This copy has page numbers so the table of contents at page 183 can be used but it appears the page number is
displayed at the top of the page instead of the bottom so you may have to increase the table of contents section
number by one
page to arrive at the right page if you are looking for a specific topic. This is pretty long to read in
one sitting; it
grew over the years as more things became important to convey. But with the page numbers, write
down what page you left off at on a
card so you can come back later and pick it up again where you left off. The
last part of the book - Salvation or Kingdom of
Heaven is especially important to understand.
1
Parachute of Jesus
• How to get it
• How to use it
• How to keep it
”How to get to Heaven and
stay out of Hell at death”
Berry Ball
Published by Berry Ball
Silverdale, WA
2
Copyright © 2015 by Berry Ball
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publisher, Berry Ball.
ISBN 978-0-578-13890-9
Printed in the United States of America
by Self Publishing.com
This book is posted online and updated at
http://www.detailshere.com/parachute.htm
All the URL links referenced in this book can be
found and opened at this online version.
A .pdf version of this book is available for FREE by
emailing
parachute@detailshere.com and simplyrequesting a copy. And you can download a free
copy
of this book at https://copy.com/8T9jwdVQZAXDPdc6
The contents of this book is
Indexed by topics starting at page 183
The book is laid out in topics rather than chapters
so there is no chapter contents index. At page 183
there is a list of topics that are discussed in the
book and the page number that particular topic
begins on so you can quickly review a particular
subject.
3
Foreward
Salvation is a complicated issue.
It is not thesimple “believe in Jesus” pitch given us by our local
clergy. Please understand that not all Christians go
to heaven when they die. In fact, maybe not many
do. According to statistics given us by near death
experiencers, told to them by God’s angels themselves,
that number may be as low 2.5%. Why do
so few people make heaven at death? There is
much we do not know about what happens to us
when we die. Much will remain a mystery; and yet
there is much we do now know. It is why this has
become a many page book instead of a one page
tract handout on salvation as it started out to be.
Compare salvation with education. We have some
students going through school barely squeaking by
enough to make the next grade level and don’t turn
out to be our best citizens. And we have others
that are very zealous, cherish their education, get
decent grades, some even honor society members,
and graduate to become real assets to society.
We have some people who live their lives exhibiting
the good old boy lifestyle and use grace to barely
stay out of hell at death. However, they may find
themselves in trouble at the final judgment. And
we have people who become “born again”, follow
the commandments as best they can; show respect,
dignity and love towards their fellow human
beings, believe Jesus is their savior, rely on Him for
their salvation, and become candidates for being
with Jesus in the Kingdom. I believe there is a
difference between just being saved from hell by
grace and entrance into the Kingdom of God, a
realm reserved for the sanctified righteous.
4
Preface
The big question is
When does a proclaimed Christian actually become
a saved believer? Does receiving a single tract
handout on salvation do the job? Does saying the
sinner’s prayer once in your life accomplish the
mission? Does listening to sermons every Sunday
get the job done? Do you have anything to do with
your own salvation or is it completely out of your
hands? Do you believe you are saved? If you died
tomorrow would you be assured your spirit and
soul would make the journey to heaven and not
hell? By the time you finish this book you should
have a better foundation and understanding of
God’s word to answer some of those questions.
This book, The Parachute of Jesus,
contains the essential guidance required for staying
out of hell at death. Hell is a real physical place,
just as heaven is. Our final destination, heaven or
hell, is ultimately our choice, under our control, IF
we understand the conditions and parameters that
God has established regarding our lives and that
journey. Jesus IS our parachute to life eternal; IF
we sustain our belief and endure to the end. He did
His part. But we play a major role in our own salvation.
Just being a good old boy and going to church
doesn’t complete our part of the equation. Some
say the Bible stands for “basic instruction before
leaving earth”. Think of the Parachute as a primer
of key salvation aspects; instructions and foundational
knowledge, which will enable us to achieve
the correct and desired destination of heaven when
we pass on. Perhaps few who die on earth achieve
that goal. Digest what’s presented here and find
out how you can.
5
Where you headed mate? It’s your choice!
Dedication
I dedicate this book to my wife Irina from Russia
who has an immense amount of Biblical information
at
http://www.iisusbog.com and a love anddesire for bringing the word of God to her people
as well as everyone. Getting people saved is a
mission for us. Her books and the very graphic
youtube videos she has on her site are testimony
to the dedication she has towards serving Jesus.
Acknowledgement to all who have contributed
to the thoughts and ideas in this book knowingly
and unknowingly. This book is the culmination of
many years of attempting to bring people to Jesus;
from the simple single page tract handout found at
www.detailshere.com/tracts.htm
,to more in depth pages of many Biblical topics
6
posted on my website at
www.detailshere.com/bible2.htm
, andwww.detailshere.com/pagestoexplore.htm
to my parachute page (actually this book now) at
www.detailshere.com/parachute.htm
, all ofwhich attempt to clarify what people need to know
to help get them to heaven and avoid hell at death.
This book is comprised
of both my words andunderstanding as well as many other people’s input
I have gleaned from many sources over the years
including pastoral blogs, sermons, newsletters, and
emails from many people all offering pieces to the
puzzle. I acknowledge this valuable input and I
thank all of you who have directly or indirectly
contributed to the thoughts and ideas in this book.
This book is somewhat interactive
; providingmany website and youtube video URLs (you can
access those links directly by accessing the copy
posted on the web) to also investigate, which go
into greater detail on certain topics. The additional
information on such topics will expand upon and
clarify topic content to enhance and increase your
knowledge and understanding of the spiritual
realm. This book is all about understanding what
God wants of us before passing out tickets to get
through the pearly gates. This book is written for
those who know little of Jesus and the Bible to
those who think they have a good handle on what
it takes to be saved.
About the author
Berry Ball
email parachute@detailshere.comDo you ever get tired of the question when were
you born again or when did you finally come to
7
Jesus? I believe Jesus has always been with me. I
was raised Catholic and mom made sure I went to
Catechism classes during grade school and Newman
club during high school. I did learn about
Jesus and believed Jesus died on the cross for my
sins to make salvation available to me. Those years
cemented doing what was right from what was
wrong. I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t do
drugs, and I told the truth. I don’t have a bad guy
to good guy story to tell. I left the Catholic Church
during college years. Other churches seemed to
have man’s tradition faults also and I blindly pursued
a life of keeping the golden rule, doing unto
others what I would have them do unto me, without
openly serving Jesus or attending church. This
was the good old boy syndrome many people
exhibit today which may keep one out of hell at
death but I do not believe will buy us a ticket to
the Kingdom of Heaven.
Statistics of how few actually make heaven at
death are hinted at in the Bible, ”wide is the gate
and broad is the way leading to destruction and
many will go in there at” and “straight is the gate
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life
eternal and few will find it ” Mathew 7:13-14; but
numbers only come from many near death experience
testimonies where these people were shown
heaven and hell and given those statistics showing
not many make heaven at death.
But the Jesus thing stuck. Jesus must have been
with me during my years of non service as I should
have died several times over; like when in college
outrunning a state patrol at 140mph with my
400HP 57 chevy and coming to a tee in the road as
8
the telephone poles were going by like a picket
fence, to running out of air at 70’ because I was
too stupid to give up a 15 pound bag of scallops; to
bagging a huge octopus at 60’ who was tearing the
mask off my face, to being cloaked in Mexico when
we slept overnight at a dump and a truckload of
armed drunken thugs came to within ten feet of
where we were parked and never even saw us even
though I was sitting on the tailgate in plain view.
Jesus saves. I wasn’t indestructible.
Many people believe in Jesus today without the
proof that He is alive and well and does miracles
and healings today. Some of us are fortunate
enough to witness those miracles, healings, and
see the proof firsthand, which can solidify our belief
to where Satan can no longer steal our faith; ever.
My journey to really knowing Jesus started in 1997
when I met my wife, from Russia, on the internet.
It’s more of a story about miracles of Jesus and is
documented at
www.detailshere.com/ourstory.htmWithout divine intervention; circumstances and
rules dictated we never should have met, or been
able to get married several weeks later. With such
blatant proof of Jesus’ existence in our face, I had
to change my stance on the golden rule thing. We
felt compelled to actively serve Jesus. Nothing is by
accident. Jesus put us to work soon after when we
moved to Mexico to retire in a warmer climate.
We got involved with helping others and laying
hands on the sick and watching Jesus heal them. I
witnessed the blind see again, the deaf hear again,
the dumb speak, tumors shrink before our eyes,
and all manner of aches and pains disappear from
9
those prayed over and hands laid on. We unwillingly
by necessity got involved with exorcism of
demons in people. The demons could speak in
tongues better than I. But they had to go when we
said go. See
www.detailshere.com/exorcism.htmfor a good story on exorcism.
We came to realize that there is a great spiritual
battle going on daily for our soul and spirit. This
unseen battle is very real nevertheless, and we all
are participants in it. We eventually became ordained
at a healing seminar/workshop at Hunter
Ministries in Texas where we even witnessed limbs
grow out on people. I do not consider myself the
expert on the Bible my wife is. Her website at
has some pretty fascinatingthings on it including a very graphic 10 youtube
video walk through series on revelation.
Besides “realtime” proofs of Jesus’ existence and
healings today, my belief has been strengthened
greatly from studying the Biblical archeological
findings of Ron Wyatt
( www.ronwyatt.com ) andothers, as well as studying out of body and near
death experience testimonies found outside of
scripture. I have learned a lot about spiritual warfare.
I know who I am in the Lord. This book goes
beyond the Bible to bring you things we know
about heaven and hell regarding this spiritual battle
for our spirit and soul. Our hope is to present you
with enough facts, scripture, evidence, and testimonies
to build and sustain your belief also so you
will endure until the end and be able to make that
journey to heaven and not hell at death. Heaven is
a very remarkable place. Don’t dare miss it.
10
Christianity can be a religion of great confusion.
There is only one Bible, the inspired word of
God, penned by men moved by the Holy Spirit. It
has been proven God’s word has not changed over
the years; the transcribers were accurate in their
copying. And many recent translations have been
made available to simplify that same content into
more understandable language. So why is there
such disagreement in what the words in the Bible
mean and tell us? If such a roadmap to the afterlife
has such importance, why isn’t it clear exactly
what it says?
In the church we attend, for example, although all
are strong believers, they do not all believe the
same things. Some believe in soul sleep at death.
Soul sleep is the teaching that when a person dies,
his “soul” sleeps until the time of a future resurrection
and in this condition the person is not aware or
conscious of anything. Others believe our spirit
and soul make a journey to heaven or hell at
death. Why the difference? Interpretation.
In 1 Corinthians 5:8 Paul tells us that to be absent
from the body is to be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians
4:14 tells us that if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with him. How could they
return with Him if they weren’t somewhere else
except in the ground? Wasn’t Moses who died on
earth present at the transfiguration? Ecclesiastes
12:7 says we return to dust in the earth and our
spirit returns to God. The big question may be
“when”; at time of death or at the second coming?
Both sides use that passage as well as others like
Eccl 9:5 & 11, Psalms 146:4, Rev 20:5, Cor 5:6-8,
11
Cor 12:2-4 and Phil 1:23 to support their case. But
these, as well as many other issues, rely on interpretation,
how the reader sees things, which creates
uncertainty often in what is truly meant. There
are many things in the Bible that will remain a
mystery until we can ask Jesus in person. Meanwhile
live your life according to the will of God
because the one thing that IS clear is that the only
way through those pearly gates is via Jesus. You
have to know Jesus, not just about Him, to gain a
spot in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Another issue separating believers is the fourth
commandment. Is Sabbath Saturday or Sunday?
Does it matter? Why would we faithfully follow nine
commandments and ignore the fourth telling us
which day to rest and worship? In Jesus’ day it was
clear Saturday was Sabbath. Mary came to the
tomb on the first day of the week to find it empty,
and we know that day was Sunday. We know the
apostles kept a Saturday Sabbath many years after
Jesus was taken up into heaven. The history of the
Sabbath
www.detailshere.com/sabbathissue.htmmakes it quite clear the Catholic church takes
credit for changing a Saturday Sabbath to Sunday
back in the 300’s AD. Why do most churches today
hold a Sunday service in violation of the fourth
commandment? Why didn’t Luther demand Sabbath
be returned to Saturday during the reformation?
Take the issue of eternal security
versus conditionalsecurity. We have the camp A eternal security
believers who say eternal life is a gift that
cannot be taken from us no matter how bad we are
or how much we sin, as long as we confess to
12
believing in Jesus. The doctrine of Eternal Security
teaches that if you come to Jesus and say the
sinner's prayer once in your life you are saved
forever. You don't have to do anything more. That
a person once saved (a righteous person) will not
experience spiritual death (lose salvation) over his
sin. Contrary to what some preachers believe,
preach and teach, I believe that particular doctrine,
if followed, is a sure ticket to hell. We have the
camp B conditional security believers that interpret
the Bible’s words to say our eternal security is
conditional upon us showing we believe by our
thoughts, actions, words, and deeds. Just saying
we believe is not enough. Both camps call the other
camp wolves in sheep’s clothing. In Luke 8:4-15
Jesus tells us in the parable of the sower that few
people reach even a foundational level of knowledge
and most will not sustain their belief. Many
never hear the Word, and for many who do, it’s
water off a duck’s back. Fertile soil, a good foundational
knowledge of God’s word, is required to stay
the course and endure if you want to get through
the pearly gates.
As the Bible was purposefully written in symbolism
with many parables, its true meaning and intent on
many issues was and still is obscured from many
readers. It is the nature of the book. The Bible is a
highly complex spiritual book of information that
the natural human mind is incapable of
understanding. God designed the Bible in an
intelligent spiritual manner to give man the right to
be wrong in everything that they believe. People
can put their own interpretations upon every verse
and ignore all the other verses that do not fit with
what they want to believe and thus they come to
the conclusions that they desire to hold on to. By
13
conclusions that they desire to hold on to. By not
being consistent and by not taking every related
verse into account they have concluded some
vastly erroneous teachings. The Bible is not a black
and white, cut and dried document. It holds many
morsels and secrets just waiting for us to unravel
them. The Bible contains an almost infinite number
of mysteries, puzzles, riddles and hidden information.
God used this technique for two primary
reasons. First to hide this information from His
enemies who were led by Satan and secondly to
conceal the truth for us (the Church) to find at the
right time. It’s not a book you can just read once
and comprehend. In fact, until you are “born
again”, much of it won’t make sense to you at all.
God does not tell you everything in any one place
anywhere in the Bible. You MUST put the puzzle
pieces together correctly in order to have a valid
interpretation of the Word of God.
Adam’s sin nature - regarding why the Bible
is so unclear
to many people. Know we are notborn with God’s spirit inside of us. We are born
with the spirit of Adam’s sin nature inside which we
inherit at birth. Blame Adam, but he set us up for
that when he ate the fruit from the forbidden tree
in the Garden of Eden. It is not until we are “born
again” that Adam’s spirit of sin nature is overcome
by God’s Holy Spirit. Prior to being “born again”,
the "natural man", as the Bible calls him, a lost
person, cannot understand the Bible because it
(the Bible) is spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians
2:14) and he cannot discern it. It is foolishness to
the “natural man”. So when the Word begins to
make sense, to speak to your heart, and convict
you of sin in your life, it is a very good indicator
14
that you have the Holy Spirit of God residing within
you and Adam’s sin nature now takes a back seat.
You see, a Christian obtains a new spiritual nature
by the new birth, but he does not get rid of the old
Adam sin nature he was born with entirely. That is
why it is so vitally important that we "grow in grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). We
must cooperate with the Holy Spirit as we walk
through this sinful and spiritually defiling world
around us. The Holy Spirit literally takes up residence
within us when we are born again and will
never leave us nor forsake us as long as we desire
him to be with us. As the Holy Spirit works with us,
our understanding of what the Bible and God’s
word says and means increases. How to be born
again? Recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior, confess
to Jesus and repent of known sin, set a determined
path to change your sinful ways, and simply ask
Him to come into your heart.
It is easy to see why so much confusion exists in
what is being taught and preached in churches
today. Unsaved people are not able to discern
exactly what the Bible is trying to say.
Back to the issue of eternal security
versusconditional security; in 1 John 2:24-25 Jesus tells
us, "I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word,
he will never see death (spiritual death)”. Note that
key word IF. James 2:17 says, "… faith by itself, IF
not accompanied by action; is dead". James 1:22
tells us to be “doers of the word and not just hearers
of the word or we are only deceiving ourselves”.
Mathew 7:21 is also explicit," Not everyone
who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the
15
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
My Father in heaven." Hebrews 3:14 tells us we
must hold fast to our salvation until the very end.
Matthew 10:22 tells us that after initial salvation
we must endure to the end to escape the lake of
fire. 1 John1:7 says “… if we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin.” There’s that IF word again. Only
Jesus offers us eternal salvation; found in Hebrews
5:9, which says: "once made perfect, He [Jesus]
became the source of eternal salvation for all who
OBEY him." To OBEY Him means to keep His commandments.
In John 14:15 and 21 Jesus tells us that to love
him is to keep His commandments. He doesn’t tell
us to just say we love Him and continue on in a life
of sinful ways. Once saved always saved is not
Biblical. Psalms 1:1-6 tells us... "The Lord knoweth
the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly
shall perish." In John 3:36 we are told that
“whoever believes in the son has eternal life; but
whoever does not obey the son shall not see life
but the wrath of God remains upon him.”
You must be faithful to God till death to inherit
eternal life in the kingdom. Although we are
saved by grace alone, and not of our own works,
grace is not a free ride to sin. I believe we play a
large roll in our own salvation in what we believe
and how we choose to live our daily lives. God gave
us free will and choice, and we must exercise our
will and choices wisely if we want to see heaven. In
Revelation 2:25 Jesus is speaking to the church
16
and telling them to "hold fast on to their salvation
until I come back".
If I gave you a Rolex watch, couldn’t you throw it
away? You see any gift given is dependent upon
the receiver holding on to it and taking care of it in
order for the gift to be kept safe. If you have to
hold on to your salvation then you can lose your
salvation; you can throw it away intentionally, you
can treat it casually and even accidentally lose it.
Even as grace is a gift from God, a man or a
woman has the right to reject it or walk away from
it at any point in time. People never lose their right
to choose and they will always have the ability and
power to reject salvation. This fact alone nullifies
any notion of "once saved, always saved" that the
eternal security crowd clings to dearly. Please see
www.detailshere.com/eternalsecurity.htm
fora more thorough explanation of why the eternal
security plane does not fly.
The controversy about the believer’s security is
immediately ended by observing the various Bible
passages related to
eternal life that contain thelittle word
“if”. Since “if” is the badge of a conditionalstatement, then the believer’s security is
clearly conditional and not unconditional with such
evidence. Here are more scriptures which clarify
the issue. By this gospel you are saved,
if you holdfirmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise,
you have believed in vain (1 Cor 15:2). The
one and only Christian “gospel” shouts out a conditional
security for the believer. It is another gospel
that denies that. As clear as that is, the following
verses also supplement that gospel truth with more
insights by saying the Christian must hold firmly till
17
the end to share in Christ. We have come to share
in Christ
if we hold firmly till the end the confidencewe had at first (Hebrews 3:14). For
if youlive according to the sinful nature, you will die; but
if
by the Spirit you put to death the misdeedsof the body, you will live, (Rom 8:13).
See that what you have heard from the beginning
remains in you.
If it does, you also will remain inthe Son and in the Father. And this is what he
promised us–even eternal life (1 John 2:24,25). I
tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will
never see death. (John 8:51) Ezekiel has several
passages which tell us if we go back to sin, we will
die spiritually. Dying spiritually means we lose our
salvation. Ezek 3:20, Ezek 18:24, Ezek 18:26,
Ezek 33:13, and Ezek 33:18 If a righteous
man turns from his righteousness and does evil,
he will die for it (spiritually).
From Romans 8:13, for if you live according to the
sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you
put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will
live. James 1:14-16 tells us.... but each one is
tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is
dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, it gives birth to death (spiritual death).
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Other Scriptures
could also be cited, but these suffice to prove
that the believer’s security held out in the Christian
gospel is conditional upon our continual belief in
Jesus and the resulting life we lead where sin
becomes an infrequent exception in our lives and
not the norm. That us sharing in Christ is condi
18tional, that the Christian experiencing spiritual
death or not is conditional, and us remaining in
Christ and having eternal life is also conditional.
Then where does grace fit in?
Does grace or works save us? This is probably one
of the most misunderstood, controversial, abused,
and argued over subjects of Christianity today. We
absolutely cannot deny that we are only saved by
grace because Matthew 5:48 tells us that we would
need to be as perfect as our Father in heaven is
perfect, that’s God’s only passing grade; be
perfect, if you want to get there on your own
nickel. But we failed that plan when we committed
our first sin as a child, because none of us are
perfect or could ever be perfect. Paul tells us in
Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and come up
short; all of us. The only other option to get to
heaven is through grace and believing in Jesus as
our Savior.
Grace means to get something you do not deserve;
unmerited favor, and mercy. Mercy means you do
not get the punishment that you deserve but
instead compassion and forgiveness. His greatest
act of grace is the gift of salvation (enabling us to
get into heaven instead going to hell) that is
available to all people through faith - for by grace
are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest
any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9 ). This is
providing you accept the gift. When this gift is
accepted, eternal life is promised to the recipient;
it is a promise of a home one day in heaven with
God. Just how to accept the gift needs to be understood
because it is quite misunderstood by many
today.
19
In John 3:16 God tells us that He so loved the
world that He gave His only son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. How to show we believe in Him has to be fully
understood; as just saying you believe without
leading a life exhibiting the fruits of the spirit (Gal
5:22), demonstrating the Holy Spirit lives inside of
you, is just deceiving yourself. “Just believe” leads
a lot of people down the wide road to destruction.
Know exactly what is meant by showing “you
believe”.
Supporters of “grace gets me saved” and I don’t
have to do anything on my own to be saved cite
Apostle Paul in Romans 6:14 “... for we are not
under the law, but under grace”, and Gal 5:18
”.. for if you are led by the spirit, you are not under
the law.” But, if you are led by the spirit, your life
reflects that in your actions, thoughts, words, and
deeds.
There are two sets of laws
spoken of in theBible. There is the Mosaic Law, the 613 laws of
Yahweh from the Torah (first five books of the
Bible) no one could follow that were so burdensome.
These are the laws spoken of in Romans
6:14 and Gal 5:18. They were carried outside of
the Ark of the Covenant. God’s moral laws, the Ten
Commandments, were written on stone tablets and
carried inside the Ark of the Covenant. God’s moral
law was given to Moses on the mountain at Mt
Sinai. They still hold today. They didn’t go out with
the cross. God’s moral law defines sin. Jesus added
a more encompassing one to all the “don’ts”; “love
your neighbor as yourself”.
20
Be careful not to confuse these. Colossians 2:13-15
tells us trespasses against the Mosaic laws were
forgiven; God cancelled the debt against these
demands and nailed them to the cross. But God’s
moral law, the commandments, didn’t go out with
the cross and how you adhere to those defines
your faith and belief affecting your final destination.
Grace doesn’t excuse you from habitually and
intentionally breaking God’s moral laws.
How did Apostle Paul look at the moral law? He
tells us starting in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may
abound? By no means! How can we who died to
sin still live in it?” He is telling us that even though
we are absolved from following Yahweh’s 613
Mosaic laws, grace is not a license to freely sin.
Do not use grace to justify sinning. You don’t go to
a Bible study meeting and then meet down at the
local pub afterwards with your buddies to put a few
pitchers of brew down, get into a stupor, and think
you are okay because you are under grace. You are
only no longer under the laws of Moses. John 1:17
tells us that the “law that went out with the cross
came through Moses but grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ.”
Listen to the truth Jesus tells us. Grace is a gift we
need because we are not perfect. When we stumble;
say a cuss word, or sin in some way; grace is
there to protect us. We get back up, tell God we
are sorry, repent and get right back on a righteous
path of carrying on and try hard not to do that
again. Sin needs to become an infrequent exception
in our lives and not the norm. We WILL be held
21
accountable for our thoughts, actions, words and
deeds come judgment. God’s grace is not an excuse
to think it is all right to sin because we are
covered by grace.
For all of you thinking God’s moral law (the commandments)
went out with the cross, go to what
Jesus Himself tells us about that in Matthew 5:17-
18. “Think not that I have come to destroy the law;
or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but
fulfill. For verily I say unto you; till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one title (cross on a tee or
dot on an i) shall in no wise pass from the law, till
all be fulfilled.” A better word than “to fulfill” is “to
establish”. Jesus said He had come to support
God’s Moral law, not do away with it. Jesus said
that until heaven and earth pass away not even the
slightest aspect of the law would change.
Then what did change at the cross?
God’s Law, the Ten Commandments still hold; it’s
still the law and the law defines sin. The consequences
of breaking the law used to be death,
spiritual death. What changed when Jesus died on
the cross was that even though the law is still in
effect, the
consequences of breaking the law wasabolished; grace covers us as we are not perfect.
But I believe grace does not cover those engaged
in continuous willful sinning; only those who love
Jesus, try to lead a life of doing what Jesus would
do, and slip up infrequently and get up, repent, and
get right back on track. It could be explained like
this.
A certain highway you are driving on has a speed
limit of 50 miles an hour. If you are driving 50 or
22
just under, you are within the law. But let’s say you
inch up to 52 – 54 MPH and you pass by a radar
gun. Will you get a speeding ticket? Probably not;
the officer didn’t feel your speed was excessive
enough to warrant a ticket and you received his
grace on that occasion. You deserved a ticket
because you were breaking the law but you didn’t
get one. The fact was, however, you WERE breaking
the law at 54 MPH. What happens if you cruise
by the radar cop at 65 MPH? Now he will probably
come after you and write you a ticket for breaking
the law. Ask yourself, where is my 65MPH point?
How much can I sin and think I am still covered by
grace to be able to not receive the consequences of
my sin? We are definitely saved by grace; but stifle
the Holy Spirit enough with frequent, willful sinning
and know that you will not be invited to the stairway
to heaven with that attitude and lifestyle.
Read Matthew 22, the parable about the wedding
feast. In Matthew 22:11-13 it talks about the man
who was discovered wearing no wedding garment
(he did not live righteously – remember both the
good and the bad were invited to the wedding). He
was bound hand and foot and cast out into outer
darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. This man was part of the 65 MPH
crowd. I do not believe grace covers us if we exhibit
willful unrighteous living.
Why go to church?
Doing good deeds and going to church alone will
not save you. If we are only saved by grace why
waste our time going to church? Church attendance
is on a rapid decline. In Europe, most of the
churches have gone out of business. People who
23
regularly attend a church service in the United
States is supposedly around 40%, 20% in Canada,
and 8% or less in Europe. However, surveys of the
77% of the US population claiming to be Christian
reveals only around 14% of Americans “frequently”
attended church in 2015. We are losing members
at the rate of 1% every three years. So even in
America, the tradition of going to church isn’t
faring well. Every year more than 4000 churches
close their doors compared to just over 1000 new
church starts. Many churches in the US did not add
any new members to their ranks in the last two
years. I live in a very populous county. I work with
two different churches; a non denominational
meeting on Saturday of only about 30 very serious
practicing Christians and a large denominational
church which works with the homeless and has a
huge building, large grounds and infrastructure but
lacks attendance for its size; especially with members
outside of seniors and the retired.
America in moral decline
It is without question America is in moral decline.
Declining attendance in church may be one of the
primary reasons for that. America, referred to as
Mystery Babylon in Revelation, has sinned against
God and His ways. Other nations may be just as
sinful, but none are as flooded with gospel light as
is America. God is going to judge America for its
violence, its crimes, its backsliding, its murdering
of millions of babies and marketing their body
parts, its flaunting of homosexuality and sadomasochism,
its corruption, its drunkenness, its
drug abuse, its ungodliness, its being lukewarm
towards Christ, its rampant divorce rate and adultery,
its high rate of fornication where people live
24
together and are promiscuous outside of the marriage
bond, its lewd pornography, its child molestations,
its cheatings, its practice of robbery, gross
lying by its politicians and leaders, its dirty movies,
and its occult practices. In one hour it will all be
over. The Church is asleep, the congregations are
at ease, being fed messages of comfort instead of
how to become more accountable; and the shepherds
slumber. I believe America is about to be
shaken and set aside by swift and horrible judgments
for her apostasy. There is obviously a direct
relationship between declining church attendance
and an increase in the lack of morals and inappropriate
behavior rampant in society today. 1% of all
Americans today are incarcerated and in prison.
The US has a higher percentage of their populace
in prison than any other country in the world,
including Russia, Mexico, and China.
How can church attendance help?
For believers, there is no substitute for attending
church. Besides something that pleases God, it is
necessary for a believer’s spiritual well being.
Going to church is a visible, tangible expression of
our love and worship toward God. It is where we
can gather with other believers to publicly bear
witness of our faith and trust in God, something
that is required of all Christians (Matt. 10:32-33).
