The Israelites
God addressed the book of Job and the first eleven chapters of Genesis to all mankind. Job represents all humans who would ever be saved by grace because of their faith in a suffering Messiah. Job 19:25-27. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar represent all humans who will be saved by God's consuming fire in His final judgment in the end of the world which their burnt offerings symbolized. Noah and his family were saved by grace, but God commanded Noah to offer a burnt offering after the flood to symbolize God's lesser form of salvation that He would provide by the use of His consuming fire for all the living souls and spirits within the regions of the dead in the end of the world. Christ shed His blood and water on the cross for all humans who would be saved by His grace, but He left all the sins and evil of all of the rest of mankind behind in Hell when He rose immaculate from the dead. God will effect this separation of the living from the dead in the end of the world. Genesis 3:20; Genesis 8:20-21; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Timothy 4:1. God cannot lose anything He has ever created, and He will recover and recreate all things that He originally created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 21:5; Romans 8:18-22; Romans 11:36.
God has provided two forms of salvation for every living soul and spirit that He ever created. God will give a small minority of humans salvation by grace the moment they believe in Christ while still alive in the flesh, and He will create spiritual bodies for them so that they can live with Him in Heaven forever. Romans 8:9-11. God will provide a lesser form of salvation for the rest of humanity confined to the regions of death when they repent in a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-15; Revelation 20:5. God will use His consuming fire to separate their living souls and spirits that He created and that forever belongs to Him from their spiritual deaths as effected by Christ's descent into Hell and as activated in the great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-15. I Corinthians 3:11-15. God will recreate them with new bodies to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5.
But God will also provide a higher form of the lesser salvation for all faithful Israelites whom He will raise from the dead. Isaiah 59:20-21; Isaiah 60:1-22; Isaiah 61:1-11; Isaiah 62:1-12. God will resurrect all Israelites who were faithful to Moses' religion to dwell in the only organized nation that God will allow on His recreated earth. Israel will make the laws for all the Gentiles, and Jerusalem will be the capitol of the world. Jeremiah 3:17. God will require all the Gentiles, whom He also calls the heathen, to go to Jerusalem to worship Him. Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 66:23. Christ Himself will build the third temple in Jerusalem, not the Jews. Amos 9:11. God will judge and separate all unfaithful Israelites with His "rod," and He will demote them to life among the recreated Gentiles. Ezekiel 20:37-38. Christ Himself will rule the eternal nation of Israel. Isaiah 59:20-21.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Friday, July 17, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
In Exodus 19:8, the Israelites rejected God's salvation by His grace. They desired salvation through their own efforts by being obedient to God's commands. They did not understand that perfect obedience had become impossible for them because of the influence of the evil side of their nature. But God did not give up on them, just as He will never give up on any living human that He created and loves. God allowed them to try to save themselves by obedience to His laws and by animal sacrifices for when they failed to obey. God meant to teach them through their constant failure that their perfect obedience was impossible and make them understand that they were hopeless sinners whom only God can save. God gave them the animal sacrifices to show them that He would become their sacrifice that would save them. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:21; Leviticus 5:7-10; Leviticus 18:18-24; Exodus 12:5-13.
The righteousness of the Old Testament Israelites could not be the absolutely perfect righteousness of Christ. Their good works could only have come from the righteousness that God put into them when He created them. God creates every living human in His image which means He puts His righteousness into them. This righteousness is good but not absolutely holy because it contains free will which subjects it to sin. Psalm 7:8-10; Psalm 37:27-29. God has not forgotten His created righteousness that He has put into every human, and in Christ's Judgment in the end of the world He will raise all living humans from the regions of the dead and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Matthew 5:5. God will raise them because of their repentance and faith as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14.
God gives the gift of Christ's absolutely perfect righteousness only to humans saved by grace when they repent and believe so that He can accept them into Heaven as joint-heirs with Christ. I Corinthians 1:30; II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17. When God recreates the souls and spirits of humans saved by grace they cannot sin because God protects them with the absolute righteousness of Christ that cannot sin. I John 3:9. Although God possesses free will, He can never sin because His Holiness will never allow Him to sin. God does not recreate the fleshly nature of humans saved by grace which means that in their flesh they can still sin. Romans 7:15-25.
The Old Testament saints saved by grace could not go to Heaven until Christ came to them in Paradise where God sent them and preached the gospel to them so that they could fully believe, be washed clean from sin with the blood of Christ and receive His absolute righteousness by means of which He could translate them to Heaven when He ascended. Ephesians 4:7-10.
God addressed most of the Old Testament to the Israelites who would faithfully practice Moses' religion that God gave to him. Some of the Old Testament prophets prophesied about a coming suffering Messiah that the blood sacrifices symbolized. But God also meant for the burnt offerings and peace offerings to symbolize God's higher form of His lesser salvation for all Israelites who would remain faithful to Moses' religion. Exodus 12:8-11; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 18:5. God had Moses promise the faithful Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:40 that they would live in the promised land forever. In Numbers 18:8, God promised Moses that the Israelite religion would last forever. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 12:28; Deuteronomy 33:29. The righteous good works practiced by the faithful Israelites came from the image of God that He put into them when He created them. Deuteronomy 6:25; Psalm 7:8-9; I Samuel 26:23. Only humans saved by grace will receive the absolute righteousness of Christ by means of which God can accept them into Heaven. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17.
