charles Stanley writes:
“God forgave us long before we ever asked for it. He pardons us for sins we will never confess (1 John 1:9).”
9 But he said to me, j“My grace is sufficient for you, for kmy power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that lthe power of Christ may rest upon me.
forgive any sin. The doctrine of atonement is what explains salvation and forgiveness of sin. God imputed Christ’s righteousness to those who humbly ask for forgiveness of sin (Isaiah 53:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He paid the full price for our sin, and believers are forgiven fully for every sin they commit—past, present, and future. There is also daily forgiveness as we confess our sins and forsake them for our sanctification. If you compare any sin to the murder of Jesus, it pales in comparison, yet Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
The concepts of salvation and forgiveness are inextricably linked. Fortunately, God’s grace is sufficient for any and all sin, whatever sin you put in the blank. Receiving forgiveness is up to the individual. That is the first issue; will you receive the salvation (forgiveness of sin) that Christ is offering? If the answer is "yes," then you are fully forgiven of all debt of sin (Acts 13:38-39). This forgiveness comes by faith in Jesus and God’s grace alone, not by works or good deeds (Romans 3:20,22). Salvation begins by humbly acknowledging that we will never be good enough to get into heaven on our own merit and that we need forgiveness. Accepting Jesus Christ means believing that His death and resurrection paid the penalty for all sin ever committed and that it is sufficient to cover all sin (2 Corinthians 12:9).
So, if you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has already forgiven all your sins. If you have not, confess your sins to God, and He will cleanse you and restore you to fellowship with Him (1 John 1:8-9). Even with forgiveness, you may still experience feelings of guilt. Feeling guilty over sin is actually a natural response of our conscience, and it is there to remind us not to repeat sinful patterns. Understanding that Jesus is fully capable of forgiving any measure of sin is the hope of our salvation. Understanding forgiveness is the cure for guilty feelings.
Knowing that forgiveness is really a beautiful, graceful gift from a God who loves us allows us to see how truly wonderful He is. When we contemplate our own sin and how wretched and unworthy of forgiveness we are, it becomes clear that God is loving, compassionate, and worthy of our worship. Our sinful pride that resists asking for forgiveness is what stands between us and a relationship with a caring Savior. But for those who ask for forgiveness, they can believe that Jesus is sufficient and eager to forgive and save them from their sin, and they will ultimately enter into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).
Question: "What is justification?"
Answer: Simply put, to justify is to declare righteous, to make one right with God. Justification is God’s declaring those who receive Christ to be righteous, based on Christ’s righteousness being imputed to the accounts of those who receive Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Though justification as a principle is found throughout Scripture, the main passage describing justification in relation to believers is Romans 3:21-26: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
We are justified, declared righteous, at the moment of our salvation. Justification does not make us righteous, but rather pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice covers our sin, allowing God to see us as perfect and unblemished. Because as believers we are in Christ, God sees Christ's own righteousness when He looks at us. This meets God's demands for perfection; thus, He declares us righteous—He justifies us.
Romans 5:18-19 sums it up well: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” It is because of justification that the peace of God can rule in our lives. It is because of justification that believers can have assurance of salvation. It is the fact of justification that enables God to begin the process of sanctification—the process by which God makes us in reality what we already are positionally. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
Question: "What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?"
Answer: Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance. In the Bible, the word repent means “to change one’s mind.” The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions (Luke 3:8-14; Acts 3:19). Acts 26:20 declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.
What, then, is the connection between repentance and salvation? The Book of Acts seems to especially focus on repentance in regards to salvation (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). To repent, in relation to salvation, is to change your mind in regard to Jesus Christ. In Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2), he concludes with a call for the people to repent (Acts 2:38). Repent from what? Peter is calling the people who rejected Jesus (Acts 2:36) to change their minds about Him, to recognize that He is indeed “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Peter is calling the people to change their minds from rejection of Christ as the Messiah to faith in Him as both Messiah and Savior.
Repentance and faith can be understood as “two sides of the same coin.” It is impossible to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior without first changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. Whether it is repentance from willful rejection or repentance from ignorance or disinterest, it is a change of mind. Biblical repentance, in relation to salvation, is changing your mind from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ.
It is crucially important that we understand repentance is not a work we do to earn salvation. No one can repent and come to God unless God pulls that person to Himself (John 6:44). Acts 5:31 and 11:18 indicate that repentance is something God gives—it is only possible because of His grace. No one can repent unless God grants repentance. All of salvation, including repentance and faith, is a result of God drawing us, opening our eyes, and changing our hearts. God's longsuffering leads us to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), as does His kindness (Romans 2:4).
While repentance is not a work that earns salvation, repentance unto salvation does result in works. It is impossible to truly and fully change your mind without that causing a change in action. In the Bible, repentance results in a change in behavior. That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). A person who has truly repented from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19-23; James 2:14-26). Repentance, properly defined, is necessary for salvation. Biblical repentance is changing your mind about Jesus Christ and turning to God in faith for salvation (Acts 3:19). Turning from sin is not the definition of repentance, but it is one of the results of genuine, faith-based repentance towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
Question: "Why do we need to confess our sins if they have already been forgiven (1 John 1:9)?"
Answer: The apostle Paul wrote, “To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:6-8). This forgiveness is referring to salvation, in which God has taken our sins and removed them from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). This is the judicial forgiveness that God gives us upon receiving Jesus Christ as Savior. All our past, present, and future sins are forgiven on a judicial basis, meaning that we will not suffer eternal judgment for our sins. We still often suffer consequences of sin while we are here on earth, however, which brings us to the question at hand.
The difference between Ephesians 1:6-8 and 1 John 1:9 is that John is dealing with what we call “relational,” or “familial,” forgiveness—like that of a father and a son. For example, if a son does something wrong to his father—falling short of his expectations or rules—the son has hindered his fellowship with his father. He remains the son of his father, but the relationship suffers. Their fellowship will be hindered until the son admits to his father that he has done wrong. It works the same way with God; our fellowship with Him is hindered until we confess our sin. When we confess our sin to God, the fellowship is restored. This is relational forgiveness.
“Positional” forgiveness, or judicial forgiveness, is that which is obtained by every believer in Christ. In our position as members of the body of Christ, we have been forgiven of every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit. The price paid by Christ on the cross has satisfied God’s wrath against sin, and no further sacrifice or payment is necessary. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it. Our positional forgiveness was obtained then and there.
Confession of sin will help to keep us from the discipline of the Lord. If we fail to confess sin, the discipline of the Lord is sure to come until we do confess it. As stated previously, our sins are forgiven at salvation (positional forgiveness), but our daily fellowship with God needs to stay in good standing (relational forgiveness). Proper fellowship with God cannot happen with unconfessed sin in our lives. Therefore, we need to confess our sins to God as soon as we are aware that we have sinned, in order to maintain close fellowship with God.
A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus.
- The crowd tells Jesus that Moses commanded that a woman
like this should be stoned to death.
- They ask Jesus what is the right thing to do.
- Jesus says, "go ahead... but let the person WITHOUT SIN
throw the first stone."
- Jesus stoops down to the ground and begins to draw in the
dirt with His finger.
- One by one...the crowd--oldest to the youngest--came and
dropped their stones and walked away.
- Then Jesus says to the woman, "Where are your accusers? Is
their not one person left to accuse you?"
- The woman answers, "No, my Lord."
- Jesus says, "Then neither do I, GO AND SIN NO MORE".
NOTE #1:
JESUS CANNOT AND DOES NOT LIE.
Question:
Does this woman have a chance at never sinning again?
Do you?
Could you?
If this adulterous woman was told by Jesus Christ to go and
sin no more...then she didn't sin again OR JESUS IS A LIAR.
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Question: If you accept and come to Jesus Christ can you sin
again after that point?
YES OR NO?
Answer: NO!!!
HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE?
GET READY FOR SOME TRUTH!
NOTE #2:
Once you have come to Jesus Christ, you can't sin anymore
because
HE HAS PAID FOR YOUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE SINS!
ANY SINS THAT YOU COMMIT AFTER ACCEPTING HIM ARE SINS
OF THE FLESH AND DIE WITH THE FLESH.
Question:
If I accept Jesus Christ, which of my sins are taken off of
me and placed on Jesus?
Answer:
ALL OF YOUR SINS PAST, PRESENT, AND THAT YOU WILL COMMIT
IN THE FUTURE!
Sins are of the flesh. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ,
then you still live in the flesh and commit sins of the flesh.
YOUR FLESH WILL DIE ONE DAY.
Coming to Jesus Christ or NOT coming to Jesus Christ
determines where your SPIRIT/SOUL will go!
If you come to Jesus Christ, then your sins are paid for by
Jesus' death on the cross and your soul goes to HIM.
IF NOT, YOUR FLESH AND SOUL STAY AND DIE TOGETHER ON THIS
EARTH WITH ALL OF THE WORLDLY SINS THAT YOU HAVE COMMITTED!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Question:
If you rob a bank, will you go to heaven?
Answer: Yes, if you have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ.
Question:
If you kill someone, is it possible to go to heaven?
Answer: Yes, if you have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ.
Question:
Do homosexuals and bi-sexuals get into heaven?
Answer: Yes, if they have accepted Jesus Christ.
No, if they have not accepted Jesus Christ.
The bottom line is to run to Jesus Christ, accept Him with
all your heart and ask Him to forgive you and your sins!
Question:
Will I or will I not get into heaven?
Answer:
Must Jesus die again for your sins to be forgiven
or have you already been forgiven if you have
accepted Him. CAREFUL! ARE YOU REALLY HIS??
IF NOT-- YOU'RE DEAD, IF SO-- YOU'RE FORGIVEN!
Romans 5: 8-11
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,we
shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
There is another way into heaven...
adhere to the 10 commandments
but don't mess up...EVEN ONCE!
Matthew 5:20
"For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
If you are still living by the 10 Commandments (The Law),
then you are going to die by The Law.
You break 10 commandment law all the time, every day!
Everyone has, everyone will, and everyone does
all of the time!
If your relying on The Law (and /or your good works)
YOU'RE DEAD!
Everyone who does this is DEAD!
THE DEAD ARE JUST THAT..DEAD, THEY WILL ALWAYS BE DEAD!
HERE IS YOUR CHANCE NOT TO DIE!
John 11:25
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:
•Romans 7:4
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
•Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held;
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
•Romans 7:8
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
•Romans 8:10
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness.
•Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
If we don't learn to worship Him in SPIRIT, we have no means
to worship Him at all.
Our final comments. . .
We do have a strong position in regards to committing sin.
Some would say that this paper makes it sound like sin
and wrong acts are O.K.
WE ARE NOT SAYING THAT!
BUT, THE PEOPLE AND THOSE CHURCH'S GETTING HUNG UP ON SIN
NEED TO GET THEIR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!
YOU AND ME GET INTO HEAVEN BY MEANS OF:
1) Living perfectly by adhering to the 10 Commandments
PERFECTLY.
(This is Old Testament and we have failed miserably,
how about you?)
2) Accepting (or FAITH"ing") in Jesus Christ and asking
for His forgiveness.
(This is New Testamnet and His burdens are light. HALLELUJAH!!)
OUR STANCE ON SIN (AND DOING THE RIGHT THING) IS THAT YOU
SHOULD ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING REGARDLESS OF THE
CIRCUMSTANCE,WITHOUT QUESTION, AND WITHOUT LOOKING FOR
ADMIRATION.
JUST KNOW THAT IF YOU FAIL, IT DOES NOT KEEP YOU FROM
GETTING INTO HEAVEN. NOT ACCEPTING JESUS CHRIST IS WORSE
THAN ANYWRONG DOING THAT YOU COULD DO ON THIS EARTH!!!
IF YOU ARE LIVING OUT OF THE FLESH AND LIVING "WORLDLY",
THEN THE SINS OF THIS WORLD WILL LOOK VERY APPEALING,
AND YOU WILL ENGAGE IN WRONGDOING.
IF YOU LIVE SPIRITUALLY THEN THESE WORLDLY SINS WILL NOT
SEEM SO APPEALING AND YOU WILL NOT FIND YOURSELF
ENGAGING IN WRONGDOING.
INTERPRETING OUR STATEMENTS TO MEAN THAT BY ACCEPTING
JESUS CHRIST IS THE TICKET TO HEAVEN AND YOU CAN NOW
GO AND COMMIT ALL OF THE WRONGDOING YOU WANT IS FOOLISH...
CHANCES ARE YOU HAVE NOT ACCEPTED JESUS CHRIST AT ALL!
BUT TO GO AND PREACH AND TEACH PEOPLE THAT THEY MUST LIVE
"RIGHTEOUSLY" IN ORDER TO GET INTO HEAVEN IS WRONG AND
IS NOT THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY!!
THESE PEOPLE NEED TO PIPE UP!
The Message of Jesus Christ and Christianity
OR
The Good News of the Gospels
IS
1.GOD IS NOT AGAINST YOU.
2.GOD SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO PAY FOR ALL OF YOUR SINS.
3."YOU ARE WRONG, I LOVE YOU, I DIED AND PAID FOR YOUR
SINS, MY BURDENS ARE LIGHT....FOLLOW ME!"
John 3: 16-21
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son,that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does
not beleive is condemned already, because he has not
beleived in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not
come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds
may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
We are told that Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”, meaning that Satan will try to convince us that God could never love us. We need to recognize those thoughts as lies and instead choose to believe what God says. What God says about us in His Word (the Bible) is truer than anything we could think or feel. Jesus said that those who build their lives on His word are those whose lives stand strong and secure, able to weather anything in life (see Matthew 7:24-27).
