A servant of Torah Law stated his preferred path to righteousness (a right standing) with the Father via the words of Solomon,
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecc 12:13)
What is the divine Path to righteousness with the Father, Solomon or Jesus?
First of all, Law Keeping is NOT a path to righteousness with the Father (Romans 3:20); if one could find righteousness with the Father through Law Keeping, Jesus would not have needed to suffer and die for your sin (Galatians 2:21).
Second,
If one desires to honor the Father through obedience in the New Covenant; first, obey the Father and trust in Jesus as Messiah (John 3:16; 6:29) and receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14); second, walk in the Spirit, daily, via sanctification (Galatians 5:16) thereby allowing the Spirit to produce “fruit” through you as it is the “fruit of the Spirit” that fulfills all law (Galatians 5).
A worshiper of Moses and Torah mocks the Christian by stating any attempt to validate the New Testament/New Covenant using the New Testament is “circular reasoning.” What is the Truth?
Discussion,
The New Testament/the New Covenant is the fulfillment of Torah, the completion of the Old Testament’s intent; therefore, those dying in sin and headed to Hell in a religion that worships Moses and the Law or the demonic god “Allah” (Satan) and the Quran via the demon Muhammad, these could possibly be brought into the Light (John 8:12) by faith via an understanding that Moses, Torah, the Law Covenant, were simply a roadmap pointing to mankind’s need for Messiah, a divine Mediator, the Gospel, the New Covenant, but Torah was NEVER intended to be the destination (Hebrews 8:7; Galatians 3:24) and Islam is a religion stolen, plagiarized, from the Torah and servitude to Satan AKA Allah; therefore, Truth concerning eternal covenant with the Father is only found in the embodiment of Truth, Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
Concerning “circular reasoning” and the New Testament…
There are approximately 283-Old Testament quotations in the New Testament and in approximately 90 instances, these quotes are directly from the Septuagint; therefore, the New Covenant validates itself through direct fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy; this is NOT circular reasoning but eschatological fulfillment provided you via the Holy Spirit; therefore, arguing that the New Testament’s validation is circular reasoning is actually a logical fallacy.
Therefore,
The lost and deceived Jew, Israelite and Islamist, the cult member, the religionist, struggles with the clarity, beauty, the simplicity of the New Covenant’s Gospel, a New Covenant of divine grace actuated, initiated, by sincere faith in Jesus; the New Covenant established in the sinless, precious, blood of Messiah Jesus (Matthew 26:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19) and unless these perishing religionists rid themselves of demonic blindness, self righteousness, spiritual arrogance (2 Corinthians 4:4) and trust ONLY in Jesus as their Messiah, they will surely die in Hell via the “second death” (John 3; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Revelation 20:11-15).
There is a way that seems right to those too stubborn to consider, contemplate, Jesus as Messiah but their way is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12); therefore, humble yourself before our Heavenly Father and trust in the Son, Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Spirit and LIVE in peace with Elohim, forever, as there is no other Way (John 3, Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 5:1; John 14:6).
“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.
…in the daily life of those who serve the god of this World (2 Corinthians 4:4) – the demonically possessed and influenced, those who reject the selfless love of Jesus Christ and His Gospel…
I’m currently in the State of Satan’s pride, California, USA, having visited Satan’s dominion, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington. Those who are absent simple, abiding faith, mock the work of Jesus our Messiah during His 3.5-year Earthly ministry as Jesus went about healing the sick, exorcising the demon possessed; the natural World laughs at the thought of demons and demonic possession yet I walk among these demon-possessed here in San Francisco, on the sidewalks of Portland. I see their work in the rapidly decaying bodies lying prostrate on the sidewalks and curbs of the inner-city; the demonic substances injected into these addicted bodies; the resulting infected sores, scabs, physiological-psychological horror and torment and destruction accompanied by human excrement on the curbs, in the drains, on the sidewalks, the deck of public transportation; the horror, the horrific results of auditory hallucinations; the torment of demonic possession unrestrained; the self-destruction of suicide; the souls bound for Hades’ torments and Hell; all of this, the victory of the Evil One, Satan’s fodder.
I encounter these very same demons of deception and destruction during theological debate with unbelieving, Hell-bound, Jews-Israelites-Islamists-Mormons-SDA-Jehovah’s Witnesses-a myriad of cults-sects-religions who reject the purity, simplicity of the Gospel as these men, women, in a state of spiritual and physiological decay, clamor and fight against the purity, the simplicity, the holiness, of the Gospel of grace and faith, grace and faith earned for us, freely offered to us, through the suffering and selfless love of Jesus our Messiah at Golgotha.