In Exodus 19:8, the Israelites rejected God's salvation by His grace. They desired salvation through their own efforts by being obedient to God's commands. They did not understand that perfect obedience had become impossible for them because of the influence of the evil side of their nature. But God did not give up on them, just as He will never give up on any living human that He created and loves. God allowed them to try to save themselves by obedience to His laws and by animal sacrifices for when they failed to obey. God meant to teach them through their constant failure that their perfect obedience was impossible and make them understand that they were hopeless sinners whom only God can save. God gave them the animal sacrifices to show them that He would become their sacrifice that would save them. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:21; Leviticus 5:7-10; Leviticus 18:18-24; Exodus 12:5-13.
The righteousness of the Old Testament Israelites could not be the absolutely perfect righteousness of Christ. Their good works could only have come from the righteousness that God put into them when He created them. God creates every living human in His image which means He puts His righteousness into them. This righteousness is good but not absolutely holy because it contains free will which subjects it to sin. Psalm 7:8-10; Psalm 37:27-29. God has not forgotten His created righteousness that He has put into every human, and in Christ's Judgment in the end of the world He will raise all living humans from the regions of the dead and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Matthew 5:5. God will raise them because of their repentance and faith as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14.
God gives the gift of Christ's absolutely perfect righteousness only to humans saved by grace when they repent and believe so that He can accept them into Heaven as joint-heirs with Christ. I Corinthians 1:30; II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17. When God recreates the souls and spirits of humans saved by grace they cannot sin because God protects them with the absolute righteousness of Christ that cannot sin. I John 3:9. Although God possesses free will, He can never sin because His Holiness will never allow Him to sin. God does not recreate the fleshly nature of humans saved by grace which means that in their flesh they can still sin. Romans 7:15-25.
The Old Testament saints saved by grace could not go to Heaven until Christ came to them in Paradise where God sent them and preached the gospel to them so that they could fully believe, be washed clean from sin with the blood of Christ and receive His absolute righteousness by means of which He could translate them to Heaven when He ascended. Ephesians 4:7-10.
God addressed most of the Old Testament to the Israelites who would faithfully practice Moses' religion that God gave to him. Some of the Old Testament prophets prophesied about a coming suffering Messiah that the blood sacrifices symbolized. But God also meant for the burnt offerings and peace offerings to symbolize God's higher form of His lesser salvation for all Israelites who would remain faithful to Moses' religion. Exodus 12:8-11; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 18:5. God had Moses promise the faithful Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:40 that they would live in the promised land forever. In Numbers 18:8, God promised Moses that the Israelite religion would last forever. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 12:28; Deuteronomy 33:29. The righteous good works practiced by the faithful Israelites came from the image of God that He put into them when He created them. Deuteronomy 6:25; Psalm 7:8-9; I Samuel 26:23. Only humans saved by grace will receive the absolute righteousness of Christ by means of which God can accept them into Heaven. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
Jesus taught in John 5:28-29 that in a general resurrection in the end of the world, God will raise all living and dead humans from their graves. The living and the dead are a part of every individual human. Jesus could not have meant any of the resurrections of His saints saved by grace because no dead are raised in any of their resurrections. God will raise those who have done good works back to life because God put those good works into them when He created them. Every living human has done some good works no matter how evil they may be. God will cast only their separated, spiritual deaths into the lake of fire. Revelation 22:11-12 teaches that in the end of the world, God will effect an absolute separation of all that He created to be living and good from all the filthiness of evil in every individual within the regions of the dead.
In Mark 9:49, Jesus used the word "salt" to symbolize a preservative. In Leviticus 2:13, God required that salt be added to every sacrifice, including the burnt offerings, to symbolize God's preservation of every living human, some by His grace and all others by His resurrection of them from the regions of the dead. God's Word clearly teaches that God will preserve every living human that He created either by being cleansed from sin and evil by the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross or by the fiery wrath of God which He directs only towards evil itself. I John 3:8; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Ecclesiastes 3:14. In the second part of this verse, Jesus taught that "every sacrifice" will be preserved. Jesus meant that every living human who accepts His sacrifice for them by faith while still in the world will be preserved by the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I Corinthians 6:19-20.
In the first part of Mark 9:50, Jesus did not teach that salt can lose its preservative power. Jesus simply meant that if salt is not used then it cannot preserve. In the second part of this verse, Jesus taught that the preservative power of the Holy Spirit must be received by repentance and faith in order for a human to be saved forever by His grace. I Corinthians 6:11.
All of the blood sacrifices of the Old Testament symbolized God's salvation by grace through the shed blood of a suffering Messiah. Exodus 12:1-7. Very few of the ancient Israelites demonstrated that kind of faith. Moses demonstrated his salvation by grace when he did not fear the fiery wrath of God. King David demonstrated his salvation through faith in Christ when he wrote Psalms 22, 23, and 24. Isaiah demonstrated faith in a suffering Messiah when he wrote Isaiah chapter 53. But none of the Old Testament saints could go directly to heaven when they died because they were not yet washed clean of their sins by the blood of the coming Savior nor had they received the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by means of which they could gain entrance into Heaven.
But God also would not allow their living souls and spirits to go into any of the regions of the dead. Revelation 20:13. God consigned them to live in Paradise which at that time was located next to Hell in the bowels of the earth. Luke 16:22-23. These Old Testament saints had to wait in Paradise until Jesus came to preach the gospel to them. Only then could they come to complete faith in a suffering Messiah who would wash away their sins and evil with His shed blood and give them His perfect righteousness so that He could take them to Heaven. Jesus resurrected all of these Old Testament saints when He rose from the dead, gave them recreated, holy bodies, and translated them, with Paradise itself, to Heaven when He ascended. Ephesians 4:7-10.
