Jesus is Elohim, our Creator, Warrior, Messiah, Judge…
Jesus is Elohim, Deity, our Creator and Messiah and Judge and those who know Him as their Messiah by faith understand this, testify of same, as the Deity of Jesus and the knowledge of that truism is the differentiating reality between the redeemed Christian and every religion and cult of the World (Genesis 1; John 1; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1).
The one who possesses the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14) testifies of Messiah’s Deity as the Spirit teaches this truism and if one denies Messiah’s deity they are absent the indwelling Holy Spirit; therefore, they remain in their sin, they are absent covenant relationship with the Father and on the broad road to death in Hell.
Torah is a roadmap but NOT the destination. Jesus is the destination.
Torah does hint at a grace to come through Messiah but the reality of Torah is obedience to a Law Covenant given a people group sanctified by Elohim for eschatological purposes concerning the coming Messiah who was foreordained “to destroy the works of the devil” (Genesis 3:15;1 John 3:8b) via a Gospel of Grace, “a battle strategy” ordained “before Time began” (Genesis 3:21; 2 Timothy 1:8-10).
Torah Law demanded perfection (James 2:10) from a sin-nature that could never adequately comply (Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-9); therefore, Torah only cursed those who sought righteousness through obedience to a written code provided at Sinai (Galatians 3:10); therefore, though Torah pointed to a grace that was to come via the Messiah, grace was NOT realized through Torah which emphasized National and personal obedience via compliance (Deuteronomy 28)…a compliance that could never truly be realized due the sin-nature inherited from Adam (John 1:17; Romans 8:1-6). Grace and Truth were ultimately realized, embodied, through Jesus our Messiah (John 1:17).
Jesus is our divine Rabbi provided by Elohim but our true Teacher is the Holy Spirit given those who trust in Jesus by faith (Ephesians 1:13-14). It is the anointing of the Spirit in our daily life as a Christian that teaches us through daily sanctification (1 John 2:27); this, via the redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17) via a spiritual law written upon the heart (Romans 2:14-15; Romans 8:2) and NOT a law etched in stone or scratched upon parchment (Romans 7:6).
“Christianity is decaying and going down the gutter, because the god of modern Christianity, is not the God of the bible”— A.W. Tozer (Pastor)… Is Tozer correct?
Christian rebuttal,
Premise: A “decaying” Christianity is theologically and spiritually impossible.
Pastor Tozer, if the quote is accurate, obviously does NOT understand the immutability of true Christianity. Christianity is a personal, intimate, relationship with the Father by faith in the Son and daily sanctification performed by the Holy Spirit in the life of the redeemed in Jesus.
Christianity is NOT a mass “religion;” therefore, its efficacy, its viability, its future, are not reliant upon an organization, council, group think, denominational affiliation or Church but Christianity, as a personal relationship with Elohim by faith, will be relevant throughout Eternity as intimate relationship through faith will, forever, be the KEY to the Father’s heart. If one serves a god other than the Father, Son, Spirit, as clearly introduced within the Canon of Scripture, they are not a Christian but a cult, a religion; therefore, Tozer’s warning is baseless, logically irrelevant.
Religions and sects and cults have a form of godliness but deny the Truth of the Living God, Elohim; therefore, such religions have ZERO relevance in Time and Eternity as they are reliant upon self-righteousness to earn one’s audience with a god or deity; this, an insult, an affront, to the Living God, Elohim; therefore, the theological premise upon which Christianity exists, grace through faith, is eternal Truth that is immutable and NOT subject to decay or the gutter (John 3; Galatians 2:16).
There is one Christianity; that is, intimate, eternal, relationship with Elohim by grace through faith in Messiah Jesus…there is no “modern Christianity” only a facade purporting itself as legitimate Christianity and accepted by the spiritually dead, the naïve, the spiritually ignorant, the demonically deceived, and often cited by those with a religious motive to denigrate true Christianity, the culprits are overwhelming religionists in Judaism, Islam, Atheism, Secular Humanism.
If you are redeemed by faith in Jesus as your Messiah and the Holy Spirit, who is Elohim, indwells you, you ARE “Christianity” and your faith, your intimate relationship with the Father by faith in the Son is “Guaranteed” by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14); therefore, it is better to take refuge in Jesus than put your confidence in sinful, fallible, men and their illogical ramblings about the faltering of the Christian faith (Psalm 118:8).