If you’ve asked God to forgive you and to come into your life — you are forgiven!!! His word says so. Thank Him for His forgiveness and begin to rejoice in your secure relationship with Him. He is able to change areas of your life that don’t line up with His desire for you. 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord
So, what are the terms of the New Covenant for Christians if not the Decalogue? What constitutes the will of God in the New Covenant so we may know what God requires of us? Where do we as New Covenant believers go to find out what God's will is for our lives? Are we justified in bringing the Old Covenant Decalogue over into the New Covenant making that the basis of our Christian conduct? Are we justified in bringing Moses over into the New Covenant and making him the instructor of God's New Covenant people? In the light of the above the answer to these questions must be a definite ‘No' because the New Testament not only teaches us that Moses and the Torah have come to an end but that Christ and "the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2) have replaced them. On the mount of transfiguration God Himself declared from heaven that Jesus was the One to supersede Moses. He said, "This is my Son…listen to him" (Luke 9:35)
Yet, as we have seen, Puritan-Reformed theology and some other denominations teach that the Ten Commandments are still the rule of life for the New Covenant believer. They say that Christ structures our faith but Moses structures our ethics. Thus do they go to Christ for grace but return to Moses for ethics. This understanding is clearly written in their creeds. But we have also seen that the Ten Commandments are the law of Moses or "the words of the (Mosaic) covenant" (Exod. 34:28; cf. Deut. 4:13) and as such belong to the old redemptive history that proceeded from the Exodus.
On the other hand, the law of Christ belongs to the new redemptive history that proceeds from Calvary. The New Testament does not therefore send the Spirit filled believer back to Moses to learn his duty. Nowhere is he exhorted to study the Torah as his rule of life. On the contrary, he is shown how God's redemptive act in Christ is to determine the way he is to conduct himself in all human relationships. This is clearly seen in Paul's epistles. In these he firstly reminds the believers of God's saving grace in Christ. Then, in the light of the Gospel, he exhorts them to holy living by means of specific commands.
God's will versus Law
There can be no doubt that under the New Covenant a fundamental transformation has taken place in regards to the question of ethics. If anyone is in Christ, "the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul gives clear evidence of this in that when he deals with the question of norms for the Christian life, he very seldom refers to the law, and then only in a secondary way (1 Cor. 9:7-12; 14:21, 34). In the ethical chapters of the letter to the Romans (chaps. 12 ff.), the term "law" does not occur except once (13:8-10), and there Paul substitutes for it the command to love as its New Covenant equivalent.
Neither is there any mention of the law in Paul's letters to the Thessalonians or in 2 Corinthians. Instead, he speaks in his admonitions to the believers of "the will of God" (1 Thes. 4:3; 5:18; 2 Cor. 8:5). In these passages he seems to make it a point to avoid using the term "law." Thus in Romans 12:2, he sums up the whole body of Christian ethics as a matter of "testing and proving what the will of God is" (cf. Col. 1:9). Synonymous with the will of God is the notion of what is "acceptable to God" or "pleasing to God" (Rom. 12:1; Col. 3:20).
In Ephesians the law appears only as "the law with its commandments and regulations" which Christ has abolished (2:15). Elsewhere in the epistle we find references, not to the law but to "the will of God" (5:17; 6:6). In the book of Hebrews, similarly, the term "law" is used only to refer to the Old Covenant law system. As for Christians, they are to do "the will of God" (10:36; 13:21).
So, in practically all the passages thus far that deal with the question of norms for the Christian life, the term "law" is avoided. The implications of this are clear: a distinction is being made between God's New Covenant "will" on the one hand, and the Old Covenant "law" on the other.
Commandments versus Law
As regards this matter of Christian ethics the apostle John is even more consistent and terminologically explicit. In his Gospel the term "law" always signifies the Law of Moses known as the Jewish Torah. On the other hand, God's will (or Christ's will) for the believers is invariably designated by the term "commandment," never by "law." John teaches that the Law of Moses points to Christ (Jn 1:45) and that it is superseded by Christ as the final and supreme revelation of the will of God (Jn. 1:1-18). For this reason the supreme rule of life to the Christian community is NOT the Old Covenant Law (or Torah) but the Word that comes directly from God to his Son in the commandments of Jesus (see especially John 10:18; 13:34 and repeatedly in chapters 14 and 15).
As stated above, the apostle John always refers to the Law as the Law of the Jews. On the lips of Jesus the Law invariably becomes your Law, their Law, i.e. the Law of the Jews (Jn. 8:17; 10:34; 15:25). John puts similar words in the mouth of Pilate (Jn 18:31), of Nicodemus (Jn 7:51) and of the Jews themselves (Jn 19:7). In this way does John associate the law with the Jews and the Jews only - and correctly so because the Scriptures are clear that it was given only to the Jews (Deut. 4:13; 5:2, 3).
Therefore, John never uses the law as a rule of life for the Christian community, because Christ, to whom the Law pointed (Jn 1:45), has come. He has superseded the Law as the ultimate revelation of God's will (Jn 1:1-18). To now consider the law as the ultimate revelation of the will of God for us as Christians means to have misunderstood the function of the law or never to have understood it at all.
There is no question that Christians are obligated to do the will of God, not as revealed in the law, but as revealed in the person of Christ. He is indeed the Word of God incarnate. In the words of Jesus the will of God, which Christians are obligated to do, is not "the law" but the "command" or "the commandments" that come to us through Jesus. We see this clearly in the following statements of Jesus: "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (Jn. 13:34). "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (Jn. 14:15). "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me" (Jn. 14:21). "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love" (Jn. 15:10). "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). "You are my friends if you do what I command" (Jn. 15:14). Thus, the commandment of Jesus that his disciples keep is NOT the Law of Moses; it is the command to love one another as he has loved them.
We also see this in the relationship between Jesus and his Father. Jesus states: "For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life" (Jn. 12:49, 50). "But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me" (Jn.14:31). "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love" (Jn. 15:10). Thus, the commandment of the Father that Jesus kept is NOT the Law of Moses; it is the divine command that Jesus lived by. This governed the divine mission of his life.
Likewise in John's epistles, the term "law" is entirely lacking. The same is true in the book of Revelation where the term "law" does not occur at all. Christians are designated as "those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus" (Rev. 12:17). John does speak, just once, of "keeping the law," but here he is referring to the Jews: "Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law" (Jn. 7:19). The phrase "keeping the law" is never used by John with reference to New Covenant believers.
We see then that John makes a strict terminological and theological distinction between law and commandment. The law was given by Moses (Jn 7:19) or by God through Moses (Jn 1:17), and it was given only to the Jews. But now God gives – both to his Son and through him – the commandments that constitute his will for New Covenant believers. John therefore avoids using the term "law" for the will of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ because of its tendency to become impersonal and legalistic.
Such a connotation cannot do justice to the goal of supreme love to God and impartial love to each other which Jesus set forth as the centre of God's will for His children. For this reason John uses the word "command" or "commandment" instead because the believer lives in a faith union with Christ who kept his Father's commandments and because the believer keeps Christ's commandments by reflecting that same kind of sacrificial love in relation to others. But because Christians are still saddled with the sinful nature in this life, the divine command to love needs divine guidance. This guidance is found in all the concrete exhortations (commands) given us by the apostles in their epistles.
In view of the above, it is of fundamental importance that a theological distinction be drawn between "law" and "commandment" in terms of Christian ethics. We see in John's Gospel and epistles as well as his Revelation a consistent pattern, namely, the fact that the "law", as Paul delineates it in contrast to the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, does NOT constitute the ultimate revelation of God's will for his New Covenant people. Rather, the law must be seen as a limited and temporary form of God's will given to His Old covenant people Israel through Moses – a form that has been replaced by Christ and "the law (commandments) of Christ" (Gal. 6:2) under the New Covenant. This distinction between "law" and "commandments" as regards God's will is therefore of fundamental importance for a proper understanding of the relationship between the Old and New Covenants and God's dealings with his people in each of these dispensations.
The end of the law. The law not only had a beginning and a specific purpose, it also had an end:
a) Concerning this end Paul says, "It was added…until the Seed…had come" (Gal. 3:19). Its purpose and function was therefore but temporal from the time it was added till the Seed had come. Now Paul also tells us what he means by the Seed: "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds', meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed', meaning one person, who is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). According to Paul the seed is Christ. We may therefore substitute the word "Christ" for "the seed" and read, "The law was added…until Christ…had come" (Gal. 3:19). So, when Christ finally came, the dispensation of the Law (Moses, or the Old Covenant) had fulfilled its function in history. Thus could Paul say that "Christ is the end of the law…" (Rom. 10:4).
b) The end of the Law can also be seen by the fact that the Decalogue belongs to the Old Covenant. This is plainly stated in Deuteronomy 4:13: "He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets." The question that needs to now be asked is whether the Old Covenant is still in force or not? If not, then neither is the Decalogue that constituted the heart of the Old Covenant (Exo. 34:28; cf. Deut. 4:13) with the Sabbath as its seal (Exo. 34:16, 17). In 2 Corinthians 3:5-14 we find the express mention of the Ten Commandments in connection with the abrogation of the Old Covenant. Throughout this passage, Paul depicts a clear-cut contrast between the Old and New Covenants. He clearly states that the Old Covenant, "the ministry that brought death", was that "which was engraved in letters on stone," i.e. the Ten Commandments. He then declares that this "was fading away" because "in Christ is it taken away."
c) The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews also confirms that the Law has come to an end. He states: "For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law" (Heb. 7:12). The law (or Torah) was an integral part of the Old Covenant that God made with the nation Israel at Sinai. This included the Decalogue that was placed inside the ark of the (Old) Covenant. Thus, when the Old Covenant priesthood was changed (annulled), being superseded by the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ (Heb. 7:15-17), this of necessity would change (annul) everything belonging to it, including the entire Old Covenant law system. So, with the abrogation of the Old Covenant is the annulment of the Old Covenant priesthood and with the annulment of the Old Covenant priesthood is the annulment of the Old Covenant law system (the Torah) including the Decalogue.
d) The end of the law is further confirmed by the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) that was convened to decide the relationship of Gentile Christians to the law. The apostles there recognized the leading of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28a) and unanimously decided that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised and keep the law. It decided that only four items from the law (three ‘ceremonial' and one ‘moral') would be imposed upon the Gentiles (who were never under the law) in the interest of a peaceful co-existence between them and Jewish Christians who wanted to retain their culture and continue under the law as a way of life (Acts 15:20). So the purpose of this decision was purely pragmatic while Jewish and Gentile believers worshipped together. Gentile Christians were not burdened with anything else from the law (Acts 15:28, 29). In view of this we must not therefore isolate circumcision in this context as if that was the sole problem at the time as some have done.
Protestantism and some other denominations a distinction is made between what is called ‘the Law of God' and ‘the Law of Moses' - the former referring to the Ten Commandments and the latter to the so-called ‘ceremonial law,' that is, the laws concerning ordinances, offerings, feast days, the dietary laws, civil laws and the laws pertaining to the tabernacle and the priesthood. But this distinction is cosmetic because the Scriptures do not make such a distinction between the Law of God and the Law of Moses. For example:
a) In Nehemiah we read, "…the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel…They read from the Book of the Law of God…to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God…" (Nehemiah 8:1, 8; 10:29). According to Nehemiah the ‘Book of the Law of Moses' is the same as the ‘Book of the Law of God'. In other words, the law given to Israel by God is the same as the law given by Moses because God gave His law to Israel through Moses.
b) Luke 2:24 says, "…and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeon's.'" Where does the Bible speak of the offering mentioned in this verse? In Leviticus 12:8 - that part of the Old Testament that Protestantism calls ‘the law of Moses'. Yet Luke declares that this offering is commanded "in the law of the Lord." Clearly, the law of Moses and the law of the Lord are one and the same. (Cf. Mark 7:9, 10; John 7:19).
c) In Leviticus 19 God again confirms His Law to Israel through Moses. The Ten Commandments are repeated in principle: 1st commandment (v. 32); 2nd (v. 4); 3rd (v. 12); 4th (v. 30); 5th (v. 3); 6th (v. 17); 7th (v. 29); 8th (v. 13); 9th (v. 11); 10th (v. 35). Mingled amongst these are commandments about sacrifices (v. 5); harvest (v. 9); clothing (v. 19); priests (v. 22); first-fruits (v. 23); spirit mediums (v. 31); Gentiles (v. 34), etc. Therefore, the distinction made between the Law of God (moral) and the Law of Moses (ceremonial) is superficial and not substantiated by the Scriptures. "The law" embraces "the whole law" (Gal. 3:10; 5:3), i.e. the Torah.
It is quite clear from these examples that the "Law of Moses" and "the Law of the Lord" are used interchangeably in the Scriptures. The Decalogue is an integral part of the legal code or Torah given to Israel. This constituted God's will for them under the Old covenant. According to Jewish scholars the Torah contained 613 commandments pertaining to civil, dietary, sacrificial, and moral issues. These commandments constitute a unit referred to in the Scriptures as "the law of Moses" (Neh. 8:1; Mal. 4:4; Acts 15:5) or just "Moses" (Mark 7:10), "the law of the Lord" (Neh. 9:3; Luke 2:22-24), "the written code" (Rom. 2:27, 29; 7:6), "the written code, with its regulations" (Col. 2:14), and "the law with its commandments and regulations" (Eph. 2:15).
