The Bible also asks the same question but states it this way, “is Christ divided?” or is, “Christ the author of confusion?” The obvious answer to that is, NO! Then why all the divisions? The Church, over the last couple of millennia, has given up even looking for an answer, assuming that what they see, and what their experience dictates, is O.K. with the Lord, and that what they have read in the Bible doesn’t mean, what it appears to say. But, any amount of common sense should cause us to step back and ask the question, why the divisions?, if we believe the plain words of the inspired Scriptures. With all the divisions, someone uninitiated to “orthodoxy” would venture to answer that Christ is divided, and that He is the author of confusion, because that is what we see in the Church today, and for many, many, hundreds of years.  So, we must question the validity of Scriptures or the validity of those who are causing the divisions, namely the universities, the colleges, the ecclesiastical organizers, the preachers, the bishops and elders and deacons, and the pope. Either they are right or the Bible is right. Somebody is either ignorant of what the Bible says or they are just plain lying for the sake of self aggrandizement.

The organized Church cannot answer the question, because they are part of the problem, but, as stated last post, the answer is quite simple, FAITH, is the solution, “from faith to faith,” just as the Bible declares. But, you ask, simply stating that faith is the answer seems rather complicated to the mind reared on reason and study, and theology and doctrine, and creeds and councils, and pastors and popes, but, nonetheless, it is faith alone. The question must be answered on an individual basis, and not influenced by familiarity, friendship, or family. If the “seeker” is interested in truth, then he/she must deal with these honest questions.

What Are You Eating?

Let me try and explain. It has to do with our diet, the stuff we are eating, and the tree from which we harvest “wisdom.” Remember this verse from Solomon? “There is a way that seems right to man, but the way thereof is the way of death.” From where cometh the “way that seems right” and the wisdom of man? It is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A Little History

The history of man upon the earth is the history of failure. Why did he fail? Because he depended on his own knowledge of reason, sense, rationale, mixed with a generous helping of brute force, worldly talent, and the gift of verbal manipulation. In essence he did things the way men do things, these were the ways that seemed right unto man, and he had access to nothing else, almost! There were a few in those days who understood what God wanted, and learned to please Him by trusting Him. We remember the great examples of Abraham who trusted God and it was counted unto him as righteousness, and David who was the apple of His eye, because of his great trust in his Savior; and we compare this with the great failure of King Saul, who did things that “seemed right,” and all the other failures, up to and including, the great “Church” debacle of today. This is the unending story of men doing things they “reason” will please God.

The Old Testament is a story of how man has failed, and why he failed. Every time the Jews turned from God and did things there own way, there was failure, and when they “believed” that God would return to them, when they relinquished their own vain attempts, according to His faithful promise, then things would turn around, and so goes the see-saw life of the Jews all the way through the Old Testament. Then, we come to the New Testament, and we find that we must exercise faith and trust in God, just like the Old Testament believers; that it is “faith unto faith, the just shall live by faith,” then, now, and forever.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

We all know that there is only one “Christianity,” so why all the diversity? The challenge of that question has been the cause of many sleepless nights. I have studied many of the different sects, and read large portions of Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Phillip Schaff’s History of the Christian Church, read the works of Luther and Calvin, but the question remained, why all the division? The very closest I have come is by taking a closer look at what happened in the Garden of Eden.

The desire for the fruit of the knowledge concerning good and evil has taken men far from the truth, in pursuit of the fulfillment of an appetite created by the adversary of God, and man, Satan. We now live in a world that feeds that appetite on foul fruit, that never satisfies, or leads to truth.

This is where faith comes in. In the Garden of Eden we are told to eat of any tree except the forbidden tree. Now that we are outside God’s Garden, we are for the duration of this life, in the Garden of Satan, and here we are told by Satan, to eat of any tree in the garden, except the one he forbids, the Tree of Life, which is now contained in the inspired words between the covers of Scriptures. Granted many will read the Bible, but do they eat it? Have they really ingested that wisdom, and incorporated the words of God into the fabric of their life and soul, and trusted God to complete His task through them, and not just rubber stamp their own plans and goals by presumptuously claiming God’s blessing? All that we see around us is the production of our accumulated knowledge obtained from our many sources of knowledge, the knowledge of men, not God. Quite simply Jesus tells us to not trust our own thoughts; that we cannot even think a sinless thought. Paul tells us that it was not by knowledge that we came to know Christ, but rather through revelation. This is why “faith” is so important. We must take at face value the direction given to us from the Bible, the inspired words of God.

