On Reconciliation with God

At the moment of salvation, God looks into the believer’s future and sees him as fully restored to fellowship with God in spirit, soul, and body. God can see the believer’s future reconciliation because He never fails to save the repentant sinner, and He never fails to sanctify the believer in spirit, soul, and body. John 6:37; II Corinthians 3:17-18

However, in actuality God never reconciles the earthly body of the believer, not in salvation or sanctification. The earthly body of the believer must die as a result of sin, return to dust, and be separated from God forever. Genesis 3:19.

But this fact does not mean that the body of the believer will be lost forever. God will recreate the bodies of every believer and reunite them with their recreated souls and spirits at the Rapture of the Church. At the moment of salvation, God recreates the spirit and soul of the believer and reconciles him to God, but not his earthly body which retains his sinful nature. Nevertheless, God will reconcile every believer in recreated spirit, soul, and body at the Rapture of the Church. II Corinthians 5:1-5.

This begs the question. Does the recreated body of the believer need to be washed in the blood of Jesus since his sinful body never becomes so washed? One must consider this question in light of salvation by grace. At the moment of salvation, the "born again" experience with God, God recreates the spirits and souls of believers. God does not remake the old sinful spirits and souls. God fully recreates new spirits and souls. God washes away the inner sinful nature of man by the blood of Jesus, so that He can recreate a new inner nature. This same process would apply at the Rapture of the Church. The blood of Jesus will wash away the sinful flesh of all believers so that God can recreate the believers with perfect spirits, souls, and bodies with whom He can fellowship with forever. II Corinthians 5:17; I Thessalonians 5:23; I Corinthians 15:50.

All of this explains that which Jesus taught in John 11:26 about how believers never die. The earthly bodies of believers die because they are not believers. When a believer gets saved, God recreates his soul and spirit, and in addition, God recreates a new body for him which He keeps in heaven until He delivers it to the believer at the Rapture of the Church. II Corinthians 5:1-5.

On Redemption by the Blood of Jesus

   

According to Leviticus 17:11, the life of man and beast resides in the blood. Even though a person can die without shedding his blood, nevertheless, when the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing and carrying life to every cell in the body, and the person dies.

Sin has corrupted man's life and blood and causes his death in body, soul, and spirit. In Leviticus 17:12, God commanded all mankind to never eat blood because that would symbolize the willful partaking of sin itself.

The blood that flowed in the veins of Jesus was pure and holy blood with no stain of sin whatsoever. Thus, the blood of Jesus contained the power of an everlasting life. The blood of Jesus was the holy life of God Himself while He was on the earth. When God the Father allowed Jesus to be nailed to the cross, He also allowed the devil to throw all of mankind's sins at Jesus because the devil thought that the terrible suffering those sins would cause Jesus would break Him, cause Him to sin, and in this way, the devil could kill God permanently. What the devil had tried to do by tempting Jesus, he was then trying to do by force.

But Jesus beat the devil at his own game. Jesus willfully took all of the sins of mankind upon Himself on the cross, and His holy blood washed all of them away. When the Roman's soldier's spear pierced Jesus' side, every drop of blood and water left in Jesus' body flowed out. Every sin had been washed away.

Those who believe that Jesus did this for them possess the everlasting life of a resurrected Christ. The power of sin only caused a temporary, three-day death of God. Since the body and blood of Jesus was wholly united with the life of God, and the life is in the blood, then when Jesus became kosher on the cross, He died.

During this three day period, Jesus ascended to heaven and applied His shed blood to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies in heaven. His Father saw this, and He was satisfied that Jesus had accomplished a perfect act of pure love. Jesus had sacrificed His own blood and life to rescue mankind from sin, death, and hell. The Father could accept such an act of pure love because there could be no sin in it whatsoever. Because of the self-sacrifice displayed in the love of Jesus, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were reunited in the resurrection of the spiritual body of Jesus with the power, through the Holy Spirit, to wash away the sins of believers with the holy blood of Jesus and impart to them the everlasting life of God. In this way, the everlasting life of the believer depends on the perfect life of Jesus, His holy shed blood on the cross, His burial and descent into hell to take away our sins, and His resurrection to give us His everlasting life. I Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 9:12; I Corinthians 15:1-4; I Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 1:5.

Is the Mind Merely Material?

A camera cannot take a picture of itself unless it happens to be taken by the use of a mirror. In such a case, the mirror must reflect the light image of the camera back to the camera in order for the camera to get a picture of itself.

By the same token, the brain cannot register an image of itself unless it projects a consciousness outside of itself which will reflect an objective picture of the brain back to itself. Is such a consciousness spiritual or merely physical?

The film inside the camera must rely on the reflected light image in order to capture a picture of the camera. Both light and mirrors are physical objects.

But is this true of a consciousness projected by the brain? Similar to film in a camera, the power to capture the reflected image of the brain inheres in the consciousness projected by the brain. Consciousness captures the image, not the brain.

But how can one know about this projected consciousness unless one is conscious of it? Since images adhere to consciousness alone, then consciousness must possess the innate power to project another consciousness by means of which it is conscious of itself. This provides the basis of self-consciousness. But in order for one to know that one is self-conscious, one must project another consciousness, and in order to know that, still another. If the finite mind had the requisite power, this process could go on to infinity.