But the most common designation for the law of Moses is simply "the law" – called the Torah in the Old Testament (Neh. 8:9, 13, 14) and the nomos in the New Testament (Luke 2:22-27). When the New Testament writers speak of the law, they invariably speak of the Torah, i.e. the law of Moses. Therefore, to make a distinction between the Law of Moses and the Law of God for our own convenience and to prove our point is man-made and artificial.
In Deuteronomy 18:18-22 (NIV), we read:
Jeremiah 23:30 (NIV), we read:
“Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.”
You should read from verse 25 to the end of the chapter to get the full warning from the Lord. At the end of the chapter, He warns of the disgrace that will come to false prophets.
Did Ellen White steal words from other authors? The answer to this question is a resounding “Yes.” This fact has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. A number of books have been written on this subject. For Patriarchs and Prophets, she stole text from Edersheim’s Bible History. For Desire of Ages, she stole text from The Life of Christ by William Hanna, The Great Teacher by John Harris, and several other authors. For Steps to Christ, she stole text from Night Scenes in the Bible by Daniel March, God’s Will Known and Done by Almon Underwood, and others. For the Great Controversy, she copied text from Life Incidents by none other than her husband, James White, who also plagiarized. He copied the text of his book from the writings of J. N. Andrews, Uriah Smith, and Sylvester Bliss! It is not known whether James White had permission to use his colleagues’ text or if Ellen White had permission to use James White’s text. What is known is that she proclaimed herself the author and received royalties from it. It has been proven that besides having stolen most of the material for her most well-known books, many of the health remedies that she claimed to have gotten from God had been used for decades before she wrote about them.
A famous quote of Ellen White, found in numerous books of hers, and often used to make people obey the rules of the church, was lifted from The Great Teacher, by John Harris. It says, “Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard.” (See Acts of the Apostles, p. 12.)
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.
You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
Besides the predictions of Christ’s return in 1844 and twice in 1845, Ellen White made a number of other predictions that did not come true. One notable one occurred in 1849, when a pestilence broke out. She wrote in the Present Truth (the forerunner of the Adventist Review) that this pestilence would take many lives. She predicted that “soon the dead and dying will be all around us.” Not long after the pestilence began, it ended.
In 1850, Ellen White wrote in the book, Early Writings, about the nearness of Christ’s coming. On page 67, she predicted that the
people who accepted Christ at that time would have only a few months to prepare for His coming. This is another example of her attempt at “timesetting.”
In Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 131 and 132, Ellen White said that an angel told her that some of the people present at a particular conference would be “food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.” Well, they all ended up as food for worms. None of them will experience the seven last plagues, nor will any of them be translated.
•In Desire of Ages, p. 645 she says that Judas had a conviction to confess during the footwashing. In Evangelism, p. 275, she says that Judas did not have a conviction to confess during footwashing.
•In Spiritual Gifts, v. 1, p. 58, she says that the nails went through Jesus’ bones. Forty years later, in Desire of Ages, p. 744, she says that no bones were broken.
•She believed in and wrote about the “shut door” doctrine for several years after the “great disappointment” and then retracted it. This was a doctrine that taught that there was no need for evangelism because Jesus had already decided who was going to be saved and who was going to be lost. For more information on
Evangelism, p. 598, Ellen White said that Satan deceived Adam. 1 Timothy 2:14 (NKJV) says, And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
•In Counsels on Diets and Foods, p. 148, she said that God gave the children of Israel meat and gluttony produced the plague. Numbers 11:33 (NKJV) says, "But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and Lord struck the people with a very great plague."
•In Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 155, she said that we should never say that we are saved. 1 John 5:13 (NKJV) says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
•In Desire of Ages, p. 753, she said that before the crucifixion, Jesus “could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal.” In John 10:17, 18 (NKJV), Jesus says, "Therefore, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." (See also, Luke 24:7 and John 2:19.)
"It is Satan's plan to weaken the faith of God’s people in the Testimonies [writings of Ellen White] . Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our position, then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the downward march to perdition. When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction.” Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 4, p. 211.
“If you lose confidence in the Testimonies you will drift away from Bible truth.” Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 5, p. 98.
"Then I was shown a company who were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters, 'Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.' I asked who this company were. The angel said, 'these are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up.'" Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 37
"God will never, never allow any man to pass through the pearly gates of the city of God who does not bear the signet of the faithful, His government mark." [in context the signet mark is the Sabbath] Ellen G. White, Medical Ministry, p. 123.
"God will frown upon those who disregard his commandments and he cannot bless the church that retains Sabbath-breakers in its fellowship." Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, 1890-06-02.
She could not even use her own judgment concerning those who needed her prayers. Many of us would have been out of luck with Mrs. White as we would have been much too lowly to be worthy of her prayers. Following is a rather sickening note by Ellen White indicating just how full of herself she really was and also illustrating the above attitude.
"One Who Requested Prayer for Healing. -
My husband and I once attended a meeting where our sympathies were enlisted for a brother who was a great sufferer with the phthisic. He was pale and emaciated. He requested the prayers of the people of God. He said that his family were sick, and that he had lost a child. He spoke with feeling of his bereavement. He said that he had been waiting for some time to see Brother and Sister White. He had believed that if they would pray for him, he would be heated. After the meeting closed, the brethren called our attention to the case. They said that the church was assisting them, that his wife was sick, and his child had died. The brethren had met at his house and united in praying for the afflicted family. We were much worn and had the burden of labor upon us during the meeting and wished to be excused. I had resolved not to engage in prayer for anyone, unless the Spirit of the Lord should dictate in the matter ...
That night we bowed in prayer and presented his case before the Lord. We entreated that we might know the will of God concerning him. All we desired was that God might be glorified. Would the Lord have us pray for this afflicted man? We left the burden with the Lord and retired to rest. In a dream the case of that man was clearly presented. His course from his childhood up was shown, and that if we should pray, the Lord would not hear us; for he regarded iniquity in his heart. The next morning the man came for us to pray for him. We took him aside and told him we were sorry to be compelled to refuse his request. I related my dream, which he acknowledged was true. He had practiced self-abuse from his boyhood up, and he had continued the practice during his married life, but said he would try to break himself of it. This man had a long-established habit to overcome. He was in the middle age of life. His moral principles were so weak that when brought in conflict with with long-established indulgence, they were overcome ...
Here was a man debasing himself daily and yet daring to venture into the presence of God and ask an increase of strength which he had vilely squandered, and which, if granted, he would consume upon his lust. What forbearance has God! If He should deal with man according to his corrupt ways, who could live in His sight?
What if we had been less cautious and carried the case of this man before God while he was practicing iniquity, would the Lord have heard? Would He have answered?
This is not a solitary case. Even the marriage relation was not sufficient to preserve this man from the corrupt habits of his youth. I wish I could be convinced that such cases as the one I have presented are rare, but I know they are frequent." (Child Guidance p. 450-1)
The situation in the Adventist Church today is much the same as that of the Jewish Church at the time of Jesus. The Jewish leaders had set up so many impossible rules and rituals that the common people could not possibly attain. Jesus described these people as follows; ""The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men." (Matt. 23:2-5) Jesus was very angered by the legalism which permeated His church at the time of His first advent. I suspect He will be just as angry with the legalism practiced in churches such as the Seventh Day Adventist denomination when He comes the second time.
As opposed to the blessing which is grace, the law is a curse upon all mankind, none of whom can possibly fulfill its requirements. While the law itself is perfect and holy, those who try to justify themselves before its holy Author bring not His blessing, but His curse upon themselves. The Bible itself tells us what the curse of the law is: “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘The man who does these things will live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree" (Galatians 3:10-13).
What we must understand from this passage is that the curse is not the law. The curse is the penalty levied for not keeping the law. The Book of the Law refers to the covenant laws that God made with His people during the time of Moses. The law can point out where we fail and fall short of God’s will, but it cannot pronounce us righteous; that was not its purpose.
In the above passage the apostle Paul is telling us that everyone who does not keep the law perfectly, is cursed by it (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10). The reason is because no one can obey the law perfectly. In fact, there were over 600 laws the Jews had to keep to be right in the eyes of God. The breaking of even one commandment put a person under condemnation. Trying to achieve salvation through obedience to the law is futile. For example, we all regularly break the first and greatest commandment by failing to love God first with all our hearts, minds and strength (Matthew 22:37-38). As a result, everyone has broken the commandments, and everyone is cursed.
The law demands perfection—an impossibility because we’re all sinful (Romans 3:10, 23). As a result, all who try to live by the Old Law were under a divine curse. But the good news is that Jesus Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us . . .” (Galatians 3:13). Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross when He bore the total brunt of God’s curse. Paul explains how in his letter to the Romans: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). The curse of the law fell on Christ on our behalf so that the righteousness of God could fall on us, though we did not deserve it (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Vruchten:
Often, cult research is tedious and boring. I am grateful to EGW for being humorous, ridiculous, and just plain silly. Her writings bearing her name are 17 times as long as the Bibleplagiarized or not.
Many of them have to do with her doctrines on health and food.
As an SDA you will be encouraged to become a vegetarian. Ellen indicated that your salvation could be dependent on giving up meat . No meat-eaters will be "translated" at Christ's coming (Counsels on Diet and Foods p. 380).
You won't be told this scripture by SDA's
"...he who is weak in faith eats vegetables only..." (Romans 14:2). (Fun to read to vegetarians).
She taught in Counsels on Diet ..on p. 390 (some editions) that
"...if we subsist largely upon the flesh of dead animals, we shall partake of their nature".
Partake of their nature? This is against God's creation laws of "kind", and Impossible. Also conveniently forgotten is Paul view, "Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience' sake." ( 1 Cor. 10:25). Obviously no vegetarians evident in the early church!
Most of EGW's concerns over diet were in an effort to control what she considered to be an excessive sex drive in the male. She devoted endless pages to discussing "secret vice" (masturbation) and blamed the practice for a wide range of diseases. Here, in "Solemn Appeal" page 12 are a few of the diseases said to be caused by "secret vice"
"...dyspepsia, spinal complaint, headache, epilepsy, impaired eyesight, palpitation of the heart, pain in the side, bleeding at the lungs, spasms of the heart and lungs, diabetes, incontinence of urine, fluor albus or whites, inflammation of the urinary organs... rheumatism, affected perspiration, consumption, asthma, catarrah, polypus of the heart, affection of the bones, fevers, ..etc. etc.
The cure for secret vice was even funnier. The perpetrator was to sit in a sitz bath at as low a temperature as possible. At the same time, he was to have a hot foot bath, while applying cold cloths to his forehead. He was also to wear an abdominal bandage or wet girdle at night "to good advantage".
She concludes, "Cool bathing of the parts affected is also beneficial".
To those SDA's who write me that I must be endorsing masturbation by making this public, let me assure you that this is not the case. Why don't they charge their leader with the same accusation? She wrote about it much more than I ever have! I am merely exposing her silliness in health matters. You'll never hear these ridiculous topics from the Adventists!
Thanks to Ellen White's influence, the Kellogg brothers were inspired to develop cold corn flakes, as hot porridge could "heat the blood" with undesirable results!
She sternly warned against using feather beds for the same reasons, but I found a letter from her asking someone to send her her featherbed! (EGW Vol 3, p. 341).
She also developed a "reform dress" on instructions from God, which was a bulky affair with pants under a long dress. She gave up on wearing hers finally, and so did the other women, after years of suffering discomfort.
Other assorted nonsense included Angels needing golden cards as gate passes to get in and out of heaven. (Early Writings p. 37-39),
She also "travelled" to other planets in her visions, and also claimed to have met Enoch (more necromancy). (EGW: The Early Years Vol.1 p. 114; p.157).
She taught that certain races of men are the result of amalgamation between man and beast. (SG Vol 3, p. 64,75). Which races? You won't be told this one at the Seminars, or even later!
Her silliness extended to wigs as well. Any woman daring to wear one would "...lose their reason and go hopelessly insane". (Christian Mothers, # 2, p. 121).
Well, that's about enough of the silliness. We could go on, but won't.
In conclusion, it is amazing to me that the SDA Church reveres Ellen G. White, choosing her visions, dreams, doctrines and teachings above the Bible. Other women had better run for cover, however, as they wouldn't dream of ordaining a woman in their denomination which is totally male dominated.
Adventists love to quote Walter Martin who was "had" by them as a young man and believed their statements without checking matters out closely, to prove they are not a cult. However, before he died, he made this statement on the John Ankerberg Show:
"I fear that if they continue to progress at this rate, then the classification of a cult can't possibly miss being reapplied to Seventh-day Adventism, because once you have an interpreter of Scripture, a final court of appeal that tells you what Scripture means, as soon as you judge Scripture by that, as soon as you have someone who has made doctrinal errors in the past, even on the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the atonement and other things, and that person is raised to that position or authority, you have polarization around that person".
Christ bore our own sins in his body on the tree according to the Bible. 1 Peter 2:24 says, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree...". Become a SDA, and it will be Satan who will eventually bear your sins! Ellen G. White wrote,
"...so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin...so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate...".(The Great Controversy p. 485).
If you receive Christ as your Saviour through the SDA's, only your past sins, up to that moment are forgiven. Now you must get to work to earn your salvation. Ellen G. White said in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald of 10-26-1897 this statement,
"...The terms of salvation for every son and daughter of Adam are here outlined. It is plainly stated that the condition of gaining eternal life is obedience to the commandments of God".
