Errors Concerning the Trinity

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the Trinity is of the devil, and that Jesus is a 'lesser god' than Jehovah God (they also believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel).

Mormons believe that God the Father is made up of flesh and bone, and is an evolved human being, and that a 'good Mormon' can someday become a god and create their own universe. If you accuse them of polytheism (worshiping many gods), they will deny it and say that they only worship one god, because they only worship the god of THIS universe. But in fact, they actually are taught that there are countless billions of gods. They believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers, and that Jesus was sexually conceived by Jehovah God having sex with one of his many wives. They believe that the Holy Spirit is merely a force.

Modalism

Although cults completely deny the Trinity, or change it into something completely different, many Christians get the Trinity wrong as well, and fall into error. There are various errors concerning the Trinity that Christians fall into. One such example is called Modalism.

Modalism is probably the most common theological error concerning the nature of God. It is a denial of the Trinity which states that God is a single person who, throughout biblical history, has revealed Himself in three modes, or forms. Thus, God is a single person who first manifested himself in the mode of the Father in Old Testament times. At the incarnation, the mode was the Son. After Jesus' ascension, the mode is the Holy Spirit. These modes are consecutive and never simultaneous. In other words, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never all exist at the same time, only one after another. Modalism denies the distinctiveness of the three persons in the Trinity, even though it retains the divinity of Christ. Present day groups that hold to forms of this error are the United Pentecostal and United Apostolic Churches. They deny the Trinity, teach that the name of God is Jesus, and require baptism for salvation. These modalist churches often accuse Trinitarians of teaching three gods. This is not what the Trinity is. The correct teaching of the Trinity is one God in three eternal coexistent persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Did Jesus exist before his human birth? What or who was Jesus before his incarnation? Was he the God of the Old Testament?

In order to understand who Jesus was, we first should understand the basic doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible teaches us that God is one and only one being. This tells us that whoever or whatever Jesus was before his human incarnation, he could not have been a separate God from the Father.

While God is one being, he exists eternally as three coequal and coeternal Persons, whom we know as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In order to understand how the Trinity doctrine describes the nature of God, we must keep in mind the difference between the words "Being" and "Person." This distinction has been put in the following terms: there is but one what of God (that is, his Being) but there are three whos within the one being of God, that is, the three divine Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Being we call the one God has an eternal relationship within himself of Father to Son. The Father has always been the Father and the Son has always been the Son. And, of course, the Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit. One Person in the Godhead has not preceded the other, and neither is one Person inferior to the other in his essence. All three divine Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—share the one being of God. The Trinity doctrine explains that Jesus was not created sometime prior to his incarnation, but existed eternally as God.

There are, then, three pillars to the Trinitarian understanding of God’s nature. First, only one true God exists, who is Yahweh (YHWH) of the Old Testament or theos of the New Testament—the Creator of all that exists. The second pillar of this teaching is that God is made up of three divine Persons, who are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father or Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. The third pillar tells us that these three distinct (but not separate) persons equally share the one divine being, God, and that they are eternal, co-equal and co-essential. Thus, God is one in essence and one in being, but exists in three persons. (We must always be careful not to understand the "Persons" of the Godhead like persons in the human sphere, where one person is separate from another.)

It is acknowledged that there is something about God as Trinity that transcends our finite understanding. Scripture does not explain how it is that the one God can exist as the Trinity. It only affirms that this is so.

Granted, how the Father and the Son can be one being seems difficult for us humans to understand. That’s why it’s important to keep in mind the distinction between person and essence, which the doctrine of the Trinity makes. This distinction tells us that there is a difference between the way God is one and the way that he is three. Simply put, God is one in essence and three in persons. If we keep that distinction at the front of our discussion, we will avoid being confounded by the seeming (but not real) contradiction in the biblical truth that God is one being in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A physical analogy, though an imperfect one, might help us understand. There is but one pure light, and that is white light. But white light can be broken down into three primary colors—red, green and blue. Each of the three primary colors does not exist apart from the other primary colors—they are included within the one light, which is white. There is but one complete light that we call white light, but this light contains three distinct but not separate primary colors.

The above explanation gives us the essential basis of the Trinity, which provides the perspective to understand who or what Jesus was before he became human flesh. Once we understand the relationship that has always existed within the one God, we can proceed to answer the question of who Jesus was before his incarnation and physical birth.

Jesus’ Eternality and Pre-Existence in John’s Gospel

The pre-existence of Christ is clearly stated in John 1:1-4: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life…" It is this Word or Logos in Greek who became incarnate in Jesus. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us," John tells us (verse 14).

The eternal, uncreated Word who was God, and yet was with God as one of the Persons of the Godhead, became a human being. Note that the Word "was" God but "became" a human being. The Word never came into being, that is, he didn’t "become" the Word. He always was the Word, or God. The Word’s existence is open-ended. He has always existed.

As Donald Macleod points out in The Person of Christ: "He is sent forth as one who already has being, not as one who comes into being by being sent" (page 55). Macleod further states: "In the New Testament, Jesus’ existence as a man is a continuation of his previous or prior existence as a heavenly being. The Word who dwelt among us is the same as the Word who was with God. The Christ who is found in form as a man is the very one who previously existed in the form of God" (page 63). It is the Word or the Son of God who takes flesh, not the Father or the Holy Spirit.