Jesus taught in John 5:28-29 that in a general resurrection in the end of the world, God will raise all living and dead humans from their graves. The living and the dead are a part of every individual human. Jesus could not have meant any of the resurrections of His saints saved by grace because no dead are raised in any of their resurrections. God will raise those who have done good works back to life because God put those good works into them when He created them. Every living human has done some good works no matter how evil they may be. God will cast only their separated, spiritual deaths into the lake of fire. Revelation 22:11-12 teaches that in the end of the world, God will effect an absolute separation of all that He created to be living and good from all the filthiness of evil in every individual within the regions of the dead.
In Mark 9:49, Jesus used the word "salt" to symbolize a preservative. In Leviticus 2:13, God required that salt be added to every sacrifice, including the burnt offerings, to symbolize God's preservation of every living human, some by His grace and all others by His resurrection of them from the regions of the dead. God's Word clearly teaches that God will preserve every living human that He created either by being cleansed from sin and evil by the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross or by the fiery wrath of God which He directs only towards evil itself. I John 3:8; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Ecclesiastes 3:14. In the second part of this verse, Jesus taught that "every sacrifice" will be preserved. Jesus meant that every living human who accepts His sacrifice for them by faith while still in the world will be preserved by the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I Corinthians 6:19-20.
In the first part of Mark 9:50, Jesus did not teach that salt can lose its preservative power. Jesus simply meant that if salt is not used then it cannot preserve. In the second part of this verse, Jesus taught that the preservative power of the Holy Spirit must be received by repentance and faith in order for a human to be saved forever by His grace. I Corinthians 6:11.
All of the blood sacrifices of the Old Testament symbolized God's salvation by grace through the shed blood of a suffering Messiah. Exodus 12:1-7. Very few of the ancient Israelites demonstrated that kind of faith. Moses demonstrated his salvation by grace when he did not fear the fiery wrath of God. King David demonstrated his salvation through faith in Christ when he wrote Psalms 22, 23, and 24. Isaiah demonstrated faith in a suffering Messiah when he wrote Isaiah chapter 53. But none of the Old Testament saints could go directly to heaven when they died because they were not yet washed clean of their sins by the blood of the coming Savior nor had they received the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by means of which they could gain entrance into Heaven.
But God also would not allow their living souls and spirits to go into any of the regions of the dead. Revelation 20:13. God consigned them to live in Paradise which at that time was located next to Hell in the bowels of the earth. Luke 16:22-23. These Old Testament saints had to wait in Paradise until Jesus came to preach the gospel to them. Only then could they come to complete faith in a suffering Messiah who would wash away their sins and evil with His shed blood and give them His perfect righteousness so that He could take them to Heaven. Jesus resurrected all of these Old Testament saints when He rose from the dead, gave them recreated, holy bodies, and translated them, with Paradise itself, to Heaven when He ascended. Ephesians 4:7-10.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
Nowhere does the Bible (KJB) teach that God will ever cast living humans into the lake of fire. In Revelation 14:9-11, the Bible does teach that humans who receive the mark of the beast during the Tribulation and who worship him will be cast into the lake of fire. During the Tribulation, the Devil will have devised a method by which anyone who receives his mark in their body will become totally evil, spiritually dead, and a worshiper of him. The goal of the Devil in his war with God has always been to cause the living souls and spirits of humans to become totally evil and lost from God's Love forever. The Devil believes that if he can annul just one soul and spirit that God created, he can prove that God's Love is not Almighty, gain an advantage over God, and eventually murder Him. Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 2:9; John 8:44.
The Devil will believe that he has achieved his goal when he puts his mark on those who will receive it because they will become totally evil. However, Revelation 14:13 assures all who read it that these dead will "die in the Lord," which means that God will extract their living souls and spirits from their systems and recover their good works at the same time that they receive the mark of the beast.
The only scriptures in the New Testament that can be interpreted to teach that God casts all living humans not saved by grace into an everlasting fire occurs in Mark 9:43-48. But Jesus did not teach that at all. God does cast the worst humans into Hell, but Hell is not an everlasting fire. Revelation 20:14 teaches that God will cast Hell into the everlasting fire so that Hell comes to an end. God will also cast the dead into the lake of fire, but these dead are not living humans. Revelation 20:15. Revelation 20:5 teaches that God will raise all of His living humans from the regions of the dead before He casts the dead into the lake of fire.
Jesus could not have meant that cutting off body parts will keep one out of Hell. Jesus' teaching symbolizes the fact that one must go through some spiritual pain in order to repent of one's sins and receive God's grace. Repentance means to die to self in order to become born again as a child of God. Even spiritual death requires some pain. Galatians 2:20; John 3:3-7.
In Mark 9:44, 46, and 48, Jesus did not teach that living humans would ever be cast into the lake of fire. Jesus taught that their "worm dieth not." Jesus used the word "worm" to symbolize the nastiness of their total evil, which is also their spiritual deaths, which He will separate from them and cast into the lake of fire. God used the same symbolism in Psalm 22:6 which is a prophecy that Jesus will become a "worm" on the cross which means He took all of the nastiness of sin and evil on Himself on the cross in order to purge it all from all living humans, some by His shed blood and water and all others by the use of His consuming fire when He left all of their sins and evil behind in Hell when He rose immaculate from the dead. I John 1:7; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.