Of course, it is the fourth commandment that is stressed, since Ellen saw this one glowing in one of her visions. Salvation now becomes dependent on which day of the week one observes.
Modern Adventists keep sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as the Sabbath, but earlier in their history they kept 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday.
The rest of us "Sunday keepers" are doomed to receive the "mark of the beast" and lose our eternal life. (The Spirit of Prophecy V. 4, p. 505). They sure don't say this at their seminars!
Christ exclaimed "It is finished" when He died for our sins, but it is not finished in Seventh-day Adventism!
She Teaches Contrary To The Bible On The Subject Of Immortality That Even The Endless Life In The Eternal State May Cease Or Waste Away. She says,
"In order for man to possess an endless life, he must continue to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. Deprived of that tree, his life would gradually wear out. "—Sp. Gifts, Vol. 3, p. 64.
Questions.—
How can an endless life cease? Is not such an idea destructive of Paul's doctrine of immortality.—1Cor. 15:31-54.
If the endless life can be perpetuated only by eating of the fruit of the tree of life, upon what principle has the Devil lived for the last six thousand years? Has he had access to that tree?
If the endless life may fail and wear out, was not our Lord a false teacher when he said, "Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.—Luke, 20:36.
From the beginning of their history, Seventh-day Adventists have claimed that they were the remnant church of Rev. 12:17, because they had a prophet among them; namely, Mrs. E.G. White. They have always insisted that they had the "spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10). When those opposed to their views have contended that we have the "spirit of prophecy" in the writings of the prophets as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, they have denied it, and have, in the most dogmatic fashion, contended that to have the spirit of prophecy there must be a living prophet in the church. But now their prophet is dead. Where is their "spirit of prophecy" now? According to the long-used argument, they now have no spirit of prophecy, and therefore can not be the remnant church of Rev. 12:17. The death of Mrs. White killed their argument.
If they now say that they have the spirit of prophecy in her writings, they admit what they have always denied; namely, that the writings of the prophets contain the spirit of prophecy. If they have the spirit of prophecy in the writings left by their prophet, then we have always had the spirit of prophecy in the writings left by the prophets of the Bible. All who have the Bible, and believe in that, have the spirit of prophecy contained in its writings. Therefore, the claim made by Seventh-day Adventists that they are the only body of Christians who have the spirit of prophecy is proven false by their own admission. Their former theory of the spirit of prophecy would compel them to bring forth immediately another living prophet, or surrender their argument in defense of the "spirit of prophecy" as represented in Mrs. White. This would destroy their whole theory on this subject.
For a period of seventy years they have claimed to be the remnant church of Rev. 12:17, because they had a living prophet in the church. But now their prophet is dead, and they have none any longer, whereby to prolong the "spirit of prophecy." They are now in the same condition as the other churches, and, according to their own argument, can not now be the remnant church. Upon the Scripture, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," their stock argument has been that, in order that the people shall be safe and surely guided, so that they shall not perish, there must be visions, and these the visions of a living prophet. Now the person is dead in whom alone they centered all true or proper visions. And now to them where are the visions without which the people perish?
At times Mrs. White made specific predictions regarding certain people. One such person was Adventist pioneer Moses Hull. In 1862 Hull was in the process of losing his faith in Adventism. It would appear that the Whites had given up on reasoning with Hull and Mrs. White now resorted to warning him of the dire consequences of the path he had chosen:
"If you proceed in the way you have started, misery and woe are before you. God's hand will arrest you in a manner that will not suit you. His wrath will not slumber." Testimonies, Vol. 1, pp. 430-431.
This never happened. Despite Mrs. White's warnings, Hull did "proceed the way he had started" and left the Adventist church. However, according to D.M. Canright, "Mr. Hull lived on many long years to a ripe old age, and nothing of the kind predicted happened." (Life of E.G. White, chap. 15) Besides raising questions about her prophetic abilities, this incident raises some important questions about her understanding of God. What kind of a God does Ellen White portray? Does God need to frighten people with wrath in order to keep them in His church? Does God need to resort to scare tactics in order to force people to stay in His church against their own will?
EGW: YES "To obey the commandments of God is the only way to obtain (earn) His favor" (Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 28).
BIBLE: NO Isa 64:6 (NIV) All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
BIBLE: NO Gal 3:11 (NIV) "Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, 'The righteous will live by faith'.
“God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul” (1SM 366).
- De heilige geest kon nooit de inspirator zijn van Ellen:
Q: Isn’t all scripture subject to our interpretation, as we have no way to understand it except through our minds?
A: Please consider II Peter 1:20-21 (NRSV): "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy never came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
Scripture is not subject to our interpretation and our desires. I'm not suggesting that we suspend the action of our intellect as we seek to understand the Word, but I am saying that our intellect must be in subjection to the Holy Spirit. We must submit to God's foolish wisdom (1 Cor. 1) when our ideas conflict with the results of clear exegesis and the promptings of God's Spirit (I Cor. 2:14).
The second point from this passage in II Peter is that prophets speak not "by human will," but "from God" as they are "moved by the Holy Spirit." To speak messages from God while under the influence of the Holy Spirit is to speak truth--not truth adulterated with human deficiencies. It is the exact representation of truth that God intends for the time and place in which it was given.
There are two components to the understanding of scripture: interpretation (exegesis) and the work of the Holy Spirit, and the latter is most important. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14, NIV). In this sense, scripture is not "a matter of one's own interpretation." The Holy Spirit works with our intellect (James 1:5), but spiritual discernment trumps our interpretations.
- Wanneer ze naar Galaten gevraagd wordt lult ze eromheen, ze stelt bovendien dat de wet en het evangelie perfect met elkaar in harmonie zijn.
From the Pen of Ellen White (thanks to Herbert Douglass for the compilation):
“Christ came to pay that debt for the sinner which it was impossible for him to pay for himself. Thus, through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, sinful man was granted another trial” (FW 30).
“Christ died that the transgressor of the law of God might be brought back to His [sic] loyalty, that He [sic] might keep the commandments of God, and His law as the apple of His eye, and live. God cannot take rebels into His kingdom; therefore He makes obedience to His requirements a special requirement” (1MR 112).
“He died to make it possible for us to keep the law” (YI, March 20, 1902).
“God and the holy angels have an intense desire that human beings shall reach the standard of perfection which Christ died to make it possible for them to reach” (HP 286).
“Christ has died that we might keep God's commandments. Will you have your names registered in the Lamb's book of life? Then be careful and zealous to repent of every sin” (9MR 264).
“Do not disappoint the One who gave His life that you might be an overcomer. He was tempted on every point that you and I can be tempted on, and in order to resist He spent whole nights in prayer and communion with His Father. Christ did not leave this world until He had made it possible for every soul to live a life of perfect faith and obedience, to have a perfect character” (TDG 204).
“The Son of God consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man might, by a life of obedience, escape the penalty of the law of God” (ST, August 7, 1879).
Evaluation:
During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her emphasis on Christ’s death as a means of giving sinners another chance to obey the law.
Thought Questions:
1.Is Christ’s death basically a second chance for the sinner to obey the law?
2.What does the Bible say about the role of law in the New Covenant?
Bible Texts:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4).
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Rom. 4:4-7)
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4).
“[F]or if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
“But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18).
“Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (I John 4:2).
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1)
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).
- Ellen zei dat Jezus alleen kwam om ons te laten zien dat we de wet kunnen houden!
Said Christ, ‘I have glorified Thee in My human character, perfecting that character for the benefit of all humanity, to show human beings that man can keep the law of God in a world of sin and transgression, and through being a partaker of the divine nature, stand as an overcomer” (6MR 233).
“The world’s Redeemer passed over the ground where Adam fell because of his disobeying the expressed law of Jehovah; and the only begotten Son of God came to our world as a man, to reveal to the world that men could keep the law of God” (6MR 334).
“We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual facts that man can keep the commandments of God, giving contradiction to Satan’s falsehood that man cannot keep them. The Great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all of God’s requirements showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God” (5MR 113).
“So you have the whole duty laid down, and that is to keep the commandments if you expect to have eternal life. What was lost through Adam by disobedience must be brought back by obedience” (5MR 260).
Evaluation:
During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her emphasis on a very human Example as opposed to a divine Substitute.
Thought Questions:
1.Does the Bible clearly teach that Christ had a human nature with a propensity to sin?
2.Does the idea of the humanity of Christ diminish His divinity?
3.Is the humanity of Christ doctrine just simple cover for perfectionism? If Jesus was perfect in His human nature, and if He had no advantage over human beings, then shouldn’t His followers also achieve perfection?
4.Did Christ come to show us that we can keep the law?
- vaag new age groen koord visioen van Jezus:S
1850 endorsement of the Apocrypha: "I SAW that the Apocrypha was the hidden book, and that the wise of these last days should understand it" - Ms 4, 1850).
- Satan was overal verantwoordelijk voor met kleine zaakjes bezig:S
- Masturbatie leidt tot massadoden? Miljoenen doden!
- Ze had dezelfde soort visioenen als Joseph Smith
- Ze had visioenen van Jezus die persoonlijke sociale relaties schijnbaar erg belangrijk vond (blabla is van de duivel x3)
- Profetieen die niet uitkomen
- Zelfverrijking
- Voegde toe aan het woord van God (verbood vlees eten, juwelen >die ze zelf wel droeg)
- Vernietigde het evangelie met de leer van het onderzoekend oordeel
- Gebruikte veel andere bronnen
- Schreef ontzettend veel boeken, wou dat iedereen die boeken verkocht ipv de bijbel? (royalties?)
- Sprak bijbel meerdere keren tegen (Jezus had zogenaamd oudere broers, etc.)
- Twijfelde zelf of haar visioenen het gevolg waren van mesmerisme
- Haatte haar vijanden (iedereen die haar niet geloofde ging naar de hel)
- Scheen niet vergevingsgezind te zijn
- Liet niks na aan de armen, schreef er wel over om geld mee te verdienen:S
- Ellen was een vrouw en gaf lering in kerken (terwijl dat volgens Paul een schande is)
- Had visioenen over de meest stomme dingen (foto’s, geld etc)
- Sprak over wetenschappelijke zaken (vulkanen en dergelijke) die later complete onzin bleken te zijn
- Ze praktiseerde niet wat ze leerde (vlees eten, zelf-ontkenning, juwelen, luxe)
- Verzegeling vindt letterlijk plaats door een engel die beslist over het lot van mensen? (ze gebruikt angst-tacktieken)
- Ellen gebruikt angst!
- Sabbath is niet bijbels!! Is niet het zegel van God! Zij leerde het als belangrijkste gebod. Wegvallen van genade
- Het evangelie is het zegel van God, de heilige geest Exodus 12, Ezechiel 9 (Ellen verpreidde 666)
- Leerde dat 10 geboden niet waren afgeschaft
- Had rare bovennatuurlijke ervaringen, spiritisme
- Leerde dat de paus de sabbath had veranderd naar zondag
- Volgelingen veranderen in farizeeers (rotte vruchten)
- Ze had new age taal, new age symboliek in schilderijen
- Ze leerde dat de verzoening van Jezus aan het kruis niet voltooid was:
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- White’s teaching about the Investigative Judgment being the reality behind the Day of Atonement required her to state that the atonement is ongoing; therefore, it was not completed at the cross as the rest of Christianity affirms
- From the Pen of Ellen White:
- “Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies and there appears in the presence of God to engage in the last acts of His ministration in behalf of man--to perform the work of investigative judgment and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits” (GC 480).
- "As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary” (EW 253).
-
- “The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven” (GC 489
- “The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement . . . . Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin” (PP 357-58).
- Evaluation:
- A comparison of the Ellen White quotes on the incomplete atonement with Romans 5:11 reveals that her Christology is incompatible with that of scripture. “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11).
- Questions on Doctrine, a book published by the SDA leadership in 1957, states that “the sacrificial atonement was made on the cross and was provided for all men, but that in the heavenly priestly ministry of Christ our Lord, this sacrificial atonement is applied to the seeking soul” (QOD 348). The QOD explanation is inadequate because it fails to change the fact that the SDA prophet diminished the cross and highlighted the atonement supposedly taking place in the Investigative Judgment: “The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven” (GC 489).
-
- During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her teaching of the incomplete atonement.
- Thought Questions:
- 1.If the Bible says that the atonement was completed at the cross, and Ellen White says the atonement will be completed in the future, what does that tell us about Ellen White?
- 2.Does Ellen White’s picture of an ongoing atonement diminish what Christ accomplished on the cross?
- 3.What does the concept of an ongoing atonement say about the efficacy of the blood of Christ?
-
- Bible Texts:
-
-
-
- “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11).
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- “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:24-26).
- “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (I John 4:2).
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- “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1).
- Ze leerde dat Jezus niet de eeuwige God is:
Is the 1898 affirmation of the divinity of Christ and the existence of the Trinity in accordance with her original writings? According to Ellen White, the Father honored Christ by making Christ equal in authority with the Father, and she goes on to state that this was the basis for Satan’s rebellion against God. Satan wanted the honor that had been given to Christ. Did Lucifer and the other angels not know that Christ was God? According to Ellen White, they were unaware of this basic fact. Had they only known, maybe they wouldn’t have fallen . . . .
Leaving his place in the immediate presence of God, Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels. Working with mysterious secrecy, and for a time concealing his real purpose under an appearance of reverence for God, he endeavored to excite dissatisfaction concerning the laws that governed heavenly beings, intimating that they imposed an unnecessary restraint. Since their natures were holy, he urged that the angels should obey the dictates of their own will. He sought to create sympathy for himself by representing that God had dealt unjustly with him in bestowing supreme honor upon Christ. He claimed that in aspiring to greater power and honor he was not aiming at self-exaltation, but was seeking to secure liberty for all the inhabitants of heaven, that by this means they might attain to a higher state of existence” (GC 495).