Yahweh

In the Old Testament, the most common name for God is Yahweh, which comes from the Hebrew consonants YHWH (called a tetragrammaton). It was Israel’s national name for God, the ever-living, self-existent Creator. In time, the Jews began to consider the name of God, YHWH, as too sacred to be pronounced. The Hebrew word adonay ("my Lord") or Adonai was substituted. Hence, in English Bibles, we see the word "Lord" used where YHWH appears in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Yahweh is the most common name of God found in the Old Testament, being used over 6800 times in reference to him. Another name for God in the Old Testament is Elohim, which is used over 2500 times, as in the phrase "the Lord God" (YHWH Elohim).

In the New Testament, there are many scriptures where the writers apply to Jesus passages that were written in reference to Yahweh in the Old Testament. The practice of the New Testament writers is so common that its significance may escape us. By using Yahweh scriptures for Jesus, these writers are implying that Jesus was Yahweh, or God, made flesh. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that the writers make this comparison, because Jesus himself explained that Old Testament passages applied to him (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; John 5:39-40, 45-46).

John makes a clear connection between Jesus and Yahweh, the name of God in the Old Testament. But John does not equate Jesus with the Father (and neither do the other Gospels). Jesus, for example, prays to the Father (John 17:1-15). John understands that the Son is distinct from the Father—and he also sees that both are distinct from the Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 17, 25; 15:26). Since that is so, John’s identification of Jesus as God, or Yahweh (if we think of his Hebrew, Old Testament name), is a Trinitarian explanation of God’s being.

"I Am"

In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples: "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He" (13:19). The phrase "I am He" is translated from the Greek ego eimi. The phrase occurs 24 times in John’s Gospel. At least seven of these are said to be "absolute" in that they are not followed by a predicate, such as in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life." In the seven absolute cases, no predicate follows, and the "I AM" phrase comes at the end of the clause. This indicates that Jesus is using this phrase as a name to identify who he is. The seven places are John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5, 6 and 8.

If we go back to Isaiah 41:4, 43:10 and 46:4, we can see the background for Jesus’ reference to himself in John’s Gospel as ego eimi ("I AM"). In Isaiah 41:4, God or Yahweh says: "I, the Lord…I am he." In Isaiah 43:10 he says "I am he," and later says, "‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am God’" (verse 12). In 46:4, God (Yahweh) again refers to himself as "I am he."

The Hebrew phrase "I am he" is translated in the Greek version of the Holy Scriptures, the Septuagint (which the apostles used), by the phrase ego eimi in Isaiah 41:4; 43:10; and 46:4. It seems clear that Jesus’ made the "I am he" statements as references to himself because they directly connected to God’s (Yahweh’s) statements about himself in Isaiah. John said, in effect, that Jesus was saying he was God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14, which introduces the Gospel and speaks of the Word’s divinity and incarnation, prepares us for this fact.)

John’s ego eimi ("I Am") identification of Jesus can also be carried back to Exodus 3, in which God identifies himself as the "I Am." Here we read: "God [Hebrew, elohim] said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: "I AM has sent me to you"’" (verse 14).

John repeats Jesus’ identification of himself as the "I AM" of the Old Testament. Since there is but one God, and John would have understood that, then we are left with the proposition that there must be two persons sharing the one nature that is God. With the Holy Spirit, also discussed by John in chapters 14-17, we have the basis of the Trinity.

To put aside all doubt about John’s identification of Jesus with Yahweh, we may quote John 12:37-41, which says:

Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" For this reason they could not believe, because as Isaiah says elsewhere: "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them." Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

The quotes above that John used come from Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10. The prophet originally spoke his words in regards to Yahweh. John says that what Isaiah actually saw was "Jesus’ glory" and that he "spoke of him." For John the apostle, then, Jesus was Yahweh in the flesh; before his human birth he was known as Yahweh.

(Most of the above information is from: http://www.wcg.org/lit/jesus/whowas.htm)

Yahweh

'Yahweh,' the Tetragrammaton (as introduced in yesterday's post), is composed of:

Yod

-Yod or yud was anciently portrayed as a symbol of a hand [yad in Hebrew]. This is the entire hand, or closed hand [in contrast with the letter kaf, which comes from the pictograph of the palm of the hand]. The closed hand denotes power and, figuratively, ownership.
-Yod is masculine. In the sacred name Yahweh, it is representative of the Father.
-Yod is the seminal letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It cannot be divided into component parts, like other letters can. It signifies the oneness of Elohim.
-The yod is the smallest [and most humble] letter. From it, the other letters originate. It is symbolic of creation.

Hey

-The letter hey is feminine, and represents femininity and gentleness. The first hey in the Name is representative of the Mother / Holy Spirit / Eloah.
-Hey means ‘behold’, ‘to show’ or ‘to reveal’.

Vav

-Vav is also masculine in gender.
-Vav signifies a nail, peg, or hook. It also conveys the meaning of being nailed or bound together.
-The numerical value of vav is 6.

They are pronounced, in Hebrew, "Yod Hey Vav Hey," when you read them in the Hebrew manner from right to left.


