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"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jer. 6:16. |
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"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jer. 6:16. |
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Christ is Coming Back -- What Then? The way of salvation
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The SOLE purpose of this site is to bring glory to God by lifting up His Son, Jesus Christ! Isaiah prophesied of Him, and said, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor , The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isa. 9:6. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6. He went on to say, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He, and He only, gives us entrance to God, the Father. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved...." John 10:9. Jesus said, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:24. The Living Bible makes it clearer -- "You haven't tried this before, but begin now. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and your cup of joy will overflow.....Then you will present your petitions over my signature! And I won't need to ask the Father to grant you these requests, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from the Father." John 16:24, 26. The apostle Paul said, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1:17-23. Salvation is in Christ, and Christ alone! CHRIST HAS NEVER ABROGATED HIS AUTHORITY! Matthew 23:1 starts out, "Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples...." This is important! Jesus was talking to the multitude, as well as His disciples. Then, in verses 8 through 11, He makes these statements: "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master , even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." II Cor. 4:5. He said, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." II Cor. 2:2. He said in I Cor. 7:23, "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." Brother William Sowders, a very humble man, toward the beginning of his ministry, asked the Lord to show him what his duty was as a minister. The Lord gave him a dream, in which he saw the heavenly Jerusalem in heaven. Then he saw the saints, still having their umbilical cords attached. The Lord spoke to him and told him his job was to keep the umbilical cords from getting all tangled, and see to it that each one reached and connected to the heavenly Jerusalem. The early church came out of the Upper Room with Christ as their head. Signs and wonders were performed through "thy holy child Jesus." Acts 4:30. But it wasn't long before error crept in, and other things began to be put ahead of the transforming work of grace in the children of God. Paul continually fought to keep Christ at the forefront. "And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Acts 15:1. They had a big disputation, and then the apostle Paul and other brethren went to Jerusalem to discuss it with Christ's apostles, Peter, John, etc. After concluding that the Mosaic law no longer applied, they wrote a letter to be read in all of Paul's churches, that there was no need for them to keep Moses' law, but that did not stop others from going into the churches and disrupting the saints again. Christ was being put on a lower level by the fact that something was added to -- "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:8-9. Later in his ministry, Paul determined it was God's will that he go to Jerusalem even though in every city it was prophesied that bonds and imprisonment awaited him there. He made these stirring statements when he saw the elders of the church of Ephesus for the last time. With compassion and empathy he said, "I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. Acts 20:25-31. In verse 21 Paul told us what he preached: "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Something else began to be preached that took away from this "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul told Timothy, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." II Tim. 3:13. The church, not being satisfied with an invisible head, was easily turned to venerate the leaders of the church. A certain slant was given to words that Christ spoke to His disciples. In Matthew 16:13-14, Jesus asks His disciples "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" They replied that some said this, and some that. Then Jesus asks them, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Mark records the same incident in Mark 8:27-29 and in John 6:61 we read of a similar circumstance where Peter said, "Thou art the Christ." But only in Matthew do we read the following statement: "That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." It did not matter that no other gospel writer recorded these words -- so there were not "two witnesses" as is required to compare Scripture with Scripture in order to understand the true meaning. Peter (already martyred) was lifted up to replace Christ in the hearts of the saints. Another rendering of the English says it this way: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven." Amplified Bible. Another way to think about the Scripture is, "If the words you speak are right, and your followers obey them, they will have gained entrance into Heaven. If the words you speak are wrong, your followers may obey them, but not being truth, heaven cannot be gained by them." The few Scriptures that seemingly lift man up to where he is telling God what to do, must be brought into alignment with the whole volume of truth. In the History of the Reformation, D'Aubigne made this statement in Book 1, Chapter 1: "The religion of old taught that salvation comes from Him alone, that it is a gift from heaven….from the grace of the Sovereign Ruler….With these we are within the true limits of Christianity, and beyond them Christianity disappears. We cannot exalt the priests of the church or the works of the faithful without lowering Christ in His two-fold quality of Mediator and Redeemer." By this time the church had so apostatized it was unrecognizable as anything that may have begun in the Upper Room. God raised up Martin Luther and others -- and we owe them much. We have what we have today because of them. The greatest thing they gave us, here in America, is the Bible in the English language. Lloyd Goodwin (1929-1996) was called of God to go deeper into the Scriptures than any of his teachers. Using the concept that Luther used -- establishing doctrine by comparing Scripture with Scripture, he "dug out" truths that had been given to reformers and others that God had used in previous dispensations. The hope laid out for us in the Word of God brought joy. The perfect humanity of Christ (both divine and human) brought awesome honor to Him as we contemplated the depth of His sacrifice at Golgotha. Sovereignty and election -- when it truly sinks down into our hearts -- brings perfect peace and contentment. In his message given in Tampa, Florida on December 8, 1990, titled, "A Dispensation that Failed -- What Went Wrong," Brother Lloyd Goodwin said, "It says, 'The head of every man is Christ.' (I Cor. 11:3.) I knew that Scripture was in there, but I didn't know what to do with it. That means that every brother in my church is under the direct headship of Christ." This is absolute fact, although it is much easier to put the responsibility upon another. But the fact is, "every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Rom. 14:2. "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Matt. 12:36. Across this great land, where countless thousands have shed their blood in order that liberty might reign, apostasy is again making its way into the churches that our fathers sacrificed to build. Instead of the Gospel, humanism, paganism, darwinism! Etc., etc. But there is only ONE WAY to eternal life, and that is through God's Son, Jesus Christ, and the blood that He shed on Calvary. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." I John 5:11-12. This site is dedicated to exalting Christ, thereby diffusing error. |