It is where we can bring Him tithes, and offerings
of praise, thanks, and honor, which are pleasing to
Him.
Receiving the preaching and teaching of the Word
of God increases our faith and builds us up spiritually.
Every believer knows what it is to face spiritual
conflicts to their faith, and must realize the
importance of being fed spiritually so that they can
25
overcome the challenges. Paul states that Christians
face a wrestling match with the Devil and his
evil spiritual forces, and warns that the church
must put on spiritual armor for protection, as it will
take everything at our disposal to stand (Eph.
6:10-18). There is the promise of a special visitation
of the Lord’s presence whenever two or more
gather specifically in the name of Jesus. By implication,
this means whenever “Jesus” is the object of
gathered prayer, worship, praise, preaching, etc.
He will be present.
Even though Jesus resides within the heart of every
believer, he honors a gathering in his name by
coming in the “midst,” with his power, awareness,
and anointing. In such a gathering, Christ is able to
do things in hearts that he may not at any other
time.
One of the most important reasons that we go to
church is to practice love toward the brethren in
the form of fellowship. The Bible clearly shows that
if we have a right relationship with God, we have
fellowship with other believers. Church attendance
is also a matter of obeying God’s Word. The writer
of the Hebrew epistle tells us not to forsake assembling
together, implying that continued absence
can lead to willful sin. The purpose of the
gathering is for the consideration of our brethren,
coming together to help motivate and encourage
one another. This is a responsibility charged to
every believer. To reject church attendance, is a
rejection of one of the sacred duties of the believer.
Agreement in prayer with other believers has special
favor with God. There is multiplied strength in
the combined faith of God’s people, and it is clear
26
that greater spiritual gains can be realized through
corporate prayer and worship than just one person
praying.
The fourth commandment of the law that God gave
Moses was to set aside the seventh day of the
week as a holy day to the Lord. Although we are
free from the bondage of the old Mosaic laws, the
new covenant does not invalidate the relevance of
the Ten Commandments as they pertained to God’s
wishes for His people. As much as it remains God’s
desire for man not to kill, steal or commit adultery,
God is still very much pleased for believers to
honor Him on the day reserved for Him, out of their
love for Him and His people. I don’t believe anyone
can sustain the sanctification process by not attending
church. Becoming sanctified is a process
necessary if you want to be considered a saint and
Christ’s bride. We all leak. During the week of
stress, busy schedules, and many temptations we
will leak. Our righteousness becomes strained. We
need to be refilled by the Holy Spirit. This occurs at
church. Church can reign us back into a righteous
way of living and not let us wander too far off the
path so we lose our way, fall into sin and immorality,
and cannot find our way back.
Justification – Sanctification – Glorification
These are steps in the salvation process. Many
become justified by reading the word, hearing the
word, believing in and trusting in the word. Sanctification
is a more complex process involving much
more than simply saying I believe. Sanctification
involves the Holy Spirit living inside us (see John 3)
and doing a makeover on our attitudes, our
thoughts, actions, and how we interact with our
27
fellow man.
Sanctification prepares us to live inGod’s world; the Kingdom of Heaven.
A person is justified
only through faith in JesusChrist. Only through justification is a person declared
righteous. Romans 10:17 , “Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the
message is heard through the word of Christ.” Paul
uses “faith,” one’s belief, in the sense of trust. At
the point of justification in a person’s spiritual life,
faith is not producing works; it is merely the mental
activity of believing. Being justified by faith
indicates a commitment in the mind of the justified
to go forward, building on the relationship by being
established with Christ.
Justification
is a judicial action by a judge—God.The term indicates an aligning of a forgiven person
with a standard. In this case, the standard is the
moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. Justification
does not happen automatically to all but
solely to those whom God calls, forgives, and
unites with Christ because they believe in the
efficacy of His death as the divinely given substitute
to pay the death penalty for their sins. The
truly justified person will not return to his old ways
of life. By faith, Paul understands the reason: As
far as the law is concerned (Mozaic law), his debt
to it has been satisfied by Jesus’ sacrifice at the
cross.
The works come later as the sanctification process
begins and continues. Paul states the thing he
destroyed by faith and repentance was his former
life of sin. Paul was determined not to return to his
sinful ways and to do what he had to to obey God’s
28
moral laws. He clearly states keeping God’s laws
(not the Mozaic laws we were freed from) is required,
even though keeping them does not earn
salvation. Being justified through faith and belief is
a major step towards salvation; but does not mean
a person’s character is fully changed. Character is a
group of qualities created throughout life. Character
takes place during the sanctification process.
We desire to be in the character image of God. In
His purpose, the creating of godly character takes
place during the
sanctification process.Glorification
is the third step in the justification sanctification-glorification chain. Glorification has
not yet occurred; it occurs at Christ's return. Paul
describes it this way: "For the trumpet will sound,
the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be
changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with
the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality"
(1 Corinthians 15:52-53).
Our own physical bodies will experience glorification.
We will not be changed into some sort of
spirit-entity as many of the cults teach. Jesus
Himself demonstrated this when He appeared to
the disciples after the resurrection: "Though the
doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then He said
to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see My hands.
Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop
doubting and believe'" (John 20:26-27). Luke
24:29 also affirms that the glorified body is not a
mere spirit-body; if it were, Christ would be a
deceiver since He claimed that it was His own
body: "They were startled and frightened, thinking
they saw a ghost. He said to them, 'Why are you
29
troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at My hand and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch
me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and
bones, as you see I have.'"
It is at the time of glorification that the sanctification
process is complete -- our bodies will be
changed, the old sin nature will be eliminated, and
we will see the risen Christ in all his glory: "Now we
see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we
shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I
shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1
Corinthians 13:12).
God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians
14:33). His Kingdom will be peaceful and orderly
because everyone who will enter into it will have
voluntarily submitted himself to the law - the
commandments - of God. God will not have anyone
in His Kingdom who demonstrates, by the pattern
of his life (works, deeds, speech, thoughts, and
actions if you wish), that he will not obey Him
(Matthew 7:21-23; Hebrews 10:26-31). Read that
again for those of you who will claim to be saved
by grace but continue to lead immoral lives in
violation of God’s moral commandments. Revelation
12:17 describes the saints as those "who keep
the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ."
So please understand; grace does not free you
from being held accountable for still keeping the
commandments. Grace freed you from being under
the 613 Mozaic laws of Yahweh, and grace provides
a cushion when you slip up during the sanctification
process allowing you to repent and get back on
30
track. Grace will not cover you to get you into
heaven while you continue to live an immoral life
full of known sin.
So how do you go from a life
of sinning and justsaying you believe, to a life of living that belief via
the fruits of the spirit demonstrated in your daily
life? First understand, showing these fruits; love,
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, and temperance has little to do
with you. If you accept Jesus and ask Him to live
inside you as the Holy Spirit; you will be changed.
Your speech will be changed along with your
thoughts, words, deeds, demeanor, and priorities.
The Holy Spirit will do that; it is not of your doing.
However, keep in mind God gave us free will and
choice. Even though God’s spirit is now working in
our lives, Adam’s sin nature we were born with still
hangs around, and has the ability to affect our
decisions. He hangs around until we are glorified.
We do and will play a part in whose voice we will
be willing to listen to.
Many church leaders are putting out
the wronggrace message today. People want to hear that
they are saved by grace and there is nothing they
have to do or contribute outside of that. They do
not want to be held accountable for their behavior
and sin. They don’t want to hear that “IF” word. IF
I keep the word of Jesus I will not see spiritual
death. Faith by itself IF not accompanied by works
is dead. Do not be deceived, be doers of the word
and not just hearers. Not everyone who says Lord,
Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who
does the will of the Father. Hold fast to your salva
31tion until the end. You must endure to the end to
escape the lake of fire. If we walk in the light…the
blood of Jesus will cleanse us of sin. Jesus is the
source of salvation for all who OBEY Him, and to
love and obey him is to keep His commandments.
Know the difference between God’s moral law (the
ten commandments), and the 613 Laws of Yahweh
(the Mozaic law) that went out with the cross.
How do you know if you are being led astray
by those trying to teach you? Matthew 7:15-20
tells us, “Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs
off of thistles?....by their fruits ye shall know
them”. Do your mentors lead a life of righteousness
themselves? Are they married or shacking up with
someone. Do they speak without swearing, without
badmouthing other people, do they habitat taverns
and pubs, do they have a pornographic library, do
they put other people’s needs first in their life, are
they generous to those who have not or do they
exhibit a life of extravagance and materialism?
Look at how they conduct their own lives before
you decide to follow what they pitch to you.
Beware of “grace only – once saved, always saved”
churches who preach that the new testament
covenant doesn’t depend on promises or obedience
from us. A covenant is a contract involving two
parties, not just one. God is one side of this contract;
we are the other. God has established the
criteria for being able to join Him. He gave His son
so we could have salvation. We must be accountable
for our side of the contract. If accountability
32
were not an issue, the percentage of people entering
heaven at death would be much higher than it
appears is the case.
Hyper grace
– a dangerous movement aimedprimarily at our youth teaches
God does not seethe sins of his children
, that the Holy Spirit neverconvicts believers of sin, that believers never need
to confess their sins to God, and that believers
never need to repent of their sins. Such teaching is
truly heresy and if you follow it it becomes a sure
ticket to the hot place. We’d all like to believe we
will not be held accountable for our behavior but it
just isn’t so. That isn’t what God’s word says.
If believers never needed to repent of their sins,
why did Jesus say, “Those whom I love I rebuke
and discipline. So be earnest, and repent” (Rev.
3:19)? Watch this video and run from any church
teaching or advocating hyper grace; that you do
not need to be held accountable for your sins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAtlMPvZGxg
It takes a combination of prayer, worship, service,
and the study of scripture to produce spiritual
growth and retain our salvation. Near death
experience testimonials of those persons whose
spirits were taken out of body to heaven and hell
when they died tell us the odds of those making it
to heaven at death may only be 50 out of 2000
(2.5%). Not good odds. The Howard Pittman near
death testimony sheds light on those numbers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TjIyXJoJOw
We need to know why this figure is so low and
make the necessary corrections in our lives to be
able to be on the right side of the fence when the
33
grim reaper arrives to take us away.
The websites
www.divinerevelations.info , , www.heavenvisit.com ,and www.bibleprobe.com/nde.htm
all speak ofand document many of those testimonials which
include statements given by angels and even hints
by Jesus Himself, of how many people enter
heaven and hell each day. These stories also tend
to dispel the “soul sleep “ theory where we all lie in
the grave knowing nothing until the second coming.
But again, a matter of interpretation.
I believe our soul/spirit do make a journey
atdeath. We need proper foundational knowledge
about what the Bible tells us about this most important
journey. It is why this became a book
instead of a single page tract handout. I am not
here to argue whether camp A or camp B is correct
in their theology. As you begin to understand your
works are really a result of the Holy Spirit working
within you, and not of your own fabrication, it
becomes easier to understand how your works
become the reflection of being born again. If salvation
were such a simple task as saying the sinner’s
prayer once in your life and not having to pay
attention to your daily behavior and sinful ways I
would expect the odds of entering heaven at death
to be much better than what the Bible and near
death experience testimonies are telling us.
We need to gain knowledge and make key decisions
while still alive on earth. We need to develop
a better foundational background in what God’s
word says so we can make better decisions in daily
matters and situations which could very well affect
34
which destination we will be headed towards at
death. Before every decision, think. (DWJWD) Do
what Jesus would do in that situation; every time,
not just when it is convenient. I think you will find
the things revealed in this book quite fascinating
and hopefully it will boost your faith sufficiently and
increase your fertile ground and belief enough to
cause you to truly accept Jesus as your savior and
become much more cognizant of your daily words,
actions, and deeds towards your fellow man as you
allow the Holy Spirit to empower you in your daily
life. Empowerment by the Holy Spirit is everything.
He is real. He lives inside of us. He is the key
to our journey to heaven in the afterlife.
I believe when we leave earth, when we die, our
spirit and soul depart from our body and make the
journey to either heaven or hell. Both places are
real and exist today. Learn what each has to offer
as a destination.
Hell is not a good place to end up at. It is said to
be a place of constant agony, unbearable heat,
great stench, darkness, and ugly grotesque demons
of all shapes and sizes whose job it is to
torment the occupants. Purgatory, as a stopping off
place to be cleansed of sin before going to heaven
is a myth; contrived by religion to extract money
from the people via a system called indulgences.
There is no purgatory or concept of purgatory
spoken of in the Bible. Most priests today will admit
purgatory does not exist.
The journey at death is the most important journey
you will ever make. And your destination, heaven
or hell, is highly dependant upon you; what you
believe in and how you have treated your fellow
35
man. Basically, your destination is your choice.
According to a Rev. Yong Park (see his story at
) who was shownboth heaven and hell in a near death experience,
only 1 in 1000 spirits of the people who die travel
to heaven at death, the balance end up in hell.
Slim odds for the unknowledgeable. Jesus tells us,
Hosea4:6, His people perish for lack of knowledge.
How you can help save people
There’s the story of an older white haired gentleman
named Mr Genor who used to stand in doorways
on George Street in Sidney Australia and he
would step out of the doorway and give people
Gospel tracts and ask them if they were saved and
if they died today would they go to heaven. He is
probably responsible for saving a lot of people over
the years. Some near death experiencers have met
Mr Genor in heaven. Another man carried chalk
with him and wherever he went he wrote the word
“eternity” on the top of street corner curbs he
came to. It gave people a lot to think about.
But in the parable of the sower,
Luke 8:4-15,Jesus tells us more is necessary. We need to pass
from the seeds sown along the path where the
birds devour them, to seed sown amongst rocky
terrain which die from lack of moisture, to seed
sown amongst thorns and weeds that are choked
out, to the seed finally grown on fertile soil which
takes hold and flourishes. Without sufficient foundation
in what the Gospel says your belief will be
short lived, you will not sustain your belief nor
endure to the end. Most people don't want to spend
the time reading the Bible to get a foundation
upon which to base and sustain their belief. And for
36
many, that task simply appears too formidable;
lack of time, lack of commitment; and if they aren’t
already “born again” much of the Bible will just be
words without meaning to them; they won’t be
able to discern what those words mean. The key
word is sustain. Saying the sinner's prayer once in
your life does not keep you saved. God's word
preaches a conditional security. In 1 John 2:24-25
remember Jesus tells us, "I tell you the truth, IF
anyone keeps my word, he will never see death
(spiritual death)." Note that key word IF. Your
being saved is conditional upon you doing your
part, “IF you keep His word” and “IF you obey Him”
(keep His commandments).
It is not easy to explain
to someone that althoughour works will not get us to heaven; if
we do not show good works by our thoughts, actions,
words, and deeds; it simply proves we lack
the belief that we have been saved. Grace is not a
free ride. It protects us from occasional sin where
we get back up and get right back on the correct
path. Just being a good old boy and saying I believe
in Jesus won’t get you there. You must back
up that belief with action. Whoever has faith can't
help but show it by his or her actions. Logically,
eternal salvation is provided for man solely
by God's grace through the substitutionary death of
Jesus Christ. Man is saved through faith alone in
Christ alone, independant of his works, but good
works are a necessary result of true faith. I believe
showing such is necessary to get that ticket to
heaven at death. If God’s Holy Spirit is truly residing
inside us, our daily lives will reflect the fruits of
the spirit per Gal 5-22; love, joy, peace, longsuffer
37ing, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
temperance, and even self control
.Victory is not how long you live
nor how rich you've become, nor how big a house
you have acquired, nor how many cars and toys
you've accumulated, nor how many women (or
men) you've slept with. Victory is dying with a
pure heart covered by the blood of the lamb so that
at death your spirit and soul can enter heaven and
escape hell, where, according to many near death
experiences, many people's spirits will go at death.
Being saved is not automatic, it’s a process. It
starts with hearing the word, believing in the word,
inviting the Holy Spirit to reside inside you and
allowing Him to change and reshape your thinking,
attitudes, speech, priorities and especially how you
relate to your fellow human beings.
The LORD does not look at the things worldly man
looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the LORD looks at the heart, 1Samuel
16:7. Jesus offers us eternal salvation. That is
found in the Bible, in Hebrews 5:9, which says:
"
once made perfect, He [Jesus] became the sourceof eternal salvation for all who
OBEY him." Again,to obey Him means to keep His commandments,
God’s moral law.
The new covenant not only includes the “don’ts” of
the moral law but adds the requirements to treat
people with dignity, love and respect, ”though shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself”. Mathew 22:37-40.
For further discussion of the old & new covenants;
www.detailshere.com/twocovenants.htm
38
The glaring truth associated with eternal salvation
is: ONLY those who OBEY Jesus have eternal salvation.
Once saved always saved is not Biblical. Our
security is conditional upon an OBEDIENT faith in
Jesus. A saving faith obeys. You can live forever,
but you must be faithful to God till death to inherit
eternal life in the kingdom. It means if you prayed
the sinner's prayer once in your life and came to
Jesus then, but didn't follow up with repentance
and a changed lifestyle leaving sinful ways behind,
your chances of walking through those huge
pearly gates when you die probably aren't good.
Grace is neither a free ride nor a license to freely
sin. I believe we play a large roll in our own salvation
in how we choose to live our lives using our
will, free choice, and guidance of the Holy Spirit in
making those choices.
One more time; it takes a combination of being
born again, prayer, worship, service, and study of
scripture to produce spiritual growth and retain our
salvation. We must sustain our belief and endure to
the end to be eternally saved.
Religion can be a very confusing issue.
You willfind when exploring websites, beliefs of different
churches, you tube videos of what it takes to be
saved, and different preacher’s sermons a wide
difference of opinions; all using supposedly the
same Bible as their guideline. Those preaching
eternal security, once saved always saved, have
convincing arguments. That side of the fence
claims there is nothing you need to give up to be
saved, only your unbelief! You are saved by Jesus
no matter what you do. Your being saved has
nothing to do with your efforts. You can sin repeat
39edly and be saved if you believe in Jesus.
Hmmmm. With that kind of approach being promoted
by many of our religious leaders, is it any
wonder according to Rev Park in his near death
experience he was told 999 people out of a thousand
who die go to hell upon death? This extremely
low statistic of those making it to heaven is expounded
in several near death experience testimonies
described at
www.divinerevelations.infoIf Jesus tells us we are saved IF we OBEY him, isn’t
that just a little bit in conflict with the “say I believe
in Jesus but sin any way I want to” approach
above? The eternal security crowd calls the Salvation
Army’s teaching of an obedient faith, that to
be in a continued state of grace depends upon
continued obedience to Christ, heretical. Be careful
of which side of this fence you choose to position
yourself on. Following eternal security beliefs can
land you in hell.
They call the other side of the fence “Lordship
Salvation”
that a person must cease from living asinful life to be saved. They try to call this salvation
by works. They claim Biblical repentance
means that a person recognizes their guilt of sin
(Romans 3:19) but repentance doesn’t involve any
change of lifestyle to correct their sinful ways. But
by definition, repentance doesn’t mean to just be
sorry for our sins. It means we must change our
life and habits so we are not repeating those same
offenses over and over again. Paul Washer says
this best. I have one of Paul’s sermons, telling it
like it truly is, posted on my webpage at
www.detailshere.com/paulwasherssermon.htm
He reminds me of Jesus admonishing the Pharisees
40
who would pray loudly in the courtyards so everyone
could see and watch them but would walk by
the poor without helping them nor giving their
needs a second thought. It was all show. Paul’s
message is that you definitely need to back up your
statement of belief with actions, words and deeds
that prove such. Another of my favorite sites that
attempts to educate you and get you out of the “I
don’t have to do anything but say I believe in Jesus
Christ to be saved” eternal security camp, is
Study this site.I think it contains a lot of truth. Sadly, the average
person today is woefully ignorant of the scriptures
and cannot readily identify the false prophets,
wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are out there to
help steal his salvation from him with their lies and
comfort zone teaching. What we want and would
like to hear isn’t always what we need to hear.
What you need to understand is WHY
we exhibitgood works when we are saved. If you are
“born again” and the Holy Spirit lives inside you, in
your heart, your behavior is changed. Your
thoughts, your deeds, your speech, your actions
are all different than before because of this relationship
you now have with the Holy Spirit living
inside of you. Adam’s evil sin nature you were born
with and have been packing around up until now is
overridden with God’s Holy Spirit; the same one
that befell upon the 70 at Pentecost. Your behavioral
change doesn’t come from you but from God’s
Holy Spirit who now dwells inside of you. It’s not
your works but God’s nature manifesting itself that
now makes you different. If you are not showing
this new manifestation, not of your own doing,
which is reflected by your thoughts, words, actions
41
and deeds, then you probably aren’t born again yet
and the Holy Spirit is not yet living inside of you.
You have to ask Him to come dwell in you before
He will do so. It’s a changing of spirits within.
Adam’s sin nature kept you in bondage. With the
Holy Spirit’s help,you can now choose to let sin go.
To go to heaven you must want to go to
heaven. You must believe in heaven, you must
believe in God. But you don't have to believe in hell
to go to hell. Heretics don't believe in heaven or
hell. Because they don't believe in heaven or hell
doesn't mean they will not go to hell. Without faith,
you cannot please God. Without faith, you cannot
enter heaven. You need to grow in faith, defend
your faith and preach your faith in your family and
in your community. How to avoid hell is surely one
of the most important issues to know about. Do
what Jesus did. He came to save souls from hell.
So can I and so can you.
Who are your companions?
Seek the company of those who seek heaven, not
hell. Residence in hell results from the compulsive
pursuit of pleasure, powers, and possessions; it is
keeping the company of those who care for nothing
higher than themselves, who are driven to seek
one distraction after another in the vain hope of
protecting themselves from the uncertainty of Life’s
transfiguring touch. Sick spirits need our lives to
live. Without us they have no home. Our real inner
work is to sweep clean the places in ourselves
where such creatures reside. Remember: these evil
entities have no entrance into our lives apart from
where we have left the door open. And whatever
has been left open in our unconsciousness can be
42
closed consciously, if we so choose.
To avoid hell, you must want to avoid hell.
You must use all the means you can to avoid hell.
To avoid hell you must pay the price and some
people have accepted death as martyrs to avoid
hell. If one day you are forced to renounce your
faith or face death, you will have only one choice.
You may have to accept death as a martyr to enter
heaven and if you don't accept death as a martyr,
you will go to hell. That time may be coming
sooner than later. We don't enter heaven like
entering a shopping center. We must pay the price.
We know the price that Jesus paid for our spirit and
soul. All His suffering was endured for you and me.
Remember, Jesus made salvation AVAILABLE to all
of us. But it is not automatic. We do play a role.
Jesus did not save mankind through His preaching.
Jesus did not save mankind through His miracles.
Jesus saved mankind through His suffering,
His passion, His scourging, crowning, crucifixion
and resurrection. If Jesus paid that price, we must
do our share in order to enter heaven. We must
pay a price too. On Mount Tabor the Heavenly
Father said, "This is My Beloved Son. Listen to
Him." And Jesus will tell us, "No one goes to My
Father except through Me." There is no way to
enter heaven if we don't listen to and obey the
word of Jesus. Most Jews, except Messianic Jews,
today have rejected Jesus and don't believe in
Jesus. They don’t even believe He came the first
time, and many stand a good chance of not entering
heaven at death. Muslims and many cults don't
believe that Jesus IS God. Please understand that
43
outside of faith in Jesus as our redeemer there is
no salvation.
God is not so much interested
in compliance asHe is in character. God engineers our lives so there
are many moments of character development.
Once character is in place, obedience is the resulting
natural by-product. A leader with a heart for
God will obey. It’s just who he is. That’s the way
God wants it. Although the Bible was written over
the course of 1,600 years by 40 different authors
from widely differing occupations, cultures, and
time periods on varied and controversial subjects,
they essentially all agreed with each other – a
phenomenon still unparalleled in literature.
Why concern yourself with
the message of theBible? FACT- without Jesus we would all die and
end up in hell. Hell is real. It exists today. It is a
vile, odorous, extremely hot & nasty place.
See
www.divinerevelations.info , , www.near-death.com ,and
www.bibleprobe.com/nde.htm for testimoniesof people who had a near death experience
and/or who were taken out of body for a visit to
heaven or hell or both. Although not all of these
stories can be believed in their entirety, we can
glean much information from the similarities in
many of them. They tell us things they could not
have known any other way except through their
visitations. Some of these should give us warnings.
What scripture teaches is that Jesus came so that
we could have salvation through him. Being good,
but without a belief in Jesus, will not save you. The
Bible clearly tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth
44
and the light and the only way to the Father is
through him. Many believe our spirit and soul live
on throughout eternity. Where; is up to us and
what we believe.
We are out of time.
The Bible is a historical recordof earthly times, places, people and events.
Most all of the events prophesied in the Bible have
already come to pass. What little remains is unfolding
rapidly to those who are paying attention and
know what to expect. John’s Revelation, the last
chapter in the Bible, is playing out rapidly as this is
being written. Jesus is coming soon for His bride;
that’s us; at least many of us. You don't want to
be one of the ten virgins who forgot their oil and
wasn't prepared to meet the bridegroom (Matthew
25). Study that parable until you understand it.
The mark of the beast is upon us.
Revelation 13:17, 14:11, 16:2, 19:20 and 20:4 all
speak of this mark taken by people on foreheads or
hands as eventually a requirement to buy or sell.
Is it symbolic or real? Is it a literal tattoo? Or
something much more nefarious? Rev14:9-11 tells
us the fate of those who take this mark of the
beast. Basically you are lost if you take this mark.
Although no one knows for absolutely sure, it is
appearing the rice grain sized RFID microchip
implanted under the skin in the hand is becoming a
highly likely candidate for this. Today’s chips do
more than just maintain a record of data; they can
track you, alter your mind and thought process,
alter your attitude and demeanor, and even be
used to terminate your life; all through radio frequency
input and programming. All the cellphone
45
towers you see around you are not just for cellphone
communications. They contain ELF modules
designed to send out electromagnetic waves programming
people who have these chips. People
who have been chipped become docile and easy to
control.
Obamacare contains verbage requiring the entire
population be chipped. This was to be effective
March 2013 although that date has come and gone
without that happening yet. States such as North
Carolina and California are hauling their homeless
off to FEMA camps and microchipping them as a
condition for survival. Those who have been microchipped
are stating the presence of God has left
them, they no longer feel the Holy Spirit resides
inside them. Go to
www.google.com or and input “microchip as themark of the beast” and you will find some interesting
sites. Be very very leery of this chip, keep your
parachute on and don’t take the mark at any cost.
It's not about being saved for a day
by recitingthe sinner's prayer once in your lifetime. That
prayer may save you for a day, a week or even a
month. Being saved every day requires a daily walk
with Jesus and effort on your part to allow the Holy
Spirit who wants to live within you to change your
heart, change your mind, change your speech,
change your thoughts, change your character, and
change your behavior. Yes, we are only saved by
grace, not by the works we do. But grace is not a
license to freely sin. If our deeds, thoughts, speech
and actions do not reflect the Holy Spirit living
within us, it simply shows we have head knowledge
only, and not saving faith and belief. Sin needs to
46
become the infrequent exception in our life, and
not the norm or rule. It is neither an issue to be
taken lightly nor one to be ignored.
Christianity
is not a particular religious affiliation.Christ's church is not a particular sect, but it is
comprised of those who choose to follow His ways
and obey Him. Jesus tells us if we love Him to
keep His commandments. Do You? Do you even
know what the commandments are or where you
can find them? See Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy
5:6-21 and my webpage for more details at
www.detailshere.com/tencommandments.htm
The Bible does not preach a gospel
of prosperity and good times. It preaches the good
news of hoped for redemption which is the issue we
want to address. We need redemption from our sin.
The people 2000 years ago expected Jesus to come
as a lion and rule the earth, but instead He came
as a lamb and they didn't recognize Him. His mission
then of saving mankind from Satan's stranglehold
was different than His mission this time
around at the second coming, to rule the earth.
Satan was defeated 2000 years ago when Jesus
died on the cross and was resurrected. Today the
new age Jesus is the lamb but the real Jesus is
coming back as a lion and will rule the earth with a
rod of steel. Don't be sucked into new age thinking.
When Jesus comes back this time the tares, (weeds
- the wicked) will be burned (destroyed). Matthew
13:30 and 13:40. You don’t want to be a tare.
47
As I do not pastor for any particular
affiliation or church, I am not under any particular
church’s rules about what I can or cannot share
with you. We are not trying to wrangle you into any
particular affiliation. We find both truth as well as
error in the theology of most all affiliations. Do we
have all the truth? I doubt it. As we grow in the
supernatural and the Holy Spirit continues to refill
us, our understanding of God’s words, ways and
character is constantly increasing and growing.