Isaiah used this same symbolism in Isaiah 66:24 when he prophesied that living humans will be able to observe the "worms" in the lake of fire that came from the dead bodies of all the humans that God destroys in the final battle with evil as recorded in Revelation 20:7-9. God will use the wrath of His consuming fire to separate the living souls and spirits of these humans from their "worms" which are their spiritual deaths that He will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 22:11-12.
Nowhere does the Bible (KJB) teach that God will ever cast living humans into the lake of fire. In Revelation 14:9-11, the Bible does teach that humans who receive the mark of the beast during the Tribulation and who worship him will be cast into the lake of fire. During the Tribulation, the Devil will have devised a method by which anyone who receives his mark in their body will become totally evil, spiritually dead, and a worshiper of him. The goal of the Devil in his war with God has always been to cause the living souls and spirits of humans to become totally evil and lost from God's Love forever. The Devil believes that if he can annul just one soul and spirit that God created, he can prove that God's Love is not Almighty, gain an advantage over God, and eventually murder Him. Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 2:9; John 8:44.
The Devil will believe that he has achieved his goal when he puts his mark on those who will receive it because they will become totally evil. However, Revelation 14:13 assures all who read it that these dead will "die in the Lord," which means that God will extract their living souls and spirits from their systems and recover their good works at the same time that they receive the mark of the beast.
The only scriptures in the New Testament that can be interpreted to teach that God casts all living humans not saved by grace into an everlasting fire occurs in Mark 9:43-48. But Jesus did not teach that at all. God does cast the worst humans into Hell, but Hell is not an everlasting fire. Revelation 20:14 teaches that God will cast Hell into the everlasting fire so that Hell comes to an end. God will also cast the dead into the lake of fire, but these dead are not living humans. Revelation 20:15. Revelation 20:5 teaches that God will raise all of His living humans from the regions of the dead before He casts the dead into the lake of fire.
Jesus could not have meant that cutting off body parts will keep one out of Hell. Jesus' teaching symbolizes the fact that one must go through some spiritual pain in order to repent of one's sins and receive God's grace. Repentance means to die to self in order to become born again as a child of God. Even spiritual death requires some pain. Galatians 2:20; John 3:3-7.
In Mark 9:44, 46, and 48, Jesus did not teach that living humans would ever be cast into the lake of fire. Jesus taught that their "worm dieth not." Jesus used the word "worm" to symbolize the nastiness of their total evil, which is also their spiritual deaths, which He will separate from them and cast into the lake of fire. God used the same symbolism in Psalm 22:6 which is a prophecy that Jesus will become a "worm" on the cross which means He took all of the nastiness of sin and evil on Himself on the cross in order to purge it all from all living humans, some by His shed blood and water and all others by the use of His consuming fire when He left all of their sins and evil behind in Hell when He rose immaculate from the dead. I John 1:7; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.
Isaiah used this same symbolism in Isaiah 66:24 when he prophesied that living humans will be able to observe the "worms" in the lake of fire that came from the dead bodies of all the humans that God destroys in the final battle with evil as recorded in Revelation 20:7-9. God will use the wrath of His consuming fire to separate the living souls and spirits of these humans from their "worms" which are their spiritual deaths that He will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 22:11-12.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
God created every human who would ever live in His image with a living soul imbued with His good works for their lives that they should choose to do. Genesis 1:27; Ecclesiastes 9:1. God told Eve that she would be the mother of every one of these living souls which God can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Genesis 3:20. But every human possesses a dual nature; that is, a good life created by God and an evil and dead nature injected into them by the Devil. Deuteronomy 30:11-20. In every verse of the Bible(KJB) that speaks of God's wrath, He directs His wrath towards sin and evil itself, never towards the living souls and spirits of humans that He created and loves. Exodus 32:10-14; Numbers 16:45-48; Job 21:30; Job 42:7-10; Psalm 21:1-13; Proverbs 11:23; Ezekiel 22:17-22; Nahum 1:2-3; Revelation 11:18; Revelation 14:9-12; Ephesians 6:12; I John 3:8; II Timothy 1:10.
Ephesians 6:12 clearly teaches that God wars against the Devil and evil itself, not against living humans whom He created and loves.
I John 3:8 clearly teaches that Christ came into the world to "destroy the works of the Devil." Living humans can only be the work of God and can never become the work of the Devil. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38.
II Timothy 1:10 clearly teaches that Christ "hath abolished death," meaning spiritual death, and He will bring all life back to light and immortality. Taken in context, this verse pertains to salvation by grace. But since Christ has abolished spiritual death itself, then a secondary message of the gospel has to be that He will raise all human life from the regions of the dead. In Revelation 20:5, Christ raises all of His living souls and spirits from the regions of the dead, and in Revelation 20:11-15, He casts only the spiritual deaths of humans, which is totally evil, into the lake of fire which constitutes God's eternal wrath against evil. Deuteronomy 32:21-22.
