Understanding Christian “good works” relevant to Ephesians 2:10…
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Good Works are a product of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is given as Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father subsequent faith in the Son, Jesus Christ, as Messiah (Ephesians 1:13-14); therefore, a Christian does not “work” to be saved but works (seeks obedience to the Father’s will) because they are saved and their works are NOT defined by chasing after letters-laws or days or diets but their works are divine “fruit” produced through them by the indwelling Holy Spirit via the daily process of sanctification (Galatians 5); this, as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20); therefore, salvation from death in Hell is NOT a work of mankind but a work performed by Messiah at Golgotha via His divine blood atonement and the benefits of Messiah’s work are actuated in the life of sinful humanity through faith, belief, in the Son; that is, believing, confessing, with a sincere heart, the Son, Jesus Christ, as Messiah who died for you to provide you blood atonement which initiates New Covenant relationship with the Father, forever (Romans 10:9-10).
This salvation from the second death in Hell is not of man but of Elohim who imputes-gifts the perfection-righteousness of the Son, Jesus Christ, over the life of the one who believes and consequently the Father, by covenant promise, declares the one who believes in Jesus as “not guilty” by divine promise; therefore, eternal life is bestowed upon the one who believes by grace through faith and not by human effort that anyone can boast in pride and arrogance and self-righteousness concerning their worthiness before the Father (Ephesians 2:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 3; Hebrews 8:12).
An advocate of the Devil stated that Jews-Israelites reject Christianity due Christian persecution. What is the truth?
There are no greater advocates of the Jewish community, the Nation of Israel, than a Christian. Jews, Israelites, reject Yeshua due Rabbinical apostasy and secularization of the Jewish faith and the Jewish Curse.
Yeshua came specifically to Jacob’s children to proselytize them in the New Covenant’s Gospel as Israel’s children were foreordained to be ministers of the Great Commission in fulfillment of Elohim’s promise to Abraham (Matthew 15:24; Genesis 12:3b). Israel’s free will rejection of Elohim’s “Great Commission” initiated a cataclysmic change to Elohim’s eschatological plans going forward.
It is tragic, but an overwhelming number of Jacob’s children will perish in Hell due unbelief (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27), a demonically rooted rejection of Yeshua as Messiah; this, a resultant of their forefathers curse upon the children (Matthew 27:25) and Israel’s rejection of the New Covenant, a Covenant established in Yeshua’s blood (Romans 11:25). Jews, Israelites, are overwhelmingly hard of heart, stubborn, arrogant, self-righteous, blind, secularized.
The Scriptural glorification of Israel subsequent the Jewish Curse is solely for Elohim’s eschatological purposes, Elohim’s glory, Elohim’s defeat of Satan through our Jewish Messiah (1 John 3:8b) as the Nation of Israel was given the Patriarchy via an unconditional covenant and Elohim is NOT a man that He should lie or fail to keep His covenants irrespective of Israel’s unfaithfulness.
When Israel’s children insult the Christian and Christianity; when Israel’s children obfuscate their culpability concerning unbelief and their destiny in Hell due unfaithfulness, they insult the ONLY ally, the only advocates, they will have in this fallen World; that is, the blood-bought Christian redeemed by the blood of Yeshua.
“Documented, ancient history has it where Christianity was legalized in Rome in 313 AD, which should tell those of you something!”
Is that true? A Roman Emperor named Constantine, desiring greater control over the masses in the Roman Empire, envisioned an opportunity to coalesce the people under the Edict of Milan (312-313AD); Constantine, wanting to make Christianity attractive to the masses, opted to merge Roman and Babylonian paganism with elements of Apocryphal doctrine sprinkled with Christian doctrine thereby forming the World’s 2nd-largest religious cult aptly named “Catholicism” – 2nd-only to Islam in its deception and death in Hell; this, no different than those who seek the Kingdom of God via the self-righteous religion of Judaism.
Catholicism has never been Christian but there does exist those who hate Christianity and choose to insult that which Christ initiated in His own blood by suggesting Catholicism is Christianity, Peter was a Pope. Your obfuscation only finds relevance with those who seek death in Hell through religious works and the rejection of Jesus Christ as Messiah.