This begs the question: Is infinity real or an illusion? Infinity must be real, otherwise, we could have no consciousness of it. One may object that we can be conscious of many things which are illusions. Strictly speaking, this is not true. The truth is that we cannot be conscious of anything except that which is real. All illusions are merely false combinations of real things gleaned from experience. All true combinations are real. This means that consciousness must be that very necessary power of the universe that causes its objects to be real whether physical or abstract. 

Is infinity a false combination or a true one? Infinity must be real because it encompasses everything of which we can be conscious, as well as everything of which we are not conscious but could be, as well as all possibilities.

Since we can be conscious of information, then it has to be real. Information cannot be material. Consciousness recognizes that information adheres to the arrangement of objects, such as letters, and not to the objects themselves. A message within an arrangement cannot be a material thing.

Since consciousness of infinity must be a part of infinity, and every part of infinity has to be equal to the whole, then Infinite Information must be real. Since Infinite Information must be real, then so must an Infinite Mind.

Baptist History from the Founding of America to the Present

There can be no doubt that the idea of freedom of conscience must be logically connected with freedom of speech, for whatever a man thinks in his heart he should be free to express. Thomas Jefferson did not write his own ideas into the First Amendment to the Constitution. He obtained these ideas of freedom of speech and religion from the true history of Christianity and western civilization as preserved by the independent, Bible-believing churches that have existed since the time of Christ.

True historians have recorded these facts as being an essential part of western history. One such example being the existence of a free-state in the ninth century called Teprice in Armenia which granted freedom of speech to all its citizens. Teprice was established by the Bible-believing Paulicians and lasted for 150 years. Although the Paulicians and other Bible-believing peoples were called many different names by their enemies, they all preserved the same basic, Biblical ideals of freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, and the autonomy of the local assembly of believers in Christ. These ideals were incorporated into the Constitution of the United States and are still maintained by the independent, Baptist churches of America to this day. 

Recommended Readings:
The Trail of Blood by J.M. Carroll
American Foundations Laid by the Baptists by Ted Alexander
The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller
The New Testament Church by David W. Cloud
These books can be obtained from any Christian Bookstore.

  God's Preservation of His Truth

The Truth is extremely important. Christians know that Jesus is the Truth as He taught us in John 14:6. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Unless we know the Truth, we are lost and cannot find our way. Jesus is the Living Word that is the Truth. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior by faith know the Truth.

Yet, even though a Christian knows the Truth, and can be highly educated in the Word of God, the devil can cause him to doubt. The Bible records that two great men of God, Thomas the Apostle and John the Baptist, had times when they were plagued with doubt. Jesus allayed John's fears in Matthew 11:2-6 by reminding him that God had come to earth to perform great miracles. Jesus displaced Thomas' doubt with faith when He revealed His nail and spear scarred but glorious risen body to Thomas in John 20:24-29. In these two stories, God demonstrates to us that He can overcome our doubts by reminding us of His loving sacrifice and His almighty power.

False religions such as the Roman Catholic Church, false scientists such as Charles Darwin, false Biblical scholars such as Westcott and Hort, and false church historians such as such as Vedder and Whitsitt have caused serious doubts about the almighty power of God to arise in Christian people since the completion of the written Word of God. The Gnostics, and all the other cults and deliberate deceptions,have been the work of satan since Jesus ascended to heaven.

Nevertheless, God has preserved the pure Truth of His Word from the time of the Apostles, through the Antioch church and the Baptist people, to the King James Bible that we hold in our hands. True historians have recorded the preservation of the pure Word of God as prophesied in Psalm 12:6-7. In addition, true historians have recorded that God has preserved His true New Testament churches through the efforts of the Baptist Christians, even despite terrible persecutions, from Pentecost to the present day. 

A careful study of the true history of Christianity, and of the world and true science for that matter, should dispell any doubts instilled into the hearts of Christians by the devil as to the eternal presence of the almighty power of God "throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." 

Recommended Readings:
The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller
American Foundations Laid by Baptists by Ted Alexander
The Trail of Blood by J.M. Carroll
The New Testament Church by David W. Cloud
These books can be ordered from any Christian Book Store. 

Commentary on Descartes

Rene Descartes began his philosophy by assuming that everything could be an illusion. He was trying to overcome extreme skepticism by finding if anything existed of which one could be certain. By his famous dictum, "I think, therefore I am," he concluded that the one certainty he had was that he existed. 

Later, he speculated that the mind interacts with the world through the pineal gland. But he forgot that the pineal gland, being but an object to the mind, could itself be but an illusion. Had he thought of that, he would have realized that his thoughts must be solipsistic, and he would have been forced to return to his skeptical position that everything could be an illusion.

However, whether everything is an illusion or not, one can still be certain that an experience in process is happening. The quanta of experience is happening. Light and darkness, shapes and mist, hard and soft, motion and stillness are happening whether these are illusory or real. This can only mean that the basis of all experience must be consciousness. Consciousness itself must be real whether everything else is illusory or real. All of the objects of consciousness may be an illusion, but consciousness itself has to be real.

At this point, consciousness realizes that consciousness can be conscious of itself, and that this self-consciousness is located to one position. Since consciousness itself must be real, then so must self-consciousness. Self-consciousness localizes consciousness to one particular set of experiences. In this way, one can be certain that one's self exists.

Nevertheless, everything except consciousness could be an illusion. But since there exists no known way to determine whether everything except consciousness is real or an illusion, then by default it really does not matter. One might as well accept everything as real because no method exists to test whether everything is real or an illusion.