Christian men call themselves “believers.” Basically, we claim to be believers in what we read in the Bible, as “from God.” In this Book we are told to believe many things, and we readily exercise a superficial faith in the things which appeal to our self interest and flesh, like getting things from God: job security, good health, and a home in Heaven. The Bible has become like a good luck charm, and the cross a talisman, but there are other things in the Bible we are told to believe also.

So, here we go again, Why, so much difficulty? Why so many divisions? And, why so much failure and feuding in the Church? At the core of this answer is a lack of faith. At the core of this answer is a lack of understanding of what faith is. And, at the core of this answer is the fact that we are not believing the things required by God. This is where the element of “faith” becomes powerful.

Fellowship with God, and other Christians, will come to us as we just believe, and eat the Flesh of Jesus, and drink His blood. He is that Tree of Life.

Trusting Jesus will contradict every fiber of knowledge we have gathered on our journey through life, because it is contrary to what we experience in the garden of Satan; it is the knowledge of two totally different kinds of life. Most times we are not asked to figure it all out first, but to just trust Him, then He will confirm it us His own way. You see, that is the way of faith. But, Christians today think they must have the teaching of men, and traditions, and creeds, and councils, and techniques of worship, candles, ambience, labyrinths, choirs, stain glass, and all the other stuff that goes into building something learned from eating from the wrong tree. Simple faith is really just “simple faith.”

Take away all that the tree of un-belief (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) has added to the body of Christ (marketing, church growth, organization, ritual, titles, costumes, programs, etc.) and you would find how rapidly believers would find themselves in agreement on most issues. But, that is not going to happen because the stool of pride would have to be knocked out from under them, and they have a vested interest in keeping that stool upright.

God’s plan is a mystery because the minds of men cannot figure out what God is up to through their own knowledge; His ways are only understood by faith. Since the day that Eve ate that fruit and shared it with Adam man approaches every inquiry, question, or problem, with the goal of reasoning and weighing the odds, in his mind, as to whether or not this is the will of God, or how he can do, what he has reasonably deduced, as honoring Jesus. When there are conflicts with other “men of faith” there different “reasons” prevail and divisions occur.  Even prayer, is nearly always approached with an answer already conceived or an excuse made. Projects are promoted with the thinking that such and such a thing must surely please God. Bible passages are ignored, even though they clearly direct us to just trust God and have faith in Him, and place our plans on the altar.

The heart of man is corrupted beyond repair. His thoughts and powers of reason cannot be trusted. Paul warns us to cast off our intelligence as a way of finding the will of God. What we see in all the divisions of men is not intelligence or good reasoning, but terrible confusion and deception.

The way of understanding the will of God does not come through degrees or diplomas, through choreographed worship services, through eloquent speeches, through the beads of a rosary, through attending many conferences, through repeating a mantra, or any other devices of men; they are all lies. You can search the Scriptures from now till doomsday to find such things.

It is only as we cast ourselves onto Him, completely, without reservation, our minds, our hearts, and our bodies, and trust and believe that it is God who comes to us, and not the other way around, that He, reveals Himself, to us. All the church growth business, all the grand missionary organizations, all the talk of social justice and unity, and winning the world for God is nothing but legalism veiled in the pretty garments of men dressing up for their God, or putting on a show, which does more for the ego, of the men doing it, than it does to satisfy the Lord. God has nowhere required men to do these things. All He has ever required of men, both Jew and Gentile, is to let go of their devices and trust Him. He is the One who builds the Church, He is the One who heals the land, He is the One who goes before us, and is our rear guard, it is Him who prepares a table in the presence of our enemies, it is God who causes our enemies to live at peace with us, when our ways please Him.

Do you see that it is this message that the Holy Spirit wants us to grasp through faith. What we are exposed to in this evil garden, outside the walls of safety, are all the lies of Satan finding fertile soil in our corrupted abilities to reason things out and find the truth, where no truth exist. The Bible holds the answer to all our questions, and anyone, regardless of intellect, can be found by Him, if they who will just fall upon that Rock, and be broken.