Eternal Jewish-Israeli Theological Error: Does Ezekiel 18:20-23 nullify or negate the precepts of Christianity, the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Ezekiel 18,
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
21 “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. 23 Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
Christian explanation to the Jew or Israelite who trusts Ezekiel 18 for salvation from death in Hell,
You are in error concerning Ezekiel and you are headed to death in Hell in your sin concerning your rejection of Jesus. Please allow this old “Christian” to explain…
In Ezekiel 18, the prophet speaks of those who repent and place their faith in Elohim as the One true Creator; this repentance accompanied by faith is the very same process that men and men, from Adam forward, exercised to find righteousness “a right standing” with Elohim; that is, by “grace through faith” (Hebrews 11).
From the Genesis forward, human kind has initiated righteousness or “a right standing” with the Father by faith, alone…this is true also for the New Covenant established in the blood of Jesus our Messiah (Matthew 26:28)…
SO THEN, WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY OFFER THAT THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE LAW COVENANT DOES NOT?
The New Covenant offers eternal LIFE in the New Jerusalem with Messiah Jesus, forever, while the Hebrew Scriptures offered righteousness by faith but provided NO FORM of acceptable atonement for sin (Leviticus 17:11); therefore, those in the Old Testament who died in righteousness with Elohim via faith could NOT enter the Kingdom due their sin that had not yet received the acceptable blood atonement (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 8-10), blood atonement provided ONLY by faith in Messiah Jesus at Golgotha (1 Peter 1:18-19; John 14:6); therefore, these Old Testament saints were interned spiritually in Sheol-Hades/Paradise awaiting the promised Messiah (Luke 16; Psalm 16:10).
The Holy Spirit teaches that while Messiah’s body lie in state in the tomb, Messiah Jesus was very busy preaching liberty to the Old Testament captives in Sheol-Hades/Paradise and ultimately redeemed them and escorted them into the Kingdom of Elohim, a Kingdom where nothing impure is permitted to enter (Revelation 21:27), the Kingdom of Elohim where all who die in Jesus as Messiah are translated spiritually this very day (Ephesians 4:8-10; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
In conclusion,
Therefore, though the Holy Spirit via Ezekiel emphasizes salvation by faith, the message is incomplete as salvation, in the Hebrew Scriptures, was lacking acceptable atonement (Hebrews 8:7); therefore, Ezekiel does not nullify the superiority and necessity for Christianity, the Gospel, but Ezekiel simply articulates the foundation upon which Christianity is based; that is, salvation by grace through faith; this, while Christianity offers eternal life through Messiah Jesus’ atonement, something Ezekiel or Moses or the blood of animals or Torah could never provide (Hebrews 10).
Israel v. Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah-Russia-China-Anti Semitism…do not be deceived…
Do NOT be deceived, the current conflict between Israel v. Hamas-Iran-Hezbollah-Islam is a physical manifestation of the Great Kingdom War between Elohim v. Satan having manifested in the Realm of Time via Islam’s Allah.
The spiritual root of the Israel – Islam conflict is pre-Adamic, pre-Creation yet finds its current relevance in the adulterous affair between the Patriarch Abraham and a bondwoman named Hagar. Elohim’s eschatological plan and purposes were foreordained to be fulfilled through Abram (Abraham) via Abram’s wife, Sari (Sarah) via Isaac (Genesis 22:17-18); unfortunately, both Abraham and Sarah demonstrated a lack of faith in Elohim’s promises and Sarah, in a vain attempt to negate her shame due infertility, enticed her husband, Abraham, to engage in sexual intercourse with Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, and Sarah would then claim the child as her own. As is typical, Abraham reaped what he sowed in his sexual sin with Hagar as well as his sin of refusing to wait upon Elohim’s promises (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:12-15).
The tragic results of Abraham’s infidelity,
Abraham’s adulterous union with Hagar produced the “wild ass” of a man named Ishmael (Genesis 16:12) whose descendants, the Ishmaelites, would become virulent enemies of Israel’s children; Ishmael’s descendants were prophesied to be adversaries of everyone not of their Tribal affiliation and they would dwell to the east of their brethren, Jacob’s children, just as they do this very day.