Most churches won’t venture into gray areas or
deal in information outside of what the Bible specifically
says. And, as you know, much of what the
Bible says is subject to interpretation. I do venture
into areas outside Bible scripture to help clarify
what scripture is actually trying to tell us. I use a
Geneva 1599 Bible which is loaded with footnotes
telling us what things don’t mean as well as what
they do mean. King James hated this Bible. It was
the people’s Bible that preceded his 1611 KJV. His
does not have those footnotes. Today’s churches
preach messages of comfort instead of educating
you with what you need to know in order to make
the trip to heaven at death. Heaven is real, and
so is hell. Both places exist today; now. If you
studied hell as much as I have, and would come to
realize just how terrible a place it is, you would
do everything in your power to ensure as many
people as possible are reached with the message of
salvation so they would not chance going there
when they die. There are many things you are not
being told when you go to church that you need to
learn about and understand if you want to stay out
of hell at death. But churches would lose members
if they addressed those uncomfortable issues; such
48
as the subjects of hell, demonic possession, homosexuality,
and abortion. For most part, they don’t
go there. Those issues are swept under the rug.
Salvation is the most critical aspect of our
whole life and many don’t even know what the
word means. Many think of the Bible as a book of
stories or myths, not realizing it IS God’s word. It
is also a history book, and it IS our roadmap to
heaven. Our short life here on earth is only a
testing ground to determine our eternal destiny
after our human elemental body dies and our
soul (mind) and spirit move on.
Do all good people go to heaven
when they die? Can you get to heaven on your
own good deeds and by just being a good person?
Did you ever wonder about how good you would
have to be to make it to heaven without Jesus as
Savior? Well, God has told us how well we would
have to do to get into heaven. He has revealed
the passing grade in His class of life. Do you know
what it is? Jesus said: "Be perfect, therefore as
your Father, which is in Heaven, is perfect" (Matthew
5: 48). There it stands! That's the passing
grade! God doesn't grade on a curve. God says,
"Be perfect"! Is that possible? Well, no, in fact it
is absolutely impossible. When you commit your
first sin as a child, you have failed with Plan A. But
God HAS provided an “out” for us sinners, Plan
B, through the death and resurrection of His son,
Jesus; Yahushua our Messiah, our Lord and Savior.
49
Near death experiences
Learning about hell as well as the demonic, are
critical aspects to your salvation. Howard Pittman,
a preacher, had a near death experience and
thought he was doing well, but when he was
brought before God to plead for an extension of his
life, he discovered otherwise. God's wrath befell
upon him. There's a real message in this
video regarding the "good old boy" syndrome. This
is a must watch video filled with information about
the demonic hierarchy that work for Satan and
what lies on the other side of the veil. This video
should provide a wake up call.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wivgDck1l88&feature=related
you can't watch the video, check out the book;
"Placebo" by Howard Pitman. The message of what
God really wants of us is in there. In this video Mr.
Pittman is told only 2.5% of those who die make it
to heaven. Not good odds.
Plan B - the “out” –
the other way to get toheaven without having to be “perfect” is to rely on
Jesus. If you willingly accept Jesus as your savior
(one who does for you what you cannot do for
yourself). His righteousness is substituted for your
sinfulness in the eyes of the Father. This is called
grace, a free gift that can’t be earned, is not merited,
and isn’t deserved. But you DO have to accept
this gift and show your belief in that acceptance
by repentance - your changed thoughts,
words, actions, and deeds regarding your behavior.
There is a big difference between knowing
Jesus and knowing ABOUT Jesus. Putting your
faith in Jesus is the only pathway to heaven. Con
50trary to popular new age beliefs, there are
NOT multiple paths to heaven.
What does it mean to "put your faith in Jesus
Christ?"
It means to personally trust in Jesus the same way
you would trust in a parachute if you had to jump
out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. The parachute
would be the only support device that would allow
a safe landing. You wouldn’t just "believe" in the
parachute; you would put it on! In the same way,
the Bible says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ..."
Rom 13:14, and you will be saved. There are millions
of people who "believe" Jesus exists. Even the
devil and his demons believe Jesus exists, but
those people have not put on the Savior. There’s a
BIG difference. And the difference will be obvious
when you “jump” through the door of death. That's
our focus; the parachute. Little else is important
except the parachute and learning why you need it,
how you obtain it, and how you keep it.
What is the parachute?
The parachute is Jesus of course, the substitution
of His righteousness for our sinfulness in the eyes
of the Father. If you don’t accept Jesus as your
Savior and show that belief; your spirit chances
going to hell at death and will either stay there
forever or be burned up and annihilated in the lake
of fire at the end of the millennium; the only possible
recourses. Due to interpretation of Bible rhetoric,
in my book, the jury is still out on which of
those scenarios will apply.
Being a good old boy or going to church doesn’t get
you to heaven because you are not perfect; God’s
51
only passing grade. Only having the parachute on
at death gets you to heaven and keeps you out of
hell. Sadly, less than 10% of the people who obtain
the parachute keep it on. That means 90% of
all those who make the altar call to accept Jesus as
their savior backslide away into sin and take their
parachute off at some point in time afterwards.
That’s the difference between reading a tract handout
and coming to Jesus for a short while, and
studying instruction enough to gain a more solid
foundation in God’s word that will sustain your
belief and faith to the end.
Once in hell, there is no escape.
It's a one-way ticket only, no recourse, no changing
travel plans. You either have your parachute
strapped on all the time or you can lose everything.
Depending upon interpretation of Rev 20:14 you
will either stay in hell until you are terminated in
the lake of fire at the great white throne judgment
at the end of the millennium; or you will
suffer “everlasting punishment”; Mathew 25:46.
The play on words is; does that mean everlasting
punishing forever and ever or annihilation in the
lake of fire that is a permanent extinction and
final; meaning your spirit will literally then cease to
exist? The absolute answer to that question is one
of the Bible’s mysteries. I don’t honestly know for
sure.
2 Timothy 1:10, John 6:47, John 8-51, and
John 11:26 all tell us that if we believe in Jesus we
will not see (spiritual) death and we will have life
eternal. The Bible doesn't seem to tell us that the
spirits of the wicked and those not covered by the
52
blood the lamb will have eternal life. Can you afford
to wait and find out?
Forget about religio
nDon’t dwell on what any particular religion teaches,
forget about praying to your angel or the saints or
the Pope. You are only supposed to pray to Jesus
or God the Father anyway - 1Timothy 2:5
"For there is one God, and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus". Forget
about buying crosses and necklaces and pictures
and figurines to show your allegiance to Jesus (the
second commandment forbids that also), or learning
everything there is to know about the Bible;
which probably isn’t possible. Learning about the
Bible may help you to keep the parachute on but it
doesn’t get you saved. Getting to heaven and
staying out of hell is simple. Put Jesus on and keep
Him on. Learn the parachute and teach the parachute
to others. Especially stay away from religious
arguments regarding Bible interpretations that can
poison you with doubt and tempt you to remove
your parachute. Focus on what gets you
saved and keeps you saved; a daily relationship
with Jesus. That’s what it's all about.
We want to know the truth about God's word
,to sort out what we really need to know about how
to get to heaven if there is a heaven, how to stay
out of hell if there is a hell, and object to being told
to "just believe" instead of having proof of our
creator's existence and His plan for us. This is a
double edged sword; as Jesus told Thomas when
Thomas said he wouldn't believe until he put
his fingers in the holes in Jesus' hands and
feet; "Blessed are they who believe without see
53ing." There is a stigma associated with the "proof"
thing. But I am a “show me the proof” kind of guy
and this book and the URL links offered contain
much proof folks.
What is meant by the triune nature of God?
Matthew 28:19 speaks of the three personages of
the Godhead. "Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". God has
revealed himself to mankind in three facets,
which comprise what we call the Godhead. These
facets are sometimes referred to as persons or the
trinity, or the triune nature of God, though it is
critical to maintain that the essence of God is
singular, "The Lord our God is one", Deuteronomy
6:4. God the Father is unseen and unknown to us
(John 6:46) except as he reveals himself to us in
the Son (John 17:3-8). The Son proceeded from
the Father (John 6:57) though the Son has always
existed as long as the Father himself (John 17:5).
The Son is the unseen Father made visible for a
time (John 14:9) who, upon returning to heaven,
then sent his invisible Spirit to be with us (John
14:16). Though the Spirit is unseen (John 14:17),
the Spirit influences us in the present by the authority
of the Son that we might give glory
and worship to the Father (John 4:23, 16:13-14).
Thus God is but one God - being Spirit and Son and
Father – just as time is similarly one continuum -
being past and present and future. "....
Holy, holy,holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is,
and is to come.
" (Revelation 4:8)The reason the word "person" is used in describing
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is because
each exhibits different attributes of personhood,
54
not in a body of flesh and bones, but in personality.
In other words, each has a will, loves, speaks,
is aware of others, communicates with others, etc.
1Cor12:4-6, 2Cor13:14, Eph 4:4-6, Jude 20-21,
and John 14:11 also make it quite clear God has a
triune nature in the personages of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The three personages in one godhead
concept is not something all understand at first. To
gain a better understanding of the nature and
character of God in His three personages I suggest
you read the riveting book "The Shack" by William
P. Young. It is a true story although sold as fiction
to avoid theological conflicts. You won't be able
to put it down. McKenzie goes camping with his
kids and while rescuing one in a canoe; a serial
killer kidnaps his young daughter whose bloodied
dress is later found in a shack in the woods by a
lake. After several years of major grief and emotional
pain, God sends McKenzie a snail mail letter
inviting him to meet with Him in the shack where
his daughter's dress was found, for a weekend.
McKenzie finally goes on a bleak wintry day but
finds no one in the dilapidated shack. Just as
he turns to return to his car the shack is transformed
into a beautiful cabin, snow melts and
months of winter transform into spring in a matter
of minutes, and he hears voices inside and sees
smoke coming out of the chimney. He can't believe
it. Although appearing not as expected, McKenzie
meets God the Father, Jesus the son, and the Holy
Spirit. Many fascinating things are revealed in this
book over that special weekend of healing for
McKenzie about the nature and character of God
and how the three personages of God relate to
55
each another and interact with us. McKenzie even
gets to walk across the top of the lake to the other
side with Jesus. The discovery of just who God is,
is so revealing in this book that my wife, with the
help of the Holy Spirit, literally translated the important
parts of the whole book into Russian for her
people. If you are Russian you can find this at
Irina's blog, the link to which can be found at
, her website.The Shack is a must read if you want to better
understand the nature and character of God in the
three personages. Some point out theological
errors in the book. I believe any theological errors
in the book are irrelevant compared to the mission
of gaining a better understanding of the triune
nature of God. When I summarize the story in
Bible meetings, I can never get through it all before
tears come to my eyes and I choke up, and I
have to stop and regain composure before continuing.
It has that much impact. God speaks to us in
many ways; through books, emails, and youtube
videos. Few of them are audibly verbal. He uses
His helpers to communicate to us things He thinks
are important for us to know.
Who is God?
God is the Supreme Deity of the universe. He is the
Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens,
the earth and all things therein. He alone is
immortal (1Tim. 6:16). He is our God and Father
as well as the God and Father of Jesus Christ. He
is the Most High God and the One True God. God
is the creator of all things; us, the animals, the
fish, the birds, the earth, the sun, the moon, the
planets, the stars, the universe; everything!
Evolution and the big bang theory have been
56
proven erroneous. God is responsible for creating
the smallest one celled creature to the largest star
or galaxy. God always was, is, and always will be.
The Bible teaches us that in all existence, from all
eternity, there has been and always will be only
one God. God was never created, is completely
loving, completely just, completely holy, completely
merciful, and He desires the best for
us. The Bible says there is only one God: "I
am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me
there is no God," (Isaiah 45:5). Yet, the Bible
teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are
part of the Godhead. Each of the persons in the
Trinity share the same attributes that only God
shares. But remember; the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit each have wills, and speak; therefore, we
say there are three personages in one Godhead.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is the first begotten of the creation hence the
beginning of the creation of God. He is the only
born Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit and
born to the Virgin Mary. He is the Christ or Messiah
sent from God to be our Savior and Redeemer.
He is called the Son of the Most High God. He was
designated Son of God in power according to the
Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.
He is given the throne of David to rule over the
House of Jacob forever and of his Kingdom
there shall be no end. Jesus is God Himself in
human form who came to earth to rectify the grave
sin Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden
to redeem mankind from Satan. For those who are
born again, Jesus lives or abides inside of our
57
heart in the form of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us.
To understand who Jesus the Christ was, go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTb4UIbnOHE
online and watch a free very accurate full length
film of the story and life of Jesus Christ.
The real Jesus
This is a painting of who I believe is the real Jesus
who lives today in heaven as painted by child
prodigy Akiane Kramarik. See her site for this pic in
color
www.artakiane.com and video of her workshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tstVt-oyo1o
Jesus visited her at age 4 as a tall carpenter. She
made this painting later from memory. This is the
only picture of Jesus, Colton Burpo, who saw Jesus
in Heaven,
www.heavenisreal.com , says is thereal likeness of Jesus from all of the different pictures
he has seen of Jesus. Search youtube. Go to
and type in Colton Burpo;58
Heaven is Real. He reveals many things about
heaven and Jesus from his visit.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Forty days after Jesus was resurrected following
His crucifixion, he left the earth and ascended back
into heaven. He told His disciples He would send a
replacement in the form of a comforter that would
allow them to continue on with the works they saw
Him do. He sent the Holy Spirit ten days later at
Pentecost. The Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) is that essence
or power of God which Christ promised to
send to the elect. The Holy Spirit is the extension
of the living power of God. It is the means whereby
we become partakers of the Divine Nature, being
filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given
by God to those who ask and obey him, dwelling in
those who keep God's commandments. The Holy
Spirit is the comforter that leads God's servants
into all truth. The Holy Spirit confers the power to
witness (Acts 1:8). It administers gifts as recorded
in 1Corinthians 12:7-11 and has fruits as described
in Galatians 5:22-23. The Spirit is the
means by which we worship God. It is a force
which empowers Christ in us to reach others.
Who are we, as humans?
1Thessolonians 5:23 tells us we are a spirit being,
made in the image of God, living in a flesh and
bones body and we have a soul. We are made up
of body, soul, and spirit - a trichotomy; just as God
has a triune nature of God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our body is only
elements of the earth. Dust to dust. Our soul is not
our spirit and our spirit is not just our breathe of
life. Our soul is our mind with which we think, our
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psyche, our emotions with which we act or respond,
our will with which we decide - it constitutes
our personality, our individual self. For an extremely
complete explanation of soul and spirit and
why they are different, see my wife’s webpage at
http://www.iisusbog.com/p31ead.htm
.The soul communicates with the body to tell the
body how to move and what to do. But our spirit
communicates with our soul to tell it what is right
and what is wrong. Our spirit is our conscience, our
intuition. It is that little voice inside us that tells us
"Uh-oh", when we are about to do something we
know isn't right. When people continually do things
we all know is wrong we say they have no conscience.
Better terminology is that they have a
"seared" conscience. When our conscience is
"seared" there is no little voice inside that reminds
us of what is right and what is wrong because our
conscience is a spirit of human sin nature inherited
from Adam.
God created Adam and Eve perfect including a
spirit that was of God when He made them. They
lost that spirit when they disobeyed God in the
Garden of Eden. Eating the forbidden fruit might
have been the physical act but disobedience was
the sin they committed. When they did that, the
spirit of God in them died and was replaced by a
spirit of human sin nature. We inherit this nature
of Adam, this human sin nature, when we are born.
It is why we need to be born again
so this spiritof human sin nature can be replaced by God's
nature again. God restores our spirit to each who
believes and asks for it. Let's say you have a three
60year-old child which is considered unaccountable
yet in God's eyes. If that child dies, he goes to
heaven. There are no children in hell. But your
child understands your words. You tell him NOT to
touch your computer in your office but while you
are in the other room you hear a crash and when
you go into your office you see your computer on
the floor and your three-year-old child standing
there with a guilty look on his face. You ask him if
he touched your computer. He shakes his head and
says no. You know he is lying. Did you teach him to
lie? Where did he get it from then? From Adam. He
was born with Adam's human sin nature. He has no
conscience in him yet that is from God, which tells
him lying is a no-no.
Our spirit or conscience is a very important part of
our being. It is our spirit that is capable of communicating
with God. John 4:24 says God is
spirit and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and in truth. Jesus, God's son, came to earth
in human carnate form. But God the Father has no
earthly form, He is spirit only. When the Bible says
we are made in the image of God, it is not bodily
form it is talking about, it is in spirit. It is why
we need to be born again, so the spirit that is in us
that is dead at birth from Adam and Eve's sin,
can become alive again so we can commune with
God. Our spirit leaves our body at physical death.
James 2:26; Ecclesiastes 12:7. Spiritual death is
the result of a person being separated from God by
sin - Ephesians 2:1; 1Timothy 5:6; Isaiah 59:2.
At physical death I believe our spirit and soul leave
the body behind and make a journey to either
heaven or hell. It is important to know that your
final spiritual journey is determined while still alive
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on earth. Once you die, there is no recourse, no
changing destinations; ever. You have to get this
figured out now while yet alive, even if right up to
the moment of your last breath.
Read the parable of the vineyard owner
inMathew 20. The men he hired in late afternoon
received the same wages as those he hired early in
the morning. You can be saved in your last dying
breath, just as if you had been with Jesus your
whole life. Downside is this thing called untimely
death. Death can be unexpected and quite immediate
for many. Many won't have the time to finally
come to Jesus, and make the final plea for salvation,
even if they had planned to do so. Saying to
yourself, "I still have tomorrow to do it" is unwise
thinking. Most heart attack victims die in their
sleep. The only smart approach is to keep your
parachute on all the time, every day, 24/7, 365
days a year. Put DWJWD (do what Jesus would do)
into practice with every decision you make. Eternity
is forever.
Who is Satan?
The big question everyone asks, is; did God create
the devil? The answer is yes and no. God created
an angelic being named Lucifer, who later rebelled
against God and then became Satan, the devil. The
Bible says Satan was an angel in the heavens, a
cherubim named Lucifer, a most beautiful angel,
made perfect in every way; not really just an Angel
like Michael, Gabriel, or Rafael. Cherubim had four
wings, four faces (ox, man, eagle, serpent). It also
speaks of him having pipes, possibly on his chest
where music came out. He decided that he did not
want to obey God and wanted for himself to receive
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the worship God was receiving. He started a rebellion
in heaven. Through deception and lies he
wrangled a third of the angels to come over to
his side. He was thrown out of heaven down to
earth for the sin of rebellion and his name Lucifer
was changed to Satan; father of lies, the deceiver,
the wicked one, Abbadon in Hebrew, Apolyon in
Greek, adversary, angel of light, thief, tempter,
and ruler of this planet earth. His beauty was
removed from him but it is said he can shape shift
into however he wants to appear. To those who
have seen him as he currently is, Satan is shown
on the cover of the book "War of the Angels". You
can read this whole book online for free at
.Satan is said to have the face
of a wolf, hishorns are actually his ears, the lower half of his
face is fishy as his mouth opening is similar to a
large mouth bass and puckers like a fish when he
breathes, in the middle of his face is a large welt in
the shape of a cross as if he were branded with a
hot branding iron as a sign of banishment. His
torso is reptilian with scales, and his midriff looks
like the underbelly of a serpent. His arms are long
and lean. His legs are large and heavy, like a
tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur. His tail is similar
to that of a crocodile. All these are descriptions
portrayed in prophecy and witnessed by the author
of War of the Angels. Satan's goal is to
bring death, destruction and ruin to mankind. He
works 24/7 365 days a year to get you to sin, to
backslide, question your belief in God, and fall out
of grace with God. If he can get you to backslide
and lose your faith your spirit will go to hell at
death instead of heaven. That's Satan's mis
63sion. Hear me. Spiritual warfare is very real. The
battle for your spirit at death is a real battle. It is
not imaginary. We just can't see it going on in the
natural although we are very much participants in
that battle. But it is a real war in the supernatural.
Satan uses spiritual strongholds to ensnare us
These are manifested through our personality in
the form of anger, depression, fear, feelings of
inferiority, insecurity, rejection, feeling unwanted
or unloved, hatred, jealousy, resentment, self-pity,
and worry. These strongholds can manfest through
mental problems; unrealistic and unexplained
procrastination, incomprehensible indecision, wavering,
compromise, confusion, delusions, doubt,
rationalization, and even loss of memory. These
strongholds can surface as disruptive speech;
uncontrolled outbursts, lying, profanity, blasphemy,
criticism, mockery and gossip. Strongholds can
also manifest as sexual problems; recurring unclean
thoughts, promiscuity, fantasizing sexual
experiences, masturbation, lust, provocative and
lewd behavior, homosexuality, fornication, adultery,
incest, and other sexual perversions.
Satan uses addictions to destroy us. He oppresses
us using dependency on things like nicotine, alcohol,
illegal drugs, prescription and over the counter
medications (like sleeping pills), gambling, television,
porn on the internet, satanic computer
games, caffeine, and even food. Sometimes even
physical infirmities are spiritual strongholds. What
some psychologists call an "addictive personality"
may actually be the results of a spiritual stronghold;
basically being demonically possessed.
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How do we receive these Satanic strongholds?
We invite them in through our actions and behavior.
Becoming involved with the occult or spiritualism
in any form can open the door to these spiritual
strongholds. This includes being involved with
seances, witchcraft, black magic, Wicca, ouija
boards, levitation, palmistry, tarrot card reading,
handwriting analysis, ESP, hypnosis, reading horoscopes,
astrology, fortune telling, seeking communication
with spirits of the dead, new age meditation,
yoga as a spiritualistic experience, divination
(even as simple as water witching), mantras and
any form of devil worship. Yes, some famous artists
have sold their spirit to Satan in trade for fame
and glory in this life; totally unaware of the price
they will pay for eternity in the afterlife. Any form
of seeking supernatural knowledge, wisdom, guidance,
and power apart from God is forbidden in the
Bible.
In Deuteronomy18:9-14, believers are commanded
to avoid every form of participation in demonic
practices. We are not to watch movies or
television programs that have demonic content,
read demonic books, participate in demonic games
(which many computer games are), or listen to
songs that have demonic lyrics. If you continue to
watch television shows and movies which depict
lying, murder, guns, drugs, and sexual immorality,
what do you think that does to your mind? Our
soul, our mind, is like a computer. What is fed
into it as input, greatly affects what comes out of
us as output. If we choose immoral and Satanic
input, how can we expect righteous behavior
as output? Simply put, we can't. It's one reason
our youth of today simply do not have the same
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values as older people. They allow improper input
to enter which greatly affects their minds.
We have to guard closely what we allow into our
minds. We have to also guard against believing in
and adapting false religions and doctrines of man.
The main church of the Middle Ages contained
many man's doctrines, and pagan traditions as
people came into the church when Constantine
tried to Christianize all the pagans back in the
300’s. They simply brought their pagan baggage
with them. Some of it stuck and stayed with the
church. And they are not alone. Most main
churches today harbor some man’s doctrines
in their theology. 1 Timothy 4:1 tells us that in the
last days (which I believe we are in now) there will
be a great increase in doctrinal error promoted by
deceiving or seducing spirits , which will infiltrate
the church. Any doctrine that attacks the humanity
and deity of Jesus Christ or denies the inspiration
or inerrancy of scripture is a false doctrine.
Keep in mind that if you do not belong to
Jesus Christ you belong to Satan, by default. You
don't have to be a card carrying Satanist to serve
Satan. You don't have to be a murderer, drunkard
or drug addict, either. God will punish all the rapists,
murderers, and thieves...But he won't stop
there. He will also punish all liars, the lustful, adulterers,
fornicators, idolaters, and blasphemers.
You’ve already broken many of God’s ten commandments
and all you have to do to go to hell at
death, is ignore Jesus Christ; or fail to have a
relationship with Him and call upon Him to be your
savior. He isn’t big on lip service. If you don't
have Jesus in your life and in your heart today,
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you are deceived and hell bound--you are a child of
hell, a child of the devil. And hell is the place where
you are destined to go and be punished at if you
fail to have your parachute on when you die.
God condemns channeling.
Saul lost his life and that of his sons due to channeling.
But today’s newagers in trying to convince
you there are multiple paths to heaven outside of
the salvation of Jesus, all use channeling to get
their information; all of it coming from demonic
sources. Satan only fears one person;
Jesus. If you are covered by the shed blood of
Jesus (you have your parachute on) then Satan
doesn’t get you. Therefore it is his job to tell you
and convince you that you don’t need Jesus or the
Jesus `parachute to get to heaven. That’s his lie
and if you believe that, he wins your soul. The goal
of course is to never let him get that kind of a
foothold on your mind and thoughts. Never doubt
your belief.
I recently read a book
entitled “Mathew - Tell meabout heaven” by Suzy Ward. Her 17 year old son
died in a jeep accident and tells her about heaven
telepathically via channeling so she can write about
it. Interesting book, and it contains many things
she could not have made up which tells us she IS
in fact channeling some spirit somewhere; but the
book lacks Jesus. The salvation of Jesus message
isn’t there. He speaks of reincarnation, of
Haton, Ashtar and other characters of the Galactic
Federation whom we believe to be fallen angels. In
my opinion she is channeling a demonic impersonator
who knows all about her son and his goal is to
convince everyone through her books that Jesus is
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not necessary to get to heaven. That’s a big lie.
Satan is using her to create deception and steer
people away from Jesus. Yes, there are evil spirits
that pretend to be good spirits who tell us lies.
The whole message of the good news of the
Gospel is
that we have a pathway to God’s Kingdomthrough Jesus. Each one of us has broken
most of God's ten commandments; His law. You
say, but I haven’t murdered anyone; but the Bible
says to have anger and hatred is akin to murder.
Ever been through a divorce or child support issue?
You say I haven’t committed adultery; but the
Bible says to look at a person with lust is the same
as the act. Have you not ever wished for something
your neighbor had that you lacked? Have you not
ever told a lie, no matter how small? Have you
ever not minded your parents? Have you not ever,
even as a child, taken something, no matter how
small that was not yours? Have you never cursed?
The Bible says that if we break just one commandment
it is the same as breaking them all.
James 2:10. We cannot get to the kingdom on our
own deeds. We are simply not perfect, God’s only
passing grade. God is a just judge. He is not a
corrupt judge. He will not let sin go without
just punishment. Thinking that your God will let
you in with sin on your soul because you were
basically a good old boy is worshipping a false God.
The real Yahweh won’t do that. Someone has to
pay for those sins; whether it be you; or someone
who paid that price for you. No other alternatives.
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That's why we need a savior. That’s why we need
to accept Jesus as our savior. Jesus paid the price
for our sins for us with His own death on the
cross, because we simply cannot keep God’s laws,
no matter how hard we try. His righteousness
is substituted for our sins in the eyes of the Father.
That’s what a savior does. He does for you what
you cannot do for yourself. He paid for our ticket
with His death on the cross. We just have to accept
it, and show that we have accepted it by our repentance;
changed behavior shown by our
thoughts, actions, words and deeds reflecting the
Holy Spirit living inside of us. We have to admit
that we are sinners (Romans 3:23); we need
to understand the wages of sin is death (Romans
6:23); we have to admit we cannot save ourselves
(John 15:5), we have to believe Jesus died on the
cross for our sins (Hebrews 2:9), and that he was
resurrected from the dead (Mark 16:9). We have to
believe that if we confess our sins Jesus will forgive
us (1John 1:9) and we will be saved from hell.
That's a quick summary of the Gospel message.
The Dramatized Gospel
- Watch an exactingshort video presentation summarizing what the
Bible is about and is trying to convey to us.
http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/gospel.htm
There are 3 files to play on this page. You can also
view them in youtube and download them.
So what exactly is sin?
And where did sin begin?Sin is defined as transgression (disobedience) of
the Law. What is the law? There are two sets of
laws. In the Torah (the first five books of the old
testament) we have what is called the Mosaic Law
or 613 laws of Yahweh people were required
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to follow. These were kept on the outside of the
Ark of the Covenant. You can find all 613 of these,
some of which are combined, at
http://gods-word-first.org/biblestudy/613commandments.html
no one could keep all of those, which is why
many lambs were sacrificed, as before Jesus died
on the cross, a blood sacrifice was required to be
cleansed of sin. Some don't make much
sense today considering current language and
customs.
The Ten Commandments
which God put downwith His little finger on stone tablets and gave to
Moses (twice – Moses broke the first set in anger)
are referred to as God's Moral Law. These stone
tablets were kept inside the Ark of the Covenant
while the Mosaic Law, the 613 laws nobody could
keep, was kept outside the ark.
God’s moral law,
the Ten Commandments, says:do not worship false gods, don't worship images,
don't use God's name in vain (swearing), honor the
Sabbath, honor father and mother, don't kill, don't
commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, and don't
covet. See
www.detailshere.com/tencommandments.htm
for a more complete description of the ten commandments.
Find them twice in the Bible. See
Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. These
were kept INSIDE the Ark of the Covenant.
The big question arises
, did all of Moses’ lawsand the Ten Commandments go out with the cross?
Many think not; that the only thing that went out
with the cross were the Mozaic Laws, animal sacri
70fices and oblations; sacrificial offerings. The cross
did not do away with the Ten Commandments.