The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that he might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son. The Son was seated on the throne with the Father, and the heavenly throng of holy angels was gathered around them. The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ, his Son, should be equal with himself; so that wherever was the presence of his Son, it was as his own presence. The word of the Son was to be obeyed as readily as the word of the Father. His Son he had invested with authority to command the heavenly host. Especially was his Son to work in union with himself in the anticipated creation of the earth and every living thing that should exist upon the earth. His Son would carry out his will and his purposes, but would do nothing of himself alone. The Father's will would be fulfilled in him.
Satan and his sympathizers were striving to reform the government of God. They were discontented and unhappy because they could not look into his unsearchable wisdom and ascertain his purposes in exalting his Son Jesus, and endowing him with such unlimited power and command. They rebelled against the authority of the Son” (1SP 17-19). Jezus werd dus net zo sterk geacht door Ellen als de duivel, past bij haar andere evangelie dat WIJ de strijd aan moeten gaan met de duivel mbt zonde.
- 1.If Ellen White was a true prophetess, why would God allow her to teach error for over fifty years?
- 2.Has a true prophet ever misrepresented previously established truth?
- 3.Are Ellen White’s early visions valid in light of her later teachings (and the Bible)?
- 4.Is it reasonable to believe that the heavenly beings were unaware that Jesus is God?
- 5.Why isn’t the Holy Spirit mentioned in these accounts?
- 6.Why does Ellen White call God the Father “the great Creator” when the Bible teaches that Christ is the creator of all things?
- 7.Do God’s true prophets grow from error to truth in their prophetic utterances?
- 8.Is Ellen White’s testimony regarding Christ true?
- Bible Texts:
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- “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1).
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- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4).
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- “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9).
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- Charles Lee
- In his book Three Important Questions for Seventh-Day Adventists to Consider (1876), Charles Lee recalls an experience he had with Ellen White. The editor of the Swedish edition of Advent Herald, Mr. C. Carlstedt, had become seriously ill. Charles Lee, James and Ellen White, and two other persons went on a visit to Br. Carlstedt,
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- "We all knelt in prayer for the sick man; and Mrs. W. praised the Lord because he was "present with his restoring power, to raise Carlstedt, whose sickness," she said, was "not unto death, but to the glory of the Son of God. . . .
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- "On our way back Mrs. W. said to me that the Lord was there with his restoring power, and she was confident that he would be restored to health again. I told her I did not realize it, and that it was darkness to me. She did not speak to me again that evening. As I parted from them, I went direct to Chicago, to continue my meetings. A few days after I came to Chicago, Mrs. W. sent me a written testimony; and in that she says she knew that I was under the influence of devils. The next day I received a dispatch that Mr. C. was dead. I read and re-read the testimony, and said to myself, "If she could see 3 years ago that Satan should take possession of my soul and body because I would not give myself entirely up to be led by her and her husband,why could she not see that Mr. C. would die a few days before he did, as her attention was called directly to his case? And if she saw my then pitiable condition so long before, why did she not warn me before Satan got me entirely under his influence?
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- "The brethren at B.C. wrote me to come right back to the Office. I did so. When there, Mr. J. Sawyer set me to work, and I thought he was authorized to do so. Then Eld. W. came, and, in a very harsh manner asked me, "Who has set you to work here? Do you intend to come here and run the whole business?" etc. I told him who had set me to work, but then he went out. This led to what he called "laboring meetings." When he could not gain his object he turned to his wife and said, "Mrs. White, what did you see in regard to Bro. Lee's case?" She answered, "I saw that we should have to meet Spiritualism in Bro. Lee," or, "I saw that if he does not yield his independent will to be led by the leading brethren, Satan will take possession of his soul." "There, that's it," he said. "If Bro. Lee does not accept the testimony, he is beyond our reach."
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- "Her testimony was considered above the word of God. I did not know before that Mrs. W. held such a position in the Advent church. It really astonished me. She said things that I never thought a human being would say. She said, "You, foreigners, must be moulded by us for eternity. . . . A few days before we were married, Mrs. W. sent for my wife (then Miss Deedon) to come and see her. She then told her that I was "the most deceived person in the world," and warned her against me. . . . A few weeks from this, the testimony of Mrs. W. came out against me in print,and I was looked upon as a doomed man." (Charles Lee, 1876. Emphasis supplied.)
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- Here we encounter the same spirit again: If anyone would gainsay Ellen White, that person would later receive a stinging "testimony from heaven", in which he/she would be accused of being agents of Satan, led by the devil, etc. This happened time and again.
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- Later, Charles Lee learned from Br. P. Hanson that Ellen White had instructed him (Hanson) to warn the Swedish brethren against Lee, who continues his story,
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- "Bro. Hanson was very friendly to me before he came under Mrs. W.'s influence. The day before I started to Chicago in the fall of 1874, he felt so interested in me that he came 3 miles purposely to relate a dream to me that he had dreamt the night before, which he declared God had given him for my good. He dreamt that I went to meet Miss Deedon, now my wife, and then he saw that we got into a great trouble. But we came out of the troubles at last. About that time a short woman, dressed in black reform dress, came to him and took him by the hand and led him off. She appeared to him as an angel of light. But soon he heard a voice calling to him, saying, "Beware of whom you are lead." At the same time the woman's hand turned cold as a piece of ice in his hand, and she appeared to him as a dark demon. This is the substance of the dream he told me.
- "Bro. And Sr. Ericson felt very bad to hear such news about us. They did not know what to believe. It was hard for them to believe that I was led by Satan, for Sr. Ericson had been raised up from a severe illness twice by our prayer. Once while we were in B.C. We kept quiet and appealed to God to convince them of the truth. They also sought God for light in regard to us. The second morning at the family worship they were more free with us. At the breakfast table,
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- "Bro. E. related a dream to us, that he had had during the night. He said he saw a great multitude of people looking for Christ to come. In the midst of the mass was Mrs. White. -- He had never seen her, but described her perfectly. All at once it became very dark upon the earth. He looked about him, and found but a small company in comparison with the great mass he first saw. In anxiety he cried out, "Where are they all gone?" A voice answered him, "They are all lost with Mrs. White." At that he awoke terrified." (Charles Lee, 1876.)
"“The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty.” SOURCE: Ellen G. White (1903, ms 150, SDA; Commentary V, p. 1129)
This is NEW AGE Sir: Jesus did not BECOME God - this is a teaching of satan and his followers. God is God - was always and will be.
Ellen White vruchten: (pro)
- Ze hielp de kerk meerdere malen door een crisis
- Ze vestigde aandacht op het feit dat er sprake is van een strijd tussen satan en Christus
- Zorgde voor een gezond bestaan/langer leven
Theorie: duivel wil voorkomen dat escathalogische waarheden en het evangelie verenigd worden. Daarom misleidde hij Ellen White met een ander evangelie dat mensen berooft van de zekerheid van hun redding. De duivel wil mensen doen geloven dat redding niet mogelijk is/ dat redding gekocht moet worden met werken.
Bewijs:
- Zeer zorgvuldige cohesie met valse aannames die de leer van het onderzoekend oordeel ondersteunen (Jezus had een zondige aard, Jezus was een voorbeeld hoe we gered kunnen worden, Satan is een zondebok, verdraaiing van daniel 8:14 en hebreeen 9, onderzoekend oordeel bevestigd met visioenen, perfectionisme volgens de wet is een voorwaarde voor redding)
- Naarmate Ellen White ouder werd en het evangelie beter begreep namen haar visioenen af (toeval?)
- Visioenen gingen over zaken die niet van belang waren (geld, fotos en dergelijke)
- Ellen White werd rijkelijk beloond (meer dan 10 helpers, groot huis, groot inkomen, internationale superluxe reizen)
- Tegenstanders zouden automatisch naar de hel gaan omdat ze de Heilige Geest zouden tegenwerken
- Ellen White had bepaalde soort ervaringen die lijken op de ervaringen in de pinkstergemeenten
- Visioenen waren gebaseerd op andere boeken?
- Bijbelse profeten krijgen geen visioenen over vorige visioenen, Ellen White zogenaamd wel.
- Voorspelde terecht dat er een tijd zou komen dat haar getuigenissen niet meer geloofd zouden worden (is immers voorspeld in de bijbel) en zei dat dat dan het werk van Satan was.
- 2 Mensen Foy en nog een hadden de gift van profetie afgewezen waarvan 1 dacht dat het van de duivel was
- De engelen in de visioenen legden Ellen White nooit het evangelie uit (bedreiging voor haar inkomsten?)
- Vrijmetselarij was betrokken bij de founding fathers (William Miller)
- Ellen White was laagopgeleid, zwak
Ik weet 100 procent zeker dat Ellen White misleid was, Lucifer wil ons doen geloven dat de zevende dags adventisten de ene ware kerk is, maar door sabbath te prediken als voorwaarde voor redding is het in feite een antichristus-kerk, want het leert een ander evangelie, wat in feite geen evangelie is ( lees Galaten).
In Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 131 and 132, Ellen White said that an angel told her that some of the people present at a particular conference would be “food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.” Well, they all ended up as food for worms. None of them will experience the seven last plagues, nor will any of them be translated.
•In Desire of Ages, p. 645 she says that Judas had a conviction to confess during the footwashing. In Evangelism, p. 275, she says that Judas did not have a conviction to confess during footwashing.
•In Spiritual Gifts, v. 1, p. 58, she says that the nails went through Jesus’ bones. Forty years later, in Desire of Ages, p. 744, she says that no bones were broken.
•She believed in and wrote about the “shut door” doctrine for several years after the “great disappointment” and then retracted it. This was a doctrine that taught that there was no need for evangelism because Jesus had already decided who was going to be saved and who was going to be lost. For more information on
Evangelism, p. 598, Ellen White said that Satan deceived Adam. 1 Timothy 2:14 (NKJV) says, And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
•In Counsels on Diets and Foods, p. 148, she said that God gave the children of Israel meat and gluttony produced the plague. Numbers 11:33 (NKJV) says, "But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and Lord struck the people with a very great plague."
•In Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 155, she said that we should never say that we are saved. 1 John 5:13 (NKJV) says, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
•In Desire of Ages, p. 753, she said that before the crucifixion, Jesus “could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal.” In John 10:17, 18 (NKJV), Jesus says, "Therefore, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." (See also, Luke 24:7 and John 2:19.)
"It is Satan's plan to weaken the faith of God’s people in the Testimonies [writings of Ellen White] . Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital points of our faith, the pillars of our position, then doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the downward march to perdition. When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction.” Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 4, p. 211.
“If you lose confidence in the Testimonies you will drift away from Bible truth.” Ellen G. White, Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 5, p. 98.
"Then I was shown a company who were howling in agony. On their garments was written in large characters, 'Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.' I asked who this company were. The angel said, 'these are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up.'" Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 37
"God will never, never allow any man to pass through the pearly gates of the city of God who does not bear the signet of the faithful, His government mark." [in context the signet mark is the Sabbath] Ellen G. White, Medical Ministry, p. 123.
"God will frown upon those who disregard his commandments and he cannot bless the church that retains Sabbath-breakers in its fellowship." Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, 1890-06-02.
She could not even use her own judgment concerning those who needed her prayers. Many of us would have been out of luck with Mrs. White as we would have been much too lowly to be worthy of her prayers. Following is a rather sickening note by Ellen White indicating just how full of herself she really was and also illustrating the above attitude.
"One Who Requested Prayer for Healing. -
My husband and I once attended a meeting where our sympathies were enlisted for a brother who was a great sufferer with the phthisic. He was pale and emaciated. He requested the prayers of the people of God. He said that his family were sick, and that he had lost a child. He spoke with feeling of his bereavement. He said that he had been waiting for some time to see Brother and Sister White. He had believed that if they would pray for him, he would be heated. After the meeting closed, the brethren called our attention to the case. They said that the church was assisting them, that his wife was sick, and his child had died. The brethren had met at his house and united in praying for the afflicted family. We were much worn and had the burden of labor upon us during the meeting and wished to be excused. I had resolved not to engage in prayer for anyone, unless the Spirit of the Lord should dictate in the matter ...
That night we bowed in prayer and presented his case before the Lord. We entreated that we might know the will of God concerning him. All we desired was that God might be glorified. Would the Lord have us pray for this afflicted man? We left the burden with the Lord and retired to rest. In a dream the case of that man was clearly presented. His course from his childhood up was shown, and that if we should pray, the Lord would not hear us; for he regarded iniquity in his heart. The next morning the man came for us to pray for him. We took him aside and told him we were sorry to be compelled to refuse his request. I related my dream, which he acknowledged was true. He had practiced self-abuse from his boyhood up, and he had continued the practice during his married life, but said he would try to break himself of it. This man had a long-established habit to overcome. He was in the middle age of life. His moral principles were so weak that when brought in conflict with with long-established indulgence, they were overcome ...
Here was a man debasing himself daily and yet daring to venture into the presence of God and ask an increase of strength which he had vilely squandered, and which, if granted, he would consume upon his lust. What forbearance has God! If He should deal with man according to his corrupt ways, who could live in His sight?
What if we had been less cautious and carried the case of this man before God while he was practicing iniquity, would the Lord have heard? Would He have answered?