God created every human who would ever live in His image with a living soul imbued with His good works for their lives that they should choose to do. Genesis 1:27; Ecclesiastes 9:1. God told Eve that she would be the mother of every one of these living souls which God can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Genesis 3:20. But every human possesses a dual nature; that is, a good life created by God and an evil and dead nature injected into them by the Devil. Deuteronomy 30:11-20. In every verse of the Bible(KJB) that speaks of God's wrath, He directs His wrath towards sin and evil itself, never towards the living souls and spirits of humans that He created and loves. Exodus 32:10-14; Numbers 16:45-48; Job 21:30; Job 42:7-10; Psalm 21:1-13; Proverbs 11:23; Ezekiel 22:17-22; Nahum 1:2-3; Revelation 11:18; Revelation 14:9-12; Ephesians 6:12; I John 3:8; II Timothy 1:10.
Ephesians 6:12 clearly teaches that God wars against the Devil and evil itself, not against living humans whom He created and loves.
I John 3:8 clearly teaches that Christ came into the world to "destroy the works of the Devil." Living humans can only be the work of God and can never become the work of the Devil. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38.
II Timothy 1:10 clearly teaches that Christ "hath abolished death," meaning spiritual death, and He will bring all life back to light and immortality. Taken in context, this verse pertains to salvation by grace. But since Christ has abolished spiritual death itself, then a secondary message of the gospel has to be that He will raise all human life from the regions of the dead. In Revelation 20:5, Christ raises all of His living souls and spirits from the regions of the dead, and in Revelation 20:11-15, He casts only the spiritual deaths of humans, which is totally evil, into the lake of fire which constitutes God's eternal wrath against evil. Deuteronomy 32:21-22.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
God is absolutely Holy and Pure. God cannot accept anything that even hints of nastiness into His pure and perfect heaven. But God can accept the souls and spirits of humans saved by grace into heaven because He has washed them absolutely clean by the blood of Jesus, and God has given them the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself. I John 1:7; Romans 5:9; II Corinthians 5:21; I Corinthians 1:30. Only a small minority of humans will ever be saved by grace. Matthew 7:13-14.
But God has provided a lesser form of salvation for all the rest of humanity based not on His grace but on His mercy. God's grace is a gift that humans do not deserve, but God's mercy is a pardon of the condemnation that humans deserve. The entire Bible (KJB) relates that God always directs His fiery wrath toward purging living humans of all sins and evil, never toward purging living souls and spirits that He created and loves. I Corinthians 3:11-15; I John 3:8; John 1:29. When all humans not saved by grace physically die, God must temporarily consign their living souls and spirits, still stained by sin and weighed down by evil, to one of the regions of death mentioned in Revelation 20:13 depending on His judgment. Had Christ not come to rescue them by His descent into Hell, they would remain there forever. But Christ will visit them, as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14, and He will include them all in a great worship service where all of them will accept the Lamb of God by their faith that He can rescue their living souls and spirits from the regions of death. Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-15 records that in Christ's final Judgment in the end of the world, He will use His consuming fire to separate these repentant souls and spirits from their unrepentant evil which is their spiritual deaths. Christ will recreate their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live on His recreated earth, and He will consign their spiritual deaths, which are totally evil, to the lake of fire which is His eternal wrath against evil. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.
God will save and resurrect them according to His mercy, not according to their good works. But after God has recreated them, He will reward them according to their good works which they chose to do while in their lives on the former earth. Revelation 22:11-12; Matthew 16:27; John 11:25; John 5:28-29. According to John 12:25, God will allow only humans saved by grace to retain their former identities and most of their former personalities in Heaven. But all of God's humans who will live on His recreated earth, He will recreate according to their good works while on the former earth. God will dissolve their systems in order to add new good elements to their recreated systems. This means God will recreate humans who did a lot of good works on the earth to possess new systems that will be similar to their former systems, but they still will not retain their former identities and personalities. God will have to add many good elements to the systems of humans who chose to practice evil while on the earth, and they will possess none of their former identities and personalities.
God is absolutely Holy and Pure. God cannot accept anything that even hints of nastiness into His pure and perfect heaven. But God can accept the souls and spirits of humans saved by grace into heaven because He has washed them absolutely clean by the blood of Jesus, and God has given them the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself. I John 1:7; Romans 5:9; II Corinthians 5:21; I Corinthians 1:30. Only a small minority of humans will ever be saved by grace. Matthew 7:13-14.
But God has provided a lesser form of salvation for all the rest of humanity based not on His grace but on His mercy. God's grace is a gift that humans do not deserve, but God's mercy is a pardon of the condemnation that humans deserve. The entire Bible (KJB) relates that God always directs His fiery wrath toward purging living humans of all sins and evil, never toward purging living souls and spirits that He created and loves. I Corinthians 3:11-15; I John 3:8; John 1:29. When all humans not saved by grace physically die, God must temporarily consign their living souls and spirits, still stained by sin and weighed down by evil, to one of the regions of death mentioned in Revelation 20:13 depending on His judgment. Had Christ not come to rescue them by His descent into Hell, they would remain there forever. But Christ will visit them, as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14, and He will include them all in a great worship service where all of them will accept the Lamb of God by their faith that He can rescue their living souls and spirits from the regions of death. Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-15 records that in Christ's final Judgment in the end of the world, He will use His consuming fire to separate these repentant souls and spirits from their unrepentant evil which is their spiritual deaths. Christ will recreate their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live on His recreated earth, and He will consign their spiritual deaths, which are totally evil, to the lake of fire which is His eternal wrath against evil. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.