The four letters in God's name in Hebrew have the following meanings:

Hey = Behold

Vav = Nail

Yod = Closed Hand

When read in English from left to right, it says:

"BEHOLD THE NAIL, BEHOLD THE HAND!"
Or, "Behold the nailed hand."

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10)

"Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet." (Psalm 22:16)

"Clearly, this is no ordinary, every-day name. But wait, there's more: Yahushua (often Yeshua or Yahshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus, similar to Joshua), the Hebrew name of the Messiah, the son of Yahweh, means "YHWH is salvation." Therefore, you can take that a step further and see it as "Behold, the nailed hand is salvation." This not only powerfully illustrates Yahushua's role as Savior, but also His divinity (as Yahweh incarnate) and His relationship to Yahweh as His only begotten son. As Yahushua Himself said, "I have come in my Father's name (John 5:43)." Just as His life and character point us to His Father (John 14:6 - "no one comes to the Father but by me;" see also John 17:23-26), so also does His name point us to the sacred Name of Yahweh. He even instructed us to pray: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name . . . (Luke 11:2)."

You have no doubt heard most or all of the following descriptive terms and/or titles that have often been applied to Yahweh: El (meaning "mighty one,"), Elohim (the plural form of El), El Shaddai ("almighty one"), and Adonai ("my lord"), among others. While those words, like the commonly used English terms "Lord" and "God," can certainly express different aspects of the character of Yahweh, they are merely generic titles and descriptions. None of them is His Name.

When the Scriptures were being transcribed, it was believed by the Jewish scribes performing the task that they should not pronounce the sacred Name of YHWH, for fear of violating the third commandment ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain . . . " - Exodus 20:7). This led to the use of other words, generic titles (such as "Adonai"), as substitutes for the true name, Yahweh. Therefore, if you were to compare a typical, modern English translation of the Bible with the original Hebrew texts, you would see how YHWH (which can be found a total of 7,038 times in the original Hebrew Old Testament) was replaced by "the Lord" or "God."

The form Jehovah did not exist as a Hebrew word. It is actually a conflation (blend, fusion) of two Hebrew forms that came about through a peculiarity of the Hebrew writing system. The Hebrew name for God, the consonants of which are transliterated YHWH, was considered so sacred that it was never pronounced and its proper vowel points were never written. In some texts the vowel points for a completely different word, Adonai, "lord," were written with YHWH to indicate that the word Adonai was to be spoken whenever the reader came upon the word YHWH. YHWH was never intended to be pronounced with the vowels of Adonai, but Christian scholars of the Renaissance made exactly that mistake, and the forms Iehovah (using the classical Latin equivalents of the Hebrew letters) and Jehovah (substituting in English, J for consonantal I) came into common use.

A New Standard Bible Dictionary (1936 edition) states, "The form 'Jehovah' is impossible, according to the strict principles of Hebrew vocalization."

So, it is clearly no secret that Jehovah is not the true Name of our God. But don't worry - this doesn't mean that the wonderful suffixes normally attached to Jehovah (as in Jehovah Jireh, Rapha, Nissi, etc.) are also wrong. Those transliterations are for the most part correct, and when added to the name Yahweh (as in "Yahweh Yireh" - "Yahweh the Provider"), they can serve as powerful expressions of certain attributes and characteristics of our Lord Yahweh."

You might reply, "So what? Who cares what the exact Name may or may not be? Why should it matter?"

"When someone begins a relationship with you, one of the first things they learn is your name. As the relationship develops, they begin to learn more and more of your character, and eventually, if they want to, they will know you very well and will be devoted to your relationship. However, the relationship would most likely not last very long if they kept referring to you as "man" or "woman," "sir" or "madam." Such a thing would keep a certain amount of distance between the two of you, and would surely not be a good way to create and maintain intimacy and love.

They might tell you over and over again that they love you dearly, but would you really believe them if they kept addressing you by an impersonal title or description? The same applies to our relationship with our wonderful Creator, Yahweh. To continually apply generic terms like "Lord" and "God" to Him would be like a husband constantly calling his spouse "Wife" or "Woman."

I'm not saying that its wrong to refer to Yahweh as 'God' or 'Lord.' But, for a Christian who wants to increase their intimate relationship with their Lord, shouldn't you want to learn more about His Name (as well as other biblical references to Him) and what it means?


(some portions of information are from):
http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/discipleship/Names_of_God.aspx

God's Name

Many Christians pronounce the Name of God as "Jehovah." However, though it is debatable, most scholars agree that the proper pronunciation is "Yahweh." Now, what I am referring to is not the full Name of God, because the full name of God is not known. Because of the Commandment which says "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord God in vain," the Hebrews, afraid of accidentally breaking this commandment, took out the vowels, so that His proper Name could not be accidentally pronounced in an unholy manner. The result, 'YHWH,' is called a 'Tetragrammaton.'

"Various proposals exist for what the vowels of יהוה were. Current convention is יַהְוֶה, that is, "Yahweh" (IPA: [jahˈweh]). Evidence is:

* Some Biblical theophoric names end in -ia(h) or -yahu as shortened forms of YHWH: that points to the first vowel being "a".
* Various Early Christian Greek transcriptions of the Hebrew Divine Name seem to point to "Yahweh" or similar.
* Samaritan priests have preserved a liturgical pronunciation "Yahwe" or "Yahwa" to the present day.

