All posts by RickeyD

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About RickeyD

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

Jesus commanded “perfection” – how is this possible?

How can mankind redeemed by Messiah yet burdened with a sin-nature in the flesh obey Messiah’s command: Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Christian response,

Though perfection is the goal in the Christian life, we know that we remain burdened with a sin-nature inherited from our father who ultimately inherited it from our first father, Adam (Romans 5:12); therefore, our New Nature in the Spirit struggles with our old nature in Adam and the Curse (Romans 7); therefore, perfection is a lofty goal but in practicality, not attainable while constrained by decaying flesh within the Realm of Time – BUT – we can attain the perfection and righteousness of Messiah imputed into and over our lives by grace (unmerited favor unattainable by human effort) through faith (trusting-believing) in Jesus as our Lord and Mediator for sin (2 Corinthians 5:21); it is Jesus and Him alone having been born of the hypostatic union (Philippians 2:8) and circumventing the sin-nature that permitted Him to observe the Law of Moses/the Decalogue in absolute perfection (Matthew 5:17) and thereby become our propitiation for sin; therefore, the one who trusts in Jesus as Lord receives Messiah’s perfection, just like that of the Father, imputed into and over their life; therefore, the one who trusts in Jesus is spiritually and positionally “right” before the Father, forever via a Covenant of Grace established in Messiah’s innocent blood (Luke 22:20). Perfection remains the goal in the Christian life as we walk in sanctification via the indwelling Holy Spirit and His tutelage; this, as the Spirit prepares us for service in the New Jerusalem (1 John 2:27).

Jewish Legalist: “Christians live under a false Covenant.” Response…

Jewish legalist insults Christianity: “Christians live under a false Covenant.”

Christian response,

The New Covenant is the ONLY Covenant that provides life through atonement for sin (Matthew 26:28). The Covenant of Law only defined God’s mandates via ordinances yet was absent atonement (Romans 3:23); therefore, the Law only condemns the hearer who is a sinner (Romans 3:23) and unable to acquire atonement through works of the Law as the Law mandates perfection (Galatians 2:16; James 2:10).

If you reject the atonement for sin ONLY provided by faith in Jesus – Yeshua as your God and Mediator for sin (John 14:6; John 3:16-18), you will die in your sins and you will not enter the Kingdom of God (John 8:24) nor will you be named among the Jewish remnant in that Day (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27) but you will be exiled into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth…hopelessness.

Judaizer mocks Messiah’s Resurrection, a response…

Judaizer mocks Messiah’s suffering, death and resurrection: “Jesus died for your sin except He didn’t actually stay dead. So, what did He sacrifice, His weekend? Jesus gave up His weekend for your sins.”

Christian response,

Jesus’ shed blood makes atonement for your sin (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 10; Matthew 26:28); Jesus died to defeat death and the grave for you and me through the resurrection as the First-fruits of those who will die in Jesus as Lord (Romans 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28) and find life in the resurrection patterned after His own death and resurrection (Philippians 3:21). The redeemed in Jesus Christ will live with Him forever in resurrected bodies in the New Jerusalem upon a New Earth within a New Heaven (Revelation 21-22); paradise lost will be paradise restored and this New Kingdom will be Physical not entirely Spiritual.

Atheist claims Atheism is absent “faith”…is it?

Atheist suggests atheism is absent faith: “A Christian poster claims it takes MORE faith to believe that universe popped into existence out of nothing than to believe God created it. Why is this poster wrong?”

A Christian poster’s response,

I am not incorrect. Commonsense, logic, reason, an unbiased summation, demands that our Universe has been created by intelligence far superior than ours and that intelligent creator is obviously not constrained by Time and physics; therefore, it requires infinitely more “faith” to believe that a “Big Bang” of unknown origin consisting of matter and energy of an unknown origin “popped” or exploded into existence our Universe and then a speck of that Universe was accidentally formed that somehow sustains the fragility of life constructed with a genome, the complexity of same being beyond human understanding; NASA and Harvard’s best are without explanation.

The atheist possesses tremendous faith, more than any Christian in the history of the faith-based New Covenant. The Big Bang, molecules to man evolution – abiogenesis; descent with modification; macroevolution – a fish becoming humanity through positive genomic mutation/speciation/adaptation…I simply lack the faith necessary to believe these things, especially seeing that our Creator has taken the due diligence to provide me a personal letter explaining, carefully articulating, my origin and purpose, my destiny, while carefully preserve that letter through history when mankind has gone to great length to destroy that letter; then, this same Creator entered the Realm of Time in flesh and demonstrated His power and dominion and authority among men.

I see no other plausible explanation for the supernatural Universe that consumes me through my senses other than a Supernatural God as its Creator. I choose to trust in this God who has introduced Himself as Jesus Christ and I completely reject the explanations provided by men with an agenda of narcissism, moral relativism, hedonism. As the antithesis of Atheism, I find a life of faith in Jesus Christ to be incredibly wholesome, joyful, peaceful, meaningful, replete with assurance and contentment; therefore, I cannot deny what I see with my eyes and know with my heart and have experienced through personal application of God’s Truth.

Has the Bible been edited, rewritten?

Atheists mocks the Holy Scriptures: “The Bible has been edited, re-written, and there is more than one version. How can this be the word of a perfect, changeless God?”

Christian response,

The Bible, the autographs, has not been edited or rewritten…”translations” of the Bible have been edited and rewritten for accuracy and style and ease of reading. The original languages are at your fingertips if one desires their truth. Where the atheist fails in their hatred for God and faith and truth via biases is the reality that the same God who created the Heavens and the Earth and our complex genome with rapidity for cause is MORE than capable of ensuring that His human creation receive the EXACT words He desires so that we can know Him personally; love Him intimately; live with Him eternally. My, the faith of the atheist is incredible.