What I have written here is not the words of a great person, or well known amongst the preachers of this world, but it is the truth, and God Himself has promised that when you fall on Him, He will save you. You need not go forward at some meeting, or speak in tongues, or confess to a priest, or send money on a regular basis, or mail off for some prayer cloth; you don’t have to do anything except trust Jesus, and continue trusting Him all the days of your life. You don’t have to go to some building and listen to speeches once a week; God requires none of those things, they are all the contrivances of mere men who think they understand faith in God.

I feel that the following response from Jesus, when he was asked the question – “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” embodies the simplicity of faith in a most elegant and profound manner. “Jesus replied:

“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40.

There are a couple of things that bother me about the “Strategic Implications.” First off; why would the US Army declassify something and knowingly allow it to get into the public archives? If they truly believe that  “PreMillennialism”  is the driving force behind the problems in the world, then why give the PreMillennialist a reason to hunker down and cause more problems? If that is part of some kind of military strategy it certainly goes over my head. The other thing is, why are they just now discovering the “implications”? As the article shows this information has always been available, has it just now become important? Maybe it has. The brainiacs  at the Pentagon may have likewise been “PreMillennialist” with the hope of Jesus’ return and ruling for a thousand years.

There may be more behind this than I know, and if anyone can add information to what is here, please do.

My final thought before you begin to read is this; Christians who have their hope in Christ, and who are securely anchored in their faith need not be alarmed, because these things must come to pass. Whether you are pre-trib or post-trib (post-trib is beginning to look more and more feasible and true) we enter into the Kingdom through much suffering and tribulation; the ultimate test of our faith may be just ahead.

Steve Blackwell

_________________________________________________

US Army View of PreMillennialism Strategic Implications of American Millennialism

Dated: May 22, 2008
By Major Brian L. Stuckert, U.S. Army
School of Advanced Military Studies
United States Army Command and General Staff College
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Name of Responsible Person: Stefan Banach, COL, US Army
Telephone Number: (913) 758-3300
This is the document for your reading: Strategic Implications of American Millennialism

DOWNLOAD NOW >> http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA485511&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

John McTernan’s Insights

My comments on all the outright lies about millennialism.

We did not start one war to advance our beliefs. We did not start the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. America was dragged into WW l by the Germans. There was NO war cry in America by Bible believers. We did not start WW ll. It was the cowardly Europeans who failed to stand up to Hitler that allowed the war. Japan attacked America to advance its imperialistic goals. We were not threatening Japan.
We had nothing to do with the Cold War as it was Communistic Russia and China that wanted world control. We had nothing to do with Nazism and Communism which resulted in the death of over 100 million people.
Iraq and Iran are the products of Islam. They are the aggressors and not America led by Bible believing Christians. Iran wants to obtain nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic caliphate from Morocco to India.
Israel is NOT the source of Islamic terrorism. Israel has nothing to do with Islamic Pakistan fighting with India. It has nothing to do with Muslims slaughtering all the people in the Sudan. It has nothing to do with the Muslims killing the Christians in Nigeria and Indonesia. It has nothing to do with all the terror in Somalia. It has nothing to do with the Muslim terrorists in the Philippines. It had nothing to do with Iraq starting the Gulf War.
Islam at its core is a violent religion that is now playing out on the world stage. The Muslim’s fighting with Israel fits a pattern throughout the world.
Right now the world’s big problems are both the Hard Left reprobates who are in charge of all Western nations including the United States and the Muslims who follow Islam. The problem is not Bible believing Christians. We are the solution to this sin cursed world, that will only be cured at the glorious Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

http://johnmcternansinsights.blogspot.com/2009/12/emergency-us-army-view-of.html

It is a perfectly obvious fact that wherever the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has been most faithfully preached and presented – while bringing hope and new life to many – it has almost invariably been the cause of trouble.

Wherever it has gone it has aroused antagonism. As it was a stumbling-block to the Jews and an absurdity to the Greeks in the first days, so, ever since, it has been unacceptable, not only to the men of the world as such, but to the religious communities also. This we unhesitatingly affirm to be as true today as ever, in spite of the fact that it is the most popular symbol in the world. There is hardly a city in Christendom where the architecture, galleries of art, collections of literature and conservatoires of music and religious institutions do not declare to the world a certain regard and honour for this sacred sign.