Judaism-Islam-Catholicism are prominent examples of “religions of decay” in the World today as their constituency adhering to their tenets, their doctrines of demons, works and self-righteousness, will not find life in the Kingdom (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; Galatians 2:16).
A deceived cult member said that you must first turn to the Father and learn the ways of the Kingdom and change your way of thinking in order to receive eternal life. Is this true?
First of all, if you desire to please the Father your must first comply with His will; that is, “believe in the One He has sent into the World” to provide you atonement for your sin (John 6:29); that is, believe in Jesus Christ as Messiah who died for you (John 3); then, receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as your Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14). It is only by faith in the Son as Messiah that one is redeemed from sin and Hell. It is only by faith in Jesus as one’s Messiah that one receives the imputed-gifted righteousness of Jesus over their life in exchange for their sin and the covenant promise of forgiveness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12).
Sanctification following Salvation by faith…
It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who provides you a redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17) that desires the will of the Father and the Holy Spirit then enlivens the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15; Romans 8:2) that is written upon your heart and by this, the Spirit forms a catalyst via the combination of your redeemed conscience and the enlivened spiritual law to walk you daily in the process of sanctification (Galatians 5:16) and the Spirit produces through you “fruits of righteousness” and there is NO LAW against this fruit but that fruit fulfills all law (Galatians 5). Jesus said “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20).
Therefore, if you desire to turn to the Father for salvation you must first come to Him via the Son by faith (John 14:6).
Why are people aghast at the ideological LEFT, the Progressive, the Socialist, the Democrat, SUPPORT for Islamic terrorism and murder against the people of Israel?
Why are there protests in the streets of America’s major municipalities and municipalities around the World advocating for Islam’s butchering of the Israeli people, a hatred for Israel that mirrors their hatred for the United States who supports Israel?
Perhaps it’s a failure of education; perhaps it’s a result of historical revisionism? Truth be told, every ideological difference between the Progressive and the Conservative is SPIRITUAL at its root. Anyone who advocates for the murder of children in or out of the womb; anyone who advocates for unconscionable sexual perversion – gender confusion forced upon children; anyone who advocates for the horrors of Marxism; anyone who hates the Nation of Israel and Jacob’s children and revels in terrorist acts against them; anyone who advocates for the decimation of the American citizen through the horrors of open borders, legalized drugs, a weakened justice system; anyone who advocates for, supports, American terrorist organizations represented by Black Lives Matter; ANTIFA, Black Panthers, White Supremacist Clans, are servants of Satan and they do NOT know our Creator, Elohim.
Jesus said “You will know them by their fruits;” that is, you will know a person by the way they act, the things they support, their lifestyle, their affections (Matthew 7:15-20). The ideological “line in the sand” is distinct and irrefutable as those who LOVE Elohim love the things Elohim cherishes; those who serve the Devil advocate for the works of the Devil. Yes, one can put forth a sundry of logical arguments supporting one side or the other but those arguments are rooted in the SPIRITUAL and they too will be judged.
Christians support Israel because our Messiah is Jewish emanating from the Tribe of Judah and our daily lives and our eternity are wholly in His hands. Elohim chose Israel, Judah, to enter the Realm of Time and Elohim poured His heart into Jacob’s children. Israel, Jerusalem, is the Center of the Earth and Elohim’s sovereign choice concerning His eschatological plan for Time and Eternity; therefore, what Elohim loves, Christians love; what Elohim supports, Christians support.
Islam’s history – the World’s destiny explained with succinctness…
Islam’s Allah is Satan masquerading as an angel of light via the Arabic moon god (2 Corinthians 11:14). Muhammad is a 7th-Century demon-possessed nomadic pedophile murdering thief who plagiarized the Torah to construct the Quran.
Muhammad is a product of the Ishmaelites, a virulent enemy of Israel, whose progenitor is Ishmael, a “wild ass” of a man born of adultery between Abraham and Hagar (Genesis 16:12). Ishmael via Hagar is NOT the son of promise but only Isaac is the child of promise through Sarah and Abraham through whom the promise of Messiah was given (Genesis 12:3b; Genesis 22:2).
Islam is a demonically rooted religious cult of death and Hell and its presence within the Realm of Time represents the spiritual wickedness of Satan and his fallen angels.