Islam’s Allah, who is he?
Satan has worked through the Ishmaelites to produce a 7th-Century demon-possessed, murdering, thieving, pedophile, named Muhammad who plagiarized the Jewish Torah in hopes of convincing the Jews and Christians in Media to follow his new religion. When the Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad, the false prophet began to persecute, enslave, murder, Jews and Christians by the edge of the sword and from this demonically inspired hatred was born the Islamic Caliphate and ultimately the Crusades in response. Most recently, Allah’s demonic objectives are observable in Time via the Jewish Holocaust and the 2nd Jewish Holocaust, October 7, 2023.
Islam’s Allah is Satan masquerading as an angel of light via the Arabic moon god (2 Corinthians 11:14) and currently Islam’s number-one representative in this fallen World is the Nation of Iran.
The current state of war between Israel and Iran, Hamas-Iran, Hezbollah-Iran; the current state of anti-Israel rhetoric and unprecedented rise in antisemitism is rooted in the demonic and know that those who chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are those who serve the Devil in his lust to declare Elohim a liar and to nullify Elohim’s unconditional covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, concerning their rights to the Land of Israel, forever (Genesis 13:14-18).
Know this with certainty,
The Land of Israel will remain viable irrespective of Allah’s demonic objectives through Iran, Russia, China and Elohim will save a “remnant” of Israel’s children through the coming Tribulation Era as this remnant will believe in Yeshua as Messiah and rule and reign with Messiah for one-thousand-years during Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom (Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27); therefore, those who side with Palestine, Iran, Hezbollah, the antisemites, side with the Devil AKA Allah and they will surely reap what they are sowing; both, in the Realm of Time and within the Realm of the Eternal.
What is the purpose of Eden? How has prophetic Eden manifest itself in current events?
The primary focus of Eden is articulated in Genesis 3:15 and 3:21; both of these pivotal Scriptures articulate the Kingdom War that has been translated into the physical realm and partially constrained by Time and physics (Revelation 12; Luke 10:18).
Genesis 3:15 introduces the primary warriors of the Kingdom War as Messiah and Satan while Genesis 3:21 identifies the divine “battle strategy” to be employed by Messiah “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b) which is the Gospel that was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10).
All of Scripture subsequent Genesis 3:15; 3:21 are supportive and eschatological in nature as the Holy Spirit methodically explains Elohim’s efforts to destroy Satan’s works e.g., death-Hell-the grave through selfless love demonstrated by Messiah at Golgotha and concluded with the divine words of victory, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
The root of Elohim’s objective is the restoration of order, holiness, peace, to His Kingdom and destroying the works of the Devil while simultaneously maintaining volitional love, intimacy, relationship, with His faithful angelic creation; the beautiful angelic creation that Elohim loves and cherishes beyond human comprehension.
Genesis 3:15 explains that Messiah will enter the Realm of Time via the virgin seed in order to circumvent the sin-nature passed through Adam’s genome (Romans 5:12) and that Messiah would be victorious over Satan as crushing Satan’s head in battle while Satan would bruise Messiah’s heal. Genesis 3:21 pictures the battle strategy of the Gospel as Elohim, Himself, would shed innocent blood and clothe humanity in an imputed robe of righteousness while denying mankind’s vain attempts to cover his own sin and shame via the works of his hands as represented by fig leaves (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Ephesians 2:8-9).
Genesis 3:15; 3:21 in the Physical Realm today,
Though Satan’s works were destroyed by Messiah at Golgotha via the Gospel, the Kingdom War continues within both the Spiritual Realm and the Physical Realm as Elohim methodically brings all things to a foreordained eschatological conclusion while Elohim separates the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats relevant to those who will serve Him in the New Jerusalem (Matthew 3:12; Matthew 25:32-46).
Satan’s most recent onslaught against Elohim and His Messiah finds its genesis in the adulterous relationship between Abraham and Hagar producing the “wild ass” of man named Ishmael (Genesis 16:12); Ishmael is the father of the Ishmaelites, a virulent enemy of Israel’s children as the Ishmaelites are the progenitors of a 7th-Century demon-possessed, murdering, thieving, pedophile, named Muhammad who plagiarized Israel’s Torah to produce the Quran.