This is not a solitary case. Even the marriage relation was not sufficient to preserve this man from the corrupt habits of his youth. I wish I could be convinced that such cases as the one I have presented are rare, but I know they are frequent." (Child Guidance p. 450-1)
The situation in the Adventist Church today is much the same as that of the Jewish Church at the time of Jesus. The Jewish leaders had set up so many impossible rules and rituals that the common people could not possibly attain. Jesus described these people as follows; ""The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men." (Matt. 23:2-5) Jesus was very angered by the legalism which permeated His church at the time of His first advent. I suspect He will be just as angry with the legalism practiced in churches such as the Seventh Day Adventist denomination when He comes the second time.
As opposed to the blessing which is grace, the law is a curse upon all mankind, none of whom can possibly fulfill its requirements. While the law itself is perfect and holy, those who try to justify themselves before its holy Author bring not His blessing, but His curse upon themselves. The Bible itself tells us what the curse of the law is: “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘The man who does these things will live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree" (Galatians 3:10-13).
What we must understand from this passage is that the curse is not the law. The curse is the penalty levied for not keeping the law. The Book of the Law refers to the covenant laws that God made with His people during the time of Moses. The law can point out where we fail and fall short of God’s will, but it cannot pronounce us righteous; that was not its purpose.
In the above passage the apostle Paul is telling us that everyone who does not keep the law perfectly, is cursed by it (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10). The reason is because no one can obey the law perfectly. In fact, there were over 600 laws the Jews had to keep to be right in the eyes of God. The breaking of even one commandment put a person under condemnation. Trying to achieve salvation through obedience to the law is futile. For example, we all regularly break the first and greatest commandment by failing to love God first with all our hearts, minds and strength (Matthew 22:37-38). As a result, everyone has broken the commandments, and everyone is cursed.
The law demands perfection—an impossibility because we’re all sinful (Romans 3:10, 23). As a result, all who try to live by the Old Law were under a divine curse. But the good news is that Jesus Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us . . .” (Galatians 3:13). Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross when He bore the total brunt of God’s curse. Paul explains how in his letter to the Romans: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26). The curse of the law fell on Christ on our behalf so that the righteousness of God could fall on us, though we did not deserve it (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Vruchten:
Often, cult research is tedious and boring. I am grateful to EGW for being humorous, ridiculous, and just plain silly. Her writings bearing her name are 17 times as long as the Bibleplagiarized or not.
Many of them have to do with her doctrines on health and food.
As an SDA you will be encouraged to become a vegetarian. Ellen indicated that your salvation could be dependent on giving up meat . No meat-eaters will be "translated" at Christ's coming (Counsels on Diet and Foods p. 380).
You won't be told this scripture by SDA's
"...he who is weak in faith eats vegetables only..." (Romans 14:2). (Fun to read to vegetarians).
She taught in Counsels on Diet ..on p. 390 (some editions) that
"...if we subsist largely upon the flesh of dead animals, we shall partake of their nature".
Partake of their nature? This is against God's creation laws of "kind", and Impossible. Also conveniently forgotten is Paul view, "Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience' sake." ( 1 Cor. 10:25). Obviously no vegetarians evident in the early church!
Most of EGW's concerns over diet were in an effort to control what she considered to be an excessive sex drive in the male. She devoted endless pages to discussing "secret vice" (masturbation) and blamed the practice for a wide range of diseases. Here, in "Solemn Appeal" page 12 are a few of the diseases said to be caused by "secret vice"
"...dyspepsia, spinal complaint, headache, epilepsy, impaired eyesight, palpitation of the heart, pain in the side, bleeding at the lungs, spasms of the heart and lungs, diabetes, incontinence of urine, fluor albus or whites, inflammation of the urinary organs... rheumatism, affected perspiration, consumption, asthma, catarrah, polypus of the heart, affection of the bones, fevers, ..etc. etc.
The cure for secret vice was even funnier. The perpetrator was to sit in a sitz bath at as low a temperature as possible. At the same time, he was to have a hot foot bath, while applying cold cloths to his forehead. He was also to wear an abdominal bandage or wet girdle at night "to good advantage".
She concludes, "Cool bathing of the parts affected is also beneficial".
To those SDA's who write me that I must be endorsing masturbation by making this public, let me assure you that this is not the case. Why don't they charge their leader with the same accusation? She wrote about it much more than I ever have! I am merely exposing her silliness in health matters. You'll never hear these ridiculous topics from the Adventists!
Thanks to Ellen White's influence, the Kellogg brothers were inspired to develop cold corn flakes, as hot porridge could "heat the blood" with undesirable results!
She sternly warned against using feather beds for the same reasons, but I found a letter from her asking someone to send her her featherbed! (EGW Vol 3, p. 341).
She also developed a "reform dress" on instructions from God, which was a bulky affair with pants under a long dress. She gave up on wearing hers finally, and so did the other women, after years of suffering discomfort.
Other assorted nonsense included Angels needing golden cards as gate passes to get in and out of heaven. (Early Writings p. 37-39),
She also "travelled" to other planets in her visions, and also claimed to have met Enoch (more necromancy). (EGW: The Early Years Vol.1 p. 114; p.157).
She taught that certain races of men are the result of amalgamation between man and beast. (SG Vol 3, p. 64,75). Which races? You won't be told this one at the Seminars, or even later!
Her silliness extended to wigs as well. Any woman daring to wear one would "...lose their reason and go hopelessly insane". (Christian Mothers, # 2, p. 121).
Well, that's about enough of the silliness. We could go on, but won't.
In conclusion, it is amazing to me that the SDA Church reveres Ellen G. White, choosing her visions, dreams, doctrines and teachings above the Bible. Other women had better run for cover, however, as they wouldn't dream of ordaining a woman in their denomination which is totally male dominated.
Adventists love to quote Walter Martin who was "had" by them as a young man and believed their statements without checking matters out closely, to prove they are not a cult. However, before he died, he made this statement on the John Ankerberg Show:
"I fear that if they continue to progress at this rate, then the classification of a cult can't possibly miss being reapplied to Seventh-day Adventism, because once you have an interpreter of Scripture, a final court of appeal that tells you what Scripture means, as soon as you judge Scripture by that, as soon as you have someone who has made doctrinal errors in the past, even on the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the atonement and other things, and that person is raised to that position or authority, you have polarization around that person".
Christ bore our own sins in his body on the tree according to the Bible. 1 Peter 2:24 says, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree...". Become a SDA, and it will be Satan who will eventually bear your sins! Ellen G. White wrote,
"...so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin...so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate...".(The Great Controversy p. 485).
If you receive Christ as your Saviour through the SDA's, only your past sins, up to that moment are forgiven. Now you must get to work to earn your salvation. Ellen G. White said in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald of 10-26-1897 this statement,
"...The terms of salvation for every son and daughter of Adam are here outlined. It is plainly stated that the condition of gaining eternal life is obedience to the commandments of God".
Of course, it is the fourth commandment that is stressed, since Ellen saw this one glowing in one of her visions. Salvation now becomes dependent on which day of the week one observes.
Modern Adventists keep sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as the Sabbath, but earlier in their history they kept 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday.
The rest of us "Sunday keepers" are doomed to receive the "mark of the beast" and lose our eternal life. (The Spirit of Prophecy V. 4, p. 505). They sure don't say this at their seminars!
Christ exclaimed "It is finished" when He died for our sins, but it is not finished in Seventh-day Adventism!
She Teaches Contrary To The Bible On The Subject Of Immortality That Even The Endless Life In The Eternal State May Cease Or Waste Away. She says,
"In order for man to possess an endless life, he must continue to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. Deprived of that tree, his life would gradually wear out. "—Sp. Gifts, Vol. 3, p. 64.
Questions.—
How can an endless life cease? Is not such an idea destructive of Paul's doctrine of immortality.—1Cor. 15:31-54.
If the endless life can be perpetuated only by eating of the fruit of the tree of life, upon what principle has the Devil lived for the last six thousand years? Has he had access to that tree?
If the endless life may fail and wear out, was not our Lord a false teacher when he said, "Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.—Luke, 20:36.
From the beginning of their history, Seventh-day Adventists have claimed that they were the remnant church of Rev. 12:17, because they had a prophet among them; namely, Mrs. E.G. White. They have always insisted that they had the "spirit of prophecy" (Rev. 19:10). When those opposed to their views have contended that we have the "spirit of prophecy" in the writings of the prophets as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, they have denied it, and have, in the most dogmatic fashion, contended that to have the spirit of prophecy there must be a living prophet in the church. But now their prophet is dead. Where is their "spirit of prophecy" now? According to the long-used argument, they now have no spirit of prophecy, and therefore can not be the remnant church of Rev. 12:17. The death of Mrs. White killed their argument.
If they now say that they have the spirit of prophecy in her writings, they admit what they have always denied; namely, that the writings of the prophets contain the spirit of prophecy. If they have the spirit of prophecy in the writings left by their prophet, then we have always had the spirit of prophecy in the writings left by the prophets of the Bible. All who have the Bible, and believe in that, have the spirit of prophecy contained in its writings. Therefore, the claim made by Seventh-day Adventists that they are the only body of Christians who have the spirit of prophecy is proven false by their own admission. Their former theory of the spirit of prophecy would compel them to bring forth immediately another living prophet, or surrender their argument in defense of the "spirit of prophecy" as represented in Mrs. White. This would destroy their whole theory on this subject.
For a period of seventy years they have claimed to be the remnant church of Rev. 12:17, because they had a living prophet in the church. But now their prophet is dead, and they have none any longer, whereby to prolong the "spirit of prophecy." They are now in the same condition as the other churches, and, according to their own argument, can not now be the remnant church. Upon the Scripture, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," their stock argument has been that, in order that the people shall be safe and surely guided, so that they shall not perish, there must be visions, and these the visions of a living prophet. Now the person is dead in whom alone they centered all true or proper visions. And now to them where are the visions without which the people perish?
At times Mrs. White made specific predictions regarding certain people. One such person was Adventist pioneer Moses Hull. In 1862 Hull was in the process of losing his faith in Adventism. It would appear that the Whites had given up on reasoning with Hull and Mrs. White now resorted to warning him of the dire consequences of the path he had chosen:
"If you proceed in the way you have started, misery and woe are before you. God's hand will arrest you in a manner that will not suit you. His wrath will not slumber." Testimonies, Vol. 1, pp. 430-431.
This never happened. Despite Mrs. White's warnings, Hull did "proceed the way he had started" and left the Adventist church. However, according to D.M. Canright, "Mr. Hull lived on many long years to a ripe old age, and nothing of the kind predicted happened." (Life of E.G. White, chap. 15) Besides raising questions about her prophetic abilities, this incident raises some important questions about her understanding of God. What kind of a God does Ellen White portray? Does God need to frighten people with wrath in order to keep them in His church? Does God need to resort to scare tactics in order to force people to stay in His church against their own will?
EGW: YES "To obey the commandments of God is the only way to obtain (earn) His favor" (Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 28).
BIBLE: NO Isa 64:6 (NIV) All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
BIBLE: NO Gal 3:11 (NIV) "Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, 'The righteous will live by faith'.
“God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul” (1SM 366).
- De heilige geest kon nooit de inspirator zijn van Ellen:
Q: Isn’t all scripture subject to our interpretation, as we have no way to understand it except through our minds?
A: Please consider II Peter 1:20-21 (NRSV): "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy never came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
Scripture is not subject to our interpretation and our desires. I'm not suggesting that we suspend the action of our intellect as we seek to understand the Word, but I am saying that our intellect must be in subjection to the Holy Spirit. We must submit to God's foolish wisdom (1 Cor. 1) when our ideas conflict with the results of clear exegesis and the promptings of God's Spirit (I Cor. 2:14).
The second point from this passage in II Peter is that prophets speak not "by human will," but "from God" as they are "moved by the Holy Spirit." To speak messages from God while under the influence of the Holy Spirit is to speak truth--not truth adulterated with human deficiencies. It is the exact representation of truth that God intends for the time and place in which it was given.
There are two components to the understanding of scripture: interpretation (exegesis) and the work of the Holy Spirit, and the latter is most important. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14, NIV). In this sense, scripture is not "a matter of one's own interpretation." The Holy Spirit works with our intellect (James 1:5), but spiritual discernment trumps our interpretations.
- Wanneer ze naar Galaten gevraagd wordt lult ze eromheen, ze stelt bovendien dat de wet en het evangelie perfect met elkaar in harmonie zijn.
From the Pen of Ellen White (thanks to Herbert Douglass for the compilation):
“Christ came to pay that debt for the sinner which it was impossible for him to pay for himself. Thus, through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, sinful man was granted another trial” (FW 30).
“Christ died that the transgressor of the law of God might be brought back to His [sic] loyalty, that He [sic] might keep the commandments of God, and His law as the apple of His eye, and live. God cannot take rebels into His kingdom; therefore He makes obedience to His requirements a special requirement” (1MR 112).
“He died to make it possible for us to keep the law” (YI, March 20, 1902).
“God and the holy angels have an intense desire that human beings shall reach the standard of perfection which Christ died to make it possible for them to reach” (HP 286).
“Christ has died that we might keep God's commandments. Will you have your names registered in the Lamb's book of life? Then be careful and zealous to repent of every sin” (9MR 264).
“Do not disappoint the One who gave His life that you might be an overcomer. He was tempted on every point that you and I can be tempted on, and in order to resist He spent whole nights in prayer and communion with His Father. Christ did not leave this world until He had made it possible for every soul to live a life of perfect faith and obedience, to have a perfect character” (TDG 204).