Today many scholars accept this proposal, based on the pronunciation conserved both by the Church Fathers (as noted above) and by the Samaritans. (Here 'accept' does not necessarily mean that they actually believe that it describes the truth, but rather that among the many vocalizations that have been proposed, none is clearly superior. That is, 'Yahweh' is the scholarly convention, rather than the scholarly consensus.) In some editions of the sidur, Jewish prayer book, there are no vowels under God's name, to signify that we do not know God's name and that there is absolutely no pronunciation."

"Hebrew Scholars generally favor "Yahweh" as the most likely pronunciation. They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Hallelu-Yah (meaning "Praise Yah, you people!") (Ps 104:35; 150:1,6). Also, the forms Yehoh', Yoh, Yah, and Ya'hu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names of Jehoshaphat, Joshaphat, Shephatiah, and others, can all be derived from Yahweh. ... Still, there is by no means unanimity among scholars on the subject, some favoring yet other pronunciations, such as "Yahuwa", "Yahuah", or "Yehuah"."

"Traditionally, observant Jews do not say this name aloud. It is believed to be too sacred to be uttered and is often referred to as the Ineffable Name, the Unutterable Name or the Distinctive Name. They often use circumlocutions when referring to the name of the Deity, e.g., HaShem ("The Name") or Shem HaMeforash (“the ineffable Name”) when reading the Tanakh aloud because the Name of God must not be spoken. They show such reverence because of how holy God's Name is and they do not want to ever give off the impression that they are misusing or taking the Lord's Name in vain. "Adonai" is spoken only in prayer, and YHVH is only written on paper that will not be thrown away or discarded. Adding vowels to the Name of the Lord is an insult to some Jews because the point is that it cannot be spoken because it is God's Name (to be). Even in English the vowel in God (G-d) is taken out in some cases to show extreme reverence. Even some Christians follow these traditions in order to stray from seeming irreverent to God."

"Using consonants as semi-vowels (v/w)

In ancient Hebrew, the letter ו, known to modern Hebrew speakers as vav, was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German) rather than a letter v. The letter is referred to as waw in the academic world. Because the ancient pronunciation differs from the modern pronunciation, it is common today to represent יהוה as YHWH rather than YHVH.

In Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as the vowel letters double as consonants (similar to the Latin use of V to indicate both U and V)."

"For similar reasons, an appearance of the Tetragrammaton in ancient Egyptian records of the 13th century BC sheds no light on the original pronunciation. Therefore it is, in general, difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced from its spelling only, and the Tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced.

This difficulty occurs somewhat also in Greek when transcribing Hebrew words, because of Greek's lack of a letter for consonant 'y' and (since loss of the digamma) of a letter for "w", forcing the Hebrew consonants yod and waw to be transcribed into Greek as vowels. Also, non-initial 'h' caused difficulty for Greeks and was liable to be omitted; х (chi) was pronounced as 'k' + 'h' (as in modern Hindi "lakh") and could not be used to spell 'h' as in e.g. Modern Greek Χάρρι = "Harry"."

"Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuum

The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the Qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the Kethib), they wrote the Qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the Qere were written on the Kethib. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted: this is called Q're perpetuum.

One of these frequent cases was God's name, that should not be pronounced, but read as "Adonai" ("My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or, if the previous or next word already was "Adonai", or "Adoni" ("My Lord"), as "Elohim" ("God"). This combination produces יְהֹוָה and יֱהֹוִה respectively, non-words that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively.

The oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, such as the Aleppo Codex and the Codex Leningradensis mostly write יְהוָה (yehvah), with no pointing on the first H; this points to its Qere being 'Shema', which is Aramaic for "the Name".

Gerard Gertoux wrote that in the Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010, the Masoretes used 7 different vowel pointings [i.e. 7 different Q're's] for YHWH.

Later, Christian Europeans who did not know about the Q're perpetuum custom took these spellings at face value, producing the form "Jehovah" and spelling variants of it. The Catholic Encyclopedia [1913, Vol. VIII, p. 329] states: “Jehovah, the proper name of God in the Old Testament."

from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh

Filling Someone With Daylight

Before I handed over my life to Jesus Christ in 1979, the number one things in my life were weight training and karate. I used to spend hours every day working out with weights and practicing karate. Yet, even though I knew I could handle myself (twice in my life I have fought guys who had knives when I was unarmed, and both times I beat them. Another time, a guy had a metal umbrella handle [the part that sticks out of the handle was metal] that he had cut off to a sharp point, and he was trying to stab me with that, and I beat him. I have also had a gun held on me more than once), I was always keenly aware of the possibility of someone attacking me, and I was constantly thinking about what I would do if they did attack me. I knew that, if someone had a gun, especially if they were out of reach, I would have no defense. Therefore, I was always in fear, because I was constantly thinking about how to defend myself if someone attacked me, and I was constantly playing out scenarios in my head to train my mind to be ready in case something did happen.

However, after relinquishing control of my life to Jesus Christ, I lost that fear of being killed. Now, if someone were to hold a gun to my head and pull the trigger, I know for a fact, without a doubt, that I would be in Heaven forever, with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who is God the Son, Yeshua Hamashia, the Messiah, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the “I Am”; and with God the Father, Yahweh (YHWH), the “I Am” (the Name He told Moses).