Muhammad is the progenitor of the Islamic Caliphate who has murdered, butchered, enslaved, untold numbers of Israel’s children and Christians in the Name of the Muslim-Arabic-Islamic god, Allah. Islam’s Allah is Satan masquerading as an “angel of light” via the Arabic moon god (2 Corinthians 11:14).
The Kingdom War continues to this very day and its most recent iteration is the 2nd-Jewish Holocaust carried out by representatives of Islam’s Allah against the citizens of Israel on October 7th, 2023. Allah’s objective continues to be the annihilation of the Land of Israel given Abraham, Issac, Jacob (Israel) by Elohim via an unconditional covenant (Genesis 13:14-17).
Allah’s objective is to annihilate the children of Jacob from the face of the Earth and thereby nullify the covenant promises of Elohim concerning the Land of Israel and the Jewish “remnant” that Elohim has promised to redeem in the midst of the Great Tribulation, a horrific nuclear conflict involving Russia-China-Iran/Islam v. Jerusalem, Israel that prefaces Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom; this, an effort by Islam’s Allah to make Elohim a liar and thereby denounce Elohim as the One true God and Satan’s attempts to proclaim himself as “god.”
The ever-expanding war between Israel and “Hamas/Iran,” the Antisemitism that has manifest itself around the World, these find their genesis in the Spiritual Realm, the demonic, and know that that those who advocate for Islamic terrorism while denouncing Israel’s right to exist in peace as a sovereign State, these represent a confluence of spiritual and Biblical ignorance and demonic deception; therefore, know your enemy, be alert and aware and prepared (1 Peter 5:8).
The only entity preventing the spirit of man from transitioning into the Spiritual-Eternal Realm is this decaying flesh that imprisons the spirit and constrains it by Time and physics. Our spiritual “home” is but a breath away, it surrounds us, permeates us, defines us; we are not home in this temporary body of decay. This temporary Earth, constrained by Time and physics, is NOT our home (Hebrews 13:14-15).
Heaven, the eternal abode of our Creator, is not some distant ethereal plane above us in the heavens or above the stratosphere but the Spiritual Realm inundates us, provides momentary glimpses through unexplained sensory phenomena; those who are born again by faith in Messiah long for it, feel it calling, sense its presence and as such our Lord is not far from each one of us as He indwells us through the Holy Spirit; this truth is comforting via the assurance, the knowledge, that His spiritual, intimate, presence is but one exhalation away (1 John 3:2; John 11:25-26; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
The eternal necessity for Biblical volition, “free will”…
Free will, volition, is a divine communicable attribute infused within the human genome by Elohim on Day-6 as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim, free will being essential for eschatological purposes (Genesis 1:26-28). Free will, volition, is a consistent theme in Scripture and absolutely essential for love and intimacy to exist between humanity and our Creator, the angels and their Creator. Biblical “faith,” another central theme throughout Scripture, is rooted in volition, a free will choice.
Unless one possesses the volition, free will, to “choose” to love or hate, love cannot exist nor can intimacy, as love and intimacy and true reciprocal, pleasing, gratifying, relationship to exist with purity and authenticity, the parties involved must possess the volition, the free will, to choose; otherwise, nihilism is the resultant and everything under the Sun is impotent and worthless and “chasing after the wind.” True love cannot be coerced or exist in an atmosphere of fear.
In order for divine justice/jurisprudence to exist with fairness, equality, order, due process, the party, the individual, subject to divine moral scrutiny must first be knowledgeable of the law that defines what is immoral and then mens rea or the “thought life” must be present; that is, did the individual, with aforethought and intent, violate the law; therefore, volition, free will, is at the very heart of divine jurisprudence (Romans 4:15; 5:13).
Our Creator is defined as “LOVE” (1 John 4:7) and this divine love can only exist in volitional relationships where the created “chooses” to love our Creator by faith. Our Creator does not pick winners and losers but allows every man and woman the free will to choose life or death; this divine volition defines the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the volition, free will, to choose Jesus as Messiah or to choose one’s own narcissism and self-righteousness as their god.