This may be a tribute to something deeper but it is that deeper thing which is absolutely unacceptable to the greater part of Christendom and the world.

It is found necessary even in certain phases of some missionary enterprise today to eliminate from the text-books and hymn books the mention of the Cross lest it offend.

Much of the preaching and teaching in the Christian Church is either confined to the “Historic Jesus”, which presents a Crossless Christ, or gives a very modified meaning to His death. And yet it is surely necessary to get rid of the Bible before we can get rid of the fact that it unites in all its parts to declare that the Cross is God’s Way of salvation, God’s sufficient and God’s only way.

It is, further, surely very clear that the Cross has proved to be the means upon which God has made to rest the full weight of His mighty saving power. It was dominant in New Testament days. The recovery of, or re-emphasis upon some vital and essential phase of that Cross gave rise to such movements as are signified by the names of Luther, Moody, Finney, Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, the Wesleys, Spurgeon and many other especially God-honoured men.

Now we ask why has the Cross always been such a maker of trouble and such a cause of offence? And why is it that it is today behind much of the upheaval even in many of our professedly evangelical institutions and denominations, Christian homes, local churches and individual Christian lives?

This we will seek to answer, but first let us discriminate. It is not the heroics of the Cross or the aesthetics that cause the trouble. Sacrifice, suffering, unselfish devotion, self-effacing service for the good of others, enduring the penalty of setting oneself against the evil current of the times, etc.; these are romantic elements and are seized upon as the themes by which multitudes are captured and captivated. It is the deeper meaning which the Bible gives to the Cross which causes the aggravation, this can be seen in one or two clearly defined applications.

1. The Cross condemns the world.

In His Cross Christ created a great divide between the old world and the new, a divide which cannot be bridged. Two distinctly different systems, scales of value, standards of judgment, sets of laws, prevail on the two sides of the Cross, the system of each is not only entirely different, but irreconcilable and forever antagonistic to the other.

The Cross demands an absolute distinctiveness of interests and objectives, relationships and resources. It draws the final distinction between the saved and the unsaved, between the living and the dead.

The apostle Paul said that by the Cross he had “been crucified to the world” and the world crucified to him. The Word of God emphatically declares that the age is evil and that “the whole world lieth in the wicked one” and that its ways, motives, purposes, ideas and imaginations are all the opposite of God’s and that it is utterly incapacitated from either receiving the revelation of the divine mind, growing of itself into the divine image, enjoying and appreciating real fellowship with God, or being entrusted with the privilege of co-operation with God.

These are alone the consciousness, capacities, relationships of the newly-born or regenerated soul. It is this verdict, condemnation, and demand of the Cross which is unacceptable and irritating to a very great number of professing Christians. Further, it is the presence of much that is called “worldliness” both in the individual Christian life and in the Church which absolutely neutralises their effectiveness in the realisation of the essential purposes of the Cross.

2. The Cross crucifies the flesh.

By it the Word of God declares that “our old man has been crucified with Christ” (Romans 6:6). “One died for all, therefore all died in Him, that they which live should henceforth live no longer unto themselves, but unto him” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). We have tried to bring some of the old creation life into the new creation and God won’t have it. The history of the fallen race was concluded so far as God was concerned at Calvary. From that time onward, God’s entire concern was the new creation, but alike our human capabilities as well as our infirmities; what we call our better side as our worse; our goodness and our badness have been included in that death. Henceforth we are called to live not on a human level but on a divine. Humanly we possess nothing which is acceptable to God.

It is always the assertion of some human element, some like or dislike, some fad or fancy, some ambition or some personal interest, which paralyses the real spiritual work of God. To regard not only our sins but ourselves as having been taken to the Cross by Christ is the only way by which those purposes of God can be wrought out through our lives. It is strange that while we ourselves are the bane of our own existence, the trouble of our own lives, we are so slow to accept our crucification with Christ, to have the Cross wrought out to our death in order that the life of Christ might be made manifest in us. Herein lies the offence of the Cross, not only for the worldling but also for the Christian.