The only regret I would have, if someone were to hold a gun to my head and pull the trigger, is that I would no longer be able to tell others about Jesus, so that they might escape Hell and escape God’s wrath and judgment, and so they might gain eternal life in Heaven. I want to tell as many people as I can about Jesus, because Hell is a place I would not want my worst enemy to go to. When I really think about the people that will be in Hell for all eternity, in that horrible, terrible place of torment, suffering forever, it makes me cry. I have talked to people about Jesus at the Mall, at the movie theatre, going door-to-door, at Fairs, etc. But I feel like I’m not doing enough, because so many people are dying and going to Hell every single day. The fact that so many people are not following Christ, and are therefore headed for Hell, is something that should tear the heart out of every true born-again Christian, and should make every true follower of Christ Jesus weep and have compassion for those who are lost. It should make every born-again believer want to go out, every single day, and tell as many people as possible how they can escape from Hell. Yet, so many American Christians are satisfied with going to church and minding their own business, instead of going out on the street and witnessing to people. American Christians are so complacent, lazy and materialistic…including myself.

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What are you captivated by?

This past Sunday morning while driving to church, the car ahead of me had a bumper sticker that said, "So mote it be" (which is an archaic phrase meaning "So must it be," and which originated in the rituals of Freemasonry, and is common today in Wiccan and ceremonial magick rituals. For those who don't know, 'Wicca' is a polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and which includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft).

Sunday night, again on the way to church, a van in front of me had a bumper sticker which said something like, "One nation under goddess."

If Religion were simply a matter of opinion, like what brand of toothpaste you prefer, then there would be no problem, and everyone would basically be equally correct in whatever they believed.

If it were a matter of race or culture or nationality, then I would say we need to respect people's differences and realize that any Religion, like any race or any culture or any nationality, should not be seen as better than or superior to another one.

However, it is a matter of a person's eternal destiny. It is a matter of their soul. It is a matter of whether a person spends eternity in Paradise/Heaven, or whether they spend eternity in that incinerator, that eternally-burning garbage pit, called Hell.

What about you? Do you know what will happen to you after you die? Do you know where you will go? That should really be the highest priority of anyone's life: to look into it, research it, ask questions, and make sure you know for sure, finding the most definite and truthful answer you can. Anyone who says about death, concerning their eternal destiny, "I'm not gonna worry about it; when it happens, it happens," is a fool. Anyone who says, "Well, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong; and I'll take my punishment like a man," is a fool. Thankfully, it is possible to know for sure where you will spend eternity.

Most people, if asked, "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?" would answer "Yes." However, see how many of the following questions you can answer 'no' to:

-Have you ever, in your lifetime, told a lie? Even a white lie?

[If a person lies to you, what do you call them? A liar! One of the Ten Commandments---God's Law---is "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." (i.e., lying.) If you have ever lied, then you have broken one of God's Laws!]

-Have you ever, in your lifetime, stolen anything, no matter how small, and no matter the value?

[If a person steals something from you, what do you call them? A thief! Another of the Ten Commandments, God's Law, is "You shall not steal." If you have ever stolen anything, then that's another of God's Laws that you have broken.]

-Have you ever looked at another person and lusted after them?

[Jesus said, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt. 5:28) Another of the Ten Commandments is "You shall not commit adultery." If you've done this, or if you have slept with anyone outside of marriage, then you have broken yet another of God's Laws.]

-Have you ever used God's Name as a curse word?

[Another one of the Ten Commandments is "You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His Name." If you have ever said, "Oh my G-d!" or "G-d D---it!" then you are guilty of breaking still another of God's Commands.]

-Have you ever hated anyone or held anger against them?

[Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." (Matt. 5:21-22) Have you also broken this Commandment as well? Your sins are stacking up higher and higher!...]

-Have you ever loved anything---your car, your house, your wife, your kids, your TV, your boat, your computer, sports, money, sex, or even yourself---more than you love God?

[The Ten Commandments say, "You shall have no other gods before Me." This is idolatry. Can you honestly say that, every single second of your entire life, you have always loved God more than anything else? If not, then that's yet another Law you have broken.]

Jesus said, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20) He also said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)

Are you perfect?

The Bible says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) "Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Psalm 53:3) Jesus said, "For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' " (Mark 7:21-23)

All of us have broken God's Law. All of us are sinners. All of us fall short. All of us have mutinied against our Creator, and selfishly followed our own way, instead of walking in perfect obedience to Him. All of us are wicked and have rebelled against and offended a holy, righteous God...the God Who created us.

One day you will stand before God. Based on God's Law, the Ten Commandments, would you go to Heaven or Hell? Every one of us deserves to go to Hell.

You might say, "But isn't God a loving God? Isn't He a forgiving God?"