Finally, void free will, why Jesus? Calvin’s doctrine of predestination is a doctrine of demons (1 Timothy 2:4).
Confusion surrounding the “Spiritual Law” in the New Covenant that is eternally superior to Torah Law…
The spiritual law emanates from the Spiritual Realm as it was relevant subsequent the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will.
That same spiritual law was infused within the human genome on Day-6 as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim thereby possessing certain divine communicable attributes of Elohim; one such attribute being the divine spiritual law given humanity as a bulwark against unrestrained narcissism that would have inevitably lead to societal extinction (Romans 2:14-15; Romans 8:2; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16).
That same spiritual law judged both the Adamic-Noahic generations of demonic defilement where all but eight perished in judgement via water.
That same spiritual law was foundational to the codification of the Code of Hammurabi and Sinai; both, a fragmented, segmented, rendering of the comprehensive spiritual law.
That same spiritual law is employed by the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant who enlivens same and makes that law applicable to sanctification for the redeemed in Jesus concerning divine obedience via the production of fruit (Galatians 5; Romans 2:14-15; Romans 8:2; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16).
That same spiritual law will be employed by Messiah at the Judgment of the Condemned subsequent Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom to judge/adjudicate the rebellious relevant to sin before sentencing in Hell/the “second death” (Revelation 20:11-15). That same spiritual law will be relevant throughout Eternity as free will exists in the New Jerusalem by necessity.
Finally, Torah Law (Sinai – Moses’ civil edicts) was specifically given to Israel’s children and sojourners with them; this, for sanctification and eschatological purposes. Torah Law is but a mere fragment of the comprehensive spiritual law and Torah Law was simply a roadmap for Israel children to point them to their need for Messiah by faith (Galatians 3:24); therefore, Torah was NEVER the destination, Jesus as Messiah is the Destination relevant to all Scripture.
Confusion concerning obedience: Old Law Covenant v. New Covenant of Grace…
The Old Covenant Law is not “done away with” – abolished but was fulfilled by Messiah with perfection in obedience (Matthew 5:17). In the New Covenant, Sinai-Moses is addressed by the eternal “spiritual law” written upon the human heart (Romans 2:14-15; Romans 8:2) and arbitrated in the life of the faithful in Jesus via a redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17); therefore, the redeemed in Jesus don’t chase after letters or covenants or days or diets or traditions or Sinai or Moses, those things given Israel’s children by covenant, but a Christian’s relationship with Elohim is based on grace through faith and their daily walk in sanctification is guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit who produces fruits of righteousness through the redeemed, fruit against which there is no law; in this, the Father is glorified as the Spirit prepares the faithful in Jesus for service in the New Jerusalem. This intimate, personal, obedient, Christian lifestyle was not possible through the failed Law Covenant (Hebrews 8:7).
The Christian does not live their daily life thinking about Torah or Israel’s covenants or Moses but the Christian walks in peace with the Father through faith in the Son and enjoys intimacy via the indwelling Holy Spirit who methodically guides the Christian, daily, in the Father’s will and the Spirit addresses every moral, ethical, decision encountered by the Christian and urges said Christian toward righteousness…this is something the Law Covenant and Torah could never accomplish as the written code provided at Sinai and the 603-civil laws scratched upon parchment provided by Moses demanded absolute perfection (James 2:10) from the old-nature (Romans 5:12), a sin-nature that could never comply; therefore, Sinai – Moses’ civil laws “cursed” anyone seeking righteousness with the Father through vain attempts to keep them as mandated (Galatians 3:10); therefore, the New Covenant is radically different…the spiritual law written upon the heart is enlivened by the indwelling Spirit and made applicable to daily life through the Spirit’s anointing; therefore, the New Covenant Christian does not chase letters, rules, regulations, days, diets, but the faithful Christian walks by the Spirit’s leadership (Galatians 5:16) and the fruit produced by the Spirit through the redeemed fulfills all mandates concerning obedience; Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20); in this, there is peace with the Father (Romans 5:1).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 