Most people, but not all Jews, think Jesus replaced
the Mosaic laws with His new covenant. Those 613
laws still contained many things people could not
comply with and many don’t make sense today.
Colossians 2:14-17 confirms this, that what went
out with the cross was "the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us". That’s the Mosaic law
it is talking about. But in Mathew 5:17-18 Jesus
tells us He did not come to abolish the law but to
“fulfil”; with some Greek translations using “to
establish” the law. He said,” not one jot or one
tittle – like dotting of an i or crossing of a T- shall
in no wise pass from the law”. The law spoken of
here is God’s moral law, the Ten Commandments.
Jesus summarizes these in His statement about
having no other Gods before us and loving your
neighbor as thyself, Mathew 22:37-39. The verbiage
for all ten commandments is still found in the
new testament. They did not go out with the cross.
Here are the scriptural passages in the New Testament
where all of them can still be found, either
explicitly or by example. Jesus Christ and the
apostles viewed the Ten Commandments still as a
necessary part of Christian living. These still define
transgression, sin.
First Commandment:
Matthew 4:10; 22:37-38.Second Commandment
: 1 John 5:21; 1 Corinthians6:9; 10:7, 14; Ephesians 5:5.
Third Commandment:
Matthew 5:33-34; 7:21-23; Luke 11:2; 1 Timothy 6:1.
Fourth Commandment:
Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14,42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4; Hebrews 4:4, 9.
Fifth Commandment:
Matthew 15:3-6; 19:17-19; Ephesians 6:2-3.
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Sixth Commandment:
Matthew 5:21-22;19:17-18; Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:19-21;
James 2:10-12.
Seventh Commandment:
Matthew 5:27-28;19:17-18; Romans 13:9; 1 Corinthians 6:9;
10:8; Ephesians 5:5; Galatians 5:19-21; James
3:10-12.
Eighth Commandment:
Matthew 19:17-18;Romans 13:9, Ephesians 4:28
Ninth Commandment:
Matthew 19:17-18;Romans 13:9; Colossians 3:9; Ephesians 4:25
Tenth Commandment:
Luke 12:15; Romans7:7; 13:9; Ephesians 5:3, 5.
The wages of sin is death.
(Romans 6:23).Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be
persisted in only at the cost of eternal life. What is
not overcome will overcome us, and work out our
destruction. A pastor I know in Mexico has as his
favorite saying,” Sin will take you farther than you
want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay,
and cost you more than you are willing to pay. “
That’s a pretty fair definition. We must wash our
robes of character in the blood of the Lamb until
they are white and spotless. Adam and Eve persuaded
themselves that in so small a matter as
eating of the forbidden fruit, it could not result in
such terrible consequences as Yahweh had declared.
But this small matter was sin, the transgression
of Yahweh's immutable and holy law, and
it opened the floodgates of death and untold woe
upon our world. Calvary stands as a memorial of
the amazing sacrifice required as a propitiation for
the transgression of the divine law. Do not esteem
sin, no matter how small, as a trivial thing.
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The “unpardonable” sin
Jesus informs us that there are many different
kinds of sins and blasphemies (spoken words of a
person) that will be forgiven a man or a woman on
this planet. Adultery (having sex with someone
other than your spouse) and fornication (having
sex outside of the marriage bond) can be forgiven.
Even murder can be forgiven. These are sins not
unto death as they can be forgiven. 1John 5:17 All
unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto
death.
But, Jesus then says that there is one sin that will
not be forgiven any man or any woman at any time
and that is when they blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men.
The “sin unto death” is a referenced spiritual death
that separates that individual from God spiritually
speaking. We are told in 1 John 5:16 to only pray
for those that are committing the sins that are not
unto death, but for those that have committed the
sin unto death, it does not do any good to pray for
them. Therefore, if there is just ONE SIN that is
unforgivable, then salvation is no longer unconditionally
secured, but has been transformed by
definition to a conditional salvation. Remaining
saved would then be totally dependent upon you
not committing the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost, spoken words directed against the character
of God. God leaves your destiny up to you and you
alone.
Man still possesses a free will choice and he can
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decide at any point in time not to be saved. This
action would result in the rejection of the saving
grace of God. That which God has given to them
for free can be freely given back to God at any
time. People will never lose the right to choose
between good and evil, God and Satan, light and
darkness even if it is an extremely stupid choice to
make such a wrong decision. Heb 10:26 “For if we
sin willfully after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins”. Remaining saved would then be totally dependent
upon you not committing the blasphemy
of the Holy Ghost. That clearly changes salvation
to an unsecured CONDITIONAL event!
To be more specific, to speak blasphemously of the
Holy Spirit means to speak against the character of
God; calling Him evil because to you he let a loved
one die, blaming God for the twin towers destruction
of 9-11, or the hurricanes, earthquakes, and
tsunami disasters. You can lose your salvation over
such slander. There will always be a choice set
before you as long as you are on this earth in the
flesh. God will never take your ability to choose
away from you. You can choose to obey Him and
His Word or select to go your own independent
way. This verse in Romans clearly says that you
still have responsibility and choices to make. Do
not fall prey to the “sin unto death” – the “unpardonable
sin”.
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to
whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?
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Savior – Why do we need one?
Savior – derived from “salvare” – to save
A savior refers to a person who is a redeemer,
deliverer, rescuer, who saves someone else from
danger, harm, loss, peril, or destruction. A savior is
someone who can do for you what you cannot do
for yourself. Jesus, as our savior, allows us to
achieve salvation, which we cannot achieve on our
own. Salvation gets us into heaven and keeps us
out of hell. Salvation is the act of being saved
from the fires and torments of hell. Salvation buys
us the ticket into heaven; at least into the
“paradise” part of heaven. Paradise in heaven may
well be different from the Kingdom of God though.
Example of a savior
In the United States from the 1640’s until 1865
when laborers were needed to plant, nurture, weed
and harvest the cotton, sugar, and peanut plantations
of the deep south, Negro slaves who
had been purchased or shanghaied from Africa
against their will were shipped across the Atlantic
to the South to provide the large workforce to do
this. These people were bought and sold just as we
handle cattle, pigs or chickens today. The internal
slave trade became the largest enterprise in the
South outside of the plantation itself. A Negro
slave at that time had virtually no money of his
own and was essentially bought and paid for by the
plantation owner. He was considered property. He
was in servitude to that plantation owner until he
died or could buy his way out of slavery. For most,
that was never a possibility. But for some fortunate
slaves, someone else came to their rescue; a savior,
a relative, a friend, a person who didn’t believe
in slavery, and paid the plantation owner whatever
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sum it took to buy their freedom so they were no
longer slaves, but could become free men. The vast
majority of black slaveholders were free men who
purchased members of their families or who
acted out of benevolence to free their compatriots.
They were the
saviors of that era. They did forthe slaves what the slaves could not do for
themselves. If you will remember history, the civil
war was essentially fought over the issue of slavery
and human rights and ended with the Emancipation
Proclamation, which freed all the slaves. But the
point is; without a savior, the slave could never
escape slavery.
We are in the same boat as those slaves.
Different set of circumstances, same need for a
savior if we want to be emancipated from our sins
in the eyes of Father Yahweh. We CAN’T get there
on our own accord. We do not achieve His passing
grade of being “perfect”. We have broken most
every one of His laws; sometimes unknowingly,
sometimes accidentally, sometimes in anger, some
times in rebellion, sometimes in sorrow and oftentimes
in remorse; but we have done so. We need
someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
We need to exchange our sinfulness for
our Savior’s righteousness in the eyes of the Father
or we simply aren’t allowed into His kingdom. If we
don’t get into the kingdom, our sins send us to hell.
No alternative. Please take this seriously; your
afterlife depends upon it.
"You shall not steal." "You shall not lie." "You
shall not make for yourself any idol." "You shall
not take the name of God in vain." "Honor
your father and your mother." "You shall
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not murder." The Bible says, "He who hates his
brother is a murderer," (1 John 3:15). We can
violate His Law by attitude and intent. "You shall
not covet." "You shall have no other gods before
Me." Have you ever failed to put Him first in your
life? How many of us can honestly state we put
God before our spouse? Another tough one. "Remember
the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." What
day is that now? Sunday? Saturday? Do we even
know anymore? "You shall not commit adultery." I
say to you that whoever looks at a woman with
lust for her has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. Any guy here who hasn’t done
that?
The Bible says that adulterers (having sex with
someone other than your spouse) and fornicators
(those who have sex outside of being married)
will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Who can say
that they are not guilty of breaking most of these
commandments? Virtually all of us have broken
most ALL of them at one time or another no matter
how hard we’ve tried not to. The Bible tells us
that everyone has sinned. There is nobody that is
without sin. This is what the Bible means when it
says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory
of God." That’s why we need Jesus as our Savior.
We are guilty of sinning against God Himself, and,
because you have a conscience, (con=with, science=
knowledge) we have sinned "with knowledge."
Isn't it true that every time you lied, stole,
or lusted, etc., you knew it was wrong?
God has revealed many things to us
in only the past 30 years that show the events
described in the Bible did happen, and the people
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mentioned in the Bible did actually live on this
earth, and that God is real. God is revealing these
things through archeological discoveries. Why?
Because we are out of time. Jesus is coming for His
Bride very soon. The tares will be removed from
the harvest at the second coming. By forensic
analysis, for example, the Shroud of Turin - the
burial cloth of Jesus, contains over 50 different
pollen grains indigenous only to the Jerusalem
region, and has been proven to be the real
actual burial cloth of Jesus. The shroud's authenticity
was always in question up until 1996 when the
final pieces to the puzzle were put together. For
some intriguing information on it visit
www.detailshere.com/shroudofturin.htm
or go to
www.youtube.com and put “Shroud ofTurin” in the search box.
I believe the location of the Ark of the Covenant
has been discovered, in a cavern 25’ below the
crucifixion posthole where Jesus was hung. It was
placed there 588 years before the crucifixion during
a siege of Jerusalem. All in God’s plan. Remember
the great earthquake that occurred when Jesus
died and the soldier breached the side of Jesus at
that time? The blood and water of Jesus ran down
a crack in the rock that opened up and ended up on
the mercy seat of the Ark. Analysis of this reconstituted
blood found on the mercy seat of the ark by
Jerusalem laboratories showed only 24 chromosones
instead of the normal 46 (23 pair) we
have. Don’t hear about that in church do you?
See details at:
www.detailshere.com/arkofthecovenant.htm
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Noah's Ark has been found in Turkey.
Thecities of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found
with sulphur pellets not indigenous to that region
still in the surrounding sands. The exodus path has
been verified by a satellite in the sky which
searched for buried Iraqi tanks and which senses
temperature differences as little as a half a degree
in the earth and sands below. With several million
people leaving Egypt they pulverized the sand
into a fine powder and the nighttime moisture
fused it into concrete, which left a very dense
sidewalk buried beneath the sand, which heats up
during the day and stays warmer than the surrounding
sands at night. . This dense pathway
showed up as a red line on the satellite imagery
all the way from ancient Rameses in Egypt
where the Israelites assembled, to Succoth, where
they collected the bones of Joseph (Exodus 13:19,
20). The line then extends onward to Etham, and
then over the high plateau of the Sinai Peninsula,
finally dropping down onto what is today called
the Gulf of Aqaba, the easternmost finger of the
Red Sea. Then it resurfaces on the Arabian side
showing where they crossed the Red Sea and it
extends over to Mt Jebel el Lawz in Arabia which
was the Mt Sinai described in the Bible. I cannot
find proof positive verification of the red line satellite
story but I am told it is true. Many chariot parts
of that era and horse and human bones have been
found in the Gulf of Aqaba, where Moses and the
Israelites crossed the Red Sea over a land bridge
that lies just under the water there. See videos at
for all of these discoveries.I have more information posted on my website on
these discoveries also at the following pages:
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www.detailshere.com/noahsark.htm
www.detailshere.com/exoduspath.htm
www.detailshere.com/arkofthecovenant.htm
God is real. The events and people described in the
Bible are also real. Why aren’t churches talking
about these discoveries to increase people's faith
that this is all real? Good question. Wouldn’t your
belief get a boost knowing these events happened?
The Bible – just what is it?
Some term it as Basic Information Before Leaving
Earth. The Bible, God's word, is a collection of 66
books written by about 40 authors, in three different
languages, on three different continents, over
approximately 1600 years. The Bible claims to be
inspired. This means that the Bible claims to be
from God. The Bible contains many different styles
of writing such as poetry, narration, history, law,
and prophecy and must be interpreted in context of
those styles. It is the source of the Christian religion
in that the Bible contains the words of God
given to men through the Holy Spirit and how a
Christian is to apply the words of God to his life.
Basically, the Bible describes the origin of man in
the Garden of Eden along with his fall into sin and
out of fellowship with God. It then describes how
God called out a special people to Himself, the
Israelites. He promised the Israelites a future
Messiah who would restore mankind's relationship
with God. The Bible is the account of the work
of God in history bringing to fruition His prophetic
declarations concerning Jesus. Jesus was born of
the Virgin, died on the cross, and paid for our
sins, just as the Bible prophesied in the Old Testament
and as was fulfilled in the New Testament.
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In short, the Bible points to Jesus, "You search the
Scriptures, because you think that in them you
have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness
of Me," (John 5:39). Furthermore, the Bible
teaches us that forgiveness of sins is found in Jesus
alone, "And there is salvation in no one else; for
there is no other name under heaven that has been
given among men, by which we must be saved,”
(Acts 4:12). Some say that the Bible is nothing
more than fairy tales. But this cannot be for it
contains great wisdom and truth and it has
been verified throughout history as being accurate.
Its historical accounts are flawlessly accurate.
In fact, archaeology routinely demonstrates the
accuracy of the biblical records concerning locations
and events recorded in the Bible.
The Bible is a history book
that covers over6000 years of time, from Adam to present and
beyond. The events in the Bible have been proven
to have actually happened. Jesus Christ was a real
man and is the most documented individual in
history. Over 25,000 books have been written
about him. Historians documented His miracles, His
life and His death without even believing He was
the Messiah. Over 500 people saw Jesus in the
flesh after His resurrection in the 40 days He was
still on earth following His resurrection before His
ascension into heaven. This is all documented
historically. Over 300 prophecies or predictions
were made about Jesus; documented in the
Old Testament before He was ever born, and they
all came true as was shown in the new testament.
http://www.detailshere.com/propheciesfulfilledbyjesus.htm
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probability of just eight of those coming true for
one man in that time period is one in 10 to the 17
thpower. If you covered the whole state of Texas in
10 peso or silver dollar coins two feet deep, painted
a black dot on just one of them, and tried to select
just that one coin out of all of those covering the
whole state of Texas, that is the probability we are
talking about. Basically, God is real and none of
this is by chance.
Here’s the important clincher though.
If the Bible is a history book and the people, places
and events described in it have already come to
pass what about the events described in the Bible
that are yet to come as described in both Daniel
and Revelation? Same events described by two
different people from two different locations and in
two different time periods of history. Isn’t there a
good chance that those things are going to happen
also? Think about that.
Many of you don’t have internet access and most of
you don’t have the time or the interest to study
these matters like I do. I am here to tell you that
we are definitely in the endtimes described in the
Bible, the time just before the second coming, and
that the events forecasted in Revelation are unfolding
in the world today daily before our very eyes.
We are told that WE are the last generation. WE,
you and I, will be witness to the second coming of
Jesus. Jesus said He would not tell us exactly when
he would come again, only the Father knows the
hour and the day, but He did give us the circumstances
and sequence of events to watch for.
And those events are happening right now, rapidly.
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These include economic collapse, a new world
government, a one world religion, widespread
disease, pestilence, plagues, droughts, lack of food,
famine, starvation, persecution; it’s all taking
place. Now. We need to be concerned about all
this Bible stuff because we are out of time. Jesus
is coming soon. He has told people He has visited
that He is coming soon. We have to be ready. We
have to put our Jesus parachute on and keep it on.
We have to have extra oil for our lamps - Mathew
25 (obey God's commandments and let the holy
spirit guide you in a righteous and holy lifestyle in
lieu of sinning), or we will be considered tares and
will be destroyed.
Which Bible should I use?
Are there any differences between say the 1611 or
1620 King James, the New King James Version, a
1599 Geneva Bible (the people’s favorite King
James hated, with all the footnotes at the side
telling people what passages didn’t mean as well as
what they did mean), an NIV, ASV, AMP, ERV, ESV
etc? And then there’s the Book of Yahweh, from
www.yahweh.com
, a Bible translation takendirectly from the Greek and Hebrew scriptures.
Unfortunately yes, there are many differences. In
the modernization effort to clarify content, (as well
as to create doubt I believe) many passages are
left out, words are left out, and meaning has been
altered; and not for the better. Scriptures have
been misused and abused. Many phrases have
been deliberately mistranslated in order to hide
their true meaning; some simply just left out. Just
in the transition from the original King James to the
New King James for example the word Lord has
been omitted 66 times, the word repent has been
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omitted 40 times, the word God is left out 51
times, the blood is omitted 23 times, the word
heaven is omitted 23 times and the word hell is left
out 22 times. The New King James omits the words
Jehovah, damnation, New Testament and devils.
According to Mark Driscoll in his incredibly revealing
book “Doctrine – what Christians should believe”
(get a used copy at Amazon.com – one of
the most enlightening books you will ever read); he
talks about word for word translations like the KJV
King James Version and the ESV English Standard
Version. He speaks of thought for thought translations
like the NIV, New International Version, which
attempt to convey the meaning of the passage and
not just the individual words. And he addresses
paraphrased translations that put the emphasis on
readability in English such as the TLB The Living
Bible and the AMP Amplified Bible. All faithful
translations attempt to achieve a balance of accuracy
to the original text, beauty of language, clarity
of meaning and dignity of style.
The Old Testament Hebrew text was preserved by
the Levites. The apostles quoted it, and we can
trust it. For the New Testament, of all the copies in
existence today, 95% agree in an incredible way.
God did keep His promise! Only 5%, a tiny minority,
are "messed up." All we have to do is put
together a Hebrew and Greek text made up from
our overwhelming majority of ancient texts, and we
will have a text that we can be confident is exactly
the same as the one held by the early church.
Today, this text is called by several names, the
most common being the "Received Text" or "Textus
Receptus."
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This was the text used by devout translators like
William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin and
others, some of whom died to preserve the Scriptures.
If they were going to have to die for it, they
were determined to die for the right text! This is
also the text used to make the most famous of all
English Bibles, the King James Bible. Although Mark
suggests the ESV, English Standard Version may be
the best overall version for accuracy, studying,
teaching and preaching; if accuracy is your key
goal; perhaps the 1611 or 1620 KJV is the one to
choose.
Determining what a Bible passage really says
The easiest way to determine what a particular
passage says and what has been altered or missing
from the Bible you are using is to go to
www.biblegateway.com
and select the passageyou wish to compare; say Hebrews 10:26. It will
give you a translation from the book you selected
on the right. Select KJV for example. Then select
“Hebrews 10:26 in all English translations” just
under what the KJV says. That page then opens to
what 53 different Bibles say about that particular
entry. By the time you get done comparing and
reading through that list; you have a pretty good
idea of what that passage is supposed to mean; in
a nutshell, that if you continue sinning willfully
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is not going to cover
you and you are hellbound. The differences in
some passages and translations can be enormous.
The Biblegateway.com site is a great place to
resolve translation issues amongst the different
Bibles.
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And he warns to beware of translations
suchas the Jehovah’s Witness’ New World Translation
that attempts to eliminate the deity of Jesus Christ.
This translation is shunned by the vast majority of
eminent bible scholars because of its skewed and
warped message where any reference to Jesus'
divinity is mistranslated so as to back up their own
beliefs. Jehovah's witnesses believe Jesus is the
subservient Son of God, despite Jesus’ claim to be
God himself. They believe that while Jesus is a
mighty god, he is not thee almighty God. Jesus
tells us, ”I and my Father are one"(John 10, 30-
33), "he who has seen me has seen the Father”.
Although the Jehovah's Witnesses quote line after
line of scripture, you should note that most of them
come from their own altered New World Translation
of the Bible and almost all are taken out of context
where, if you read the context of a particular verse,
and compare it with corresponding verses in the
other gospels, you frequently get a very different
and truer meaning. Use the “see what the same
passage says in 53 different Bibles” feature at
www.biblegateway.com
to see what I mean.The Mormon Bible, The Book of Mormon, is not like
other Bibles either; some of it is comprised of the
channeled messages of an angel named Moroni to
its Founder, Joseph Smith. Christian scripture has
no mention of an angel named Moroni. Mormons,
although good people having many strong Christian
attributes like helping others, again do not believe
Jesus IS God. They have a theology that supports
tritheism; that the trinity is three separate Gods.
They teach God has a literal physical body when
the Christian Bible tells us God is spirit only (John
4:24). They teach that we can become Gods our
86selves which conflicts with scripture that tells us
God became an incarnate man, not the other way
around. Go to
www.youtube.com and type inMormonism and explore Mormon customs and
beliefs well before accepting their theology.
And, I'm getting way ahead of the story.
Again, why do we need Jesus?
We have to go back to Genesis, the first chapter in
the Bible, to find out why Jesus is even necessary
in this picture today. In Genesis we learn that God
created all things; the sun, the moon, the stars,
the heavens, the earth, the animals, the fish, the
birds in the air, and more. Darwin's evolution or
the big bang theory doesn't hold water and
has been proven highly erroneous. God's creation
includes man whom He formed out of the dust
of the ground. God breathed His spirit into him and
gave him a soul - a mind, intellect, will, emotions.
Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living
soul." John 4:24 tells us that God is spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
in truth. As God is spirit, He created man as a
spiritual being. Man's body was created as the
physical "house" in which man's spirit was to dwell
and through which he was to interact with the
physical world through his senses. Mankind was
also given a soul which was created as the site of
man's consciousness and as the expression of his
personality. 1Thessolonians 5:23.
Think of your soul as your mind or intellect; your
harddrive which contains your will, your emotions,
and your remembrances. The soul connects
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the spiritual and physical aspects of man's nature.
The three parts of our nature; spirit, soul, and
body function in harmony with each other. We
know at death that our physical body decays back
into the elements of the earth; dust to dust. Genesis
3:19 "...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return". But what about our soul and spirit?
Do they stay in the ground also or do they
go somewhere at death?
The religious community is split on this issue.
Some affiliations contend nothing goes anywhere at
death until the second coming, but we lay in the
ground knowing nothing as we sleep. They call this
"soul sleep". Body and spirit (and soul) remain in
the ground not separated, knowing nothing until
the second coming.
Other affiliations contend our soul and spirit are
taken to heaven or hell directly at death.
Both sides cite scriptural passages to support their
stand. If you step outside this box and review
books, you tube videos, near death experiences,
and stories of people Jesus has taken to both
heaven and hell so they could come back and write
about it to tell us of the atrocities awaiting us in
hell as well as the glories awaiting us in heaven, it
paints a picture that our spirits and souls make a
journey at death. As I've read many books on
this subject and watched hours and hours of testimonies
of those making these journeys and returning;
I have to vote that our soul and spirit
go somewhere at death.
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Heaven or Hell?
Do these places really exist?
There is strong evidence to suggest our spirit and
soul go to heaven or hell when we die even though
we do not have immortality at that point in time.
Our immortal resurrected body is not part of the
package at the time of death if our death is prior to
the first resurrection at the second coming. Only
God Himself has immortality at this point in time
(1Timothy 6:16). 1 Corinthians 15:50-54 tells us
when immortality is given to us; at the second
coming, not at the end of physical life, unless
the end of physical life occurs also at the second
coming when we are “changed in the twinkling of
an eye”. If death is before then, although you will
NOT have a resurrection body at the time of
death when your spirit departs, you will have all
five senses. You will be able to see, smell, hear,
speak, touch and feel pain, which will not be pleasant
if you end up at the wrong destination. Hell is
NOT just the absence of God. It is a real place
many think is currently deep within our own earth
of heat, no water, darkness and pain.
What about Purgatory?
Purgatory
is a mythological place, invented byRome to extract more money from people. Great
concept, but it doesn’t exist. Purgatory, as a stopping
off place to be cleansed of sin, kinda like our
prison system, makes sense, but again, it simply
doesn’t exist. It's not in the Bible nor is the concept
of purgatory in the Bible. It was contrived by the
church in the dark ages. What makes sense to us is
not always how it is. There is no stopping off place
to be cleansed of sin before going to heaven. The
Catholic system of indulgences and monetary
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extraction continues on to this day. You can't buy
off someone else's sins. Even Catholic priests today
admit there is no such thing as purgatory. You will
not go to some middle ground prison in purgatory
to work your sins off; your soul/spirit will go to
either heaven or hell upon death, period. If
you don't have the Jesus parachute on when you
die, you are in deep trouble, as hell is a one-way
trip, and there is no escape once there. Remember,
we are comprised of spirit as well as flesh and
blood. Within one minute after you die on this
earth, your spirit will arrive at one of those two
destinations, heaven or hell, and there is
no changing travel plans once you arrive at the
wrong, undesirable destination.
What is heaven like?
The Bible uses the words paradise, heaven, Kingdom
of Heaven and Kingdom of God, but not interchangeably.
In the story of Lazarus and the rich
man (Luke 16:19-31) we are told Lazarus was in
paradise and the rich man was in hades and they
were separated by a deep chasm so one could not
crossover to the other. It is felt by many that
paradise was outside of God’s heaven before Jesus
died. Before the resurrection, man was not covered
by the righteousness of Jesus and since man is not
perfect, only Jesus had ascended to heaven; John
3:31. However, we know from the transfiguration
both Elijah and Moses should have been in heaven.
After Jesus was resurrected, it is felt by some that
paradise was moved to heaven where it is today,
as then people could be covered by the righteousness
of Jesus which God considers our righteous as
well. In Mathew 27:52-53 it speaks of the graves
being opened and many bodies of the saints arose
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and went into the city and were seen by many.
Could that have been when paradise was moved to
heaven? Heaven, the third heaven, is a real physical
place. Some argue that the Kingdom of Heaven
(or the Kingdom of God - one and the same) is
presently within us as a state of our spirituality and
abeyance to Jesus. They also say it will be a physical
place on the new earth when God’s city, the
New Jerusalem, comes down to the new earth,
Revelation 21. This is an area of interpretation,
which we cannot make absolutely definitive until
we cross the veil at death. Until that time, researching
opinions and speculation prevails.
See
http://www.detailshere.com/heaven.htmfor a recent vision of heaven given to an atheist.
Near death experience testimonies documented at
www.heavenvisit.com, www.near-death.com
www.divineinterventions.info
and
www.bibleprobe.com/nde.htm, support theconcept that hell is a very real place; a place we
don’t ever want to go to. It also supports the glorious
life that awaits us in heaven. What is heaven
like? Revelation chapters 21 and 22 give us some
good insight about what heaven will be like with it's
foundations of the wall of the city garnished with all
manner of precious stones, walls of jasper, 12
gates made of a single pearl each, streets of gold,
crystal clear water, trees bearing fruit each month
of different kinds and different tiers, dwellings
Jesus has created for us, incredible flora and fauna,
music and colors far beyond our imaginations, a
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
There shall be no night there; and they need no
candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
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giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and
ever. Jesus took Mary Kathryn Baxter out of body
and gave her ten different tours of parts of heaven,
which she describes in her book Divine Revelation
of Heaven which you can read online for free at
www.divinerevelations.info
or purchase onlineat
www.amazon.com or any bookstore. Shewasn't shown all of heaven, just parts. But what
she was shown sends shivers down one's spine in
anticipation of what we can look forward to.
Actually there are three heavens.
The first heaven is everything within our atmosphere
where the birds and the planes fly. The
second heaven includes space, where the sun, the
moon and the stars reside. The third heaven is the
destination of the saved righteous and is beyond
the atmosphere and starry skies. Paul wrote of this
third heaven in 2 Cor 12:2. God has storehouses
in heaven, loaded with blessings and healings that
are constantly being dispensed to those in need
down on earth. There are warehouses of body parts
to replace worn out body parts here on earth, just
awaiting prayers to be received asking for those
parts. People need to know that their healing was
paid for at the whipping post by His stripes. (Isaiah
53:5 and 1Peter 2:24). By His stripes we are and
were healed. We just have to claim it through
prayer (Mark 11:24). When we take communion we
have to understand that the bread represents
Jesus' body which was broken for us at the whipping
post. A laceration is another synonym for
broken. When we eat the bread we must realize
that our healing was paid for in full by that whipping
and the lacerations He received. Our salvation
was paid for by his blood and death on the cross,
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which is signified by drinking the wine. Healing is
for today, not just 2000 years ago. If you eat the
bread or drink the wine at communion and don't
understand what I have just explained, you are
committing sin. You need to know what eating the
bread and drinking the wine signifies.
Heaven is a very busy place.
Many many angels are constantly journeying between
heaven and earth. Church services are full of
angels, watching the proceedings and recording
what's in the hearts of the people in attendance.