Let me ask you this: If a Judge lets a criminal go free, and just excuses his crime, is that a good Judge? Of course not! God cannot merely excuse your sin. Would you want God to just freely allow sinners into Heaven, no matter what? Would you want God to let Hitler into Heaven? Would you want God to let unrepentant mass murderers into Heaven? Would you want God to let those who have raped and brutally murdered little children, and would do so again if they could, into Heaven? If He did, that would be evil. He would not be a good Judge. He would not be a good God. What about those who have done 'lesser' sins? Would you want God to allow liars, robbers, manipulators, dictators, slave owners, wife beaters, drunks, drug users and cruel people into Heaven? Not only would it be unfair and unjust for God to do so, but Heaven would then no longer be Heaven...it would become no better, and no more enjoyable, than Earth, because it would be filled with corrupt, evil people.

The Bible says, "Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:26-27)

"In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)

There is good news. God the Father sent Christ Jesus, Who is God the Son, to pay for our sins on the cross. But you must turn away from your sins and follow Christ in order to accept this payment. Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:32)

The Good News is, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

The All-Important Question

Have you been captivated by God through the gospel?
Have you been taken captive by Christ Jesus, the Son of God?
Have you been regenerated? (not just converted, but re-created.) "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (II Cor. 5:17)
Has your life been radically and dramatically transformed
and changed through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit?

It's not about my opinion, or a philosophy, or a way of thinking,
or being religious, or even converting to a Religion.
It's about being accepted by God the Father, which only comes
through completely surrendering your life to Christ Jesus.
It's about having the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. It's about God the Holy Spirit coming and living inside of you, so that you, having been cleansed of all sin, then become God's temple...a living temple.

God commands people to accept Him as their treasure. "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed..." (Psalm 2:12a) Let Him pay for your sins, or else pay for them yourself; but if you pay for them yourself, it will take forever---literally---because a sinner can never fully pay for sin. Surrender to Jesus Christ or burn in Hell forever. "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..." (Joshua 24:15a)

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My Spiritual Life’s History

I grew up and was baptized as an infant in a Lutheran church where I attended both church and Sunday School every Sunday, was an Acolyte, was confirmed and was fully involved in the Luther League, which was the youth program. Beginning in the 5^th or 6^th grade, I read my KJV Bible daily at home on my own, as well as saying my prayers every night. By the time I finished High School, I had read the entire Bible from cover-to-cover, several times, in different versions (KJV, The Living Bible, Good News Bible, etc.)

Nevertheless, I never heard a gospel message. I believed in the Bible, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, that Jesus was the Son of God, etc. However, though I did have faith, it was mainly an intellectual belief…I had never experienced the new birth (i.e., being born again; regeneration; being saved)…kind of like those in Acts 8:14-17 who had been baptized, but who had never experienced the new birth; or Apollos in Acts 18:24-25 who had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, and even taught about Jesus (comparable to a Sunday School teacher), but who had never been born again; or those in Acts 19:1-6 who had repented of their sins and had been baptized (by John the Baptist’s baptism), but who had never been regenerated (made into new creatures) though having the Holy Spirit indwell them.

In the beginning of 1979, at 19 years of age, I was attending a Commercial Art class at what was then called Miami-Dade Community College South Campus. A black guy who was Pentecostal took me outside every day during breaks for a couple weeks or so, and explained to me the gospel of salvation. He told me that, because of the power of God in his life, he was not afraid of anyone. Being shy to the point of being almost paranoid of people, this appealed to me, so I went home and asked God to give me what that guy had.

Around that same time, I found some Jack Chick gospel tracts lying on the table in the Parsonage library (which sometimes served as a meeting place for the Youth) at my church. I read one or two at the church, and I took a third one home. While my mom was outside hanging up clothes on the clothesline, I read one of the Chick tracts, using my mom's ironing board as a table, and, leaning against that ironing board and folding my hands, I prayed the prayer in the back of one of the tracts, and asked Christ Jesus to come into my heart, forgive all my sins, and take over my life. It was then that I was born again.

I then began to notice that the church I had attended all my young life was a dead church, and not at all like the church in the book of Acts. What was preached there was a ‘social gospel,’ rather than the gospel of salvation.

Nevertheless, I was twice blessed with the opportunity to preach in the pulpit while the Pastor was on vacation. In one of those sermons, I talked about the joy of the Lord. Afterward, I overheard one person commenting, “It’s pretty bad when someone in the church can preach better than the Pastor can,” which was really a demonstration of how spiritually dead our church actually was.

There was one couple at that church who were born-again Christians, and who I considered to be my ‘spiritual parents,’ because they helped me in my early years as a baby Christian. They were also the leaders of our church’s Clown Ministry, which I joined, and which was an excellent experience for me, and was a lot of fun.

Not long after, I began to attend a basic Bible Study course, meeting at someone’s home (who later left for Africa as a missionary) through Campus Crusade for Christ. This was my discipleship period in which I learned the basics of following Christ as Lord and Savior, and I am greatly indebted to Campus Crusade for Christ for discipling me as a baby Christian.

Shortly before leaving that church, I attended Men’s Sonshine Cursillo #23, now called Via de Cristo, which was then the spiritual highpoint of my life, outside my salvation experience.

I then left that church to try to find a church that was more like what I saw in the book of Acts. I began attending an Evangelical/Charismatic Lutheran church, where I was introduced to speaking in tongues, which began my struggle with trying to find out whether the Charismatic gifts were for today or not…a struggle that lasted for many years.

