Posted on 05/08/2020 4:37:58 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:4-6)
The famous “Faith Chapter” in the book of Hebrews, begins with two Saints, Abel and Enoch as examples of faith which we are to imitate. Faith is the point, for faith is the only way to please God.
I once asked the LORD, ‘Why Faith? Why is that what you require?” I believe I received several answers in the form of scripture and impressions, from the LORD. God requires faith, because we simply cannot save ourselves. Only God can save our souls, no one can redeem themselves, therefore Faith is required, because faith glorifies God and not man.
Another reason for the requirement of faith that came to me, is that our problems began when we quit believing in the goodness of God. Adam and Eve were willing to entertain a false and degraded notion of God, that He was holding something back that would be good for the first couple. The Serpent bore false witness about the LORD, and they believed it.
The way back? It has to be faith. We must repent and believe again in the goodness of God.
The “hall of faith” begins with Abel and Enoch. One Saint who was murdered for his faith, and for bearing witness to God in a hostile world. There would be literally millions upon millions who would follow in his footsteps, being willing to let go of their life rather than deny the truth of God.
The other Saint, Enoch, was a man who lived in a kind of “end times scenario” living in the time leading up to the flood. It was a day of Apostasy, but Enoch walked with God, until God took Him home. He didn’t die , He was raptured. God took him home, to be with himself.
Faith was required of each of them.
I believe that we also live in an end-time. I have no doubt that Jesus is coming, and in our lifetime. What makes us unique is the re-emergence of the nation of Israel, in 1948, in fulfillment of the prophecies about the last of the last days. All of the prophets pre-supposed that there would be a national Israel, and a Jewish occupied city of Jerusalem, as well as a controversy over Judea, (The West bank) which would engulf the whole world.
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1-3)
Which brings us back to our two Saints at the beginning of Hebrews 11. One died, He was martyred for his witness to God. The other one did not die. He was Raptured. Both of these Saints lived by Faith and Pleased God.
I believe that this speaks to us in our generation.
No doubt. many of us will end up dying. Perhaps some of us will be given an opportunity to be martyred. We are Saints and love God, but all things being equal, unless the LORD returns, we will die, one way or another.
(Of course, Christians don’t really die, they “go to sleep”) but the real point is that Faith is the only way to please God.
But according to the scriptures, there is a unique end-times event, coming, as I hope I have pointed out in this series, called the Rapture, or “Our gathering together unto Him”, “the Episynagogue” and Jesus coming to “take us where (He)…is, unto himself”. The LORD is coming to snatch us off the earth with a swift and irresistable power”.
To participate in such an event is a rare honor among the countless Millions of Saints who believed in Jesus before us.
But whether we die, or are martyred, o whether we are raptured, the real point is that we must live our lives by Faith,which is the only way to please God.
This is why I do not enter into the countless discussions as to the timing of the Rapture. “Will The Rapture be pre- ,mid , or post Tribulation”?
Honesty, the only things I am sure about the Rapture at all are that it is:
* For God’s Saints only, and the prospect of it is a comfort.
* A Mystery revealed in the New Testament era.
* It occurs before the actual “Wrath ” of God.
* It involves the “dead in Christ” as well as “We who are alive, until the coming of the LORD”.
As far as I know, all else can only be speculation. God doesn’t want us to know the exact timing otherwise it would be clearer. I am glad there is a Rapture, and my prayer has always been that I be involved in it, while alive. But I cannot say with certainty what the timing of it is, so I don’t.
What counts is Faith in Jesus. Not dead works, but a living, vital, infectious faith. Let us have a faith which still moves us to confess and forsake our sins, to Love and seek God. To forgive and love our brothers, and a faith which moves us to share with others what God has shown to us. Is your faith alive? Do you have oil in your lamp? Are you current with God?
We Overcome the World by our faith. “This is the victory that overcometh the World…our faith”. We overcome the Spirit of antiChrist also, by our faith. So also we overcome the sins that so easily beset us, and the Coldness and soul deadening effect of this world, by our Faith.
Of course we want out of here, we can increasingly see that there is nothing in this World for we who believe, but rejection and opposition.I want Jesus to come, and Long for the Rapture. I am either going up in it, or I am gong to die, but one way or another we are leaving.
Either way, the point is Faith. So I will leave the timing of the Rapture to God, and just strive to be counted worthy to attain it, whether ded or alive.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:35)
No, the ‘others’ you are trying to drag into the issue do not make snide, insulting assertions in disdain of Christains who are not caught up in catholicism.
Perhaps your error is that you are trying to apply the Teaching of Jesus to the Jews to whom He was about to offer the arrival of the Kingdom. The Age of the Church is a whole different reality.
The man of lawlessness has already been revealed and he is connected with the Catholic Church. Can you guess who he is? Who was the restrainer? It was the Roman empire. No way could the Catholic Church rise in all it’s murdering glory until it ruled Rome and not the Cesars.