God will save and resurrect them according to His mercy, not according to their good works. But after God has recreated them, He will reward them according to their good works which they chose to do while in their lives on the former earth. Revelation 22:11-12; Matthew 16:27; John 11:25; John 5:28-29. According to John 12:25, God will allow only humans saved by grace to retain their former identities and most of their former personalities in Heaven. But all of God's humans who will live on His recreated earth, He will recreate according to their good works while on the former earth. God will dissolve their systems in order to add new good elements to their recreated systems. This means God will recreate humans who did a lot of good works on the earth to possess new systems that will be similar to their former systems, but they still will not retain their former identities and personalities. God will have to add many good elements to the systems of humans who chose to practice evil while on the earth, and they will possess none of their former identities and personalities.
Saturday, July 4, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
Although God has provided salvation by His grace as a free gift completely apart from any human good works and based solely on repentance and faith in Christ as one's Savior, God has also provided a lesser form of salvation for the good works of humans which emerge from their living souls and spirits that God put into them when He created them. Romans 2:6-7; John 5:28-29; Matthew 16:27; Revelation 22:11-12; Genesis 1:27. But the good works that God put into every human for them to do alone cannot save them because they are stained with sin. Faith is the only good work that a human can do to be saved because faith acknowledges that only God can accomplish one's salvation. Only God can do all of the self-sacrificial work necessary to cleanse all the sin and evil from every person's life whether saved by God's higher form of salvation which is grace or His lower form of salvation which is by His mercy. Humans can only take credit for choosing to do the good works that God put into His image in them, not for the origination of them. Ecclesiastes 9:1; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Isaiah 26:12; Romans 2:14-16. God can never lose the good lives of all humans that He created or the good works and faith that He put into every one of them. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 111:7-8; Psalm 138:8; Psalm 145:14-17; I Timothy 6:17-19.
In Exodus 20:20, Moses reassured the Israelites that God had not directed His fiery wrath toward them but toward the sins that they would commit. God made them afraid of Him to make them afraid to sin. God only desired to test them to prove that they would try to obey His laws and offer the proper sacrifices for when they failed.
In Exodus 20:21-22, Moses demonstrated that he had no eternal fear of God when he walked into the darkness and talked with God directly. In order to do this, Moses must have had some faith in God as his Savior which put him in a state of grace. Humans saved by grace can have no fear of God's eternal wrath, but only of His temporal punishment. God deals with humans saved by grace as family. Hebrews 12:6-7.
In Exodus 20:23, God informed the Israelites that all the laws of God resulted from the first law. Evil causes all sins, and all evil results from loving something else more than one loves God. Lucifer's excessive pride stemmed from the fact that he came to love himself and ceased to love God. Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Because the people had rejected God's covenant of grace, God told Moses to mention only the burnt offerings and peace offerings in his address to the people in Exodus 20:24-26. The blood sacrifices always preceded the burnt offerings, but God knew that very few Israelites would ever come to some faith that the blood sacrifices symbolized God's salvation by grace. God provided a lesser form of salvation for the majority of the Israelites, as well as the rest of humanity, by the use of His consuming fire which the burnt offerings and the peace offerings symbolized. Most of the Old Testament mentions the burnt sacrifices more than the blood sacrifices. Leviticus 5:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
Although God has provided salvation by His grace as a free gift completely apart from any human good works and based solely on repentance and faith in Christ as one's Savior, God has also provided a lesser form of salvation for the good works of humans which emerge from their living souls and spirits that God put into them when He created them. Romans 2:6-7; John 5:28-29; Matthew 16:27; Revelation 22:11-12; Genesis 1:27. But the good works that God put into every human for them to do alone cannot save them because they are stained with sin. Faith is the only good work that a human can do to be saved because faith acknowledges that only God can accomplish one's salvation. Only God can do all of the self-sacrificial work necessary to cleanse all the sin and evil from every person's life whether saved by God's higher form of salvation which is grace or His lower form of salvation which is by His mercy. Humans can only take credit for choosing to do the good works that God put into His image in them, not for the origination of them. Ecclesiastes 9:1; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Isaiah 26:12; Romans 2:14-16. God can never lose the good lives of all humans that He created or the good works and faith that He put into every one of them. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 111:7-8; Psalm 138:8; Psalm 145:14-17; I Timothy 6:17-19.
In Exodus 20:20, Moses reassured the Israelites that God had not directed His fiery wrath toward them but toward the sins that they would commit. God made them afraid of Him to make them afraid to sin. God only desired to test them to prove that they would try to obey His laws and offer the proper sacrifices for when they failed.
In Exodus 20:21-22, Moses demonstrated that he had no eternal fear of God when he walked into the darkness and talked with God directly. In order to do this, Moses must have had some faith in God as his Savior which put him in a state of grace. Humans saved by grace can have no fear of God's eternal wrath, but only of His temporal punishment. God deals with humans saved by grace as family. Hebrews 12:6-7.