I then went away to another city to live with my Aunt while attending college at the University of North Florida. While there, I attended a couple of different Baptist churches with my cousins, who were all Baptist. I attended a youth service, which helped me in my spiritual growth. At one of those churches I decided I wanted to be baptized as an adult by immersion, because I believed that baptism was for believers, and was a picture of us being buried (i.e., dying to self; dying to the world system and to living for this world; the ‘old nature’ being put to death) and rising again as new creatures created in Christ Jesus, to live for Him and Him alone. I also did this in obedience to Christ’s command (Matt. 28:19) as well as a public testimony of my decision to follow Christ.

I later joined an Independent Baptist Church, which, though they were quite legalistic, they were also the most helpful to me of any church up to that point, as far as teaching me how to evangelize. I went door-to-door with them on a weekly basis, telling people about Jesus. I also went around the city with an older gentleman, named Mr. Keller, who was very zealous for the Lord, and who had a burden for souls to be saved from Hell. He and I would go door-to-door, or talk to people on the street, and even went to the city jail a couple times to preach, give out Bibles, and to tell prisoners about Jesus.

I also worked for 1 year at their Christian Elementary School, teaching P.E. In the afternoons, I would drive several miles to their combined Middle School and High School, to watch over the Study Hall (something I did not enjoy). During two summers, I was a Camp Counselor at their Youth Ranch, which was fun.

At the prompting of some people at the Independent Baptist Church, I attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, for 2 years. The school helped me tremendously in every way except one: my spiritual life. Without going into long, tedious detail, I’ll just say that my zeal for the Lord was destroyed there. I went into deep rebellion against God and experienced the blackest, darkest days of my entire life. For years afterward, I even had nightmares about the school.

After that, still suffering from rebellion and recovering from my loss of zeal for God, I casually visited different churches of different denominations: Lutheran, Presbyterian, Charismatic, etc.

I then joined a Lutheran Evangelical church, which my family had joined a couple years before. They had just gotten a new Pastor who slowly introduced more and more Charismatic practices into the church. I was a member of this church for several years, in which time I taught 1^st and 2^nd Grade Children’s Sunday School, and began a Clown Ministry there, using children, teens and adults, performing not only for the church, but for schools, nursing homes and hospitals as well.

Though I disagreed with a number of the things the church taught, I stayed silent, figuring I would never find a perfect church. However, the breaking point came when a woman speaker visited one day and tried to loudly and aggressively force me, along with several others, to begin speaking in tongues, in front of the entire congregation. I saw clearly that false doctrine and unscriptural practices were occurring at that church, so I left the church. About a year later, that church split, when it was discovered that the Pastor was an alcoholic and would drink from the church’s Communion wine all day long during the week; yet he and his wife both refused to admit it, even when the church elders, and later, representatives from the Lutheran board were brought in to address the issue.

After that, I again began to inconsistently visit various churches.

Then, after a period of several weeks spent in a ‘Creation vs. Evolution’ online debate; while at the same time, participating in another online debate with a Catholic, addressing the issue of faith plus works vs. salvation by faith alone, the Lord used this to show me that I needed the fellowship and encouragement of other Christians. Then I saw an article in the newspaper that gave a summary of all the local churches and synagogues, including quotes from each Pastor, Priest or Rabbi from each church or synagogue. I noticed a Christian and Missionary Alliance church, which, although I had read of them as being a missionary organization, I had not realized they had also become a denomination. Because of the respect I had gained for them from reading biographies of their missionaries, and because I liked what that Pastor had said in his quote, I visited and later joined that church, which turned out to be the best church I had ever attended up to that point. During the several years I was a member there, I experienced some of the most incredible and awesome interventions and miracles from the Lord, at my workplace, that I have ever experienced. In fact, I even refer to the last year there as my ‘Year of Miracles,’ because God worked such incredible and unbelievable miracles in my life during that time.

While a member of that church, I participated in a study of Henry Blackaby’s “Experiencing God,” meeting at someone’s house, which was an excellent study, as well as an enjoyable time of fellowship. Immediately after that ended, I began attending BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), which was absolutely the best and most intensive Bible study that I had ever participated in. I learned and gained more from those studies than from any previous Bible study. Beginning with my 3^rd year in BSF, I was chosen to be a Discussion Leader.

Around that time, I also attended a Promise Keepers meeting in Tampa, which was good, though it could not match my Cursillo weekend years before.

I had strongly disliked Miami for many years, and felt like a foreigner and a minority in my own country. So, when my family, who had already moved to Central Florida, kept pressing me to move up there with them, I finally gave in. I moved, along with my brother who lived only 15 minutes from me, to Central Florida. I moved in with my parents in Dunnellon (which was a bit of a miracle in itself, since I had previously sworn that I would live under a bridge before I ever lived with my parents again), and my brother moved in with my other brother and his wife, in Ocala. Even though I was living with my parents, I refer to this time as my ‘Year of Blessings,’ because living in Dunnellon was light years more enjoyable and tolerable than living in Miami. In addition, I bought the first sporty-looking car I had ever owned. Though I had owned numerous cars before, I had always wanted a sports car, but had never had one. Though a Pontiac Sunfire was not technically a sports car, it was close enough for me.