Here’s a question for you: can you honestly tell me from the bible the clues of who the antichrist, man of sin, etc is?
Quite an imagination your mentor has. 2 Thess 2 tells us the anti-Christ has not been reveal and will not be revealed until the One Who restrains him now is taken out of the way.
Your preterist foolishness is such a comfort to you, perhaps. I leave you with your imaginings, I will refrain from playing straight man to the interlude.
I agree with you on the RCC traditions and doctrines. I agree with ANYONE who stands against works for salvation, believing they are Israel, practices pagan rites and rituals, believes that wine and bread literally becomes Christ’s blood and body when a priest blesses it, or thinks Mary is a mediator between man and God.
The RCC could not possibly have EVER believe in a secret repture. Their traditions/doctrines rest on the belief that THEY are Israel. And that they will go through the Tribulation, and anyone who survives until the end will go into the Millennial Kingdom when Christ returns. That’s why they have no eternal security, perform pagan rituals, pray to saints for help, believe Mary is the mediator between man and God and believe wine and bread become the actual blood and body of Christ when the priests bless bless those things. Also believe that priests can forgive sins.
I could go on, but I won’t.
The Man of Lawlessness
1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Tour post 202: AMEN!
Son, you are asserting that the Church Age is actually the age of antichrist. You might want to think about that, friend.
The age of the church? really? Are you under the new covenant? Yes you are and so am I. Here it is, right from the bible:
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
The new covenant was made with the house of Israel, the house of Judah. We as gentiles are grafted in to the promise. God is no respecter of persons and ANYONE now has a path to Salvation in the saving grace of Christ.
Abraham and everyone else in the old testament who will be in heaven was saved the exact same way as “us” Saved by faith.
“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” = keeping commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus.
I never said the Catholic Church believed in a secret rapture. They just put out that preterism and futurism crap to throw people off the trail of them being the Antichrist power. You misunderstood me.
“Son, you are asserting that the Church Age is actually the age of antichrist. You might want to think about that, friend.”
We could be friends but I’m certainly not your son. You might want to think about what it means to be lawless and why lawless people will not be in heaven, no matter what they have told God they have done in His name.
What did the early church fathers (and I use that term loosely) say about who the restrainer was?
Your post 210: So you believe we are Israel? Read WHO this is written to: THE HEBREWS. That’s why it’s titled HEBREWS. God made a covenant with Israel. He will keep that covenant and it will see it’s fulfillment when Christ returns to set up THAT KINGDOM with ISRAEL. I ask you to please read the book of Ephesians prayerfully. We are NOT ISRAEL. We are the CHURCH THE BODY OF CHRIST.
Israel was promised an EARTHLY inheritance from God. We are promised a HEAVENLY inheritance. That is the difference between Peter and the 11 and Paul
It amazes me how absolutely correct you seem to think your beliefs are when there is so little you actually demonstrate you DO know about "born again Christians"!
Do you not see the difference between:
1. a gospel that teaches we cannot earn, merit, work for nor deserve salvation which is why it is the GIFT of eternal life by the grace of God through faith and not our works
versus
2. another gospel that teaches we must have faith PLUS good works (e.g., church membership, obedience to all commandments and church rules, tithing, giving of alms to the poor, works of charity, etc.) and have no assurance of salvation since it all depends upon how "good" one has been when they die.
Tell me you can see the dichotomy between them?! One says it is ALL because of God's grace and NO ONE can boast to the glory of God alone. The other makes faith in the sacrifice of Christ a bit player tacked onto the end of perfectly lived life as far as is humanly possible and the glory goes to the person who merited their salvation.
Just because we born-agains (actually a term Jesus used) believe we are not saved because of our OWN righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through faith that does NOT mean we have no responsibility to live holy, obedient lives that honors and glorifies God. Keeping Christ's commandments demonstrates we love Him - they were never given for us to earn our salvation. Grace is not a license to sin - even Paul had to dispute that lie aimed at him.
Yes, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Eccles, 12:13). That IS our duty, but we cannot earn salvation, we cannot make propitiation for all our sins by what we do for God. It is what He has done for us that saves us. See???
You know they are the False Prophet power, right?
Early Church Fathers
on the Timing of the Rise of Antichrist
http://aloha.net/~mikesch/fathers-on-antichrist.htm
Beautifully said!
Early Church Fathers
on the Timing of the Rise of Antichrist
http://aloha.net/~mikesch/fathers-on-antichrist.htm
My bad, I posted the first one to myself. (I already know the answer)
we are grafted into the promise and that is very clear from the bible. The old covenant was not made with Gentiles and neither was the new covenant. Many Jews believed after Christ’s death and will certainly be in heaven. But, the majority rejected the gospel. The gospel then went to the Gentiles. (everyone else). We are grafted into the promise of salvation. call it “spiritual Israel” if you want although that wording is not in the bible to my knowledge.
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