Every time you give tithes, or give to the poor or
disabled, it is recorded in heaven. Each of us has a
record book in heaven noting our every thought,
word, deed, and action. When a person is born
again, his book is taken to a room where all his sins
are removed and blotted out from that book.
Rejoicing occurs in heaven whenever any person
comes to Jesus. There are horses and animals in
heaven, but the lion settles down with the lamb.
There is no aggression in heaven as there is on
earth. Redeemed saints in heaven are very busy
too. You don't sit on clouds and play harps.
Heaven is very orderly. Both angels and saints are
engaged in stimulating, exhilarating, fulfilling tasks.
The people she saw in heaven had distinctive features
and were from all nations of the earth. No
person had any scars, and all looked radiant and
handsome, and about 25 to 30 years old. You will
not be vapor and smoke. You will have bodily form
and features. Mary saw beautiful houses and mansions
in heaven. Jesus tells us in John 14:2 that he
has prepared a place for us so we can be where He
is. There are huge chariots in heaven. Angels are
big there too. Chariot wheels are very large and
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studded with diamonds and precious rubies and
emeralds. When God speaks, twelve to fifteen foot
tall angels stand in front of the throne and blow
trumpets.
Wanna know what Heaven is like
from thosewho have been there and can describe what they
saw? A three part youtube video series starts at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRXfFTL
UsaI&NR=1
awesome music – great graphics,tough to watch it and keep dry eyes.
Jesus took Mary Kathryn Baxter to hell 30 different
times so she got that one right too. Mary saw no
children in hell. All children including those babies
who were aborted or stillborn were taken to a
special place in heaven where they are raised. In
heaven there is no sickness, no wheelchairs, no
disabilities, no disease, no corruption, no lies, and
no sin. God will not allow sin to enter through the
gates of heaven. When we were children, we operated
under a system of rewards and punishment.
Heaven is a reward for being justified, sanctified
and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you in living
holy and righteous. If you would but take the time
to explore what is known about heaven from both
what the Bible says and from what people who
have been there tell us, it becomes apparent that it
is something we absolutely don't want to miss out
on. But there are things you need to know in order
to not miss out, and that is the purpose of this
book. Remember, grace needs to be understood
and you can lose your salvation by backsliding.
What about a real literal Hell?
What does the Bible say about Hell
?94
The Bible gives us clues and information but not
solid definitive answers. English has only one word
for hell but words in Greek, Roman and Hebrew
speak of Hades, Sheol, Gehenna - the valley of
Hinnon, the abyss and Tartarus; all reflecting
places in the underworld. Modern translations often
differentiate between these words, but not consistently
so. Tartarus – the abyss, the bottomless pit -
occurs but once, at 2 Peter 2:4, and applies only to
the fallen angelic spirits where they are imprisoned
and reserved for judgment.
Hades, transliterated from the Greek, literally
means “the unseen place of the dead.” Peter’s use
of it, as noted at Acts 2:27, shows that it is equivalent
to the Hebrew word Sheol (the common grave
of mankind). Sheol and Hades refer to a temporary
abode for the dead before judgment (Psalm 9:17;
Revelation 1:18). Jews never believed in an eternal
hell as a place of everlasting punishment. I guess
you could consider today’s hell as temporal punishment
until the judgment.
Hades is a cavernous place underground inside our
own earth that Enoch (an apocryphal book) describes
as having four compartments (1En 22:9-
11). Two of those compartments (torment and
Abraham’s bosom) are mentioned in Luke 16:19-
31. The four compartments (1En 22:4-7) house
spirits depending on their status in relation to God.
There is a division for the spirits of the righteous.
Some of the former inhabitants of this division
participated in the first resurrection with Christ
(Mat 27:52). The rest believed Jesus’ preaching
when in Hades (Jesus was in the ground for 3 days
95
before His resurrection – Hades was where He was
at), and when Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts
1:9), He took these souls from “paradise Hades” to
heaven with him (Eph 4:8). This division is now
empty, for when righteous men die now; their
spirits go to heaven to await the Judgment (Ph
1:23, 2Cor 5:6, 8, Rev 6:9, 1Thes 4:14). God lets
them in because they are now covered by the
righteousness of Jesus after His resurrection. They
do not yet possess immortal resurrected bodies.
That happens at the second coming when their
spirits get their new resurrected perfect bodies.
1Cor 15:52.
There is a division for the spirits whose bodies
received burial, but they were transgressors,
weren’t covered by the blood of Jesus and deserve
punishment. These will participate in the bodily
resurrection, Rev 20:13, and most, if not all, will be
subject to a second death; being tossed into the
lake of fire. All those who have been buried will be
raised from the dead, according to what Jesus
promised in John 5:28. Those in this division are in
great torment until the Day of Judgment. This
division corresponds to the place of torment where
the Rich Man is (Luke 16:24). This place is what we
normally refer to today as hell; not to be confused
with the Lake of Fire after the judgment.
Gehenna is descriptive of the Valley of Hinnom to
the southwest of Jerusalem, where children were
sacrificed, dead bodies were cast to be burned, city
trash continuously burned, unquenchable fire was
enduring, and worms never died feasting on decaying
waste and dead carcasses both human and
animal.
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Jesus tells us that hell, where people go who do not
believe in Jesus and lead unrighteous lives, will be
like Gehenna as a place of anguish, torment and
everlasting destruction. Jesus refers to hell as an
eternal state of punishment and unquenchable fire
for the wicked dead (Mark 9:43); where the worm
will never die. This place will be the lake of fire
after judgment.
John 14:6 essentially states that anyone who
doesn’t know Jesus will go there. Knowing Jesus,
(obeying Jesus) is the ONLY alternative to hell.
This is discussed in more detail at my webpage
www.detailshere.com/hell3.htm
All of the places discussed above are places of
punishment. Hades/Torment/Hell1 is a temporary
place of punishment and incarceration used to keep
the spirits of the unrighteous dead until the Judgment.
The place where the righteous were kept
(paradise) was emptied at the resurrection of
Christ (1 Pet 3:19, Lk 14:18), and I presume is
now empty, for the righteous dead now go to be
with God (Php 1:23, 2Co 5:8-9). The Abyss/ Bottomless
Pit/Tartarus/Hell2 is a place that serves for
both temporal (Luke 8:31, Rev 17:8) and eternal
punishment (Enoch 90:24-26) for both fallen angels
and demons. Gehenna/Lake of Fire/Hell3 is a
place to be revealed at the end of this present age
and is a place of eternal punishment (Rev 20:10,
15, 14:11, Mt 25:41). If the annihilation theory
doesn’t hold up, that could be a long time in hell.
Revelation 20 states that the lake of fire is forever
and ever and is a lake of burning sulfur and a place
of perpetual torment.
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This is not a pleasant section to read and digest. It
should scare you into realizing this is not fun and
games. Teenagers joining churches of Satan for fun
and socializing have no idea the can of worms they
are opening. It literally churns my stomach when I
see such ignorance and rebellion. It is about your
eternal residence. Please know, heaven is real and
hell is also real. These are not mythological
places. Both realms exist today. Both hold spirits
today. Both receive spirits every day. We are
comprised of spirit as well as flesh and blood.
Within one minute after you die on this earth, your
spirit and soul will arrive at one of those
two destinations, heaven or hell, and there is no
changing travel plans once you arrive at the wrong
destination. Hell is a place of eternal damnation
for those who rejected the Gospel of Christ. It is
described as a horrifying place. Matthew 18:8-9
describes the eternal fire of hell. Matthew
3:12 speaks of unquenchable fire.
So just who is in hell today? The Bible tells us.
This will be an unpopular section too, but it is my
job to tell you the truth and it is your job to make a
decision. Eternity is a long time.
This is not an easy section to discuss. Alternative
lifestyle versus traditional relationships of a man
and woman is a touchy subject today. What has
become acceptable to many may still not be acceptable
in God’s eyes. I am not the judge and jury
here. When I ran my heating business I performed
work for quite a few alternative lifestyle families, all
nice people. I got along well with all of them. I
didn’t judge them then and I don’t today. But I
don’t make the rules; and God has some very
specific guidelines in this area. By alternative
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lifestyles, I am referring to same sex relationships
(God refers to this as an abomination - Leviticus
18:22 and Leviticus 20:13). And people who
choose to cohabitate without the bond of marriage.
God refers to this as fornication - having sex outside
of marriage. And people who commit adultery
- having sex with someone other than your marriage
partner; as occurs in extramarital affairs and
swinging clubs which are rampant today. And then
the more obvious sins such as bestiality; sex involving
humans with animals.
Galations 5:19-21 is pretty specific on what happens
to those who practice these things, "Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like: which
I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God." Remember God wiped
out Sodom and Gomorrah over sexual sin. Those
sulphur balls, which were not indigenous to that
region, are still found in the sands surrounding
those cities today proving that really happened.
What about masturbation? The question becomes,
what are you lusting with, a picture out of a porn
magazine or off the net? An image of someone
other than your spouse? Although the Bible does
not specifically address masturbation it is the
opinion of most that if the object of lust is not your
spouse, it would fall under the category of adultery;
if unmarried, under the category of fornication.
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God says these people are in danger of hell.
1
. The Fearful, cowardly, craven, vile, worthless,miserable, wretched, and unhappy
.(Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:40; Dt. 20:8; Judges 7:3, 10)
2.
Unbelieving, infidel, faithless. (1 Tim. 5:8)3.
Abominable: to cause to stink, make loathsome,feel disgust, detest, have horror of, to be abominated.
It refers to those polluted with unnatural
lust. (Romans 2:22) Immoral practices connected
with idolatry. Same sex relationships are an
abomination in God's eyes. (2Chr. 21:11; Isa.
23:16-17; Ezekiel 16:15, 26, 29; Acts 15:20, 29)
Does God have new rules for today’s new modern
moral standards in this area? I wouldn’t count on
it, nice people or not, God is firm on this issue with
enough passages that show His position.
4.
Murderers: Rev. 22:15; Matt 22:7; Acts 3:14;7:52; 28:4; 1 Peter 4:15)
5.
Whoremongers, fornicators - having sex withsomeone you are not married to. Adulterers -
having sex with someone outside of your marriage.
6.
Sorcerers: Persons who use drugs, enchantedpotions, charms and enchantments to produce
supernatural effects on the lives of others. (Rev.
22:15)
7.
Idolaters: Those who practice idolatry andabominable acts in the worship of idols.
8.
Dogs: False prophets and homosexuals - maleprostitutes are called dogs in Scripture (Deut.
23:18; Isa 56:10-11; Phil 3:2; Rev. 22:15)
9.
Liars: (Rev. 22:15), Lovers of liars: (Revelation22:15)
10.
And essentially all those people who neverasked Jesus to be their savior.
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Wow, what a list.
You don’t hear that preached inchurch do you? Pastors get sued for telling people
alternative lifestyle living is considered sin by God.
Business people are being sued for refusing to
cater to alternative lifestyle affairs. Read the passages
on what God’s word says. Understand what’s
not okay in God’s perspective. His view instead of
popular opinion is what counts if getting to heaven
at death is on your agenda.
Hell may not be a politically correct topic
these days, as many churches sweep the issue
under the rug, but many people enter hell everyday.
Most people that die on earth everyday, end
up in hell. Hell is a real place despite the fact that
people laugh and say that they want to go there.
They simply don't understand how terrible hell is.
Just because you've never seen hell doesn't mean
it doesn't exist. If you only have time for one book,
read Mary Kathryn Baxter’s “Divine Revelation of
Hell” available online at
www.divinerevelations.infoHell is intricately described there in very blatant
graphic detail. Mary Baxter describes hell’s burning
pit in her visitations to hell. Hell is a place of constant
agony, unbearable heat, great stench, darkness,
and ugly grotesque demons of all shapes and
sizes whose job it is to torment the occupants.
Although hell was created only for the devil and his
demons (Matthew 25:41), hell is also set-aside for
all of those who reject Jesus Christ. No person
on earth would willingly walk into hell. But so many
people are doing just that. Despite warnings, people
continue to live in denial and are walking
straight into hell at death. If this is you, please
consider heeding the warnings of scripture and
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answering the call of the Holy Spirit by accepting
Jesus as your personal Savior. 1 John 1:9 promises,
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness."
Some affiliations teach that there is no hell.
They teach there are only two options at death,
only two fates listed. Sinners will perish, but the
faithful will receive eternal life. John 10:28 "And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand." The wicked are never given immortality.
Only the righteous are given immortality as a
gift from God. The problem is the when. The when
for the righteous is at the second coming per 1Cor
15:50-54. But when will the wicked perish? And do
their spirits perish with them? The answer perhaps
is a thousand years later, after the millenium, at
the Great White Throne judgment when death
and hell are cast into the lake of fire per Rev
20:14. Though many have tried to nail exactly
how it all comes down after the second coming,
much mystery will remain on that issue. Many good
preachers who have studied the “what exactly
happens after the second coming issue” have been
told by God to stop it and get back to evangelizing;
that He isn’t ready for all that to be revealed just
yet.
So what happens to the wicked, the sinners who
didn't accept the salvation of Jesus, up until that
point in time where they perish? One possibility,
and near death experiences support this, that
there is a real literal hell they go to today where
they are under torment until that point in
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time when they are annihilated (IF annihilation
exists) and they literally perish; cease to exist;
forever. However, the doctrine of annihilation may
very well be a false doctrine.
Many documentations of near death experiences
lend strong evidence for a real hell that
exists today, deep within our own earth, has souls
being tormented, tortured and burned there today,
is receiving new occupants daily and is expanding
every day. In fact, just as the Bible states
in (Matthew 7:13) MOST of the 150,000 people
that die on this earth every day go to hell. How
many? A South Korean Pastor named Park was
given a tour of hell one day because even though
he had a congregation of 45,000 and had written
53 books on theology, he had committed a grave
sin, the sin of unforgiveness. He was told this was
his destiny in his current state. Luckily he got
another chance. In this tour he was totally blown
away at the immensity of hell; how large it was. He
asked his tour guide angel how many people were
in hell. His angel tour guide stated he didn't really
know but for every single person that went to
heaven, a thousand went to hell. Why? Mainly
because of forgiveness issues or these people did
not accept or believe in Yahushua (Jesus) as their
Savior.
They may have known ABOUT Jesus, but they did
not believe that Jesus IS God, that He came to
earth in human form and died for our sins on a
wooden cross, and was resurrected on the third
day after death as was prophesied, and ascended
back into heaven 40 days later. These people are
not covered by His shed blood. Their sins are
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not substituted by His righteousness. They did not
understand the concept of what a savior does.
They did not understand justification and
sanctification and falsely believed they were
covered by grace while ignoring the
commandments and leading a sinful life.
And because they are not perfect and flunked God’s
Class of Life, Satan gets them by default. Contrary
to popular opinion, there are not multiple paths to
the Father and His Kingdom. There is only one; via
Yahushua (Jesus). False religions like Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam, New Age Spiritualism, cults, and
false deities only take you to the wide road and
broad way that leadeth to destruction. John 14:6
tells us what happens to those who don’t know
Jesus. Will they go to hell? Yes! Peter 4:12 tells us
there is no salvation in anyone else except Jesus.
Many preachers and churches refuse to talk about
near death experiences; telling us these are all
about imagination or demonic in nature. I don’t
believe that. Why? Because Satan would not want
all these things revealed that come out of these
testimonies regarding what hell is really like and
the fact it takes more than just saying I believe in
Jesus to be covered by His blood. Satan promotes
the “saving grace” thing to the extreme, knowing
people do not take the time to understand what
grace covers, and what their own responsibilities
are regarding their salvation. Grace is not the free
ride many preachers say it is. We are held accountable
if our lives are not demonstrating the
fruits of the spirit. Grace covers us for slip ups for
not being perfect. Like driving 52-54 in a 50 zone,
not cruising past the radar gun at 70. Remember
Heb 10:26 “For if we sin willfully after we have
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received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins”.
Read about a Buddhist’s near death experience at
www.bibleprobe.com/nde.htm
entitled "Backfrom the Dead" where he met Jesus in the afterlife,
not Buddha.
A 6 part video series does a good job of describing
hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ZBlLU7XIQ&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Here’s a short video giving you descriptions of hell
from those who have been there and returned to
live and tell about it. Pay attention. It’s not nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation
_id=annotation_882424&feature=iv&v=
PJ98WhKts9Y
Here’s more great testimonies
on what youcan encounter in the afterlife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2X5uAB692A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r9uid8TyBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9BkY9vEIZs
discusses the storehouse of replacement body
parts in heaven just awaiting prayer to disperse
them.
Modern medicine has reached a point
where some people who are pronounced clinically
dead; no heartbeat, no brain activity; can be
brought back to life in a 4 to 6 minute period after
true death. And others have come back to life
after even longer than that. Some, like Lazarus
and a preacher man in Africa, after several
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days even. The stories of where these people went
and what they experienced show a different scenario
of what happens to our spirits and souls
at death rather than the soul sleep version being
preached by churches who don’t want you to step
out of your comfort zone today. I have to hold the
distinct possibility, and this is what I currently
believe, that within one minute after we die
our soul and spirit will enter heaven or hell and
once there, there is no changing travel plans. Go to
and type in "near deathexperiences". There's many to view and listen to.
The interesting part is that in almost all
cases involving atheists or people who didn't believe
in God, that they turned their lives around
after they came back. Some preach on the road
about their experience. Some wrote books about
their experience; Bill Weise "Twenty three minutes
in hell", and "The testimony of Theo Nez" are
two examples. Dr Maurice Rawlings was getting so
many patients dying and coming back to life reporting
on their experience in the afterlife that he
started documenting these cases and put them in a
book entitled "To Hell and Back". Not every case
went to hell, some went to heaven, but most went
to hell and came back terrified. You can read many
of these online at
www.divinerevelations.infowww.near-death.com , www.heavenvisit.com ,
and www.bibleprobe.com/nde.htm
Thesecases support a belief that hell is terrible and exists
today.
Remote Viewing
Our governments have perfected a mind control
technique called "remote viewing" which allows
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them to look into the past and the future to determine
things and find people. They claim they have
this down so well they can achieve a 95% accuracy
in some areas. I personally consider this
channeling and it is not from God. The Bible warns
against using familiar spirits to obtain unrevealed
information. One of the areas they pursued
was "what happens to us when we die". In all of
their experiments the same thing happened no
matter which person in history they chose to work
on. When the person died, two angels came; one
took his soul and one took his spirit. The body of
course remained behind. They did not elaborate
on where these souls and spirits were taken, but
just that they were taken.
One of the strongest reasons for a Christian to
believe in Hell
is that Jesus Himself believed in it,and taught about it very strongly, clearly, and
frequently. According to Josh McDowell in his book
"Evidence that Demands a Verdict", Jesus Himself
talks about hell over 70 of the 162 times it
is mentioned in the New Testament. Free will is one
of the most convincing reasons for the existence of
hell. Jesus Himself, in Matthew 25:46, tells us, in
the same sentence, that the righteous will have life
eternal and if you don’t choose that door your
other option is everlasting punishment; “And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the
righteous into life eternal.” The question becomes:
will hell be a permanent annihilation as some interpret
Rev 20:14 to say (..death and hell are cast
into the lake of fire); or will it really be everlasting
torment for eternity?? Interestingly, the Greek
word "eonion" is used at both ends of that sentence
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to describe both "everlasting punishment" as well
as "life eternal". See a Greek concordance at
http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm
.It would seem that if one were forever and ever, so
would be the other. However "eonion" refers to a
block of time called an eon. One eon of time can
differ from another eon of time in the length of
time that is covered. In the Bible, seven eons of
time are mentioned. Creation and Adam and Eve
living in paradise, Adam and Eve eating the forbidden
fruit to the flood, the flood to Abraham, Abraham
to the exodus, the exodus to Jesus’ first coming,
Jesus first coming to the second coming, and
then the millenium. Each of these eons represent
different lengths of time but were still considered
an eon. So going back to Matthew 25:46 can we
interpret these two eons of time, even though the
same word is used, to perhaps reflect different
lengths of time? In Ezekiel 28:18-19 there is a
passage which says, "Therefore I will bring forth a
fire in the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I
will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight
of all of them that behold thee... And never shalt
though be anymore." Can this mean that the eon
for eternal life is forever and ever but the eon for
everlasting punishment is cessation of and therefore
non-existence thereafter of the soul and spirit
for eternity when hell and death are cast into the
lake of fire?? I don’t honestly know.
I believe this is the passage relied upon for the
annihilation of the spirit theory. There are other
places in the Bible where it says the spirit lives
forever though, at least the spirit of the righteous.
2 Timothy 1:10 tells us Jesus has brought life and
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immortality through the light of the Gospel. In John
6:40 Jesus tells us that whoever believeth on Him
shall have everlasting life. In John 8:51 Jesus tells
us if we keep His sayings (commandments) we
shall never see death. And in John 11:26 Jesus
tells us that whosoever liveth and believeth in Him
shall never die. But nowhere can I find passages
regarding the immortality of the unrighteous.
However, go back a few paragraphs where we
discussed the possibility of the theory of annihilation
being a false doctrine. There is much disagreement
amongst affiliations as well as theologians
on this issue. Can you afford to find out which
side is right in this matter? Keep your parachute
on at all times and it won't matter.
Forgiveness
One of the most intriguing realities to come out of
studying Near Death Experience cases is just how
important our ability to forgive becomes in pleading
our case. Preachers, men of God, who were dying
and repenting of their sins as they were dying, did
not have their prayers listened to because they
harbored unresolved forgiveness issues. You HAVE
to forgive if you want to be forgiven. “For if
ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses” (Mat 6:14-15). Once
saved, always saved does not work. It takes a
daily walk with Jesus to stay on the narrow path to
the kingdom. When Jesus cured somebody’s disease
He forgave sins of that sick person (Matthew
9:2). That was the cure.
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That means when God forgives; a person can get
well (if, of course, it is not his appointed time to
die). So if we will be forgiven, we can get
well. That means, if we will forgive we can get
well. For our selfish nature it is difficult sometimes
to forgive. It may be easy to forgive some nice
person for something wrong he or she has done
against you unintentionally, but it may be very
difficult to forgive a nasty neighbor or relative
who always does something bad to you
on purpose. We may forgive such people one or
two times and after that our patience with them
seems to disappear. The apostles knew this feeling,
therefore they asked, what should the limit of
our forgiveness be? “Then came Peter to him, and
said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against
me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith
unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times:
but, until seventy times seven” (Matthew.18:21-
22), pretty much meaning as many times as it
takes. Jesus said we need to forgive always. And
He taught us not only to forgive our brothers, but
our enemies also.
To have forgiveness issues at death can prevent
your spirit from entering heaven. The forgiveness
issue is paramount to getting there. Simply put,
if you can't forgive your fellow man, God will not
forgive you. Think about that next time a potential
grudge shows up. Don't gamble and wait until you
die to find out forgiveness is a salvation issue.
What if the theory of annihilation is a false doctrine
and "everlasting punishment" really is forever and
ever?? Eternity is a long time. Not an issue to
gamble with.
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Two schools of thought on the “eternal torment”
issue - According to Sam Bacchiocchi
,a respected Adventist theologian, in his chapter
"Hell as an eternal torment", the "eternal punishment"
of Matthew 25:46 is eternal because its
results
are permanent. It is a punishment thatresults in their eternal destruction or annihilation.
The only way the punishment of the wicked could
be inflicted eternally is if God resurrected them
with immortal life so that they would be indestructible.
But according to the Scripture, only God
possesses immortality in Himself (1 Timothy 1:17;
6:16). He gives immortality as the gift of the
Gospel (2 Timothy 1:10 & 1Corrinthians 15:50-54)
to the righteous at the second coming, not to the
wicked. In the best-known text of the Bible, we
are told that those who do not "believe in him" will
"perish [
apoletai]," instead of receiving "eternallife" (John 3:16). Actually, that is inferred. The
passage really says that those who believe in Him
shall not perish but will have eternal life. The ultimate
fate of the lost then may be complete
destruction by eternal fire and not punishment
by eternal torment. But even with this
version, mortal souls will suffer torment in hell
from when they die until the Great White Throne
judgment at the end of the thousand years up until
death and hell are cast into the lake of fire per
Revelation 20:14.
However, again, it is also very possible the
annihilation theory is false doctrine.
According to Erwin Lutzer, in his book “One Minute
after you Die”, the fire does not annihilate the
wicked but torments them. There will be no periods
of rest during which the wicked are unconscious of
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torment. Please notice Rev. 20:10; "and the devil,
who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of
burning sulfur, where the beast and the false
prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented
day and night for ever and ever." According to
Rev. 19:20, the beast and the false prophet were
thrown into "the fiery lake of burning sulfur"
beforethe Millennium. “But the beast was captured,
and with him the false prophet who had performed
the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these
signs he had deluded those who had received the
mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The
two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake
of burning sulfur." But Satan, who was chained in
the abyss during that 1000 year time period was
also thrown in the lake of fire to join them
afterthe millenium.
Notice the beast and the false prophet were
NOT annihilated in hell during that thousand years.
Eternal conscious torment is clearly taught; there is
no other honest interpretation of these passages.
This means that for at least 1,000 years, yet in the
future, these two men will be tormented in this
unusual fire, prepared for spirit beings, without
being annihilated. Furthermore, those men will
be thrown into this fiery lake with the kind of bodies
we have now. This infers that that fire may not
be the same kind of fire we are familiar with, for if
it was, their bodies would be burnt to ashes in
just a fraction of that time.
Also, since the devil is a spirit and he will be tormented
by this fire, it can't be the kind of fire with
which we are accustomed to. In other words, the
fire God has in store for those who die in an
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unsaved condition can torment spirits. Although
hell was created only for the devil and his demons
(Matthew 25:41), Hell is also set-aside for all of
those who reject Jesus Christ. Their torment
will never cease in the final place for them, the lake
of fire. Again, the jury may be out on this issue.
Do you want to wait until you die to find out which
school of thought prevails? Keep your parachute
on! And absolutely keep it on all the time.
http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/eternaltorment.htm
Why would a God of love send someone to
Hell?
Many people waver whether or not to become a
follower of Jesus because of this question. How can
a God of mercy allow people to go to hell? Each
and every one of us is born with a sinful nature.
The sad thing is we are destined for Hell. The Bible
says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God" But..... What if God has provided the way
of escape? Wouldn't that display mercy? It is
God's desire that no person would suffer an eternity
in hell. The Bible says, "He is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). God could not
allow sin to go unpunished. But being merciful, God
sent His very own Son to be the final payment for
the sins of those who believe (John 3:16). It only
takes faith. God gave so much but required so
little. That is the epitome of a God of love.
Will the person who goes to hell cease to
exist?
The body of the person who is lost or refused to
accept Christ as Savior will be resurrected from the
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grave at the second resurrection after the thousand
years. Some say this body is barely put back together
enough to be tossed into the lake of fire,
and the lake of fire will be permanent annihilation,
that body and spirit will then cease to exist forever
and ever. But others say that this body will be
supernatural and indestructible. It will join with the
person's soul for eternity in “everlasting punishment”.
"And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life:
and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead, which were
in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead,
which were in them: and they were judged every
man according to their works. And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death. And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev.
20:12-15).
It is a state of dying eternally, but death may
never be achieved. Jesus warned about those
headed for eternity apart from God and the second
death. For me, the jury will remain out regarding
annihilation or everlasting punishment. Annihilation
makes sense, but so does purgatory, and it
doesn't exist. I am geared to keeping my parachute
on so I never have to find out which theory is
true the hard way. It’s like the old saying, “I would
rather live my life believing there was a God only to
find out He didn’t exist; than to live my life believing
there was no God only to die and find out He
did exist.” Believing in annihilation and choosing to
live a sinful errant life, could be a mistake.
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If annihilation isn’t true, then Is Hell eternal?
We are brought into this earthly world as eternal
beings. Our life here is simply a stop in God's plan.
We can't even begin to get a glimmer of what
heaven and hell are really like. The only thing that
we can comprehend is that each and every single
one of us was created by God the Father. God
wishes that "none of us should perish." Because of
God's great love for us, his children, He gives us
free will. We are given the choice to either accept
or reject Him. Just as we want our children to
come to us willingly and lovingly, God wants us to
come to him that same way, and as much as we
love our children God loves us, plus more. The
choices are either heaven or hell, accepting what
His son Jesus did for us on the cross or not. It is
that simple and each of those choices may be
"forever".
God doesn't send anyone to hell.
How many times have we heard someone say, "A
loving God wouldn't put His creatures in hell." Well,
God doesn't put anyone in hell--their sins put them
there. God is a just judge and sins require sentence.
The Bible tells us all have sinned. ALL! Not
ONE of us can get to heaven by our own accord.
Satan gets you by default if you don’t have a savior.
Know ye not that hell was not created for
man? Hell was created for the devil and his angels—
but it is also home to unrepentant sinners
who have not called upon the shed blood of Jesus
to save them. That’s what we need to learn; that
not having Jesus as our savior to keep us out of
hell at death is simply not an option unless you
want to toast and roast.