Tragically, true Christianity will progressively be subject to increasing hatred and persecution as “Progressive Wokeness,” a work of the demonic, inundates our decaying World, a dying World devolving into demonic chaos and unconscionable filth; this, much like the days of Adam and Noah (Romans 1:18-32); therefore, know your enemy, know his works, stand fast defending the Gospel and hold tightly to Jesus Christ through obedience to the precious indwelling Holy Spirit.
Ultimately, the victory belongs to Jesus our Messiah; therefore, the only alternative to Jesus is defeat and subservience to the Devil and ultimately nihilism via the “second death” in Hell (Revelation 5:5). Endure to the end.
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).
Judaistic-Islamist-Religionist misunderstanding relevant to Messiah’s words “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” John 14:15
What does Jesus say immediately following John 14:15?
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.”John 14:16-17
Discussion,
First of all, Jesus IS NOT advocating for or teaching a works based religion or salvation by works in John 14:15 nor is Jesus suggesting that obeying His commands engenders eternal security.
Jesus was speaking to a transitional audience that had lived under the law covenant now transitioning to the Covenant of Grace (New Covenant) and Jesus said that if these former slaves to the written code (Romans 7:6; Romans 6:14) loved Him, they would honor and obey what He has told them, taught them, during His 3.5-year Earthly ministry and in order for these former slaves serving a dead law covenant to actually obey Messiah’s message, they must first comply with the Father’s will and honor Him as Messiah (John 6:29), receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who would remind them of everything Jesus had taught over those years (John 14:26); therefore, if one desires to honor Jesus’ teaching ministry and the edicts He provided, they must first honor the Father by faith in the Son (John 6:29), receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor of that New Covenant relationship (Ephesians 1:13-14) and walk by the Spirit in daily sanctification (Galatians 5:16) thereby allowing the Spirit to produce fruit through the redeemed conscience (Galatians 5; 2 Corinthians 5:17) of the faithful in Jesus; this obedience manifests through the spiritual law written upon the heart (Romans 8:2; Romans 2:14-15) as per New Covenant promise (Hebrews 10:16).
Jesus’ “commandments” are fulfilled by walking in obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit during daily sanctification, sanctification manifesting subsequent salvation by faith and NOT by chasing after letters from a dead covenant of works (Hebrews 8:7) that only defines sin and demanded obedience from a sin nature that could never comply and provided no hope of atonement or life (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).
It is the devil, himself, that indwells the blind legalist and hides this truth from the Judaistic – Islamist – Religionist legalist that prowls these forums seeking to enslave the servants of Messiah with cult practices (2 Corinthians 4:4).
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.
Biblical Cliffs Notes – The who, what, where, when, why, how, relevant to what the Holy Spirit has provided mankind in the Canon of Scripture…
1) The ONLY reason for the Genesis Creation Narrative is Elohim’s response to an unfathomable angelic rebellion in the Kingdom of Elohim.
2) Elohim’s sovereign decision to deal with the Great Kingdom War was to commission the Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:35), to take elements from the unseen Spiritual Realm and fashion those elements into matter that can be apprehended by a life-form constrained by Time and physics (Hebrews 11:3; Genesis 1:1; John 1; Hebrews 1; Colossians 1).
3) Elohim, the Father, Son, Spirit, collaborated on Day-6 of the Genesis Narrative to create the complex human genome in their spiritual image; this, for eschatological purposes going forward.
4) Subsequent Day-6 of the Creation Narrative, the rebellious participants in the Great Kingdom War were extricated from the Kingdom and placed upon this Earth (Luke 10:18) as the Kingdom War is now partially constrained by Time and physics, the leader of that rebellion placed in Eden, his physical attributes described for us through the prophet Ezekiel in Chapter 28:11+ and his spiritual attributes analogized as a crafty serpent (Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9; John 8:44).
5) Elohim, the Father, made the sovereign choice to ordained the Son, Jesus Christ our Messiah, as Warrior King who would do battle with the Serpent and a Declaration of War was established in Genesis 3:15 as the Messiah would enter Time through the virgin seed in order to circumvent the curse of the sin-nature passed through Adam’s genome (Romans 5:12) and the Messiah would be victorious over the Serpent by crushing the head of the Serpent but Messiah’s victory would not be without injurious ramifications i.e. the Crucifixion e.g., a bruising of Messiah’s heal (1 John 3:8b).
