Experience: (1) Jesus is LORD, Messiah
(2) Husband of a beautiful wife (40-years); Father of three-beautiful children.
(3) United States Marine Corps 1/1 - 0311 - NCO
(4) Retired 31-year veteran of the Houston Police Department (Patrol-Motorcycle Officer-Commercial Helicopter Police Patrol Pilot)
(5) Education: Master's Degree/University of Houston at Clear Lake
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The Canon of Scripture today; mockers and doubters…
Where we differ is our understanding of our Creator’s sovereignty and immutability. By faith, I believe the words before me in the NASB or the ESV are the EXACT words my omnipotent Creator desires that I have in order that I know Him personally, love Him intimately, live with Him eternally.
You possess the free will to proliferate doubt about what the Holy Spirit has provided and what the omnipotent Holy Spirit is able to secure and provide to this very day, but I’ll trust the precious Spirit who resides within me because I love Him and respect Him and trust Him. You do you!
1 John 1:9 is not about forgiveness of sin relevant to restoration of New Covenant promise but about the restoration of intimacy with Elohim. If sin in a Christian’s life could negate the grace of the Cross, then no one could be redeemed by faith as grace would be fleeting and dependent upon works/behavior throughout the lifetime of the Christian.
When one enters into New Covenant relationship with the Father via faith in Jesus as Messiah, they are gifted-imputed the perfection, sinlessness, of Jesus and made “positionally right” with the Father due New Covenant promise (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12) and they are considered, by the Father, to be perfect…which is necessary if one is to enter the Kingdom of Elohim subsequent death of the body in Time (Revelation 21:27).
1 John 1:9 is provided the Christian by the Holy Spirit not as a restorative prayer of relationship concerning salvation, 1 John 1:9 is given for restoration of intimacy and joy and peace with Elohim which are disrupted by disobedience…much like a wayward child and their parents…the child does not cease to be family due disobedience but relationship and intimacy suffers until things are reconciled.
Even if a Christian sins with aforethought, that sin does NOT break New Covenant promise but the true Christian will be quick to repent as the loss of intimacy is unbearable. If one could see the mind of the Father when a Christian repents, the Father would say, “what sin?”…the Father will not break His Covenant…we repent and seek forgiveness for our own well being as fractured intimacy with our LORD is a miserable life indeed.
Religious Cults: What are they as compared to Biblical Christianity?
A “religious cult” is any belief system, organizational theology, Church doctrine, that adds to the sole-sufficiency of Jesus our Messiah to provide full atonement for sin through the shedding of His sinless blood at Golgotha, an atonement that is actuated by faith, alone, in Jesus, alone. Jesus + NOTHING = atonement for sin, salvation, eternal life, the receiving of the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor/Seal of New Covenant promise. Salvation is purely a divine Gift of Grace (unmerited favor) that no one born of Adam’s seed (Romans 5:12) can attain through observing laws, days, diets, clothing, traditions, rituals (Galatians 2:16; Romans 4:4-5).
A few outstanding examples of religious cults today are,
1) Catholicism – a works doctrine
2) Mormonism – a works doctrine
3) Jehovah’s Witness – a works doctrine and false Jesus
4) Church of Christ (not all but far too many) – a works doctrine
5) Seventh Day Adventists – a works doctrine
6) Black Hebrew Israelites – a works doctrine
7) Pentecostalism – those factions of Churches of Charismata that teach “speaking in tongues” as a prerequisite for salvation
Why is Jesus’ blood atonement sufficient atonement without the addition of water baptism or obedience/observance of the law? Why can’t a man or woman be sufficiently obedient to please Elohim and earn or assist in their own salvation? Let’s look at Adam, Sacrificial Law, Isaiah, Jesus, for the answer.
1) As early as Genesis 3:21, Elohim has told humanity that He, Himself, would provide those of faith an imputed-gifted robe of righteousness, a righteousness that human kind can never attain through works. This promise of Elohim was fulfilled by Messiah Jesus 4000-years later on a Roman Cross at Golgotha outside the gates of the Old City, Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12).