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We choose our final home. Hell may have to be
forever because Heaven is forever. What would be
the reason for anyone to choose heaven if they
knew they would eventually "get out" of Hell, even
by perishing? Hell is a consequence of the
choices we make. The Bible refers to the fate of
the unsaved with such fearful words as the following:
“Shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel
12:2) “Everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46)
“Weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:51)
“Fire unquenchable” (Luke 3:17) “Indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish” (Romans 2:8,9)
“Everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9) “Eternal fire...the
blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 7,13) Revelation
14:10,11 tells us the final, eternal destiny of
the sinner: “He shall be tormented with fire and
brimstone...the smoke of their torment ascended
up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or
night."
Honestly, I don’t know for sure today
whether hell will be annihilated in the lake of fire at
the end of the millennium as some interpret Rev
20:14 to say, or if it will go on forever and ever
somewhere. Both views are a matter of interpretation
using the same scriptures. It makes sense to
me that a loving God wouldn’t punish people forever
for their short time of disobedience here
on earth. But then purgatory makes sense also
except that it simply doesn’t exist. What makes
sense to us is not always how it is. Most pastors do
not support the theory of annihilation. The point is,
can you afford to gamble and find out the hard way
when it is so simple to just get your parachute,
keep it on, and ensure your salvation today and
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everyday?
Your free will,
your acceptance and belief in grace and salvation,
and how you handle your life now and show that
belief by always doing right by others, especially
regarding keeping the Ten Commandments
and forgiving others and your treatment of others,
determines your travel destination right here; right
now, on earth, before death. It is just as important
to
not get the ticket to hell as it is to get the ticketto heaven. Eternity is a long time.
Again the question, why do we need Jesus?
We have to go back even further to when God
created this perfect covering cherub angel named
Lucifer in heaven. Lucifer is well described starting
in Ezekiel 28:13 as being covered in precious
stones, anointed, and perfect in every way. His
pipes gave him a perfect voice to go with his perfect
beauty. He was to be God's right hand
man. He was probably even an advisor to God. But
he couldn't handle all the praise and worship God
was receiving and he got jealous. Lucifer wanted
all that for himself, even though he was just a
created being.
This downfall of Lucifer didn't happen overnight.
Lucifer's unrest cost him his position in heaven
and even his title after he tempted Eve, but he
could still traverse between earth and heaven. In
Job 2:2 we see even though he is now called Satan,
he still has access to heaven (...the LORD said
unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan
answered the LORD, and said, "From going to and
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in
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it." What's important to note is that Lucifer lost
God's spirit, his spirituality was compromised, and
he lost his title and became then known as Satan.
At the time Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of
Eden, he no longer had God's spirit inside of him,
even though he could still transport between
heaven and earth.
The rebellion and being cast out from heaven
along with a third of the angels that followed him
happened much later. He created a rebellion in
heaven to try and take God's throne away from
Him. Well, Lucifer lost the war in heaven and
was cast out of heaven down to earth but did covet
a third of the angels to side with him, and they
accompanied him in the fall; hence the term "fallen
angels " which are our present day demons and
evil spirits. Those beings we call extraterrestrials
or aliens are felt by many to simply be these fallen
angels who now reside inside our earth. Isaiah
14:12 covers this fall of Satan.
Lucifer had the name change while yet in heaven
having lost God's spirit due to his progressing
rebellion. From thence forward he was known
as Satan; the adversary, the destroyer, the accuser,
the evil one, the liar, the deceiver, the devil,
the tempter, the leader of all apostate (fallen)
angels, and eventually ruler of hell. Hell was created
for Satan and his fallen angels. Hell was never
meant for man to go to.
The question becomes, just when did the war in
heaven occur and when did Satan and his fallen
angels get cast down to earth? Without going into
the book of Daniel and discussing the 69 weeks
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and the command to rebuild Jerusalem which is the
starting point, ending with the cleansing of the
heavenly sanctuary (Satan being cast out of
heaven) and timelines associated with that discussion,
take a look at the clues found in history. What
did people drive up until about the mid 1800's?
They rode horses and drove around in horse pulled
buggies. How many years of history was that since
Adam and Eve; 5850 years plus or minus a few??
When did the technical and industrial revolution
start? 1850's?? Cars, machines, electricity, the
telephone, airplanes, trains, motorized ships;
where did the knowledge for these things
come from all of a sudden that hadn't been available
for the past 5850 years? Virtually everything
we take for granted today was invented or happened
since 1850. The knowledge came from the
fallen angels when they were cast out of heaven
and sent down to earth. Read Revelation 12 starting
at verse 7 that describes this fall. Tying in with
the timelines and events regarding the cleansing of
the sanctuary in heaven discussed in the book of
Daniel, I believe this fall to earth by Satan and
his fallen angels occurred around 1850.
Getting back to Adam and Eve
When God created Adam and Eve about 6000 years
ago, he gave them dominion over everything on
earth; the animals, the birds, the fish, and more;
Genesis 1:28. And God gave to Adam and Eve
"...every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face
of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for
meat." Genesis 1:29. They had it made; free fresh
fruits and veggies, nuts, rivers with pure clean
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water, great place to live in the Garden of
Eden AND - remembering man is a spiritual being -
they had God's spirit inside of them. In the cool of
the day God walked with them and communed with
them. They were immortal at that point in time.
With God's spirit in them they would not get sick
and would not die.
But there was a catch.
In Genesis 2:16-17 God tells Adam "...Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die". WOW, only one little
thing to stay away from. And this was told to Adam
even before God made Eve. Well, you pretty
much know the rest of that story.
Adam didn't do a very good job of explaining the
obedience thing to his wife and power hungry
Satan wanted dominion over the earth and the
animals, and fish and birds and everything. He
hadn't even been cast out of heaven yet but
probably had many of his responsibilities taken
away from him in heaven by that point in time. He
couldn't share dominion over the earth with Adam,
he had to take it away from Adam. So he had to
put Adam into disobedience in order to get it.
Knowing that Adam loved his wife and would
probably do for her what she asked, Satan went to
work on Eve. He appeared to her in the form of a
serpent and convinced her that it was God who was
trying to be the sneaky one and that she surely
wouldn’t die if she ate the forbidden fruit but
would have her eyes opened and they would be as
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gods knowing good and evil. This deception is
covered in Genesis 3.
She ate the fruit, enticed Adam to eat the fruit, and
from that point on they died a spiritual death, lost
God's spirit, and were no longer immortal. The
death God spoke of in Genesis 2:17 was spiritual
death. That was instantaneous. They didn't
die physically right away, but now they had lifespans
just as you and I do.
Adam lived to be 930 years old, Genesis 5:5. His
descendants had many years also. Satan got dominion
over the earth and a promise from God that
that wasn't the end of it, and Adam and Eve no
longer could commune with God in His presence
and got kicked out of the Garden of Eden to now
labor the soil for their own food and sustenance;
free ride was over. You may wonder why these
guys lived so long and we are doing good to make
70 today. In those days the oxygen content on the
earth was much greater, maybe as high as 38% as
studies suggest, instead of the 21% or less we
have today. And there was a protective water
canopy in the atmosphere surrounding the
earth protecting life from the sun’s harmful rays.
This protective water canopy was released during
Noah's flood. If you study the Bible you will note
that age to death dropped rapidly after Noah's
flood. Plus they didn't suffer soil depletion and all
the chemicals we pour down our bodies today from
the air we breathe, the poisons we drink, and the
contaminated GMO foods laced with MSG and high
fructose corn syrup we ingest.
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The big problem with Adam's sin
in the Garden of Eden is that God then removed His
spirit from Adam and Eve and they died spiritually.
The spirit that they then had was not of God. Their
spirit was dead. And all their descendants would
receive this "dead spirit" and not the spirit that was
of God. You and I, as their descendants, are born
with this "dead spirit" which contains Adam's human
sin nature. Human beings became miserable
and impure, no longer the perfect image bearer of
God. They fell more and more into the image of
Satan, full of pride and arrogance, and bore the
image of corrupted animals, full of sexual desire
and lusts.
After the fall, all descendants of Adam and
Eve were born, not bearing the image of God, but
with the image of Satan. We are "spiritually
dead" when we are born to our natural parents. All
human beings who are born in sin must be born
again. All born of woman also need to be born of
the Holy Spirit. This brings us to the Nicodemus
conversation with Jesus discussed in John 3:1-8.
Jesus declared to him that no one could see the
kingdom of God unless he was "born again". He
goes on further to state that no one can enter the
Kingdom of God unless he is born of both the water
(from his mother's womb and/or the water of
baptism – the jury’s still out on what he meant by
that also) and of the spirit. Nicodemus didn't
understand what he meant by “born again”.
What being born again means
We must understand what being born again is not,
to better understand what it is. It is not the same
as receiving forgiveness. It is different than being
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made righteous. It does not mean receiving forgiveness
for our sins through faith and being freed
from judgment and condemnation. It does not
mean a change in our status. Having a change of
status as a child of God is a result of our being
born again but it is not being born again itself.
It is not the same as being converted. Conversion
occurs when we change our religion, but just because
a Buddhist becomes a Christian does not
necessarily mean he is born again.
Being born again is a total holistic change. The
person is a new creation, not just a new mouth or a
new hand. Being born again entails "the rebirth of
our spirit". Again, a person is a spirit, has a soul,
and lives in a body. Being born again is the rebirth
of God’s spirit in man. It is our spirit that is
born again. Humankind experienced death of their
spirit when they fell. After the fall of Adam and
Eve, all human beings were born with dead spirits,
even when their physical bodies were born alive
from their mother's womb. Born again means "born
of God". We can only be born again through God.
Many people describe being born again as inheriting
the life and nature of God. It is a radical transformation
of our character. 1John 3:9 says "No one
who is born of God will continue to sin, because
God's seed remains in him..." Because of God's
seed abiding in us, we cannot continue to habitually
sin. Sin becomes an infrequent occurrence,
not a way of life.
By asking, we inherit God's nature and God's life.
We are made holy by the Holy Spirit. God's Holy
Spirit now lives in us just as it did in Adam and Eve
before they fell. The new birth is an act of God
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that makes people holy, while justification is an act
of God that makes people righteous.
Being born again means true inward holiness
through the work of God. We are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God has prepared in advance for us
to do. Without being born again no one can live
righteous and holy lives. You have to be born again
to overcome the world. To be happy one must be
rid of his sins and become holy. This is only possible
after he has been born again. If we are born
once we will die twice, but if we are born twice, we
should die only once. If a person is born one time
from his mother, he will experience physical death
and then his second death when he is thrown in the
lake of fire. Rev 21:8.
A person who is born twice, once from his mother
and a second time a spiritual rebirth from God may
experience physical death but will never face the
second death. He will live forever in heaven. Only a
life of God can exist in heaven. If you want to live
in heaven, you must be born again of the water
and the spirit and receive the life of God while you
are on earth now. And again, born of the water
probably refers to a full immersion baptism where
we repent of our sins and commit to Jesus.
So --- how do we become born again?
Jesus presents FAITH and asking Him is the way to
be born again. In Luke 11: 9-13 Jesus tells us how
to be born again. Just ask. " And I say unto you,
ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For
every one that asketh receiveth; and he that
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seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children: how much more shall
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him?”
When we are born again, asking Jesus to come into
our heart and for His Holy Spirit to reside within us
means that our dead spirit that we were born with,
that was not of God, is then overcome by God's
Holy Spirit. Being born again is personal. If your
heart truly desires His presence, He will come.
When He comes you will experience change.
Change in attitude, change in speech - swearing
and off color words will no longer have habitat in
your language, change in your thoughts, change in
behavior, and change in how you look at and interact
with other people.
Harboring resentment and anger will no longer
have a place in your life. You find yourself thinking
before speaking and acting. Would Jesus do this if
He were in this situation? You will get into the
DWJWD (do what Jesus would do) mode of operation.
That’s how you know if the Holy Spirit has
truly come to live in your heart. That’s not a figure
of speech. That IS where God’s Holy Spirit resides
in you.
How can you know for sure that you have
been born again?
Please do not expect any"earth-shaking" experience, because in the majority
of cases it comes about in a rather peaceful
way, a sense of relief and a load lifted. There will
be no fireworks or brass bands playing, just a
wonderful calm that is deep down inside. But with
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the passing of time, I have found that one of the
best indicators of the New Birth is a more genuine
understanding of the Word of God. Prior to being
Born Again, the "natural man", as the Bible calls
him, (a lost person), cannot understand the Bible
because the Bible is spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians
2:14). It is foolishness to him! So when the
Word begins to make sense, to speak to your
heart, and convict you of sin in your life, it is a very
good indicator that you have the Holy Spirit of God
residing within you. You see, a Christian obtains a
new spiritual nature by the New Birth, but he does
not get rid of the old nature he was born with. That
is why it is so vitally important that we "grow in
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ" (2 Peter
3:18). We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit as
we walk through this sinful and spiritually defiling
world around us. The Holy Spirit literally takes up
residence within us when we are Born Again.
Do you exhibit these 6 traits of being born
again?
www.detailshere.com/bornagain.htmNo habitual sinning, believing in Christ, practicing
righteousness, loving other Christians, overcoming
the world, and keeping oneself pure?
Understand exactly WHY we keep the commandments
of God and exhibit the fruits of the spirit per
Gal 5:22. It is not of our own doing. We don’t get
to take the credit for doing good deeds and living a
sanctified righteous life. When we first come to
Jesus to become a branch on His vine, we still
exhibit many of the works of the flesh found in Gal
5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
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variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like: of which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God
.Our fruits of the Holy Spirit are simply undeveloped
as of yet and need to be developed. After we are
born again and ask the Holy Spirit to come into our
hearts and reside inside us, the Holy Spirit changes
us; our speech, our thoughts, our habits, how we
relate to and care for others. It is the process of
becoming sanctified over time to develop character
in us that manifests itself in the developed fruits of
the spirit per Gal 5:22; love, meekness, kindness,
gentleness, etc. God does this in us to cause us to
be good, to do good deeds, and to live a righteous
life. It is not of our own doing. You can’t do good
deeds on your own to earn your way into heaven.
You only do good deeds if God has chosen you and
is developing your character through the Holy Spirit
residing in you.
And, remember Adam’s sin nature is still a resident
in us along with God’s Holy Spirit and satan will
continually tempt us to follow Adam’s advice instead
of the Holy Spirit’s advice. As God gave us
free will and choice we ultimately must be held
both responsible and accountable for the decisions
we make and the resulting actions we take. These
decisions and resulting actions ultimately affect our
salvation.
If you are a real Christian, you must faithfully
follow Jesus and endure persecution for living as
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godly and as righteous as you can to the end of
your life to enter heaven. Galations chapter five
tells us that if the Holy Spirit truly lives inside us
that our lives will exhibit His fruits of love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness,
and temperance. And if we truly are branches off of
Christ’s vine we can crucify the flesh against affections
and lusts.
If you choose to manifest the works of the flesh
instead: Gal 5:19-21, you simply shall not inherit
heaven or the kingdom of God on the new
earth. Grace doesn’t cover you.
Eternal security is a false doctrine since many
spiritually lethal things can occur that can interfere
with your salvation and thus prevent you from
inheriting eternal life (Gal 6:8-9).
Here are some “according to what he has
done”
passages to help you understand that youractions, thoughts, words, and deeds do have an
impact on your eternal security.
And that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will
reward each person according to what he has done.
(Psa 62:12)
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does
not he who guards your life know it? Will he not
repay each person according to what he has done?
(Prov 24:12)
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s
glory with his angels, and then he will reward
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each person according to what he has done. (Mat
16:27)
God “will give to each person according to what
he has done.” (Rom 2:6)
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with
me, and I will give to everyone according to what
he has done. (Rev 22:12)
The Rom. 2:6,7 passage is most clear and shouts
out emphatically that our reward, eternal life, is a
function of what we have done.
God “will give to each person according to what
he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing
good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will
give eternal life. (Rom 2:6,7)
Remember the only 25 out of 1000 ratio, per Pastor
Howard Pittman’s near death testimony, of
those spirits going to heaven versus entering hell
when relying upon the false notion that Jesus has
saved them no matter what they do. Jesus made
salvation AVAILABLE to each and every one of us.
IF, we believe in Him, love Him, and obey Him.
Think abeyance and DWJWD when being tempted
to make wrong decisions.
Grace versus works – which is it?
It can’t be both, right?
Our works, no matter how much we try to do good
on our own, will never get us to heaven; grace is
the only mechanism that gets us to heaven because
we can never be “perfect”. Grace is the gift
of God, undeserved and unmerited by us because
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of our sinful nature. As a gift it is unearned. But
grace is not a ticket to freely sin. It is NOT a free
ride. “Grace only” churches today are preparing
people to go to hell.
Backsliders after being initially saved can still end
up in hell. Accepting grace comes with responsibilities;
repenting of our past sins, and being careful
about committing new ones. We show our belief in
God’s grace and our acceptance of the salvation of
Jesus as our savior by our works; allowing the Holy
Spirit to work within us. If the Holy Spirit is truly in
us, our behavior changes. If no works or fruits of
the Holy Spirit are evident, it means we do not
really have true belief. We have not really accepted
the offer of grace; and if there is no belief, there is
no salvation. Head knowledge doesn’t cut it. Only
knowing Jesus, allowing Him to be our Savior and
to work within us and help us follow the narrow
path leads us to heaven. And there’s more to it
than just repenting our past sins, forgiving others
and accepting grace. Full immersion baptism,
for all those who can undergo such, is necessary
along with witnessing our faith to others so they
might also be saved is part of the package.
Beware of churches
who preach that the newtestament covenant doesn’t depend on promises or
obedience from us. A covenant is a contract involving
two parties, not just one. God is one side of this
contract; we are the other. These people teach that
Jesus “fulfilled” the law with His death and nothing
is required of us in this contract. A careful analysis
of that word “fulfill” from Greek using a concordance
shows that word should have been more
accurately translated “establish”. These people are
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claiming Jesus did away with the law by “fulfiling”
it. The fulfillment of the law was love.
Rom 13:10 “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”
The truth is, He came to “establish” the law, the
Ten Commandments; He didn’t do away with them.
In fact He clarified the law even further by stating
that we should do unto others, as we would have
them do unto us; which is in essence what the last
six commandments of God's moral law require of
us in relating to our fellow human beings. In the
new covenant God’s blessings are ours when we
place our trust in Jesus. But the teaching that our
own behavior and performance are not involved in
our acceptance into the new covenant is a dangerous
erroneous teaching. Jesus IS our salvation;
our ONLY pathway to the Father. But again, if our
changed behavior, as we develop the fruits of the
spirit in our lives reflecting the presence of the Holy
Spirit in us, doesn’t reflect that belief, it means we
have head knowledge only. We know ABOUT Jesus,
but we don’t really KNOW Jesus and we have
not really accepted the offer of grace in order to be
saved.
Accepting Jesus means you have a lot of freedom.
It is not expected that you will lead a sinless
life. It is expected that you will sin a lot less than
before though and that you will resist sin and
temptation much more so than previously. It lets
you focus on getting others their parachute without
worrying about your own salvation any more. When
you slip and fall, Jesus makes up the difference,
picks you back up and you continue on. Repent,
vow not to do that again, and move on. Don’t make
a habit of it. Sin is not all right. When your own
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salvation is secured, you are better able to focus
on helping others get saved also.
It is more important that you know
Jesus than to know facts about Him!
If you believe that Jesus is coming again, you will
watch for His coming. If you earnestly watch for
His coming you will purify yourself before Him by
being obedient to His commandments, loving your
neighbor, and witnessing your faith to others so
that they might be saved also. You will commit
some of your time and financial resources to that
end also. You
WANT to be part of the bride He iscoming for. The door the five wise virgins who
carried extra oil for their lamps entered through is
a symbol of the rapture on the last day; at the
second coming. Remember five of the ten didn't
get to enter. They weren't ready. Matthew 25. The
wedding banquet is the wedding feast, Mat 22 and
Luke 14, of the Son of God and His Bride.
Not all Christians get to go to this feast, therefore,
not all Christians are part of the Bride of
Christ. Only those that have taken the time to get
to know Jesus will be allowed in. That is why he
said, "I do not know you." These Christians will be
left to be refined as gold during the great tribulation
that is about to unfold instead of being protected
by Yahweh (God the Father) by having His
seal or mark during this time period. Yahweh
states that He knows those who belong to Him to
seal because they keep His commandments and
treat their fellow man with love, respect and dignity.
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Some Christians obey God; and some do all the
things the world does, even the evil things. Those
who obey now will be rewarded. The rest will discover
that they should have. If you are not praying,
giving, and working in the "Harvest Fields" for
Christ, YOU DON'T BELIEVE HE IS COMING, no
matter what your Church doctrine teaches! If you
believe there is a literal Hell, where men and
women go that do not know the forgiveness of
sins, and you are not making some attempt to
warn them, YOU don't believe He is really coming
back. Think of the few, only maybe 2.5% that may
actually make heaven at death. Do your part to
help improve those odds.
The story of Jesus
Many people know little about Jesus
,correctly called Yahshua, or Yahushua, or Yeshua,
depending upon who you listen to, which means
“Yahweh saves”. Yahweh is God’s proper name.
Yahushua is Jesus’ proper name. The letter J didn’t
even enter the English language until around the
15
th century. Who is this man Yahushua, translatedas Immanuel, and presently known as Jesus? Why
is He so important? Why is He the most written
about person in the history of mankind? If He died
here on earth 2000 years ago why will He affect
where we end up after we die? If you don’t know
the story about Jesus, you need to learn about it.
To understand who Jesus the Christ was, go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTb4UIbnOHE
online and watch a free very accurate full length
film of the story and life of Jesus Christ. You need
to know the story of Jesus to understand His importance
as your Savior to you.
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The necessity of having Jesus as savior.
God does not want you to perish. He is rich in
mercy and compassion, and has provided a way for
you to be forgiven. He has invited you to come to
Him for a full pardon and receive the free gift of
Eternal Life. You cannot earn it, and you do not
deserve it, but God is offering it to you as proof of
His love for you. You just have to be sincere and
ask for it. It’s free.
Imagine you are standing in front of a judge, guilty
of multiple serious crimes. All the evidence has
been presented and there is no doubt about your
guilt. Your apologies and good works cannot erase
your crimes; therefore you must be punished. The
fine for your crimes is $500,000 or imprisonment,
but you don’t have two pennies to rub together.
The judge is about to pass sentence when someone
you don't even know steps in and pays your fine
for you! The court accepts the money and declares
that you are free to go. The law has been satisfied,
your debt has been paid in full, and the stranger’s
sacrifice was a demonstration of his love for you.
That’s what God did for you 2000 years ago. The
Bible says that the God of the Universe became a
man (Jesus Christ), and suffered and died on the
cross for your sins and mine so that we could be
set free. It's as simple as this.... we broke the Law,
and Jesus paid our fine. "God demonstrated His
own love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) "Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the Law, being made
a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13) The law spoken
of here is the Mosaic law, the 613 rules no one
could follow kept on the outside of the ark of the
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covenant. That is what went out with the cross.
Galatians tells the people that once they have faith
in Christ, they were no longer under the schoolmaster
of Moses. God’s moral law, the Ten Commandments,
kept on the stone tablets inside of the
ark of the covenant, still holds fast, as it is the
basis of what determines transgression of the law;
sin. It’s the consequences of breaking the law that
was changed by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But you must turn away from sin and turn to God.
Desire to have NOTHING to do with sin, and surrender
your life to the One who can save you.
Jesus died to set you free, and then he rose from
death to be your Lord. Jesus said, “I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” If you will confess and forsake
your sins (repent) and trust in Jesus Christ as your
Savior and Lord, God will forgive you and you’ll
pass from death to life. If you are not sure how to
pray, read Psalm 51 and make it your prayer.
The gift of grace is received by saving FAITH
Faith is the key that opens the door to heaven.
Many people mistake two things for saving faith.
a.
Saving faith is not mere intellectual knowledge,like believing certain historical facts. The Bible says
that even the devil believes there is only one God,
so believing that there is one God is not saving
faith.
b.
Saving faith is not mere temporal faith, that is,trusting God for a temporary crisis, such as family,
financial or physical needs. These are good and you
should trust in Christ for these, but they are not
saving faith.
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Saving Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for
salvation and eternal life. It means resting on
Christ alone for what He has done rather than in
what you or I have done to get us to heaven. Acts
16:31 “Believe (trust) on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved”.
It means that you need to:
1. Transfer your trust from what YOU have been
doing to what Christ has done FOR YOU on the
cross.
2. Accept Christ as your savior. Open the door to
your heart and invite him in. Rev 3:20 “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my
voice, and opens the door I will come in to him…”.
3. Receive Jesus Christ as Lord; give Him the
“driver’s seat” and “controls” of your life, not the
“backseat”.
4. Repent of your sins. Be willing to turn from
ANYTHING that is not pleasing to Him. He will
reveal His will to you as you grow in your relationship
to Him and the Holy Spirit develops character
and sanctification in you.
Romans 10:10,13 “For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” If
you want to receive the gift of eternal life through
Jesus Christ, then call on Him, asking Him for this
gift right now.
The sinner’s prayer
The sinners prayer has been abused and misadvertised
by many. Evangelists seek to get people to
say the sinner’s prayer telling them they will be
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saved if they do so. But the Bible doesn’t say that.
It may be true for some cases such as in the movie
“God is not dead” where the atheist came back to
Jesus just before he died after being hit by a car;
but for most part salvation is a process, not the
statement of a single prayer. A person who says
the sinner’s prayer may be saved for a day, or a
week, or a month but without sufficient foundational
knowledge of God’s word he cannot follow
through with the repentance, change of character
and perseverance required to truly be saved. There
is no bypassing the steps to salvation of justification
and sanctification. Again, it is a process. But
with that said; stating the sinners prayer and
meaning what you say is a very good start. Then
you must follow through with repentance and
allowing the Holy Spirit you have invited to live in
your heart to change your habits, speech and
character to be more in tune with the type of person
God will allow into His kingdom.
You can pray something like this:
Lord Jesus Christ, I know I am a sinner and do not
deserve eternal life. But I believe you died on the
cross for my sins and arose from the grave to
purchase a place in heaven for me. Lord Jesus,
come into my life and take control of my life. Forgive
me my sins as I forgive others who have
sinned against me and save me. I repent of my
sins, and I will turn away from sin, and I will place
my trust in you for my salvation. Please forgive
me, and grant me your gift of everlasting life. In
Jesus’ name, amen
Welcome to God’s Family!
Today is your spiritual birthday; a day you will
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want to remember. The Bible speaks of those who
receive eternal life in these words. John 1:13
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
There is nothing magic about these words
It is the attitude of your heart that God cares
about. God will transform you from the inside out.
You will think and feel differently as you learn to
trust and obey Him. God will give you new strength
to live right and love Him above all else. Read your
Bible daily and obey His Word. You can trust God—
He loves you and will always be faithful. If you've
decided to reject the gift of forgiveness and you die
in your sins, there is no hope for you. There is no
purgatory. The wrath of God abides on you and you
can look forward to eternal torment in hell.
The downside of the sinners prayer.
Don’t get me wrong, if you repeat the sinners
prayer or something similar and mean it; you will
be in an immediate saved condition. If you were
just in an accident and were in fact dying and said
this prayer in complete sincerity your spirit and
soul would go to heaven immediately as you expired.
Thank the parable of the vineyard owner in
Mathew 20 for clarification on that. The workers
that were hired at the end of the day received the
same compensation as those who had worked since
morning. The man who dies just after coming to
Jesus and receiving Him as savior, receives the
same key to the pearly gates as the man who has
been obedient to Jesus for most of his life. He
might not have the same degree of rewards awaiting
him, but he will get there just the same.
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Think about untimely death.
What if you diedupon impact in the accident and didn’t have time to
ask Jesus to forgive you? Untimely death accounts
for a lot of deaths. My first wife met untimely death
when her Harley motorcycle went off the road and
she was thrown against a large rock which her
head hit as she wasn’t wearing a helmet at the
time. Instant death. No time to come to Jesus if
she hadn’t already done so previously.
Let’s say your neighbor was concerned about salvation
and on Wednesday he had a long talk with you
and talked you into saying the sinners prayer that
evening, and saved you. But come Friday evening
your buddies want you to go out drinking, you got
inebriated, and you met some cutie at the bar you
took home and fornicated with. By Monday you
forgot all about abeyance to Jesus and it was back
to life as usual. Backsliding is what happens when
people don’t have a sufficient foundation in God’s
word. Being saved for an evening or a day without
follow through doesn’t mean being saved forever.
It’s like the first three sets of seeds that didn’t
survive in the parable of the sower, Mathew 13.