The spiritual struggle between Israel – Christianity and Islam is a physical manifestation of the spiritual war that rages in both the Spiritual Realm and the Physical Realm (Ephesians 6), a spiritual and physical conflict that will NOT be concluded until subsequent Messiah’s Millennial Reign where the entirety of Elohim’s enemies will be destroyed by fire and Satan, the Beast, the False Prophet, the fallen angels, interned in the spiritual Hell, forever (Revelation 20).
This present Earth, peace, a New Heaven and a New Earth, Judgment, the Lake of Fire…
There will be no peace upon the Earth until Messiah’s 2nd-Advent to the Mount of Olives manifesting toward the conclusion of the Tribulation Era – 3.5-years of nuclear horror that ravages all of humanity and every Nation and tongue. This 3.5-year Tribulation horror will culminate with Messiah’s victory over Russia-China-Iran/Islam and Messiah’s majestic entrance into the Temple Mount and the initiation of His Millennial Kingdom; this, accompanied by the simultaneous incarceration of Satan and the fallen angels who are bound for 1000-years within the Spiritual Realm having no influence upon human kind in the Physical Realm (Revelation 20). This Millennial era will be a time of peace and joy in the majesty of Jesus our King as Jesus will receive the Kingdom denied Him at His first Advent.
As a final example to the faithful angelic creation observing the horrors of sin and disobedience upon the Earth, Satan will be released and ravage-deceive the Nations once again who will rebel against Elohim, once again; but ultimately, the rebellious, demonically persuaded, of humanity will be annihilated by fire culminating in the Judgement of the Condemned (Revelation 20:10-15) where all of the unfaithful in humanity will be adjudicated “guilty” and suffer the “second death” and their resurrected mind, body, soul, will be completely annihilated in the “Lake of Fire;” a “Lake of Fire” that is the burning and purification of this Earth and the Heavens (2 Peter 3:10-14) as Elohim purifies the defilement of this Earth and forms a New Earth and a New Heaven and subsequently places His eternal Kingdom, “The New Jerusalem,” upon that New Earth and the resurrected righteous in Jesus will serve their resurrected Creator-Messiah, forever (Revelation 21-22; Philippians 3:21).
Do you really believe people go straight to Hell for not believing in Jesus?
Anyone who denies Jesus as Messiah will NOT enter the Kingdom of God (John 14:6). From Adam forward, those who die rejecting Elohim by faith and those who die in the New Covenant rejecting Messiah as Lord are currently interned in Sheol-Hades/torments awaiting the Judgment of the Condemned (Luke 16; Revelation 20:11-15; John 5:28-29).
Subsequent Messiah’s Millennial Reign, there will be a Judgment of the Condemned (Revelation 20:11-15) and those who have rejected the Father’s offer of a pardon from death in Hell due to sin will be judged and adjudicated guilty and lose both resurrected body and soul in the Lake of Fire, a place of eternal death created for the Devil and his angels (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41).
We are in the midst of an unfathomable spiritual war and we have but two-options concerning our alliance…Jesus or Satan. If you choose Satan by rejecting Jesus as your Messiah, you will not be provided a place in the coming Kingdom; therefore, your resurrected mind, body, soul, must be eliminated as a participant in the Great Kingdom War…there will be no place for you, your reality will be annihilated as your defilement will NOT be permitted to enter the Kingdom…there is no place for the rebellious and arrogant (Revelation 21:27); therefore, you are commanded to choose this day whom you will serve. That choice has eternal ramifications.
Concerning those who believe Israel is exempt from Messiah as Lord and repentance is sufficient for the Father’s grace…
You can repent till your dying exhalation but unless that repentance is coupled with faith in the Messiah, believing that Messiah Jesus died for you, you will perish in Hell (John 3; John 14:6; 8:24). The Father has provided ONE STANDARD for righteousness and covenant relationship with Him…Jesus the Messiah as one’s Lord and Savior; that is, one must receive the imputed-gifted righteousness of Messiah Jesus over their life by faith in Him as their Messiah who died for them (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). No one enters the Kingdom of God based on genealogy or heritage. Jew, Israelite, Gentile, must all pass through the same Portal…Jesus the Messiah by faith (Acts 4:12).
Seeing that the Christian is not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14) how does the Christian reconcile the instructions, the commandments, of Jesus with the freedom from enslavement to law received through the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant (Romans 7:6); after all, Jesus did say “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15)?