Subsequent Adam’s compromise with sin, Adam began to manifest the symptoms of a fallen nature; that is, fear, shame, obfuscation. Adam hid from Elohim; Adam attempted to cover his shame – his nakedness with fig leaves; Adam obfuscated his sin and blamed his wife for their compromise with evil.
Elohim confronted Adam and in Adam’s presence, Elohim, Himself, shed innocent blood and took the skins of animals and clothed Adam and Eve in a gifted, imputed, robe of righteousness; a robe of forgiveness that Adam did not earn nor did he deserve.
Elohim, having clothed Adam and Eve in a robe of righteousness declared that the fig leaves, the works of Adam’s hands, was NOT accepted or sufficient to cover the shame of sin. A lesson often times overlooked by the members of religious cults.
2) Throughout the Old Covenant of Law, the children of Jacob, the Priests, were commanded to sacrifice specific animals for specific sins. Oddly enough, we learn in Hebrews 10:4 that the blood of animals, the work of animal sacrifice, was not sufficient to take away sin; so then, what was Elohim teaching through the bloody centuries of slain animals?
Elohim was teaching that the act or work of slaying an animal and bringing that animal to the altar as a covering for the sins of the individual and the sins of Israel’s children was not what ingratiated or initiated the forgiveness of sin or righteousness with Elohim, but it was the FAITH of the one offering the sacrifice that engendered favor with and forgiveness from Elohim; that is, the one offering the blood sacrifice demonstrated their “faith” in Elohim as they earnestly “believed” that Elohim would do exactly as He had promised in the Law. It was FAITH, not the works, that engendered Covenant-Righteousness.
3) Isaiah, penning Scripture by inspiration of Elohim the Holy Spirit, provides an Earth shattering statement in Isaiah 64:6 where he writes;
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted (filthy) garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) (filthy = NASB)
Isaiah teaches that on our best day, our efforts to be obedient, to keep laws, rules, regulations, traditions, diets, in order to please Elohim are interpreted by Elohim as a “filthy garment” – in the literal Hebrew: “a bloody menstrual cloth in the nose of Elohim.”
If our human efforts focused on obedience are not sufficient to please Elohim the Father, what can be done to achieve sufficient righteousness or a “right standing” with Elohim?
4) Jesus provides an answer concerning human works and righteousness with Elohim the Father in His divine discourse recorded in Matthew 7:21-23 which reads;
“Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
First, one must ask in light of this discourse by Jesus, what is the will/work of Jesus’ Heavenly Father, Elohim the Father? Jesus answers that question for us here;
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” John 6:29 (ESV) The will of Elohim the Father is to believe in Jesus as your Messiah (John 3).
Jesus then articulates the works of those who have called Him Lord (Lord, meaning Earthly Master – one having authority over others) and when we theologically analyze each of the works listed, not one can be considered as “evil” on their face; in fact, the works are wonderful and obviously oriented toward honoring the Kingdom of Elohim.
So then, the next logical question is this: Why did Jesus refer to the works of those calling Him “Lord” as evil?
The answer lies in Jesus admonition/condemnation at the close of the discourse: “I never knew you…”
What is Jesus teaching here?
Jesus is teaching “COVENANT RELATIONSHIP – FIRST // WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SECOND.
In other words, if one desires to honor Jesus or the Father or the Spirit through works of righteousness; If one desires to honor Jesus’ Commandments (John 14:15), you must FIRST establish New Covenant Relationship with Elohim the Father by faith in the Son, Jesus our Messiah, receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor of New Covenant relationship (Ephesians 1:13-14); once Covenant relationship is established by faith, the redeemed will then obediently via spiritual anointing allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to produce divine fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) through them, divine fruit that fulfills all law (spiritual & codified); divine fruit that pleases the Father and proves you to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
In closing,
Religious cults deceptively sell you “snake oil” when they teach a works salvation; that is, religious cults teach that in addition to Jesus’ blood atonement for sin, you must be baptized in water; you must attend the mass; you must take part in the Eucharist; you must pay your indulgences; you must walk door-to-door and proselytize for your particular religion; you must keep the Laws of Torah; on and on it goes in infinity…you must add a particular human effort to Jesus’ blood atonement in order to be saved, forgiven of sin, receive eternal life. DON’T BELIEVE THE WOLVES IN SHEEPS CLOTHING!