“The Son of God consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man might, by a life of obedience, escape the penalty of the law of God” (ST, August 7, 1879).
Evaluation:
During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her emphasis on Christ’s death as a means of giving sinners another chance to obey the law.
Thought Questions:
1.Is Christ’s death basically a second chance for the sinner to obey the law?
2.What does the Bible say about the role of law in the New Covenant?
Bible Texts:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4).
“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Rom. 4:4-7)
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4).
“[F]or if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
“But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18).
“Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (I John 4:2).
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1)
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).
- Ellen zei dat Jezus alleen kwam om ons te laten zien dat we de wet kunnen houden!
Said Christ, ‘I have glorified Thee in My human character, perfecting that character for the benefit of all humanity, to show human beings that man can keep the law of God in a world of sin and transgression, and through being a partaker of the divine nature, stand as an overcomer” (6MR 233).
“The world’s Redeemer passed over the ground where Adam fell because of his disobeying the expressed law of Jehovah; and the only begotten Son of God came to our world as a man, to reveal to the world that men could keep the law of God” (6MR 334).
“We are ever to be thankful that Jesus has proved to us by actual facts that man can keep the commandments of God, giving contradiction to Satan’s falsehood that man cannot keep them. The Great Teacher came to our world to stand at the head of humanity, to thus elevate and sanctify humanity by His holy obedience to all of God’s requirements showing it is possible to obey all the commandments of God” (5MR 113).
“So you have the whole duty laid down, and that is to keep the commandments if you expect to have eternal life. What was lost through Adam by disobedience must be brought back by obedience” (5MR 260).
Evaluation:
During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her emphasis on a very human Example as opposed to a divine Substitute.
Thought Questions:
1.Does the Bible clearly teach that Christ had a human nature with a propensity to sin?
2.Does the idea of the humanity of Christ diminish His divinity?
3.Is the humanity of Christ doctrine just simple cover for perfectionism? If Jesus was perfect in His human nature, and if He had no advantage over human beings, then shouldn’t His followers also achieve perfection?
4.Did Christ come to show us that we can keep the law?
- vaag new age groen koord visioen van Jezus:S
1850 endorsement of the Apocrypha: "I SAW that the Apocrypha was the hidden book, and that the wise of these last days should understand it" - Ms 4, 1850).
- Satan was overal verantwoordelijk voor met kleine zaakjes bezig:S
- Masturbatie leidt tot massadoden? Miljoenen doden!
- Ze had dezelfde soort visioenen als Joseph Smith
- Ze had visioenen van Jezus die persoonlijke sociale relaties schijnbaar erg belangrijk vond (blabla is van de duivel x3)
- Profetieen die niet uitkomen
- Zelfverrijking
- Voegde toe aan het woord van God (verbood vlees eten, juwelen >die ze zelf wel droeg)
- Vernietigde het evangelie met de leer van het onderzoekend oordeel
- Gebruikte veel andere bronnen
- Schreef ontzettend veel boeken, wou dat iedereen die boeken verkocht ipv de bijbel? (royalties?)
- Sprak bijbel meerdere keren tegen (Jezus had zogenaamd oudere broers, etc.)
- Twijfelde zelf of haar visioenen het gevolg waren van mesmerisme
- Haatte haar vijanden (iedereen die haar niet geloofde ging naar de hel)
- Scheen niet vergevingsgezind te zijn
- Liet niks na aan de armen, schreef er wel over om geld mee te verdienen:S
- Ellen was een vrouw en gaf lering in kerken (terwijl dat volgens Paul een schande is)
- Had visioenen over de meest stomme dingen (foto’s, geld etc)
- Sprak over wetenschappelijke zaken (vulkanen en dergelijke) die later complete onzin bleken te zijn
- Ze praktiseerde niet wat ze leerde (vlees eten, zelf-ontkenning, juwelen, luxe)
- Verzegeling vindt letterlijk plaats door een engel die beslist over het lot van mensen? (ze gebruikt angst-tacktieken)
- Ellen gebruikt angst!
- Sabbath is niet bijbels!! Is niet het zegel van God! Zij leerde het als belangrijkste gebod. Wegvallen van genade
- Het evangelie is het zegel van God, de heilige geest Exodus 12, Ezechiel 9 (Ellen verpreidde 666)
- Leerde dat 10 geboden niet waren afgeschaft
- Had rare bovennatuurlijke ervaringen, spiritisme
- Leerde dat de paus de sabbath had veranderd naar zondag
- Volgelingen veranderen in farizeeers (rotte vruchten)
- Ze had new age taal, new age symboliek in schilderijen
- Ze leerde dat de verzoening van Jezus aan het kruis niet voltooid was:
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- White’s teaching about the Investigative Judgment being the reality behind the Day of Atonement required her to state that the atonement is ongoing; therefore, it was not completed at the cross as the rest of Christianity affirms
- From the Pen of Ellen White:
- “Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies and there appears in the presence of God to engage in the last acts of His ministration in behalf of man--to perform the work of investigative judgment and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits” (GC 480).
- "As the priest entered the most holy once a year to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, so Jesus entered the most holy of the heavenly, at the end of the 2300 days of Daniel 8, in 1844, to make a final atonement for all who could be benefited by His mediation, and thus to cleanse the sanctuary” (EW 253).
-
- “The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven” (GC 489
- “The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement . . . . Then by virtue of the atoning blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or cleansed, from the record of sin” (PP 357-58).
- Evaluation:
- A comparison of the Ellen White quotes on the incomplete atonement with Romans 5:11 reveals that her Christology is incompatible with that of scripture. “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11).
- Questions on Doctrine, a book published by the SDA leadership in 1957, states that “the sacrificial atonement was made on the cross and was provided for all men, but that in the heavenly priestly ministry of Christ our Lord, this sacrificial atonement is applied to the seeking soul” (QOD 348). The QOD explanation is inadequate because it fails to change the fact that the SDA prophet diminished the cross and highlighted the atonement supposedly taking place in the Investigative Judgment: “The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death He began that work which after His resurrection He ascended to complete in heaven” (GC 489).
-
- During the period when the New Testament was being written, false teachers were denying that Christ had come in the flesh (I John 4:2). Ellen White doesn’t deny that Christ came in the flesh, but if her Christology is faulty, is she in violation with the principle behind I John 4:2? The modern application of this text is that genuine prophets must uphold biblical teachings regarding the nature and ministry of Christ; Ellen White does not, as evidenced by her teaching of the incomplete atonement.
- Thought Questions:
- 1.If the Bible says that the atonement was completed at the cross, and Ellen White says the atonement will be completed in the future, what does that tell us about Ellen White?
- 2.Does Ellen White’s picture of an ongoing atonement diminish what Christ accomplished on the cross?
- 3.What does the concept of an ongoing atonement say about the efficacy of the blood of Christ?
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- Bible Texts:
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-
-
- “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11).
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- “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:24-26).
- “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (I John 4:2).
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- “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1).
- Ze leerde dat Jezus niet de eeuwige God is:
Is the 1898 affirmation of the divinity of Christ and the existence of the Trinity in accordance with her original writings? According to Ellen White, the Father honored Christ by making Christ equal in authority with the Father, and she goes on to state that this was the basis for Satan’s rebellion against God. Satan wanted the honor that had been given to Christ. Did Lucifer and the other angels not know that Christ was God? According to Ellen White, they were unaware of this basic fact. Had they only known, maybe they wouldn’t have fallen . . . .
Leaving his place in the immediate presence of God, Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels. Working with mysterious secrecy, and for a time concealing his real purpose under an appearance of reverence for God, he endeavored to excite dissatisfaction concerning the laws that governed heavenly beings, intimating that they imposed an unnecessary restraint. Since their natures were holy, he urged that the angels should obey the dictates of their own will. He sought to create sympathy for himself by representing that God had dealt unjustly with him in bestowing supreme honor upon Christ. He claimed that in aspiring to greater power and honor he was not aiming at self-exaltation, but was seeking to secure liberty for all the inhabitants of heaven, that by this means they might attain to a higher state of existence” (GC 495).
The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that he might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son. The Son was seated on the throne with the Father, and the heavenly throng of holy angels was gathered around them. The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ, his Son, should be equal with himself; so that wherever was the presence of his Son, it was as his own presence. The word of the Son was to be obeyed as readily as the word of the Father. His Son he had invested with authority to command the heavenly host. Especially was his Son to work in union with himself in the anticipated creation of the earth and every living thing that should exist upon the earth. His Son would carry out his will and his purposes, but would do nothing of himself alone. The Father's will would be fulfilled in him.
Satan and his sympathizers were striving to reform the government of God. They were discontented and unhappy because they could not look into his unsearchable wisdom and ascertain his purposes in exalting his Son Jesus, and endowing him with such unlimited power and command. They rebelled against the authority of the Son” (1SP 17-19). Jezus werd dus net zo sterk geacht door Ellen als de duivel, past bij haar andere evangelie dat WIJ de strijd aan moeten gaan met de duivel mbt zonde.
- 1.If Ellen White was a true prophetess, why would God allow her to teach error for over fifty years?
- 2.Has a true prophet ever misrepresented previously established truth?
- 3.Are Ellen White’s early visions valid in light of her later teachings (and the Bible)?
- 4.Is it reasonable to believe that the heavenly beings were unaware that Jesus is God?
- 5.Why isn’t the Holy Spirit mentioned in these accounts?
- 6.Why does Ellen White call God the Father “the great Creator” when the Bible teaches that Christ is the creator of all things?
- 7.Do God’s true prophets grow from error to truth in their prophetic utterances?
- 8.Is Ellen White’s testimony regarding Christ true?
- Bible Texts:
-
-
-
- “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Pe. 2:1).
-
-
-
-
- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4).
-
-
-
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- “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9).
-
- Charles Lee
- In his book Three Important Questions for Seventh-Day Adventists to Consider (1876), Charles Lee recalls an experience he had with Ellen White. The editor of the Swedish edition of Advent Herald, Mr. C. Carlstedt, had become seriously ill. Charles Lee, James and Ellen White, and two other persons went on a visit to Br. Carlstedt,
-
- "We all knelt in prayer for the sick man; and Mrs. W. praised the Lord because he was "present with his restoring power, to raise Carlstedt, whose sickness," she said, was "not unto death, but to the glory of the Son of God. . . .
-
- "On our way back Mrs. W. said to me that the Lord was there with his restoring power, and she was confident that he would be restored to health again. I told her I did not realize it, and that it was darkness to me. She did not speak to me again that evening. As I parted from them, I went direct to Chicago, to continue my meetings. A few days after I came to Chicago, Mrs. W. sent me a written testimony; and in that she says she knew that I was under the influence of devils. The next day I received a dispatch that Mr. C. was dead. I read and re-read the testimony, and said to myself, "If she could see 3 years ago that Satan should take possession of my soul and body because I would not give myself entirely up to be led by her and her husband,why could she not see that Mr. C. would die a few days before he did, as her attention was called directly to his case? And if she saw my then pitiable condition so long before, why did she not warn me before Satan got me entirely under his influence?
-
- "The brethren at B.C. wrote me to come right back to the Office. I did so. When there, Mr. J. Sawyer set me to work, and I thought he was authorized to do so. Then Eld. W. came, and, in a very harsh manner asked me, "Who has set you to work here? Do you intend to come here and run the whole business?" etc. I told him who had set me to work, but then he went out. This led to what he called "laboring meetings." When he could not gain his object he turned to his wife and said, "Mrs. White, what did you see in regard to Bro. Lee's case?" She answered, "I saw that we should have to meet Spiritualism in Bro. Lee," or, "I saw that if he does not yield his independent will to be led by the leading brethren, Satan will take possession of his soul." "There, that's it," he said. "If Bro. Lee does not accept the testimony, he is beyond our reach."
-
- "Her testimony was considered above the word of God. I did not know before that Mrs. W. held such a position in the Advent church. It really astonished me. She said things that I never thought a human being would say. She said, "You, foreigners, must be moulded by us for eternity. . . . A few days before we were married, Mrs. W. sent for my wife (then Miss Deedon) to come and see her. She then told her that I was "the most deceived person in the world," and warned her against me. . . . A few weeks from this, the testimony of Mrs. W. came out against me in print,and I was looked upon as a doomed man." (Charles Lee, 1876. Emphasis supplied.)
-
- Here we encounter the same spirit again: If anyone would gainsay Ellen White, that person would later receive a stinging "testimony from heaven", in which he/she would be accused of being agents of Satan, led by the devil, etc. This happened time and again.
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- Later, Charles Lee learned from Br. P. Hanson that Ellen White had instructed him (Hanson) to warn the Swedish brethren against Lee, who continues his story,
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- "Bro. Hanson was very friendly to me before he came under Mrs. W.'s influence. The day before I started to Chicago in the fall of 1874, he felt so interested in me that he came 3 miles purposely to relate a dream to me that he had dreamt the night before, which he declared God had given him for my good. He dreamt that I went to meet Miss Deedon, now my wife, and then he saw that we got into a great trouble. But we came out of the troubles at last. About that time a short woman, dressed in black reform dress, came to him and took him by the hand and led him off. She appeared to him as an angel of light. But soon he heard a voice calling to him, saying, "Beware of whom you are lead." At the same time the woman's hand turned cold as a piece of ice in his hand, and she appeared to him as a dark demon. This is the substance of the dream he told me.