3. The Cross casts out the devil.

Here we touch, perhaps, the deepest cause of the offence, for the world and the flesh are only the instruments and weapons by which the great hierarchy of Satan maintains its hold and its existence as the controlling force. Christ said as He approached the Cross, “Now is the prince of this world cast out” (John 12:31). Paul reflecting upon that Cross said that by it: “Christ stripped off principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, and triumphed over them” (Colossians 2:15).

It is perfectly natural, then, that the great hierarchy of evil should by every means and resource seek to make the Cross of none effect. By the “pale cast of thought” it will dilute the message of the Cross; by pushing in the world’s methods, its means, its spirit, it will sap the spiritual vitality of the Church; by stirring up the flesh, the self and the old Adam it will cause schism, strain and disintegration; or by making much of the human element in its artistic, aesthetic, heroic, humanitarian side, it will be blind to the need of regeneration. Reputation, popularity, bigness, the world standard of success, are all contrary to the spirit of Christ, but they are the toys with which the enemy engrosses the minds of many, even Christian ministers.

If, therefore, the Cross is preached in the full victory over and emancipation from the world, the flesh and the devil, it is to be expected that by hook or by crook the intelligent forces of evil will leave no stone unturned to stop it, and will stir up every cause of offence to lay to the account of the Cross.

In conclusion let us not forget that the enjoyment of the full life of God, the experience of victory, and executive co-operation with Him that sitteth upon the throne in the sure realisation that His eternal purposes are ours just in so far as we are one with the full and essential meaning of the Cross as set forth in the Word of God. “I have been crucified with Christ, henceforth… no longer I but Christ.” “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they counted not their lives dear unto the death” (Revelation 12:11).

What God Says About Water Baptism

A Fresh Look…

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• “Re-baptism”

It is unfortunate, yet undeniable, that the subject of water baptism has polarized and divided men for centuries. Unregenerate religious leaders and other “christians” have littered history with ungodly exploits in defense of their doctrines. Not uncommon are accounts of religious leaders and “scholars” physically seizing those that would dare to question whether or not infant baptism via sprinkling is allowable by God. After a mock “orthodoxy” trial, these well-respected church elders, preachers and authors literally drowned to the death the nonconformists in a river to demonstrate the superiority of their doctrine of sprinkling over immersion baptism.

As documented case history, the City Council of Zurich passed a legal decree in March, 1526. The edict commanded that those who immersed in water one that had confessed faith in Jesus Christ (rather than upholding the accepted church ordinance of the day: sprinkling all infants) were to be publicly executed by drowning. In a short span of time, the socially acceptable religious bodies of that day had murdered between four and five thousand men and women in this manner (p.269, Church History in Plain Language, Bruce L. Shelley).

While the atrocity of murder seems uncivilized and socially unacceptable in our day and time, our Master, Jesus Christ, said very clearly that the barriers and divisions and antagonism that mark the “christendom” of today is murder, as judged by the Heavenly Courts. This is true as absolutely as if we also literally murdered one-another by forcible drowning (Mt.5:21-24; 7:1-2; 12:7; Jas. 3:13-18; 1Jn.3:14-16; 4:20-21; Lk.10:29). That’s really frightening, isn’t it?

Is there an answer? Should we, or can we, allow the schisms that have characterized all of christian history to mar our unity and Fellowship with the Father and one another? Of course not. We have no desire, if we’re honest and discerning, to face Him with our current divisions. Should we then compromise the Word of God to the lowest common denominator of “truth” to accommodate everyone that seems sincere enough? God forbid! In so doing, we would allow others to lose their souls by our careless or cowardly approach to the Word of God. That Word will judge every man impartially on the Last Day, regardless of our sincerity (Jn.12:48; 1Tim.4:1-2, 16; Mt.7:21; 2Tim.4:3).

What then can we do? On the subject of baptism, or any other subject in God’s Word, we must in some respect view the subject from God’s perspective, as one “seated with Christ in Heavenly Realms” with “the mind of Christ.” The other alternative (seemingly the one exercised most frequently in history) is warring with words and an attorney’s logic. This eliminates any chance whatsoever that we will truly understand the Word of the Lord. (See Mt.11:25-27; 1Cor.1:25-30, 2:9-16.)