Innocent substitute. Replaced fig leave of human righteousness.Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Sabbatarian asked: “If the Sabbath was kept in the Old Testament and it will be kept in the Millennial Kingdom, why do Christians say the Sabbath is not relevant in the New Covenant?”
The Sabbath that will be celebrated in the Millennial Kingdom is the Sabbath given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 i.e., the OLD Covenant. The Millennial Kingdom will host elements of the Old Covenant’s sacrificial requirements as the Millennial Kingdom will glorify our resurrected Messiah as He will be given the Kingdom denied Him at His First Advent.
Neither the Old Covenant or its celebration and fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom are relevant concerning the New Covenant of Grace. In the New Covenant, those redeemed by faith in Jesus, are not under law, days, diets, traditions, clothing mandates, but the “law” in the New Covenant is the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been written upon the heart of human kind beginning on Day 6 of Creation as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim and thereby received certain divine communicable attributes from Elohim that separated Adam from the beasts of the field.
This spiritual law, in the New Covenant, is enlivened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who walks the redeemed in Jesus in daily Christian sanctification and through His anointing, He produces divine fruit (Galatians 5:15-23) through the redeemed and this fruit fulfills all law; both, codified and spiritual, and this fruit pleases the Father and proves one to be a faithful disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
In the New Covenant, the redeemed are not under the laws, days, diets, traditions, of Sinai or Moses (Romans 6:14) and in the New Covenant, the redeemed honor the Sabbath’s intent through faith in Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the Sabbath Day foreshadowed.
Snake Oil sales pitch: “Faith that saves includes obedience.”
Incorrect. Faith saves through grace (unmerited favor), a gift that even obedience cannot earn. Once faith, belief, is established in Jesus and redemption is present via the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), the redeemed having been “born again” (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:17) they naturally begin to produce divine (Galatians 5:16-23) fruit via the anointing and sanctification of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
This production of fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) is what pleases the Father and proves one to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8), but obedience is NOT an element of salvation, faith/grace are.
Obedience that pleases the Father is the production of divine fruit via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit that FOLLOWS salvation by faith, alone. When your faith “includes” obedience for salvation, you’re a religious cult as you negate the sufficiency of Jesus’ blood to atone for your sin apart from works/obedience. Your selling snake oil, I’m not buying.
In closing, it’s very important to remember that your works, your obedience, as strategies to please the Father and earn your forgiveness, this is self-righteousness and the Father considers your works for self-righteousness as a “filthy garment” (or in the Hebrew – a bloody menstrual cloth) (Isaiah 64:6).
We don’t work, strive to keep laws, be obedient, to be saved, it’s a gift of grace (unmerited favor) from the Father earned for us by Jesus at Golgotha. A Christian works because the indwelling Holy Spirit arbitrates the spiritual law written upon their heart during daily Christian sanctification and thereby produces fruit through them, this is Christian obedience in the New Covenant and that divine fruit fulfills all law that governs obedience.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Romans 3:23: Relevant for Jacob’s children only or all of Adam’s seed?
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Every human being from Adam forward has been “under law”…simply because Israel received a “codified” version in stone and etched on parchment from Moses does not negate that the Gentile has been under law subsequent Day-6 when human kind was created in the spiritual image of Elohim who infused certain divine communicable attributes into human kind thereby differentiating them from the beasts of the field. One of those communicable attributes was the spiritual law, written upon the heart as an arbiter of the human conscience thereby thwarting human extinction via unrestrained narcissism; the spiritual law also judged Satan of covetousness, and that same law judged the Adamic and Noahic generations of blasphemous demonic behavior culminating in The Flood as judgment.