I first began attending a local Charismatic church with my family, but I didn't feel comfortable there. I had determined, before moving from Miami, that I would try to find another Christian Missionary and Alliance church. God answered my prayer, and I found one that was only 3 minutes from where I was living! I attended there for the rest of the time I lived with my parents.

I also wanted to find a BSF class, which I did, and began attending there. However, it was not nearly the same as the one I had attended in Miami. I strongly sensed a binding spirit of legalism, which I felt was a hindrance to Christian growth, so I stopped going.

My brother shortly got a job and moved into his own apartment. After 1 ½ years living with my parents, I too moved into an apartment in Ocala. I bought a PS2, which was exciting, because it was the first time I had ever bought a gaming system.

After moving to the apartment in Ocala, which I lived in for 3 years, I attended several different churches, though I didn't find one that I really wanted to join. At one Baptist church I attended, I participated in a study of Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” meeting at someone’s house. It was OK, but nowhere near as enjoyable or profitable as the study of Blackaby’s “Experiencing God.”

At one point, I had been praying for God to bring someone that could be a Christian friend to my workplace. I had also been praying to become involved in a Bible study, as well as praying that God would lead me to a really good Christian church.

Well, God answered my prayers. A Christian brother named Anthony started working at the company where I was working. He invited me to his Calvary Chapel church, which I attended for a while, and which I enjoyed. I noticed that he had a copy of a book by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, who are hosts of “The Way of the Master” TV program as well as a web site (http://www.wayofthemaster.com) and several books. I told him I was reading the same book. Shortly after that, Anthony saw someone witnessing to a group of people in the local Mall, and introduced himself. The person's name doing the witnessing was Byron, who was using evangelism techniques he had learned from “The Way of the Master” videos and books. This led to Byron and Anthony organizing a “Way of the Master” weekly class, which Anthony invited me to attend. We went through a series of videos and handouts over the next several weeks. After that, we set out to begin witnessing in teams at the local Mall, at the Movie Theater, and later, at events like UF Football Games and local Festivals. Thus began what I refer to as my ‘Year of Evangelism.’ I had not been so active in witnessing to people since the times I used to go witnessing with Mr. Keller years ago. Though I have been very nervous at times, telling people about the gospel of Jesus Christ has been a great blessing and a great challenge. I believe this is the most important work we can do.

Byron decided that he wanted to find a church that was more on fire for the Lord, and more on fire for evangelism, than the church he was then attending. Part of the reason was that he would go witnessing door-to-door every Saturday, and practically no one from his church would ever join him. I went with him to visit a couple different churches that he had found online, and the second one we visited, we both decided we liked. He became a member of the church immediately, and I became a member several months later. I am currently attending that church, and I consider it to be possibly the best church I have ever attended. I praise God for once again answering my prayers and desires.

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A Look At Psalm 2: Part 1

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
(Psalm 2:1-3, KJV)

“Why do the heathen rage?” If you want to see how much the World (System, i.e., our society) hates Christ Jesus and Yahweh the Father, just go into an Internet Discussion Board on Religion and post some messages about how Jesus is the only Way to eternal life, how Jesus is God, how the Bible is the absolute standard for Truth, etc., and it won’t be long before you (or at least, Christians in general) will be verbally attacked.

I was just watching a talk show on t.v. where a father and his daughters, ranging from 12 years old to the oldest who was married, were involved with an abstinence organization where a daughter covenants with her dad to be sexually pure, and to abstain from sex until marriage, and then to remain always faithful to her husband. A female doctor was also there as the local “expert,” and that doctor was doing everything she could to challenge and question and come against what that father and his daughters believed and stood for. I had to change the channel, because the things that doctor was saying irritated me to such a degree (because I saw the utter foolishness and sheer folly in what that doctor was saying, though our society in general would have totally agreed with her) that I just could not stand watching it anymore. However, I noticed that the father and his daughters were being incredibly respectful and courteous, despite the constant badgering and challenges that the doctor put forth. It was interesting to note that, because of the high level of respect and courtesy the father and daughters were showing, the doctor, the host and the hostess also showed restraint and a certain level of respect in return. I was just hoping that the ungodly things the doctor was spouting would not poison those young girls. The doctor kept trying to imply that the father was some kind of dictator who forced his daughters to follow a lifestyle that was against their will, even though both the father and his daughters continually affirmed, calmly and confidently and respectfully, that such a choice was completely up to the girls, and that the father never in any way forced them to make such a decision. Another thing the doctor kept asking was (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘How could a young 12-year-old girl make such a decision when a child that young can in no way understand what that means? A child of that age should be free to explore her own body and her sexuality.” This is one of the things that angered me, especially since I didn’t see anyone challenging the doctor with the implications of what she was saying. Was the doctor saying that a 12-year-old girl should sleep around like a prostitute or whore? I’m sure she wouldn’t outright admit to that, but that’s what the implications were. And was the doctor saying that getting AIDS or some other sexually transmitted disease, having an abortion, and having children out of wedlock are all preferable to practicing abstinence until marriage? As the Psalm asks, “Why do…the people imagine a vain thing?” It seemed to me that this doctor’s attitude against abstinence was the same as the rebellious attitude shown in verse 3 of Psalm 2, which represents what those who would challenge God's commands would say regarding God's Law and the moral lifestyle of Christians: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Unregenerate man does not want to be accountable to his Creator.