In Exodus 20:23, God informed the Israelites that all the laws of God resulted from the first law. Evil causes all sins, and all evil results from loving something else more than one loves God. Lucifer's excessive pride stemmed from the fact that he came to love himself and ceased to love God. Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Because the people had rejected God's covenant of grace, God told Moses to mention only the burnt offerings and peace offerings in his address to the people in Exodus 20:24-26. The blood sacrifices always preceded the burnt offerings, but God knew that very few Israelites would ever come to some faith that the blood sacrifices symbolized God's salvation by grace. God provided a lesser form of salvation for the majority of the Israelites, as well as the rest of humanity, by the use of His consuming fire which the burnt offerings and the peace offerings symbolized. Most of the Old Testament mentions the burnt sacrifices more than the blood sacrifices. Leviticus 5:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
Friday, July 3, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
Very few of the Israelites ever accepted God's salvation by grace. God extended a covenant of grace to the Israelites through Moses in Exodus 19:3-7. But in Exodus 19:8, the people rejected God's covenant of grace, and they asked Moses to request of God that He give them laws that they could obey to make themselves righteous enough to save themselves. God gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses only to show them that complete obedience to them was practically impossible. Exodus 20:1-17. God had already provided a blood sacrifice and a burnt offering sacrifice to symbolize to them that He alone could cleanse them of their sins and eliminate spiritual death from their lives. Exodus 12:1-13. In their pride, the Israelites remained ignorant of the fact that no one can ever make himself righteous enough to save himself. Genesis 2:17. Only God Himself can remove the spiritual death within the being of every human which causes them to sin. Hebrews 2:9; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26; I John 3:8. Through His suffering on the cross and His descent into Hell, Christ has removed the spiritual deaths and sins of every human which is the work of the Devil in order to save forever their souls and spirits that He created and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 6:13; Revelation 21:5.
God appeared to the Israelites in His fiery wrath from the top of Mount Sinai. But God directed His fiery wrath only toward their spiritual deaths and sins, and His message to them was that they would never be able to make themselves righteous enough for Him to accept them through their own efforts to sanctify themselves or their efforts to obey His laws. God wanted them to be afraid that His fiery wrath would kill them in order to warn them that their sins and spiritual deaths would cause a temporary separation from His Love. In Exodus 20:1-17, God acceded to the people's demands for laws which they could obey to make themselves righteous. Their obedience would definitely provide them with temporal righteousness, but they could not understand that their obedience would never remove the spiritual death within them that caused them to sin.
In Exodus 20:18-19, God caused the Israelites to understand that their desire to have laws to obey did not assuage His fiery wrath at all. In fact, their sinful desire only moved them further from God because they refused to rely on God's grace or mercy. They even became afraid that God would destroy their lives and not just their spiritual deaths and sins. Their fear was their own fault because God will never destroy the good lives of humans that He created in His image. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Revelation 21:5.
The Israelites even became so afraid of God's Holy Word that they asked Moses to give them laws and that Moses would ask God to leave them alone. Exodus 20:19. God actually acceded to this demand also, and He allowed Moses to write his own laws for the people to obey. But like all manmade laws, Moses' laws became extremely intricate and complex. Like all manmade laws, some of Moses' laws were good, some were bad, and some were just silly. But God allowed Moses to write laws in order to teach His people that they would always fail to obey intricate laws which meant they could never make themselves righteous enough to be accepted by God. Ezekiel 20:25; Hebrews 8:7-8. God simply wanted them to have faith that His sin offerings and burnt offerings symbolized the fact that God would provide for their higher salvation by His grace or their lower salvation by His mercy. Salvation by grace means that one must believe that only Christ can completely remove one's sins and spiritual death through His sacrifice and resurrection. Romans 6:23; Colossians 3:4. Salvation by God's mercy means that every living human within the regions of the dead will someday believe that Christ will raise their good lives that He created and loves to be recreated to live on His recreated earth. Isaiah 45:21-24; John 11:25; I Timothy 6:13; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.
Very few of the Israelites ever accepted God's salvation by grace. God extended a covenant of grace to the Israelites through Moses in Exodus 19:3-7. But in Exodus 19:8, the people rejected God's covenant of grace, and they asked Moses to request of God that He give them laws that they could obey to make themselves righteous enough to save themselves. God gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses only to show them that complete obedience to them was practically impossible. Exodus 20:1-17. God had already provided a blood sacrifice and a burnt offering sacrifice to symbolize to them that He alone could cleanse them of their sins and eliminate spiritual death from their lives. Exodus 12:1-13. In their pride, the Israelites remained ignorant of the fact that no one can ever make himself righteous enough to save himself. Genesis 2:17. Only God Himself can remove the spiritual death within the being of every human which causes them to sin. Hebrews 2:9; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26; I John 3:8. Through His suffering on the cross and His descent into Hell, Christ has removed the spiritual deaths and sins of every human which is the work of the Devil in order to save forever their souls and spirits that He created and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 6:13; Revelation 21:5.
God appeared to the Israelites in His fiery wrath from the top of Mount Sinai. But God directed His fiery wrath only toward their spiritual deaths and sins, and His message to them was that they would never be able to make themselves righteous enough for Him to accept them through their own efforts to sanctify themselves or their efforts to obey His laws. God wanted them to be afraid that His fiery wrath would kill them in order to warn them that their sins and spiritual deaths would cause a temporary separation from His Love. In Exodus 20:1-17, God acceded to the people's demands for laws which they could obey to make themselves righteous. Their obedience would definitely provide them with temporal righteousness, but they could not understand that their obedience would never remove the spiritual death within them that caused them to sin.
In Exodus 20:18-19, God caused the Israelites to understand that their desire to have laws to obey did not assuage His fiery wrath at all. In fact, their sinful desire only moved them further from God because they refused to rely on God's grace or mercy. They even became afraid that God would destroy their lives and not just their spiritual deaths and sins. Their fear was their own fault because God will never destroy the good lives of humans that He created in His image. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; Revelation 21:5.