One violation of the Law, codified or spiritual, makes one guilty of violating all law (James 2:10)…this is relevant for Jacob’s children as well as all of Adam’s seed.
Theological conundrum? No one but the Father knows the Day of the end of the Age of Grace? Why not the Son or the Spirit? Are they not all coequal in deific attributes?
The Father is the Administrator of the Trinity and the Creation narrative and its reason for being; therefore, the Son and the Spirit honor the Father’s authority concerning that Day, why?
That Day, the end of the age of grace, remains fluid as free will remains essential in this temporary Realm of Time as it has always been essential and integral in the Spiritual Realm.
The Father desires that “all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4) and the Father has a predetermined number of men and women who will come to faith in the Son, not a predestination of individuals or choice, but a free will inspired number of men and women who will come to faith in the Gospel and when that particular number is fulfilled, the end of this age of grace will have been fulfilled…the Father is patiently awaiting for that number of redeemed to enter into New Covenant relationship with Him via faith in the Son; this specific number can be theorized to equate to the number of angelic creatures who followed Satan in the great Rebellion; this, as we know our creation abhors a vacuum and there is a consistent striving for a vacuum/void to return to a state of stasis; therefore, when the number of fallen angelic beings has been replenished by the redeemed in Jesus, the end of this age of grace will reach a conclusion and a unique dispensation of works and grace will manifest in the Millennial Kingdom; an era of personal and corporate sacrifice and adoration given the resurrected Son who will receive the Kingdom denied Him at His first Advent; this, as the Evil One is placed in custody and denied access to Human Kind for 1000-years.
Finally, concerning the signs of the end of the age of grace prefacing the Millennial Kingdom?
Elohim has repeatedly told His faithful that if one desires to know where He is positoned concerning eschatology, always watch His people, the children of Jacob, in the Land that He has granted them through Abraham, the Land of Israel.
It is relevant for the faithful to understand that before that Day will manifest, there will be nuclear proliferation in the Middle East via the efforts of Islam and Islam’s allies; namely, Russian and China.
There will be an exponential increase in anti-Semitism, with an emphasis of Jewish/Israeli hatred in the West; ultimately, Israel will be perceived as the genesis and causation of the World’s woes and problems. The West will have been made impotent militarily, ethically and monetarily due compromise with Satan’s Marxist perversions.
Representatives of the Axis of Evil, Islam-Russia-China, will stage outside of the City of Jerusalem and a limited nuclear event will manifest; that nuclear event pictured in Jesus’ Revelation to John; this will trigger Messiah’s return to Mount Olivette. It is at that Time that the Nations who have warred against Israel will be destroyed. The entirety of Israel’s children will see their Messiah and believe. Our Messiah will enter through the currently walled-off Eastern Gate and initiate His Millennial Reign from the City of Jerusalem. MARANATHA!
Satan bound for 1000-years prefacing the Millennial Kingdom of Elohim the Son?
Satan’s incarceration during the Millennial Kingdom is relevant for a number of reasons but primarily to demonstrate to the faithful angelic creation, those who did not follow Satan in the Great Rebellion, that this fallen anointed cherub is obviously the causation for the previous 6000-years of unconscionable suffering within the Realm of Time.
The stark comparison/contrast between 6000-years of horror v. 1000 years of blissful peace will be undeniable. The final rebellion of Satan subsequent his release at the culmination of the Millennium will leave no doubt as to the culprit who has spawned such anarchy in the Kingdom and in human history.
Elohim will be glorified for His strategic battle strategy, the Gospel, by which Elohim, Himself, defeated Satan at Golgotha via selfless love demonstrated by Elohim the Son.