Some fell along the path and the birds ate them
up, some fell amongst rocks and sprang up but
lacked moisture and died, some fell amongst
thorns and weeds and were choked out. Only those
grown in fertile soil survived. God’s Holy Spirit can
leave you just as rapidly as He entered. Think hard
about why statistically few spirits may go to
heaven at death. According to Rev Park in his near
death experience testimonial, he was told by angels
only 1/10
th of 1% (1 out of a thousand)made heaven at death. Howard Pittman witnessed
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2.5% making it in. You have to sustain your belief
and endure to the end. If getting to heaven was
such an easy task without any effort on our part,
more of us would show up there. But apparently we
don’t.
Eternal Life is a FREE gift.
Romans 6:23 “…the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And because
heaven is a gift, like any other genuine gift, it is
not earned or deserved. No amount of personal
effort, good works or religious deeds can earn a
place in heaven for you. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by
grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast.” What’s missing here if the
good book says no amount of personal effort is
required? What’s missing is the concept that if you
came to Jesus and He lives inside you in the form
of the Holy Spirit your actions, thoughts, words
and deeds will reflect that belief. The fruits of the
spirit become reality, fully demonstrable daily in
our lives. Sin and not doing what’s right become
the exception rather than the rule. If your life
doesn’t reflect that, it simply shows you don’t really
have the belief part of the equation.
Grace is not a license to freely sin.
It is not easy to explain to someone that although
our works will not get us to heaven; if we do not
show good works by our thoughts, actions, words,
and deeds; it simply proves we lack the belief that
we have been saved. James 2:17 says "In the
same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by
action; is dead". Mathew 7:21 is pretty explicit ,
"Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall
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enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father in heaven."
Whoever has the faith can't help but show it by
his/her actions. Logically, eternal salvation is
provided for man solely by God's grace through the
substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Man is saved
through faith alone in Christ alone, independent of
his works, but good works are a necessary result of
true faith; like keeping the ten commandments as
well as you can, treating your fellow man with
respect and forgiving his faults against you, witnessing
your faith to others, and being baptized by
full immersion are all part of being born again.
Slipping into sin occasionally
like a white lie here or a slip of the tongue there,
staring too long at a low cut blouse, wishing that
yellow corvette across the street was yours, or
getting angry with your kids but realizing it and
reconciling soon thereafter; these things are expected.
God doesn’t expect us to be perfect like He
is. Remember although God’s Holy Spirit is our
main force now, Adam’s sin nature still lurks in the
background to try and trip us up. We are covered
by grace and Jesus’ righteousness as long as we
continue to wear the parachute and we pick ourselves
back up, quickly repent, and try not to do it
again.
Repent means to stop rebelling against God’s ways
and be obedient to His instructions. We keep His
commandments as best we can. We forgive our
fellow man when he trespasses against us. We
treat our fellow man as we would want to be
treated. This is MOST important in retaining your
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status of saved. We put our relationship with Jesus
above all else. We pray daily. We open our Bibles
and study some daily. We don’t just ask Jesus to
grant us grace and then put Him on the shelf to be
forgotten.
“
Backsliding”.Out of every 200,000 people that make the altar
call and ask God to save them and give them
eternal life, only about 15,000 to 18,000 keep the
parachute on and stay with Jesus and remain
saved. That’s less than 10%. The rest backslide
back into their sinful ways and forget all about
Jesus; some thinking that grace is a free license to
sin now and others because they just become
caught back up with the materialistic world we live
in and the sinful influences Satan has provided to
steal their salvation. I personally believe a large
reason for this is that the people were never taught
from the git-go the truth about the torments and
fires of hell or the truth about how just being a
good person does not get them to heaven. They
were never exposed to the truth you have been
shown in this book. The evangelists that brought
them to that altar call preached about the glory of
God, how good God is, how loving God is, how God
would not send them to hell; but they didn’t talk at
all about how God is a just judge and the punishment
for sin is hell. They didn’t talk about what
our responsibilities regarding God’s covenant were.
They didn’t tell us just trying to be good doesn’t
work. That you can’t get there on your own nickel.
They preached nice instead of necessity. They
didn’t properly explain what the term savior means
and exactly why Jesus as our savior is absolutely
necessary for our salvation. No savior, no para
142chute, no heaven, we go to hell; no alternatives.
Keep a daily walk with Jesus and don’t become a
backslider statistic.
Baptism
If not already, you need to be baptized; full immersion
Baptism to be specific. Full immersion means
going completely under the water, just as you see
John the Baptist doing at the river Jordan in the
Jesus movies, not sprinkling. See my page at
www.detailshere.com/baptism.htm
for a fullexplanation of why this can be considered a necessary
requirement to get into the Kingdom. Christ
emphasized baptism is necessary! It's in the Bible.
(See John 3:5). " I am telling you the truth,"
replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom
of Heaven without being born of water and of the
spirit". Full immersion baptism is what is addressed
here and not just being born from water in the
womb.
I should qualify that. If you are dying at the scene
of an accident and came to Jesus and accepted His
salvation and there was no opportunity to be baptized
with a full immersion baptism, I do not believe
that would prevent you from going to heaven.
But if you can receive a full immersion baptism as a
means of showing your faith, you should. There’s
both sides of the debate table on this issue. Words
of wisdom are to be safe and do it.
Baptism demonstrates true repentance.
Such repentance is a turning to believe, follow, and
obey Jesus Christ, and is the only kind of repentance
that will save us. True repentance must lead
a person to the waters of baptism. In baptism we
identify ourselves with the death, burial and resur
143rection of Christ. Jesus died, bearing our sins and
paying the penalty for them in Himself. He was
buried, taking our old life into the tomb with Him.
He was raised from the dead, that He might give to
us by the power of God, His new life, a supernatural
resurrected life of peace, joy and victory over all
that previously bound us.
Are there any prerequisites for baptism?
Among the prerequisites for baptism noted in the
Scriptures are belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of
God (Acts 8:36,37) and repentance (Acts 2:37,38),
and being of sufficient age (usually ten or older) to
know what Baptism is really all about. Baptism isn’t
about being dunked in a pool of water. It is about
taking off the old self, getting rid of all sin, and
starting anew; giving your life over to Jesus, letting
Him have the helm. It’s about letting God’s Holy
Spirit come upon you and show you what to do.
It’s a serious step in your life. Being baptized lets
you show that you understand what the parachute
is all about and you have made the decision to put
it on and wear it.
By baptism we confess our faith in the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and testify of our
death to sin and of our purpose to walk in newness
of life. Thus we acknowledge Christ as Lord and
Savior, become His people, and are received as
members by His church. Baptism is a symbol of our
union with Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, and
our reception of the Holy Spirit. It is by immersion
in water and is contingent on an affirmation of faith
in Jesus and evidence of repentance of sin. It
follows instruction in the Holy Scriptures and acceptance
of their teachings. (Matthew 3:13-16;
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28:19-20; Acts 2:38; 16:30-33; 22:16; Romans
6:1-6; Galatians 3:27; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians
2:12-13; 1 Peter 3:21.)
Baptism demonstrates true repentance
. Suchrepentance is a turning to believe, follow, and obey
the Lord Jesus Christ, and is the only kind of repentance
that will save us. A repentance which refuses
the command to be baptized in water is unknown
in the Bible. True repentance must lead a person to
the waters of baptism where we identify ourselves
with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
Jesus died, bearing our sins and paying the penalty
for them in Himself. He was buried, taking our old
life into the tomb with Him. He was raised from the
dead, that He might give to us by the power of
God, His new life, a supernatural resurrection life of
peace and joy and victory over all that previously
bound us. Colossians 2:12
Does it take a priest or a pastor to baptise?
You must understand the baptism is taking place in
the person being baptized. It's what HE believes is
happening, and it is HE who is repenting of past
sin, and it is HE who is accepting Jesus and the
Holy Spirit into his heart. It is HE who is taking off
the old man and putting on the new man and
looking forward to a life of sinning less because the
Holy Spirit is now within him. Who is dunking him
under the water is irrelevant. The only case for
having a priest or a pastor do the baptizing is that
the person being baptized may feel it "took" much
more than by being baptized by a regular common
Christian. As a youth I earned the name “Berry the
Baptist” by baptizing my friends in a cold creek
water hole nearby. Back then I just thought it
meant getting rid of Adam’s original sin. Little did I
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know what the full ramifications of Baptism were.
In truth Yahweh doesn't care who does the dunking
as it is in the heart of the person being baptized
whether or not it took or not.
I’ve been baptized three different times in my life.
Sprinkled as a Catholic as a baby which I came to
realize probably didn’t count. A second time with
full immersion in Russia when the Orthodox priest
demanded I be baptized before he would marry us
there. I would have done anything to marry that
woman, even strip in front of her and enter the
baptismal pool, and let him dunk me. And a third
full immersion time in Mexico when I really understood
what baptism was all about and what it
signified. I think that is the time it really took.
Witnessing to others
Are you ashamed of your new status of being
saved? Do you want to keep it a secret? Do you
think your friends will laugh at you if you tell them
you asked God to give you eternal life so your spirit
doesn’t go to hell when you die? God never promised
easy. In fact He says you will be mocked and
scourned because of Him. Don't keep it a secret
because people might think you are a little strange
talking about God and what's right and what's
wrong.
When he tells us to share the good news; he
means just that. I get angered at the people who
badmouth the Jehovah's witnesses or Mormons for
their house to house tactics. I certainly don't agree
with some of their theology. In fact in my opinion,
both groups have serious flaws in their doctrine
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and belief system, but I have to give them an A for
effort in trying to share the "good news"; because
many people are just downright mean to them and
slam doors in their faces; or issue profane words at
them for bothering them, or call them kooks and
cultists; it takes a lot of guts and fortitude to continue
witnessing under those demeaning circumstances.
I give both groups an attaboy for their
efforts. I love speaking with them and sharing the
Parachute of Jesus with them.
Why would you want to witness about the salvation
of Jesus to others? Maybe a better question is;
knowing what you now know about heaven, hell,
grace, and sanctification; why wouldn’t you want to
share this knowledge with others? Jesus tells us in
Hosea 4:6; “my people perish for lack of knowledge.”
Be willing to share the knowledge.
If you are not praying, giving, and working
in the "Harvest Fields" for Christ, YOU DON'T
BELIEVE JESUS IS COMING, no matter what your
Church doctrine teaches! If you believe there is a
literal hell, where men and women go that do not
know about eternal life as a FREE gift and the
forgiveness of sins, and you are not making some
attempt to warn them and teach them about salvation,
YOU don't believe He is coming back. Witnessing
your faith to others is all a part of knowing
Jesus. See my webpage for all about tracts at
http://www.detailshere.com/tracts.htm
andfor more about witnessing along with sources of
witnessing tracts to hand out.
In the book The Divine Revelation of Heaven by
Mary Katherine Baxter, which you can read at
, she was shown147
that angels are actually keeping track of who and
how many each of us bring to Jesus through our
witnessing efforts. Witnessing to others may not
only affect getting into heaven but may well affect
what your reward is once there.
I didn’t write this book for rewards. I wrote it
because when only .1% to 2.5% of the people who
die are making it to heaven at death according to
near death testimonies; we are not doing our job.
We are not giving people the knowledge they need
to make that journey successfully. What makes me
angry is how Satan can pull the wool over our eyes
and make us think we are doing such a good job;
when we aren’t. We need to be more aggressive
and step up the pace.
Entering into heaven is by grace only
, but thetest of that faith in the salvation of Jesus, manifests
itself in obedience to the will of God. "Not
everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, shall enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the
will of my Father in heaven." "Be doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own
selves," James 1:22. The kingdom of God is a
Spiritual realm, attained by walking in the Spirit,
and producing the fruit of the Spirit; which is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self control
.Is it possible to believe in Jesus and not be
saved?
Yes, if you believe in the wrong Jesus.You cannot be saved and believe in another "Jesus"
(2 Cor. 11:4, Gal. 1:6-9) as do the cults. Virtually
every cult denies the doctrine that Jesus Christ is
100% man and 100% God for all eternity. They
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deny Jesus is fully God. They teach He is a man
only, or Spirit only, or a great teacher or prophet,
that he was an anointed man and is now Spirit, etc.
Why do orthodox Biblical Christian believers consider
cult members to be unsaved and in need of
having the Gospel preached to them? Because to
be saved it matters what you believe ABOUT Jesus
Christ and the plan of salvation, and not just that
you believe that Jesus existed (eg. Bahai), was a
prophet (eg. Muslims), was only a great teacher
(eg. Gnostics), was only an anointed man (eg.
Word-Faith), or anything else. When people in the
nice white shirts and ties knock on your door; ask
them right up front if they believe Jesus IS God,
not a god, but thee God, a question that separates
the wheat from the chaff.
How do I know if I am saved?
We need to study the love walk and how we're to
walk in love as if our kingdom citizenship depended
on it, because it does. Why does kingdom citizenship
depend upon love? Because if we don't learn
how to forgive and love, we can't claim to know
Him. Pay particular attention to my page
which goesinto more depth regarding how do I know if I am
saved. It’s a touchy but important subject.
You must learn that works cannot save you, only
faith in salvation can save you; but if works are not
manifested in your daily life, it also then shows you
don’t have true faith but only head knowledge.
Head knowledge alone doesn’t get you into heaven.
Your heart has to keep pace. Your heart is the big
giveaway. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit constantly
reassures us that we belong to Jesus Christ.
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Evidence of genuine salvation is the presence of
the Holy Spirit within the individual, how can this
be verified?
The fellowship enjoyed by genuine Christians
is positive proof of salvation. Those who claim to
know Christ, but yet rarely attend church to worship
God and associate with other believers, are
possibly fooling themselves! A Christian can stay
out of church and away from other believers, but I
can guarantee you that there will never be a time
when they will be comfortable doing so!
On the other side of the coin, 1John 1:8 teaches us
that if we deny the existence of sin within us, the
truth is not in us. 1John 2:3, teaches us that we
are genuine and growing in grace and knowledge of
Christ, “if we keep His commandments”.
1John 2:10 teaches us that we are of Christ if we
love the brethren. Again, those who habitually
absent themselves from God's house and do not
make it clear that they love being around God's
children, are very likely to be tares and not wheat.
1John 2:15 teaches us that if anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. "Worldly
Christians" is almost a contradiction in terms and
those who claim to know Christ, but yet cling to the
value system of this world-are suspect.
1John 5:13 informs us that the entire Book of 1
John was written so that we can know that we
possess eternal life in Christ.
The Word of God teaches that the Bible is incomprehensible
to the "natural man" - the unsaved
individual. It is a spiritual book and the unsaved
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person is not only spiritually blind, but 1 Corinthians
2:14 tells us that he "is incapable" of knowing
that which is spiritually discerned.
Do you understand the Bible? Does it make sense
to you and speak to your heart? Does it convict you
of your sin and teach you the right way?
The Bible is very clear that an unregenerate individual
will not seek God (Rom.3:11). Are you
painfully aware of your sinful nature and cry out to
God from your heart for forgiveness when you sin?
If so, this is one of the signs of having been born
again.
The Bible says that an unregenerate individual is a
slave of Satan and incapable of doing anything
about it (Eph.2:2). Have you been able to turn
your back upon this world and its sinful ways? Are
all of your close friends Christians? If you have
been born again, your unsaved friends normally
will drop you like a bad habit
Do you have secrets? Have you not been able to
burn or destroy your lifetime collection of girly
books, pictures, magazines, and even videos? You
are not free until you can do so. Satan still has his
claw in you and you are still hellbound no matter
how many good things you try to make up for it
with. Get rid of the porn.
The pornography industry and lust for the opposite
sex (and today even same sex) accounts for
probably more lost souls than any other vice;
preachers included. The United States is the producer
and distributor of the largest quantity of porn
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distributed in the world.
Do you love--really love--Christians and would
rather be with them than anyone else? Can you
meet a total stranger, find out that they are a
believer, and then have instant fellowship with
them? Is there "something" in your heart that
draws you to them and establishes a closeness that
cannot be explained in any other way?
Do you actually enjoy giving to the Lord's work? Do
you give generously of your time, talent, and
treasury?
Do you sin less, a lot less, now than you did prior
to receiving Christ?
Have other people seen the "fruit of the Spirit" at
work in your life? That is, can they see genuine
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc., (Gal.5:22),
being wrought in and through you by God's Holy
Spirit? Do they sense that you are a different person
from the one you used to be?
Have you experienced persecution because of your
faith in Christ? (Former friends, who back away
because of your testimony for Christ, are a subtle
form of persecution).
Are you eagerly expecting and anticipating the any
moment return of Jesus Christ for His Church?
Even though Jesus tells us we will not know the
hour or the day, even He does not know, only the
Father knows, He gives us the signs to watch for.
Are you getting educated in what those are?
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If you can truthfully answer, "yes" to these questions,
you are a child of God and the Holy Spirit
dwells within you!
If you cannot truthfully answer, "yes" to these
questions, you may need to review the salvation
message again.
Death is the great equalizer.
At the moment a person takes their last breath,
their name, their job, their bank account, what
they may or may not have accomplished during
their life, all ceases to matter. At the moment they
take their last breath, the only thing that matters is
their relationship with Jesus Christ, nothing else. It
is foolishness to put everything you have into these
few years on earth. James calls life "a vapor”. The
Bible tells us tomorrow is promised to none of us,
that each day is a gift from God.
Sadly, most people live their lives like they will
never die, spending every second fulfilling the
desires of their flesh. Their entire focus is on these
few brief years and all of their time and energy,
talents and resources, are invested in a life that will
be gone in the blink of an eye.
If Bill Gates would die without accepting Christ into
his heart, like the rich man in Luke 16, the moment
he dies he will be eternally separated from God. All
of his billions, all of his great accomplishments, all
of his "good works," will not matter. The moment
he dies there is only ONE THING that will matter,
and that is if he has accepted Jesus Christ as his
Lord and Savior or not.
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Likewise, if a homeless man in Chicago dies but
knows Christ as his Savior, like Lazarus, the moment
he dies he will be eternally with God his
Creator. The fact he had no money, or no possessions,
or never did great things in his life will not
matter. The moment he dies there is only ONE
THING that will matter, and that is if he has accepted
Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
What is the main focus of your life today?
Is itsolely focused on these few short years, or are you
preparing for your eternal home? Are you using
each day to lay up treasure where moth and rust
doth corrupt, or are you laying up treasure in
heaven?
Do you spend your day on the temporal or the
eternal? How much of your time, talent, and treasure
is spent on this life versus your eternal life as
well as that of others? These are all serious and
legitimate questions only you can answer.
Another good question you need to ask yourself is
what will your legacy be? Are you working to build
a legacy in this temporal world, or are you working
to build a legacy that will stand for all eternity?
The most important question that I could ever ask
you is, are you ready to meet Jesus? Are you ready
to take your last breath and be standing before
God your Creator? If you took that last breath in
the next moment, do you know without any doubt
where your eternal home will be? Are you ready to
die? Are you ready to meet Jesus?
It is important to first understand that true Chris
154tians do not only accept Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior, but they also
live by every word ofthe Bible
(Matthew 4:4), keeping God’s commandments(John 14:15), loving one another (John
15:12), and proclaiming the Gospel of the coming
Kingdom of God (John 4:34). True Christians actually
"do" something. They "do" the "will" of the
Father (Matthew 7:21). If we
do these things, thenwe are on our way to being the "good and faithful
servants" in whom our Master is pleased at His
return (Matthew 25:21-23).
Revelation 3:7-13 describes God’s faithful Church
at the end of this age. These Christians earnestly
strive to "imitate Jesus" in how they live and worship
(1 Corinthians 11:1). They are not perfect, but
they strive to "walk as He walked" (1 John 2:6).
Grace covers their imperfections. They practice
love, and exhibit the fruits of the Spirit in their
daily lives. And there is something else unique
about these Christians. They are
zealous. They aredoing
something.At judgment day
Christ will not ask for your voterregistration card to make sure you are a republican
or a democrat, He won't even ask you if you were
mad about them taking down little plastic Jesus or
saying "Happy holidays." He won't ask you if you
protested the taking down of the ten commandments
off of the courthouse wall or how many
Christian t-shirts you wore, or even if you bought
the latest praise CD's. No friend, He will ask questions
like these:
What did you do for the least of these?
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Did you care for the widow and orphan, feed the
hungry, give without expecting anything in return?
Did you love God with all your heart; love your
neighbor as yourself without expecting his friendship
in return?
Did you repent and live a life that shows it, did
you forgive so you could be forgiven?
Yes, these are the questions that will be asked, all
matters of the heart. No amount of religious activity
will make up for these things; the sheep and the
goats will be separated.
God’s Holy Feast Days or supposed Christian
Holidays, which should we keep??
Most of us have been led down the golden path
regarding God's Holy Feast days. When we celebrate
Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, Halloween,
etc we do not know it but we are celebrating
pagan origin holidays. Nowhere in scripture will you
find these celebrations, let alone the command to
keep them.
See
www.detailshere.comtrueorigins.htm for amore thorough explanation of why they are pagan.
See
www.detailshere.com/feastdays.htm fora thorough description of God’s feast days. God’s
feast days are Yahweh's days to keep holy and
along with keeping a Saturday Sabbath, constitute
God's "seal" on us. God's "mark" is simply our
keeping a Saturday Sabbath as well as rememberance
of these seven feast days as Sabbaths and
also keeping His Ten Commandments. The mark of
the beast may well be NOT keeping those things.
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God's seven festivals are laid out in Leviticus 23:
the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the
Feast of Weeks or Firstfruits (Pentecost), the Feast
of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of
Tabernacles and the Last Great Day of the feast.
These feasts show how God works to bring about
the salvation of mankind. Each one pictures a step
in this process for individuals and, ultimately, for
all humanity. Some church organizations feel the
feast days of Leviticus went out with the cross as
well as God's Ten Commandments but that is
simply not true. "AND THIS DAY SHALL BE UNTO
YOU FOR A MEMORIAL; and ye shall KEEP IT A
FEAST to the Lord throughout your generations; ye
shall keep it a FEAST by an ordinance FOR EVER"
(Exo.12:7-14).
Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a
sign between me and them, that they might know
that I am the LORD that sanctifies them. Ezekiel
20:12
And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign
between me and you, that ye may know that I am
the LORD your God. Ezekiel 12:20
Exodus 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of
Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths (plural - verse
14 speaks of the weekly Sabbath so we know this
is referring to the annual feast day Sabbaths and
may well include the weekly Sabbath too but this
verse does not speak of many weekly Sabbaths) ye
shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations; that ye may know
that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. I have
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to go by what scripture tells me to do, not what
man has conjured up.
Clean and Unclean Foods
Did the clean and unclean food laws of Leviticus 11
and Deuteronomy14 also go out with the cross?
The problem I have with that thinking is that every
one of them has a scientific health reason for not
eating them. In my opinion God was pretty smart,
like making all bottom feeding fish without scales
for example. Bottom feeders contain hundreds of
times more mercury and other toxic metals and
harmful chemicals than fish who feed above the
bottom who just happen to have fins and
scales. The pig did not make the Creator's list of
"clean" animals for a very good reason. Clean
animals like cows and deer that chew the cud have
an advanced digestive system that includes an
alimentary canal and a secondary cud receptacle.
They have three stomachs to process and refine
their clean, vegetation-based food in a process that
can take up to twenty-four hours. Pigs or swine, on
the other hand, never limit their diet to vegetation.
They will eat anything they can find — including
their own young and sick or dead pigs from the
same pen. Pork contains poisons and by-products
that can harm you, including the destructive enzymes
cadaverine and putrescine. Pigs can also
carry trichina worms which imbed themselves in
your muscle tissue. Cooking pork well only lets you
eat dead trichina worms. For your health, stick to
the animals that the Creator chose as his ideal food
for humankind. See my page at
www.detailshere.com/clean&uncleanfoods.htm
for a thorough explanation on this subject.
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What is the difference between
just staying outof hell at death versus being eligible to inherit the
Kingdom of Heaven? And what happens to the
righteous (the guests in wedding garments) who
didn’t get resurrected at the second coming but
made it through the second resurrection and
weren’t tossed into the lake of fire (like the guests
were who weren’t wearing a wedding garment)?
I have tried to keep this book simple; in simple
language and meaningful enough to the majority of
readers to awaken a desire in them to begin to
understand the process of real salvation. My purpose
is to awaken people to cause them to want to
be born again and begin a life of following Jesus
and enacting the DWJWD principles of everyday
living. There is obviously more to salvation than
what has been presented above.
Just salvation or Kingdom of Heaven?
See my wife’s youtube video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjwOgpzlzJA
for proof there definitely is a difference?
Here are some thoughts to mess with your mind.
Neither heaven nor hell may be just one place.
According to some, both are multifaceted. Hell has
many compartments, levels, zones and areas, as
was shown to Mary Baxter in her 30 visits to hell
(Divine Revelation of Hell). Not all punishments
were of the same degree. Heaven may also be
multifaceted. Besides the pearly gates and the
streets of gold in the Kingdom, there are testimonies
of people who went to heaven but who stayed
outside the city walls in what they called “paradise”.
The Bible is still full of mystery; there are
things we will not know until it is our turn to cross
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the veil. Remember commandments 1-4 relate to
God and 5-10 relate to fellow humans. There will
be some Christians not deserving of hell but not
meeting God’s criteria at this point in time for entry
into the Kingdom of God either. Maybe they were
good old boys who showed love for their fellow
man but didn’t really know or care to know Jesus.
These may be the people we worry about at the
second resurrection when they are judged for their
works and deeds. A person that’s born twice (born
again and from a natural birth) will only die once,
but a person who is born only once (a natural birth
but never born again) may die twice; once in their
mortal body and then in the lake of fire (Rev
20:11-15) just after the second resurrection at the
Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the
millenium.
Just being saved from hell
at death is the gift ofGod; totally grace. As was told to the rich man in
Matthew 19:16-23; to be saved, keep the commandments
and love thy neighbor which can gain
you eternal life on the new earth. But entering the
Kingdom of Heaven, the incredible world inside the
pearly gates, is the reward for the saved people
who know Jesus and have a personal relationship
with Him. The saints are defined as those who
keep God's law – see this link for a great definition.
http://www.truegospel.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Basics.tour/ID/6/What-are-Laws-of-Kingdom.htm
and
maintain and give attention to the faith ofJesus. It is earned not by deeds of the Law, but by
deeds of the heart; love and humanity to our
brothers. It is the reward for allowing the Holy
Spirit to become our guide in all that we do.
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This is a goal we should strive for besides to just be
saved and kept out of hell by grace. And just what
happens to those resurrected at the second resurrection
preceding the Great White Throne judgment
at the end of the millennium? Another mystery not
well defined, but studying the parable of the Wedding
Feast, Matthew 22 provides some clues.
This parable is about rejection, but it is also about
acceptance! The image is of Christ as the bridegroom,
whose first guests (the Jews – most of
whom today still do not even believe Jesus came
the first time) have turned on Him, too busy in
daily matters to bother to come to the feast. He
then invites anyone and everyone, the good and
the bad, and that invitation is still open for us
today; Jews and gentiles alike. But pay attention to
those not clothed in wedding garments and tossed
out into the darkness. Although invited, they represent
the unrighteous who are cast out into darkness
with gnashing of teeth and are sent to hell.
The bride is the saints, sanctified believers in
Christ, who for the 1000 years in the Kingdom of
Heaven will prepare themselves for the priesthood
on the new Earth. The guests in white garments
are the righteous, saved by grace but lacking love
of God and the credentials of sanctification for
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. They will
remain on earth during the second coming to help
restore the old earth. They will die on earth during
the millenium and be resurrected at the second
resurrection and be judged for their deeds.
Jesus and the apostles taught clearly, that salvation
and the Kingdom of Heaven are not one and
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the same. Salvation is by grace only, the gift of
God to all who believe in Him and keep His commandments.
The Kingdom of Heaven is awarded to
the saved people for the perfection of their faith,
sanctification, which comes through the hard work
of love. It is impossible to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven without faith in Jesus; therefore the majority
of the Jews may not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. Those of them, who are the true Israel,
like Jacob (ch.5), but had not accepted Jesus, will
stay on the earth after the second coming, die on
the restored existing earth, and await the regeneration
of the new earth.
We are the last generation before Jesus' second
coming. Some of us, as saints, will be taken to the
Kingdom of Heaven at that time. There will be
others with tears of disappointment who will simply
observe this event. They will die on earth after the
second coming and await the second resurrection
at the end of the millennium and be judged for
their deeds. If found righteous they will be placed
on the new earth and given immortality but will
probably not have entrance into God’s city the New
Jerusalem. If they are found unrighteous; didn’t
follow the commandments, especially regarding
loving their neighbor, they will probably be cast
into the lake of fire.
It is not too late to rearrange priorities in your
lives, to make sure you understand the process of
inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, so that the
sanctification process can be effected in your life,
with results of being considered a saint at the
second coming. Sequestering help from the Holy
Spirit will have a great impact upon just how much
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further you wish to pursue honoring, obeying, and
serving Jesus beyond just getting saved from the
torments of hell at death.
Prophecies of the Bible
say that at Jesus’ secondcoming everyone who has accepted the Antichrist and
the mark of the beast (Rev 14:9-10 and Rev 13:15-17)
will die. The saints, both resurrected and alive, will be
taken to the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Thes 4:16-17) and
Satan and his angels will be cast down to hell.