- "Bro. And Sr. Ericson felt very bad to hear such news about us. They did not know what to believe. It was hard for them to believe that I was led by Satan, for Sr. Ericson had been raised up from a severe illness twice by our prayer. Once while we were in B.C. We kept quiet and appealed to God to convince them of the truth. They also sought God for light in regard to us. The second morning at the family worship they were more free with us. At the breakfast table,
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- "Bro. E. related a dream to us, that he had had during the night. He said he saw a great multitude of people looking for Christ to come. In the midst of the mass was Mrs. White. -- He had never seen her, but described her perfectly. All at once it became very dark upon the earth. He looked about him, and found but a small company in comparison with the great mass he first saw. In anxiety he cried out, "Where are they all gone?" A voice answered him, "They are all lost with Mrs. White." At that he awoke terrified." (Charles Lee, 1876.)
"“The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty.” SOURCE: Ellen G. White (1903, ms 150, SDA; Commentary V, p. 1129)
This is NEW AGE Sir: Jesus did not BECOME God - this is a teaching of satan and his followers. God is God - was always and will be.
Ellen White vruchten: (pro)
- Ze hielp de kerk meerdere malen door een crisis
- Ze vestigde aandacht op het feit dat er sprake is van een strijd tussen satan en Christus
- Zorgde voor een gezond bestaan/langer leven
Theorie: duivel wil voorkomen dat escathalogische waarheden en het evangelie verenigd worden. Daarom misleidde hij Ellen White met een ander evangelie dat mensen berooft van de zekerheid van hun redding. De duivel wil mensen doen geloven dat redding niet mogelijk is/ dat redding gekocht moet worden met werken.
Bewijs:
- Zeer zorgvuldige cohesie met valse aannames die de leer van het onderzoekend oordeel ondersteunen (Jezus had een zondige aard, Jezus was een voorbeeld hoe we gered kunnen worden, Satan is een zondebok, verdraaiing van daniel 8:14 en hebreeen 9, onderzoekend oordeel bevestigd met visioenen, perfectionisme volgens de wet is een voorwaarde voor redding)
- Naarmate Ellen White ouder werd en het evangelie beter begreep namen haar visioenen af (toeval?)
- Visioenen gingen over zaken die niet van belang waren (geld, fotos en dergelijke)
- Ellen White werd rijkelijk beloond (meer dan 10 helpers, groot huis, groot inkomen, internationale superluxe reizen)
- Tegenstanders zouden automatisch naar de hel gaan omdat ze de Heilige Geest zouden tegenwerken
- Ellen White had bepaalde soort ervaringen die lijken op de ervaringen in de pinkstergemeenten
- Visioenen waren gebaseerd op andere boeken?
- Bijbelse profeten krijgen geen visioenen over vorige visioenen, Ellen White zogenaamd wel.
- Voorspelde terecht dat er een tijd zou komen dat haar getuigenissen niet meer geloofd zouden worden (is immers voorspeld in de bijbel) en zei dat dat dan het werk van Satan was.
- 2 Mensen Foy en nog een hadden de gift van profetie afgewezen waarvan 1 dacht dat het van de duivel was
- De engelen in de visioenen legden Ellen White nooit het evangelie uit (bedreiging voor haar inkomsten?)
- Vrijmetselarij was betrokken bij de founding fathers (William Miller)
- Ellen White was laagopgeleid, zwak
Ik weet 100 procent zeker dat Ellen White misleid was, Lucifer wil ons doen geloven dat de zevende dags adventisten de ene ware kerk is, maar door sabbath te prediken als voorwaarde voor redding is het in feite een antichristus-kerk, want het leert een ander evangelie, wat in feite geen evangelie is ( lees Galaten).
sorry voor de lay-out, bottomline van het verhaal is dat alleen het bijbelse christendom leert dat we door genade gered worden, en dat alle andere religies leren dat we deels onzelf kunnen redden en dat het zevende dags-adventisme daar ook bij hoort. Al deze andere religies zijn antichristus in die zin.
De ene psychoot belandt in het gesticht, de ander blijft vrij rondlopen en noemt zich christen.
Nederlands is moeilijker als je denkt.
Goed, maar wat is je stelling?quote:Op vrijdag 8 februari 2013 14:15 schreef wiseguy-23 het volgende:
sorry voor de lay-out, bottomline van het verhaal is dat alleen het bijbelse christendom leert dat we door genade gered worden, en dat alle andere religies leren dat we deels onzelf kunnen redden en dat het zevende dags-adventisme daar ook bij hoort. Al deze andere religies zijn antichristus in die zin.
Stelling is dat het zevende dags adventisme de meest sluwe misleiding is die Lucifer ooit heeft uitgevonden.
godverdomme zeg wat een lap tekst, tl;dr, maar wel een plaatje voor je topic. 
Supra Groningam Nihil
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Supra Groningam Nihil
Postjubilea: 10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000
Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Postjubilea: 10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000
Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Fok is een 4-chan light, dus ik neem aan dat jullie wel wat gewend zijn. Ik weet dat ik in jullie ogen een extreem standpunt inneem door te geloven in de bijbel, desalniettemin hoop ik een discussie gebaseerd op argumenten te kunnen voeren
regel 1 bij een discussie: start met een duidelijk en beknopt betoog.
met humanistische overtuiging groet ik u,
Deetch
met humanistische overtuiging groet ik u,
Deetch
Supra Groningam Nihil
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Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Postjubilea: 10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000
Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Wil je argumenten? Vertel dan maar eens waarom jij je hele zienswijze baseert op oude verhalen, door mensen geschreven, herschreven, (verkeerd) vertaalt etc.
En als je dat gedaan hebt moet je me gelijk even uitleggen waarom jouw godsdienst de enige ware is, en alle andere vals.
In mijn ogen kun je niet zelf nadenken en ben je echt totaal van het padje af. Ik vind mensen zoals jij werkelijk eng en gevaarlijk.
En als je dat gedaan hebt moet je me gelijk even uitleggen waarom jouw godsdienst de enige ware is, en alle andere vals.
In mijn ogen kun je niet zelf nadenken en ben je echt totaal van het padje af. Ik vind mensen zoals jij werkelijk eng en gevaarlijk.
Nederlands is moeilijker als je denkt.
Hoi Deetch, sorry, ben al jaaaaaaaren niet actief op fok, ik dacht dat ik een en ander wel goed had ingeleid, wat daarna volgt kan door sommigen wellicht als verstoorde cohesie worden opgevat. Maar Ali Kanibali en mensen die een beetje bekend zijn met de bijbel weten ongetwijfeld wel wat ik bedoel. Maar je hebt gelijk, ik had een en ander beter moeten structureren maar dat kost fokking veel tijd en ik denk dat je het in een oogopslag wel kan uitlezen.
Ja sorry, maar kun je het wat kort en bondig maken, die op van je? Wellicht dat ik dan de moeite neem dat zevende dags gedoe te bestuderen. Nu staat het mij tegen. Als ik lappen tekst wil lezen, doe ik mijn studieboek open leggen.quote:
Stelling is dat het zevende dags adventisme de meest sluwe misleiding is die Lucifer ooit heeft uitgevonden.
Kort en bondig:
Ik geloof niet in iets dat niet bewezen kan worden ook al kan ik ook niet bewijzen dat het niet bewezene niet bestaat.
Zo en nu is het tijd voor weekend.
Ik geloof niet in iets dat niet bewezen kan worden ook al kan ik ook niet bewijzen dat het niet bewezene niet bestaat.
Zo en nu is het tijd voor weekend.
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Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Postjubilea: 10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000
Sit jou kop in die koei se kont en wag tot die bul jou kom holnaai
Wat niemand je vertelt over de bioindustrie, geen bloed maar feiten
Jah ik zal later een nieuw topic maken en dan bondiger, het staat idd bol van de herhalingen. Dat komt omdat het evangelie vaak verkeerd gerepresenteerd is. Ik heb nu helaas ff geen tijd. Jullie kunnen desalniettemin zelf dit topic bediscussieren als jullie willen, of als het de regels schendt of iets dergelijks, kan het wat mij betreft in de prullebak gegooid worden omdat ik sowieso toch later terug kom met een helder topicquote:
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Ja sorry, maar kun je het wat kort en bondig maken, die op van je? Wellicht dat ik dan de moeite neem dat zevende dags gedoe te bestuderen. Nu staat het mij tegen. Als ik lappen tekst wil lezen, doe ik mijn studieboek open leggen.
In één oogopslag was het in ieder geval duidelijk dat ik het in het geheel niet zou lezen. En velen met mij gok ik zo.quote:
Hoi Deetch, sorry, ben al jaaaaaaaren niet actief op fok, ik dacht dat ik een en ander wel goed had ingeleid, wat daarna volgt kan door sommigen wellicht als verstoorde cohesie worden opgevat. Maar Ali Kanibali en mensen die een beetje bekend zijn met de bijbel weten ongetwijfeld wel wat ik bedoel. Maar je hebt gelijk, ik had een en ander beter moeten structureren maar dat kost fokking veel tijd en ik denk dat je het in een oogopslag wel kan uitlezen.
Als niets meer baat kan een worst geen kwaad.
Op dinsdag 7 december 2010 12:50 schreef yvonne het volgende:
Beste moderator UIO_AMS
Stuur een mod weg.
Op dinsdag 7 december 2010 12:50 schreef yvonne het volgende:
Beste moderator UIO_AMS
Stuur een mod weg.
Tja, geloof is voor iedereen een persoonlijke belevenis he, de een moet er niks van hebben, de ander zoekt er zijn heil. Feit is wel dat meer dan 50 procent van de wereldbevolking behoort tot de Abrahamistische religies; Jodendom, Islam en Christendomquote:Op vrijdag 8 februari 2013 14:34 schreef Deetch het volgende:
Kort en bondig:
Ik geloof niet in iets dat niet bewezen kan worden ook al kan ik ook niet bewijzen dat het niet bewezene niet bestaat.
Zo en nu is het tijd voor weekend.
Oke, ik zal een helderder kort en bondig topic maken als ik terug kom, moet nu weg helaas.quote:Op vrijdag 8 februari 2013 14:36 schreef UIO_AMS het volgende:
[..]
In één oogopslag was het in ieder geval duidelijk dat ik het in het geheel niet zou lezen. En velen met mij gok ik zo.
Het is ook een feit dat zo'n 50 % behoort tot het vrouwelijke geslacht en die andere 50% tot het mannelijke geslacht. Tussenvormen daargelaten. Wat is je punt?quote:
Tja, geloof is voor iedereen een persoonlijke belevenis he, de een moet er niks van hebben, de ander zoekt er zijn heil. Feit is wel dat meer dan 50 procent van de wereldbevolking behoort tot de Abrahamistische religies; Jodendom, Islam en Christendom
Als niets meer baat kan een worst geen kwaad.
Op dinsdag 7 december 2010 12:50 schreef yvonne het volgende:
Beste moderator UIO_AMS
Stuur een mod weg.
Op dinsdag 7 december 2010 12:50 schreef yvonne het volgende:
Beste moderator UIO_AMS
Stuur een mod weg.
Ik geloof dat de bijbel behoorlijk goed bewaard is gebleven en dat de bijbel, (40 boeken in een periode van duizenden jaren) een perfecte eenheid vormen, profetieen bevatten die uitkomen, en de woorden die er in de boeken staan zijn volgens mij door de Heilige Geest ingegeven.quote:
dan maar eens waarom jij je hele zienswijze baseert op oude verhalen, door mensen geschreven, herschreven, (verkeerd) vertaalt etc. En als je dat gedaan hebt moet je me gelijk even uitleggen waarom jouw godsdienst de enige ware is, en alle andere vals.In mijn ogen kun je niet zelf nadenken en ben je
Het punt is dat het idee van een bovennatuurlijke macht bijna de gehele wereld bezig houdt. En niet alleen de minder intellectueel bedeelde hindoeisten, maar bijvoorbeeld ook bijvoorbeeld intellectueel begaafde machtige politici, schrijvers, filosofen etc. Ik geloof dat dit niet allemaal hersenschimmen zijn, maar een werkelijkheid van een dieper liggende werkelijkheid.quote:
[..]
Het is ook een feit dat zo'n 50 % behoort tot het vrouwelijke geslacht en die andere 50% tot het mannelijke geslacht. Tussenvormen daargelaten. Wat is je punt?
Maar waarom(!) geloof je dat? Wat ik vooral zie is dat christenen vooral niet verder kijken dan hun "eigen" bijbel terwijl er genoeg verhalen overgenomen zijn uit andere culturen. Je gelooft dat omdat je in die cultuur opgegroeid bent, niet meer en niet minder.quote:
[..]
Ik geloof dat de bijbel behoorlijk goed bewaard is gebleven en dat de bijbel, (40 boeken in een periode van duizenden jaren) een perfecte eenheid vormen, profetieen bevatten die uitkomen, en de woorden die er in de boeken staan zijn volgens mij door de Heilige Geest ingegeven.
Ik ben zelf christelijk opgevoed en het heeft me behoorlijk wat moeite gekost om van die conditionering/hersenspoeling af te komen. Ik heb nog steeds interesse in religie/zelfontwikkeling maar ik kijk toch een heel stuk verder dan jij.
Vooral het verhaal van verlossing/verdoemd zijn is een sterke overtuiging die het moeilijk maakt om verder te kijken en ik vermoed dat als je in het midden-oosten was geboren je een radicale moslim zou zijn, net zoals je nu een radicale christen bent.
Nederlands is moeilijker als je denkt.