First of all, if you desire to know and understand and internalize what Jesus taught; if you desire to honor Messiah’s commandments articulated during His Earthly ministry, you must first enter into New Covenant relationship with the Father by faith in the Son, trust fully in Jesus as your Messiah who died for you (John 3) and receive the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) who will bring to your remembrance all that Jesus has said (John 14:26) and this with spiritual understanding and the anointing to make Messiah’s teaching, His commandments, applicable to your personal life (1 John 2:27).
Second, walk in obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit given you as Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father when you have trusted in Jesus as your Messiah (Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 1:13-14); it is the indwelling Holy Spirit who employs the spiritual law written upon your heart (Romans 2:14-15) in combination with the redeemed conscience (2 Corinthians 5:17), a new creation received from your New Covenant relationship with the Father, and through you the Spirit will produce fruits of righteousness against which there is no Law and that fruit fulfills all Law (Galatians 5). Jesus said “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20).
In response to your faith in Jesus as your Messiah, the Father has gifted-imputed the righteousness, the sinless perfection, of Jesus into and over your life (2 Corinthians 5:21) and by covenant promise the Father has declared you “not guilty” (Hebrews 8:12) and you have become a member of Elohim’s inner circle as His family and that fruit which the Spirit produces through you via your obedience, the Father is blessed and pleased and ultimately glorified.
Nine of the Ten Sinai Commandments, those reinstituted into the New Covenant by Messiah are what we define as “moral” law which are eternal and govern behavior vertically and horizontally, forever. The 4th-Commandment is a civil-ceremonial law that was made applicable to Israel’s children specifically and sojourners with them beginning in Exodus 16.
The Sinai Commandments are but a mere fraction of the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been relevant subsequent the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will.
Sinai’s purpose,
The Commandments were given Israel as an eschatological bulwark against compromise with paganism that inundated the Tribes, a pagan ideology that relentlessly sought Israel’s compromise with Baal and Molech…a paganistic compromise that would have thwarted Elohim’s eschatological will through Jacob’s children concerning the Messiah through Judah, much like that same form of paganism destroyed both the Adamic and Noahic generations and their ability to produce the Messiah foreordained “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b).
The Sinai Commandments were given for a Time and a specific purpose but they represent only a fragmented, incomplete, codification of Elohim’s law just as Jacob’s children represent a miniscule fraction of societal totality.
Sinai and the Christian?
The Christian, reborn spiritually by faith in Messiah and sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 3; Ephesians 1:13-14), does NOT live daily contemplating Sinai or its mandates but the Christian lives through obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit and the “spiritual law of the Spirit of life” written upon the human heart and not the “law of sin and death,” a written code seeking perfect compliance from the old-sin nature (Romans 8:2).
The Christian life and law,
The Christian lives daily through the anointing of the indwelling Spirit who produces fruit through the redeemed conscience that honors the Father and fulfills all law, fruit, against which there is NO LAW (2 Corinthians 5:17’ Galatians 5); therefore, Sinai and Torah Law are relatively insignificant concerning sanctification of the Christian via the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant; the Holy Spirit who prepares the Christian for eternal service in the New Jerusalem via the spiritual catalyst of the eternal spiritual law and the redeemed conscience for the production of divine “fruit,” NOT letters etched in stone or scratched upon parchment. Jesus said that “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20), divine fruits of righteousness that fulfill all law.
If you love me you will keep my commandments…
Yes, Jesus said to a Jewish audience, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) but those dying in legalism and enslavement to a written code don’t contemplate the words of Messiah that immediately follow v.15,
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17
In conclusion,
What the legalist and the lost Jew and Israelite don’t understand is the truism that void the indwelling Holy Spirit, there is no pleasing the Father through obedience as the Holy Spirit, gifted the redeemed in Jesus by faith (Ephesians 1:13-14), is the Teacher of the Spiritual Law written upon the heart, a Spiritual Law that is eternally superior to Sinai or any written code as the Spirit methodically addresses every moral decision that confronts the Christian moment-by-moment while the written code is far too often the subject of obfuscation, rationalization and compromise by the old sin-nature; therefore, if you desire life with the Father and obedience that actually pleases the Father, you must first believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Spirit and walk in daily sanctification via the Spirit’s tutelage (Romans 7:6), the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13) and the One who reminds the Christian of all that Jesus taught (John 14:26).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 