(Rev.20:2; Ezek.31:16-18; Isa.24:21-22).
On the existing earth the righteous will be left who will
cleanse the earth of Gog’s (last enemy of Israel – namely
Muslim countries) corpses and weapons there (Ezek
38:14-16; 39:9-16). The earth again will have it’s original
beauty, all waters will become crystal pure, deserts will
flourish with gardens (Ezek36:33-38; 47: 1, 8,9; Isa
41:18), and people will happily live more than a hundred
years, without knowing diseases and misfortunes (Isa
65:20). However, this is not the new earth but only the
restored existing earth.
Then, 1000 years after the second coming, Satan
will be released from the dungeon for his last
attempt to deceive all mankind (Rev20:7). He
again makes a mess of the existing earth. After the
last battle the second resurrection and judgment
will take place (Rev 20:11-15). The unjust with
fallen angels will be burned together with the old
earth (2 Peter 3:10) in a lake of fire, and those
dead resurrected and found righteous will be placed
onto the New Earth (as God then destroys the old
earth Satan had again made a mess of) where the
heavenly New Jerusalem, God’s Kingdom of
Heaven, will come down – and the wedding will
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start (Rev 21:1-2; 19:7-9).
How can we understand all of this? Who are these righteous
and saints? Who is Christ’s Bride? Who will be taken
to heaven at Christ’s second coming and who will remain
on the earth? What is the wedding on the new earth?
Heavenly Jerusalem, is it the paradise where souls of the
righteous dead depart to or something far greater?
Let’s analyze. The spirit/soul of a person when he dies,
depending upon whether or not that person forgave
other people, confessed his sins, believed in the salvation
of Jesus, etc. goes to paradise (the thief on the
cross – Luke 23:39-43), or to hell (the rich man, from
whose table poor Lazarus ate crumbs from – Luke
16:19-31). No other alternatives. Because without
repentance and the forgiveness of others there is no
salvation (Luke 5:32; 13:3,5; Mat 6:15). The spirits/
souls of the unrighteous simply go to hell at death.
Jesus, as we know, by taking upon Himself all sins of
all people, right after His death, in spirit, went down to
hades where He preached to the angels who had
sinned before the flood (1Peter 3:18,19). However 3
days after His death, He was resurrected and only
then He became visible to people. Jesus in the resurrected
body could eat food with His disciples (Luke
24:43), and they could touch Him (John 20:27).
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He had “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39), now He also
could pass through walls (John 20:19, 26), disappear
(Luke 24:31) and could rise up into air (Acts 1:9),
after the resurrection His body was not like a former
physical body anymore, it became like the body of an
angel. Only in such a body could He ascend to the
Kingdom of Heaven, to the Father.
At the second coming, just like He was, dead righteous
saints will be resurrected and changed into
immortal younger bodies, and the bodies of alive
saints will be changed in the twinkling of an eye
(1Cor.15:52).
As we see, only in changed bodies will the saints be
able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Neither
spirit/soul of an unrighteous dead person, nor physical
body of an alive person can enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. If the dead saints are able to enter the
Kingdom of Heaven after the first resurrection, then
where are they now? They are in paradise. That
means the Kingdom of Heaven is not the same place
as paradise in heaven.
What is the Kingdom?
We can better understandwhat the Kingdom is through revisiting the tabernacle
– the sanctuary, which was constructed in the desert
according to God’s plans given to Moses. It symbolized
salvation as well as the Kingdom of Heaven.
The tabernacle represented the sacred place fenced
with veils. It had three compartments. (Ex 25:40): a
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courtyard, the Holy place and the Holy of Holies. The
courtyard of the tabernacle symbolized the salvation
for all who had repented. There they brought animals
to sacrifice for their sins.
The Holy place was separated from the courtyard by a
veil of needlework linen. It was symbolic of Jesus, the
intercessor between us and the Father. Everything in
it (lampstand, table of Shewbread, altar of incense)
symbolized Jesus. And the only people who could
enter there were men from the tribe of Levi – Levites,
priests who were chosen by God who were saved from
the 10th Egyptian plague by means of lamb’s blood
put on their doorposts (Num 8:17,18). The Levites
symbolized those who were saved by the blood of
Jesus - the Lamb of God.
Before entering into the Holy place, the Levites were
obliged to wash themselves in the wash basin (the
laver) and to pass behind the first veil into the Holy
place. The wash basin was a symbol of water baptism
of repentance. In the Most Holy Place was found the
Ark of the Covenant, symbolic of God’s presence
between the two cherubim found on the mercy seat of
the ark. The veil covering the entrance to the Most
Holy place, the Holy of Holies, a veil 4 fingers thick and
covered with images of cherubim, was a barrier between
salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven that can
be taken away only by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:14-17),
given by Jesus. Therefore only those will be able to
enter the Kingdom of Heaven who are born again “of
water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5), through repen
166tance and acceptance by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3).
In the Holy of Holies (access to the Father) only the
high priest could enter, and only once a year. He
symbolized Jesus who became our high priest (Heb
9:11). When the veil into the Holy of Holies was rent
(torn down the middle) when Jesus died, it meant that
we now had direct access to the Father. Jesus IS our
high priest and we no longer needed priests and
animal sacrifices to resolve sin and to commune with
and be heard by God.
The tabernacle was a prototype of the heavenly tabernacle.
The courtyard of the tabernacle was a symbol of
paradise where souls of those who had repented and
forgave others went to after death of their physical
bodies. In order to come into the Most Holy place
(Kingdom of Heaven) a person had to be a Levite, i.e.
be saved by the blood of a lamb (Jesus), he had to be
older then 25 years (Num 8:24), to be spiritually mature
– Eph 4:11-16); it was also necessary to participate
in a dedication ceremony with putting on the new
consecrated clothes (symbolic of receiving a new immortal
body after the resurrection).
Among Levites there were a few who helped the high
priest. They symbolized friends of the Groom (Jesus) –
they are those who already were taken to heaven alive
(Enoch, Elijah, Moses) or were resurrected earlier
(when Jesus died –Mat 27:52).
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Jesus tells us in the parable of the wedding feast
about the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat 22:1-14) where it is
stated what happens to those who at death get to
paradise, but nevertheless after the Great White Throne
Judgment may not receive eternal life on the new earth.
By having confessed and having forgiven others, their
souls at death depart to paradise, but in the Judgment
where all their sins will be measured, they may be
considered as unworthy of the marriage garments, and
unworthy to be guests at Jesus’ Wedding with his
Church. It is just as the sinner who brought an animal
into the courtyard for the sacrifice, and the priest after
examining the animal concluded that the animal wasn’t
suited for the sacrifice, and the sin remained on the
sinner.
But how does the person, whose sacrifice was accepted
(just saved), differ from a Levite (one who will enter
the Kingdom of Heaven)?
As you remember, God gave to Moses two tables with
commandments. It wasn’t because He couldn’t find
room for everything on one tablet. The 10 commandments,
written on two tablets, were divided into two
parts, and Jesus made this differentiation obvious:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ This is the first
and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’(Mat 22:37-
39).
So, the commandments concerning the relations with
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people were written down on a second tablet. It is a
heart tablet, the tablet of salvation: “Depart from evil
and do good, and dwell for evermore. “ (Psalms 37:27).
The commandments concerning relationship with God,
were written down on the first tablet. It is a tablet of
knowledge, a tablet of the Kingdom of Heaven. In order
to follow commandments of this tablet, a person needs
to know the True God and His Word.
To further make the point
Matthew (19:16-23) describes the dialogue between
Jesus and a rich young man. The rich man asked Jesus
what he can do to have eternal life ( to be saved). Jesus
answered: “keep the commandments” (Mat 19:17).
When the man asked, what commandments he has to
keep to be saved, Jesus named those that are about
the relationships with other people (Mat 19:18-19).
Thus, He told the man that in order to be saved, it is
enough to love his neighbor.
The rich person confirmed that he observed those
commandments, so he would be saved. Then Jesus
continued: “if you want to be perfect... “, from this point
on Jesus was speaking about the perfection of the faith,
about the Kingdom of Heaven, “go and sell what thou
hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in Heaven; and come and follow Me” (Mat 19:21).
When the person refused, Jesus stated that for a rich
person it is difficult to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
(Mat 19:23). Jesus made it clear that it is much easier
to be saved, than to do what is necessary to enter the
Kingdom.
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Compare these verses:
“whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved” (Acts 2:21, also Joel 2:32 and Rom
10:13); and “Not every one that saith unto Me,
‘Lord, Lord ( “call on the name of the Lord”), shall
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that
doeth the will of My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mat
7: 21). You see that these statements are not the
same; to just be saved is different than what is
required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus came to preach not just salvation, but the Kingdom
of Heaven: “I must preach the Kingdom of God ..
for therefore am I sent” (Luke 4:43). Salvation was
promised to Jews if they would follow God’s Laws: “he
that hath walked in My statutes and hath kept My
judgments to deal truly — he is just: he shall surely
live” (Ezek 18:8-9, also Lev 18:5; Ezek 20:11;
Gal 3:12).
Jesus came to fulfill (establish-in some concordances)
the Law (Mat 5:17), and the fulfillment of the Law was
LOVE “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:10).
The Law taught the basics of faith - how to be righteous
to be saved; Jesus taught the perfection of faith -
how to be holy to enter the Kingdom of God.
The Law taught: don’t kill, Jesus taught: if you hate
your brother, it is considered the same as murder. The
Law taught: don’t commit adultery, Jesus taught: if
you look with lust and desire at someone, it is already
adultery. The Law taught: do nothing bad to your
neighbor, Jesus taught: love your neighbor. The Law
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taught to be afraid of the Lord, Jesus taught to love
Him. He taught people to love. “There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casteth out fear “ (1 John 4:18).
“ love is the bond of perfectness” (Col 3:14).
Love is perfection. And only the perfect in love will
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the New Jerusalem
where only “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb
12:23) will live.
Salvation, just to be saved from hell at death and
even maybe make it through the second resurrection
to be considered righteous at the judgment and be
placed on the new earth, doesn’t require a perfect
love. The fear of God will save people. “His salvation is
nigh them that fear Him,” (Psalms 85:9) though “He
that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1John 4:18).
Paul many times spoke about two types of believers:
about the perfect in spiritual faith (1Cor 2:6), and
about babes in Christ, carnal believers (1Cor 3:1; Heb
5:13-14); about laborers of God and God’s field (1Cor
3:9); about perfect men and children in Christ (Eph
4:13-14). In 1st Corinthians Paul called Corinthians
babies in Jesus – carnal because there was “envying
and strife and divisions” (1Cor 3:3), fornication and
pride (1Cor 5:1,2) between them. Babies can’t be the
Bride. They need to grow to become the Bride. To
those Paul taught: “therefore, leaving the principles of
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection “
(Heb 6:1).
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For salvation it is necessary to love your neighbor. For
the Kingdom of Heaven it is necessary to love your
neighbor and love God too. People who knew God, but
didn’t love their neighbor, won’t have the chance even
for salvation (Mat 25:41-45), although it is hard to
imagine that condition existing. The Bible says that
there are people so strong in their belief that they can
prophesy, work wonders, drive out demons (XYt
7:22); can even give their bodies to fire and give away
their riches (1Cor 13:3), but without loving their
neighbor, they would never reach the Kingdom of
Heaven (Mat 7:21). And people who didn’t know God,
but did kind deeds for people all their life, will be saved
through love because the love is more important than
faith (1Cor 13:13).
”For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God— not by works “
(Eph 2:8,9). Salvation that is life eternal, is given for
free. However “by works a man is justified, and not by
faith only” (James 2:24,22) and only people perfect in
faith will enter the Kingdom of God. Works are the
love which has become visible. Therefore if you want
to see the Kingdom of Heaven, works are important.
Your life needs to show the fruits of the spirit (Gal
5:22); you can’t just talk the talk if you want to be
considered a saint to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus stated: “unless a man be born again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). It is called the
second birth or putting on a new man to whom his
former sins have no further appeal. He doesn’t need to
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fight against sin as he once did, because sin now becomes
very unattractive to his spirit. Sin becomes an
infrequent occurrence, not the norm.
Today the majority see no difference in being saved
(to remain to live on the current restored earth and
later to be resurrected at the second resurrection,
undergo judgment and found righteous, and then
given new perfect physical bodies to live on the New
earth) or to be taken to the Kingdom of Heaven (to
become similar to angels and to be ascended to God
for 1000 years; to see how the New Earth will be
created; to be trained in the secrets of the universe;
and later to become priests on the New earth – Rev
20:4,6). But there is a difference and this difference
will become very pronounced when the New Jerusalem
comes down to the new earth. There will be those
saved and on the new earth who will not be allowed
into the New Jerusalem, although all of God’s Kingdom
will then be on the new earth.
Very few people realize what a great honor it is to be
able to inherit the Kingdom. Parables about the mustard
seed (Mat 13:31,32) and about the treasure
hidden in the field (Mat 13:44) will be completely
understood only by the saved righteous after Jesus’
Second coming when they will see their friends rising
with angels up in glory to the throne of God in the
Kingdom and they will instead be left on the old earth
to help restore it. Then all who will remain on the old
earth will mourn (Mat 24:30; Zech 12:11). It will be
the crying of the five virgins who did not bring their
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extra oil (Mat 25) - belated to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you
yourselves are thrust out.” (Luke 13:28).
The 5 wise virgins
– Jesus’ Bride, His chosen church,will enter the rooms of the Groom - Jesus, into His
Kingdom – The New Jerusalem. When the righteous will
be placed on the new earth, the New Jerusalem with
Christ’s Bride will come down to there. And the Wedding
will take place. The Bride will become the rightful member
of the heavenly family. Saints will become priests
on the new earth.
You shouldn’t deceive yourself that your belief is sufficient
for just salvation, and you can live well without
entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Your belief may only
be worth 1 talent, instead of two or five and when the
trials come you can lose it all (Mat 25:14-29). The Bible
says that the Antichrist will be so successful he will be
able to seduce even those chosen for the Kingdom (Mat
24:24). It is necessary to seek the Kingdom of Heaven
in all the things you do in your daily lives.
Our fates at the end of the age.
Remember the pic of the escalator on page 4. Your
fate in the afterlife is your choice. To be very specific
about your options, here again are your
choices.
In Matthew 13:25 we are told that the enemy has
sown tares amongst the wheat. Tares look like
wheat but are weeds. They represent the people
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amongst us who look like us but have chosen
unrighteousness as a way of life, children of the
wicked one. In Matthew 13:29-30 we see that the
tares were allowed to grow amongst the wheat
instead of being removed so as not to chance
rooting up any wheat whilst the tares were removed.
But in the end, at harvest, the tares will be
bundled up separately and burned instead of being
gathered into the barn. At the second coming
these unrighteous will be destroyed and sent to
hell. Those dead in the ground at the second coming,
saved but not considered saints, will remain in
the ground until the second resurrection at the end
of the millennium and then be raised to undergo
judgment. Many found wanting will be tossed into
the lake of fire. The earth, during restoration in the
thousand years following the second coming, will
contain no alive unrighteous people. Satan is
chained up until the end of this time period. Matthew
24:40-41 talks about two in the field and
grinding at the mill and one was taken and one was
left behind. Most of us assume the one taken was
taken up to heaven and the one left behind was left
on the earth. But Matthew 24:39 tells us the ones
taken were destroyed as in the days of Noah when
the flood came and the wicked were taken by
drowning. According to Matthew 24 the one taken
may be the tare to be burned, destroyed, and sent
to hell and the one left behind is a person who
didn’t get changed in the twinkling of an eye and
taken to the Kingdom of Heaven but was righteous
enough to stay out of hell and be able to remain on
earth during earth’s restoration. He will die on
earth during the 1000 year restoration period and
be resurrected at the second resurrection to undergo
judgment, but he stayed out of hell at death.
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Fate of those left behind.
Read these next paragraphs carefully. Those not
going to hell at death, alive and left on earth but
not taken to heaven at the second coming as well
as those who died prior to the second coming and
only made paradise at death do not go to hell but
will be resurrected at the second resurrection and
will go through The Great White Throne judgment;
and may possibly still be tossed into the lake of fire
after that judgment. They will be judged by their
deeds as they didn’t know Jesus and their sins
were not covered by His shed blood. This group is a
gamble with the lake of fire at judgment, at the
end of the millennium even though you didn’t go to
hell at death.
This group includes all those people on earth who
never knew about Jesus but lived good lives per
the rules of their own tribes and communities. They
will be judged by the standards and rules of their
own peoples.
Those righteous dead who were “born again”, knew
Jesus and relied upon Him for salvation, kept his
commandments as best they could, and showed
respect, dignity and love towards their fellow human
beings, go directly to the Kingdom of Heaven
at death. They are part of the first resurrection of
the saints at Jesus’ second coming (they don’t
remain on earth), they go to be with Jesus in the
Kingdom of Heaven.
The big benefit of being in this group is they do not
have to go through the second resurrection. They
avoid the judgment of their deeds because essen
176tially they have already been judged worthy and
were covered by the blood of Jesus to appear
righteous in the eyes of the Father.
The righteous living, the saints, at Jesus’ second
coming are “changed in the twinkling of an eye”
1Cor 15:52, and are also taken to the Kingdom of
Heaven. They also do not have to undergo the
second resurrection 1000 years later to be judged
further.
These last two categories, righteous dead or righteous
living, are the groups you want to be in. And
yes, your residency in the afterlife is your choice.
You’ve been given the knowledge in this book to
significantly sway the outcome. God has given you
free will and choice. Choose to be the bride. You no
longer have to wonder about your roll in achieving
residency in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is now up
to you to apply what you have learned. Ask Jesus
to come into your heart and be born again with the
Holy Spirit living inside of you if you have not
already done that. With the help of the Holy Spirit
residing in you, simply correct all the things in your
life you feel may be displeasing to God. Make sure
you undergo a full immersion baptism. Adapt the
DWJWD lifestyle for all situations involving choices
between right and wrong. Reread this book more
than once to make sure you understand all that has
been stated here. Don’t take the attitude your
destiny is out of your hands because you have
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been given the tools and knowledge to make sure it
is in your hands. Heaven or hell; it’s your choice.
In summary
Salvation is a process and a journey;
it is notstating the sinner’s prayer once in your life and
thinking the kingdom inside those pearly gates is
yours. That is just a good beginning. The apostle
Peter summed it up in Acts 2:38: "Repent, and let
every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
So there’s a process here. First he says to "repent."
Repenting is a process in which God leads a person
to a deep desire to turn over their entire life to
Him. It means a change of not only your mind but
of your heart as well. It is realizing that you have
sin in your life, that you are deeply sorrowful about
those sins, and then deciding to turn your life over
to God for the rest of your life. Sin comes when we
break God’s laws (1 John 3:4). True godly repentance
can come only from God as a gift to the
person. We cannot "work up” repentance ourselves.
Repentance is not a temporary regret over
something we did or a thought that bothers us.
Repentance is not a one-time event—it’s actually a
way of life. Being baptized means you are inviting
God to live in you so He can help you make this
life-long change.
After you take that first step of repentance, then
comes baptism. Being fully submersed in water
makes for a powerful metaphor: You’re burying the
old you in a watery grave; the new you, who
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comes up out of the water, is a new creation (2
Corinthians 5:17). After you come up out of the
water, the person/minister baptizing you can then
lay hands on you and prays for God to give you His
Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). God gives you the Holy
Spirit when you ask for it - and no, it doesn’t come
down like a dove or with tongues of fire. You
probably won’t feel dramatically different after you
receive the Holy Spirit. You won’t necessarily speak
in tongues. You can know you have received it
because, first, God promises to give it to you when
you repent. If you believe in the promise of God
and then follow-up by doing what God says; that is
the simple definition of faith. It is in faith that you
follow the steps outlined and repent of your sins.
Secondly, you can know you have received the
Holy Spirit because you will see spiritual growth in
yourself as time goes on. Your habits change, your
speech changes, what you care about changes;
your whole attitude about life gets an adjustment.
Once you have the Holy Spirit, you have access to
something incredible: the very power and essence
of God. It is a spirit of "power, of love, and of a
sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). The power of God is
what you can draw on to make bold and dramatic
decisions in your life. The love of God is what you
can draw on to let go of the hurts caused you by
others, and to love them back. And the sound mind
of God is what you can draw on to be calm, disciplined
and unafraid in the face of the greatest,
most challenging trials of life.
With God’s Spirit, you can lean on God to help you
beat back the negativity of the world, to shoulder
the worst disappointments, to continue on in the
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face of withering sorrow, and to destroy the hatred
of Satan.
Notice that I said that with God’s Spirit, you
can doall those things. Receiving it does not make you
perfect. It does not pave the road of life with gold.
If you think about all the people you know in God’s
Church who have been baptized, there are no
doubt people who come to mind who have done
things wrong; or who have hurt you; or who are
mean. Everybody is fighting a hard battle. Nobody
is perfect. We all make mistakes. We all need grace
to survive and persevere. But leading a life of
repentance means we can and should depend on
the power of the transforming Spirit of God every
single day to acknowledge those mistakes and then
to help us fix them.
Only God’s grace can save us from the torment of
hell because we are not perfect and that is God’s
only passing score, Mat 5:48. We simply can’t get
to heaven on our own nickel. Without a relationship
with Jesus as your Savior, the best you could hope
for is getting through judgment at the second
resurrection and being put on the new earth instead
of being tossed into the lake of fire along
with satan and his entourage, but you will not have
access to the New Jerusalem.
Remember, we are not born with God’s spirit inside
of us. We are born with the spirit of Adam’s sin
nature, which we inherit at birth. It is not until we
are “born again” that Adam’s spirit of sin nature is
sidelined by God’s Holy Spirit, and even then
Adam’s sin nature spirit doesn’t entirely leave us, it
hangs around in the background giving us “choice”
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options; allowing us to exercise our right of “free
will”. We still have the option of choosing wrong
instead of DWJWD.
While being brainwashed at church with grace only
“eternal security” teachings, read what God’s word
really says regarding what our responsibility is in
regards to our own salvation. If being saved was
such a simple process as saying “I believe in Jesus
and saying the sinner’s prayer once in your life”,
why do the statistics from near death experience
testimonies show that only .1% to 2.5% of the
people who die actually make heaven instead of
hell at death? Could “grace” teaching that involves
no responsibility on our part as is promoted by
many churches be an outright lie? We really need
to be accountable and take more responsibility for
our own salvation by leading better lives through
the Holy Spirit residing inside of us.
People fail to realize that even though Jesus made
salvation AVAILABLE to all of us by believing in
Him, you have to accept God’s gift of grace and
show that belief in your daily life by keeping His
commandments as best you can, having no unforgiveness
issues, and treating your fellow man with
respect, dignity
, and love to actually receive it. Sinin your life needs to become an infrequent exception
and not the daily norm. If you believe in Jesus
and that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, your life
needs to reflect that by your thoughts, actions,
words and deeds and daily DWJWD whenever any
decisions involving right and wrong are involved. If
it doesn’t, you do not have saving faith, just head
knowledge. You are still allowing Adam’s sin nature
to be the controlling voice in your daily decisions
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instead of God’s Holy Spirit. Repentance means to
change. If your behavior - thoughts, words and
actions - haven’t changed after sequestering the
presence of the Holy Spirit inside of you, you haven’t
repented, and you are still clinging to Satan’s
side of the fence.
In reading God’s word, our eternal security is
“conditional” based upon us doing our part also.
Jesus did His part at the cross, dying for our sins so
we can be considered righteous in God’s eyes.
Salvation was made AVAILABLE to each and every
one of us. But we can’t do our part without being
“born again” and having Jesus live inside of us in
the form of the Holy Spirit. Our goal is not only to
not be considered a tare, or simply be saved from
the fires of hell at death only to be subjected to the
second resurrection and judgment where our deeds
may still not buy us a place on the new earth, but
to be considered a saint, the bride of Jesus, so we
may enjoy the incredible wonders of the Kingdom
of Heaven, where God lives. To undergo sanctification
and to be considered a saint in God’s eyes
requires effort, persistence and paying attention to
what is going on in this world as we play a major
role in this process. With the help and guidance of
the Holy Spirit, live a life of being the best that you
can be. God will only allow righteous people into
His Kingdom. Good old boys may earn a place on
the new earth but never in His Kingdom. Strive for
the Kingdom, it IS your choice.
I wish I could take all my experiences
, all mystudies, all the videos I have watched and the cd’s
I have listened to of other’s experiences, all the
182
books I have read and the things I have been
exposed to over the years which have cemented
my faith in Jesus, put them all on a USB flash drive
memory stick and download them to you. But I
can’t. However, instead of just passing off to you a
single page tract handout; I did funnel everything I
felt was important for you to know into this book in
hopes I can wake you up enough to get you into
the .1% to 2.5% category that get to enjoy the
incredible place called the Kingdom of Heaven
when you move along at death. I designed this
book to handout on the street in my everyday
travels, much like Mr Genor did with his tracts in
Sidney, Australia.
You can buy this book in singles from Amazon.com
but they, PayPal, and the printer who makes those
one at a time make it an expensive proposition in
singles. I didn’t publish this book to make money
on. I published it to save souls.
You can download a copy for free at:
https://copy.com/8T9jwdVQZAXDPdc6
Email me for a free .pdf copy at
This book “Parachute of Jesus” is also posted
online at
www.detailshere.com/parachute.htmUltimately it’s our choice which door we choose.
There is no worse place than hell.
There is no better place than heaven.
What you believe determines how you live and
where your spirit/soul journey to at death.
Que Dios le bendiga – may God bless you,
Ber
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Contents Index by Topic
P3 Forward – Salvation is a complicated issue
P4 Preface; What is the Parachute?
P5 Dedication, acknowledgment to contributors
P6 Statement of book’s interactive nature
P6 About the author, some background
P10 Christianity can be a religion of confusion.
P11 The issue of eternal security
P13 Adam’s sin nature
P18 Where does grace fit in?
P19 Two sets of laws
P21 Then what did change at the cross?
P22 Why go to church?
P23 America in moral decline
P26 Justification – sanctification – glorification
P31 How do you know if you are being led astray?
P32 Hypergrace – a dangerous movement
P33 Our spirit/soul make a journey at death
P35 Parable of the sower
P37 Victory is not how long you live
P38 Religion can be a confusing issue
P40 Why born again Christians do good works
P43 Why concern yourself the Bible message?
P44 The mark of the beast
P46 What is Christianity?
P48 Do all good people go to heaven?
P49 Near death experiences
P50 What it means to put your faith in Christ
P51 Once in hell there is no escape
P53 The triune nature of God
P54 Three personages in one Godhead; The Shack
P55 Who is God?
P56 Who is Jesus?
P58 Who is the Holy Spirit?
P58 Who are we as humans?
P61 Who is Satan?
P63 Spirirtual strongholds of Satan
P66 God condemns channeling
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P67 The message of the good news of the Bible
P68 The dramatized gospel
P68 What is sin?
P69 The ten commandments
P71 Wages of sin is death
P72 The unpardonable sin
P74 Saviour – why do we need one?
P76 Archeological discoveries revealed by God
P79 The Bible – what is it?
P80 The Bible is a history book
P82 Which Bible do I use?
P86 Again, why do we need Jesus?
P88 Does heaven or hell really exist?
P88 What about purgatory?
P89 What is heaven like?
P93 Video of what heaven is like
P94 What about a real hell?
P97 Who is in hell today?
P102 Documentations of near death experiences
P104 Video descriptions of hell
P104 Modern medicine and reviving the dead
P106 Remote viewing
P106 Jesus preaches a real hell exists
P108 Forgiveness
P110 What does eternal really mean?
P112 Why would God send someone to hell
P114 Is hell eternal?
P116 Again, why do we need Jesus?
P117 The rebellion and being cast out of heaven
P118 Adam’s downfall
P121 The big problem with Adam’s sin
P122 What being born again means
P123 How we are born again
P124 How can you be sure you have been born again
P125 6 traits of being born again
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P127 According to what he has done
P128 Grace versus works, which is it?
P131 More important to know Jesus than about Him
P132 The story of Jesus
P133 The necessity of having Jesus as Savior
P134 What is saving faith?
P136 The sinner’s prayer
P138 Untimely death
P139 Grace is not a license to sin
P141 Backsliding
P142 Baptism
P145 Witnessing to others
P148 How do I know if I am saved?
P149 Communing with like-minded Christians
P152 Death is a great equalizer
P153 What is the main focus of your life?
P155 God’s Holy Feast days
P157 Clean and Unclean foods
P158 Salvation or Kingdom of Heaven?
P159 Being saved from Hell is a gift of God
P162 Prophecies of the Bible
P164 What is the Kingdom?
P167 Parable of the Wedding Feast
P168 Jesus and the Rich Man
P169 Comparing some verses
P173 The five wise virgins
P173 Our fates at the end of the age
P175 Fate of those left behind
P177 In summary
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