6) Elohim, in Genesis 3:21, provides a word picture of the divine “battle strategy” (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) that would be employed by Elohim, Himself, through the shedding of innocent blood in order to clothe sinful humanity in an imputed robe of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) while rejecting the works, efforts, self-righteousness, of humanity to conceal his own sin (fig leaves).
7) From Genesis 3:21 forward, the entirety of Scripture, the Holy Spirit’s work through forty anointed men of old, is focused upon Elohim’s eschatological plan to destroy the works of the devil via selfless love; this victory accomplished by Messiah at Golgotha with the words “It is finished.”
8 ) From the Gospel of John 19:30 forward, the Holy Spirit details the purposes for the Great Commission; the New Covenant Church; the reasoning for the Time of the Great Tribulation; the purpose for the Millennial Kingdom; the necessity for the Judgment of the Devil and his angels; the necessity for the Judgment of the Condemned involving humanity; the destruction of this Earth and the Heavens – their purification by fire and the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth and the placement of the New Jerusalem where the resurrected redeemed in Messiah Jesus will serve King Jesus, forever, in resurrected bodies fashioned after Messiah’s resurrected body (Philippians 3:21).
9) In summation, the previous 6000-years of demonically motivated horror upon this temporary Earth; the 1000-years of peace during Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom, will act as bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom where free will remains extant by necessity.
10) Therefore, the entirety of Scripture, the primary purpose for the existence of Time, physics, humanity, is as a response to the Great Kingdom War, this Earth as a temporary repository for a demonically led rebellion in the Kingdom of Elohim where nothing impure is permitted to enter (Revelation 21:27); this, as Elohim is currently reestablishing order, holiness, peace, to His Kingdom ravaged by the covetous desires of a charismatic rebellious cherub angel known to humankind as the Devil, Satan, the Serpent, the Evil One; this, as Elohim endeavors to maintain intimacy and volitional relationship with His faithful, beautiful, angelic creation that He loves, cherishes and adores beyond human comprehension.
Finally, by faith in Messiah Jesus as King, humankind has been granted the opportunity to ally with Elohim in the Great Kingdom War, a spiritual war that rages around us, through us (Ephesians 6); those who trust in Messiah Jesus as Lord and Savior will live eternally with Elohim in the New Jerusalem (John 14:3).
“What if Jesus had been accepted 2000 years ago, attended and loved instead of being betrayed and crucified? What kind of world would he have continued to build until now?”
That World you seek will manifest in the Millennial Kingdom where Messiah will receive the Kingdom denied Him at His first-advent. Messiah’s betrayal and murder was foreordained as an eschatological mandate that the shedding of innocent blood for the atonement of sin could be realized according to prophecy and covenant (Genesis 3:21; Leviticus 17:11).
Messiah is the Lamb of Elohim slain before the foundation of the World (Revelation 13:8) via a Gospel which was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10); therefore, “the primary reason Messiah entered the temporary Realm of Time was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b); therefore, the previous six-thousand-years of demonically rooted horror upon the Earth compared/contrasted to the one-thousand-years of Millennial peace (Satan bound) is a bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, where free will remains extant by necessity.
The “god of this World” (Satan – 2 Corinthians 4:4) has been exposed to humanity and to the faithful angelic creation as the “Evil One” and the faithful angelic creation will concur with Elohim in that Day that Satan’s eternal torment/judgment is just and righteous (Revelation 20:10); therefore, the Kingdom war continues within us, around us, through us (Ephesians 6), but the victory belongs to Jesus (Revelation 5:5).
The faithful in Jesus, those that endure to the end via the Holy Spirit’s guardianship (Ephesians 1:13-14), shall be saved from the fate of Satan and his demonic angels (Matthew 24:13); therefore, this temporary life in flesh, a temporary carnal existence constrained by Time and physics, culminates in one primary objective; that is, ally with Elohim as a Kingdom warrior by trusting-believing in the Son, Jesus Christ, and receive the spoils of war; that is, glorification by Elohim and life with Him, forever (Romans 10:11) or ally with Satan in his demonic rebellion by rejecting the Son, Jesus Christ, and suffer a fate similar to that of Satan and his rebellious angels (Revelation 20:10-15). It is most relevant that we, this very day, choose whom we will serve (Joshua 24:14-15).
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).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 