Also, the faithful angelic creation will fully understand and concur with Elohim the Father as Satan is adjudicated guilty for atrocities against Elohim, the Kingdom, humanity, and ultimately interned in Hell for Eternity (Revelation 20:10). Elohim will be seen as a Just and Righteous Judge.
Lastly (for the sake of time), the necessity for free will remains relevant in the New Jerusalem, the eternal Kingdom of Elohim the Son, our resurrected Messiah. The 7000-year history of rebellious, unconscionably destructive, fallen angels, the ramification of disobedience prefacing The Flood, will act as a powerful bulwark against rebellion in the New Jerusalem and a repeat of Elohim’s striving to restore holiness and order to a Kingdom ravaged by war prefaced by sin/disobedience. Peace through obedience to Elohim’s will reigns paramount, eternally for both resurrected Saints and the faithful angelic creation serving Elohim.
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Catholicism has NEVER been Christianity and Peter was NEVER a Pope. Emperor Constantine via the Edict of Milan (312-313AD) sought greater control over the burgeoning Roman Empire and sought to make Christianity more attractive or palatable to the masses; therefore, Constantine merged Babylonian/Roman paganism with non-inspired Apocryphal writings mingled with Christian doctrine to form the World’s 2nd largest religious works cult AKA Catholicism, 2nd only to Islam in numbers and in deception. Catholicism blasphemes the Gospel message based in grace through faith in Jesus, alone.
Your spiritual misunderstanding is mind boggling considering that your rejection of Jesus as God, Deity, proclaims your status as unredeemed, remaining in your sin (John 8:24).
I don’t suggest that understanding the necessity for Messiah’s deity is an element of salvation but I will profess that once one is redeemed by faith in Jesus and has received the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and the Seal of New Covenant promise (Ephesians 1:13-14), they will KNOW and they will openly confess that Jesus is God/Elohim who is Creator, Warrior, Messiah and Judge; this, because the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13-15) testifies of Jesus’ Deity and the necessity for same.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am “He,” you will die in your sins.” John 8:24 (NASB)
In John 8:24, the word “he” is added by translators. While English Bibles (like the NIV or KJV) use “I am he,” the original Greek simply says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” John 8:58 (NASB)
Again: the original Greek says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
The Jewish audience and their religious leadership clearly understood Jesus’ proclamation of Deity and sought to murder Jesus by stoning; ultimately, charging Jesus with “blasphemy” and handing Him over to Pilate, Herod, for execution.
Your initial error is failing to understand the context upon which Hebrews 1, John 1, Colossians 1, are based; that is, Jesus in His hypostatic union as fully man and fully Elohim. Jesus has enjoyed coequal glory and omnipotence and omnipresence with the Father and the Spirit from Eternity past; this, before the World was created (John 17:5). When the Father speaks of the Son as the “firstborn” and “begotten” and having been “appointed” and “sit at my right hand”…the Father is speaking of the unique position of the eternal God-Man, Jesus our Messiah, unique to all of Eternity and Jesus will continue in this unique positioning as the “firstfruits” of those resurrected from the dead with a glorified body…the same type of body the saints in Jesus will receive at the resurrection of the righteous.
The Father is speaking in terms of a resurrected Messiah who had previously set aside many of His deific attributes in order to take on flesh, subject Himself to the constraints of Time and physics and rely solely upon the Holy Spirit for power and miracles and conquering Satan at Golgotha (Luke 4:1; 1 John 3:8). It is this same Jesus that the Father is glorifying for OUR benefit demonstrating the power of obedience and honor and dignity displayed by the Son who will reign King forevermore. King in the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.
You assume that the Father’s delineation of authority somehow suggests Jesus is a lesser being than the Father but this is not true or accurate. Jesus has never been a lesser Deity than the Father as Jesus is the same yesterday, today, forever (Hebrews 13:8). I’m not sure what cult or sect you’ve involved yourself in, perhaps the cult of the Jehovah’s Witness, but you are far from the Kingdom. You might have a nice little religion but you and yours don’t know Jesus.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 