Did Jesus start a religion?

Question on FB: “DID JESUS CHRIST START A RELIGION? If so, scripture please?”

Christian response,

Jesus Christ abhorred “religion” as religion mandates mankind strive and work and labor for God’s approval, but Jesus nullified the error of all religions as He did the work for mankind concerning righteousness with the Father through atonement for sin at the Crucifixion subsequent to keeping God’s Laws in perfection, something mankind could never do; in fact, Elohim demonstrated this reality and truism as early as Genesis 3:21 but every religion denies God’s Gospel (Good News) demonstrating that righteousness and forgiveness of sin are manifest ONLY by grace (unmerited favor unattainable by man’s works) through faith (trusting-believing) in Jesus Christ as God and Mediator for sin; a reality that was ordained “before the beginning of Time” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).

Is “Faith” antithetical to Intellectualism?

Atheist asked (mockingly): “It is impossible to have an intellectual conversation with a person of faith. What say you?”

Christian response,

Are you suggesting that faith nullifies intellectualism? Faith is acting upon the evidence of things not seen; in other words, the incredible Universe, our unfathomable genome and its complexity scream “design” and therefore a Designer. Logically, with wisdom and discernment, I am convinced that God has revealed Himself in Nature, in His written word, through His Living Word i.e. Jesus Christ; therefore, by faith I cannot deny what screams at my senses to be Truth; that is, all that we see and apprehend with our senses was created with purpose for cause by One who is infinitely Intelligent and beyond the constraints of Time and physics…I call Him God, Jesus Christ, Lord, Messiah, Holy Father, Holy Spirit as He has introduced Himself to me in these ways. It is possible that, intellectually speaking, you, as an atheist, are not equipped spiritually to understand or engage the person of faith?

Atheist: “How can Christians worship their God who permits unbearable and endless suffering?”

Atheist asked: “How can Christians worship their God, who permits unbearable and endless suffering?”

Christian response,

God allows man’s free will to play-out in Time as He uses our propensity for evil as an example to the faithful angelic creation looking-on that obedience to God’s edicts, His perfect will, is of necessity if life and freedom and peace and communion are to exist with sustainability. Our entire existence in Time, which is temporary-finite, is demonstrative of the plague of evil that was initiated in the Kingdom before the creation of matter and Time and that evil was extricated from the Kingdom mandating the creation of this Earth as a repository as that evil is being dealt with partially constrained by Time and physics.

All that you are witnessing, having manifest for 6020-years thus far, is the resultant of disobedience that was initiated in the Spiritual Realm by the Evil One and is currently being played-out in the Physical Realm of Time as our creation has manifest for cause with rapidity. The horror of pestilence, murder, disease, sin, will ultimately act as a bulwark against another rebellion in the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, as both the faithful angelic creation and the faithful of mankind in Christ Jesus, both possessing the necessity of free will, will know via experiential relevance that obedience to God’s will is infinitely superior to rebellion via narcissism culminating in unconscionable suffering and the “second death.”

Sabbath Legalism; Again?

More Legalism INRE to the Sabbath; a response,

Sunday is not the Sabbath (Seventh Day) but Sunday is the Lord’s Day i.e. the First-Day when Elohim separated light and darkness; when the Spirit raised Messiah from the dead; when the Holy Spirit initiated the Christian Church at Pentecost; when the Apostles worshiped, read Scripture, collected charity and administered the Lord’s Supper…all on Sunday, the First-Day of the Week.

Catholicism, roughly founded/initiated in 312-313AD via the Edict of Milan by Emperor Constantine, had absolutely NOTHING to do with Sunday, the Lord’s Day, worship in the Christian Church; Sunday worship began with the First-Century Church.

The Sabbath, as an edict for corporate observance, was given SPECIFICALLY and ONLY to the Hebrew Tribes at Sinai (and converts to Judaism) and NEVER was the Sabbath given to a Gentile or the Christian Church (Acts 15). The Sabbath Day was a foreshadowing of Messiah who would provide His faithful a rest from an arduous and condemning Law that only defined sin void atonement (Romans 3:20). For the one who trusts in Jesus as Lord, they’re not under Law but under Grace (Romans 6:14) and Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath’s intent and the Christian rests in Him by grace through faith (Hebrews 4; Colossians 2:16).

Every Law Keeper, SDA cult member, Theological Legalist, has absolutely NO RIGHT to insist or even suggest that a Christian observe a Sabbath Day (Romans 14). Jesus IS our Sabbath (Hebrews 4) and you have NO Right as per Scripture to condemn or accuse the one who worships Jesus on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Please, politely and respectfully, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS and keep your legalism and your cults to yourself!

Question for the Atheist

Question for the Atheist,

The Canon of Scripture, with Nature as experiential evidence, clearly introduces our Creator by Name and meticulously explains the who, what, where, when, why, how, concerning our presence within Time as having been created with rapidity for cause. Why are the Scriptures and Jesus Christ as Creator so flippantly denied when no one else, no other source available to mankind has any plausible explanation for the presence of matter and Time, the Universe, our genome, LIFE? Why does the atheist so angrily with hostility, vulgarity, disregard the possibility for our Creator?

Personally, I find no other explanation for Time, matter, the incredibly complex human genome…why do you so easily and flippantly deny the possibility for our Creator seeing that science has NO CLUE concerning the most elementary of physics…the presence of matter? Please explain why you reject God with such fervency without cause and without evidence to the contrary and without logic and reason?