The Israelites even became so afraid of God's Holy Word that they asked Moses to give them laws and that Moses would ask God to leave them alone. Exodus 20:19. God actually acceded to this demand also, and He allowed Moses to write his own laws for the people to obey. But like all manmade laws, Moses' laws became extremely intricate and complex. Like all manmade laws, some of Moses' laws were good, some were bad, and some were just silly. But God allowed Moses to write laws in order to teach His people that they would always fail to obey intricate laws which meant they could never make themselves righteous enough to be accepted by God. Ezekiel 20:25; Hebrews 8:7-8. God simply wanted them to have faith that His sin offerings and burnt offerings symbolized the fact that God would provide for their higher salvation by His grace or their lower salvation by His mercy. Salvation by grace means that one must believe that only Christ can completely remove one's sins and spiritual death through His sacrifice and resurrection. Romans 6:23; Colossians 3:4. Salvation by God's mercy means that every living human within the regions of the dead will someday believe that Christ will raise their good lives that He created and loves to be recreated to live on His recreated earth. Isaiah 45:21-24; John 11:25; I Timothy 6:13; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
The World and the Word
The Israelites
Daniel prophesied about a general resurrection of the good and evil at at specific time in the future. Daniel 12:1-3. Jesus Himself prophesied about a specific resurrection of the good and the evil in John 5:28-29. II Timothy 4:1 prophesied about a general resurrection of the quick and dead when Christ receives His kingdom in the end of the world. The millennial reign of Christ will not be His permanent kingdom because evil will be in it. I Timothy 1:10 teaches that Christ "hath abolished death," not living humans whom He created and loves. Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-15 describes this resurrection of the living and dead at Christ's Judgment Seat in the end of the world. No evil dead are raised in any of the Raptures of the Old Testament saints, the Church, or the Tribulation saints. Matthew 27:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:4 and 6.
In Exodus 12:1-11, God gave the Israelites symbolic representations of the two forms of salvation that He will provide for the entire human race. The shed blood of the lamb symbolized all humans who would be saved by the shed blood of the Lamb of God. The eating of the roasted lamb and the burning of the remains of the lamb symbolized God's salvation of the rest of humanity by the use of His consuming fire. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 16:24; Numbers 31:23; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
In Numbers 16:26-35, God consumed the 250 rebels with fire and swallowed them up in the earth and sent them down to the pit which is Hell. These unrepentant rebels symbolized God's separation of the total evil within mankind from their living souls and spirits in the end of the world. Their censers, which Moses said were hallowed and which Aaron recovered from the fire, symbolized the good and living souls and spirits of these rebels. Aaron used these censers to make a covering for the altar which symbolized the fact that in the end of the world God will recover and recreate all of His living souls and spirits from the regions of the dead and recreate them for His use. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:5.
In Numbers 16:41-50, the rest of the congregation of Israel rebelled against God by blaming Moses and Aaron for the deaths of the 250 rebels. God desired to consume them all with fire, but He also inspired Moses to command Aaron to put fire in a censer and walk among the people to make an atonement for them. God killed 14,700 of them with a plague, but God saved the rest of them because Aaron stood with a fiery censer between "the dead and the living." This story constitutes a prophecy that in the end of the world God will use His consuming fire to separate His living souls and spirits within the regions of the dead from the total evil in mankind which is spiritual death itself. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
Daniel prophesied about a general resurrection of the good and evil at at specific time in the future. Daniel 12:1-3. Jesus Himself prophesied about a specific resurrection of the good and the evil in John 5:28-29. II Timothy 4:1 prophesied about a general resurrection of the quick and dead when Christ receives His kingdom in the end of the world. The millennial reign of Christ will not be His permanent kingdom because evil will be in it. I Timothy 1:10 teaches that Christ "hath abolished death," not living humans whom He created and loves. Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-15 describes this resurrection of the living and dead at Christ's Judgment Seat in the end of the world. No evil dead are raised in any of the Raptures of the Old Testament saints, the Church, or the Tribulation saints. Matthew 27:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:4 and 6.
In Exodus 12:1-11, God gave the Israelites symbolic representations of the two forms of salvation that He will provide for the entire human race. The shed blood of the lamb symbolized all humans who would be saved by the shed blood of the Lamb of God. The eating of the roasted lamb and the burning of the remains of the lamb symbolized God's salvation of the rest of humanity by the use of His consuming fire. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 16:24; Numbers 31:23; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
In Numbers 16:26-35, God consumed the 250 rebels with fire and swallowed them up in the earth and sent them down to the pit which is Hell. These unrepentant rebels symbolized God's separation of the total evil within mankind from their living souls and spirits in the end of the world. Their censers, which Moses said were hallowed and which Aaron recovered from the fire, symbolized the good and living souls and spirits of these rebels. Aaron used these censers to make a covering for the altar which symbolized the fact that in the end of the world God will recover and recreate all of His living souls and spirits from the regions of the dead and recreate them for His use. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:5.
In Numbers 16:41-50, the rest of the congregation of Israel rebelled against God by blaming Moses and Aaron for the deaths of the 250 rebels. God desired to consume them all with fire, but He also inspired Moses to command Aaron to put fire in a censer and walk among the people to make an atonement for them. God killed 14,700 of them with a plague, but God saved the rest of them because Aaron stood with a fiery censer between "the dead and the living." This story constitutes a prophecy that in the end of the world God will use His consuming fire to separate His living souls and spirits within the regions of the dead from the total evil in mankind which is spiritual death itself. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 3:11-15.
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