Always the Challenge

Though you may feel as if you already understand biblical “baptism in water,” in view of the fact that this subject is so important to Jesus, I would still plead with you to enter into the next few pages with a posture of true Wisdom: “Fear of the Lord.” Pretend (as I attempt to in looking into any subject in the Word of God) that you have never previously considered the idea and just want to know what Almighty God (rather than man) has said regarding this important subject of baptism. Pretend that you are on a desert island and have never seen a Bible before, or heard of the idea of “church.” Suddenly, the Creator of the Universe dropped a Book down to you and asked you to act on what He has to say about “baptism” in His Book. Will you do this, regardless of your previous position on the subject? Can you discipline your heart to do this, just one more time, no matter how well studied you may be? (If you can’t look inside your own heart and say “Yes, I will honestly look at, and prayerfully consider these thoughts from the Scriptures without the eyeglasses of a predetermined viewpoint on baptism, then it would be best not to go on at this point. The temptation to peruse casually, or to use the time evaluating the author, rather than letting the Word evaluate us, will always be with us in such situations. Only the truly “good and honest hearts” will approach challenges in the Word in the way our Father intends—with teachable hearts. What a battle for us all!)

Having gotten to this point, it is my desperate prayer that the divisions and complexities that the “doctrines of men” have created (it surely is not our Father’s fault!) can be in some measure diminished by God’s great grace and whatever Truth you may find in these pages. In the remainder of this discussion would you give me the privilege of being very frank and to the point? I will have to trust you that you will not ask me to walk a tightrope of diplomacy and Dale Carnegie (I’m not very good at that kind of thing anyway). I do promise that I’ll do my best to speak the Word of the Lord if you’ll read on. I must do it, however, without apology to the myriad of “teachings” in the religious world today. Our God is a person, and therefore does not hold two contradictory opinions on any subject whatsoever. It really does matter to our Father (as you read in the previously listed verses of Scripture) what we believe and what we do. Will you resolve, as I truly hope that I have, that you will not pass from this life having forfeited any of the riches that He has held out to you, His child?

We can choose to forfeit His Best, and even salvation itself, by ignorance of His Word. Loss will also be suffered whenever laziness, procrastination, or defensiveness hinder our pursuit of that which would honor the God that died for us. So many have disobeyed the Living God due to potential consequences in their families or workplace or church. Please look to Heaven with a clear conscience and say “Yes! I’ll follow You Jesus wherever you go, immediately, no matter what the cost!” Now, onward!

The Dilemma

In my experience in various parts of the religious world, it seems to me that some of us have overlooked the significance that the Word of God assigns to the subject of baptism. Why would a person with a good heart and a good understanding of the Word of God and the Good News of Jesus Christ overlook the heavy weight that God places on water Baptism every single time that He (God) mentions it? Usually it is because all of their lives most have been taught (wonderfully) that Salvation is by Faith and the Grace of God—and Baptism doesn’t seem to fit in to this picture anywhere.

It is said, “If it is a ‘work’ necessary to be saved that is added to the work of the cross—it is surely optional and superfluous, no matter how good a thing it might be.” While this is certainly true, without discernment, a delicate line can easily be crossed which leads down a path of denying Jesus by denying the immutability of His Word.

Others, meanwhile, in good conscience and an honest attempt to “speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent” have moved in a direction that has deeply grieved our God. This has endangered true Fellowship with Jesus as a living Person. This school has viewed baptism as part of a formula for Salvation. In the process (though the place of these issues in the Scriptures is immense), we have raised up a generation of church-goers that have never known a living intimacy and vital, tangible friendship with Jesus. Though certainly no one would verbalize it as such, Jesus, in this environment, isn’t the focal point of Salvation at all. He’s really, objectively speaking, not even a “sixth step” along with “hear, believe, repent, confess and be baptized.” He is, instead, thought to have taught us a recipe that would yield salvation if properly implemented, even down to the “magic words” that we say over the ceremony. If we pursue this course, Jesus died in order to leave us a formula for salvation and a rule book for living the “good christian life.”

Unfortunately, when this view is embraced, the only true hope for true, “abundant Life” as a “new creation,” with “rivers of living water gushing from his belly” and living in the “power of an indestructible life,” in true, deep fellowship with the Creator of time and eternity is lost because we have never met, really met, Jesus from Nazareth. Some have embraced only a historical idea and doctrine, rather than a living friend. What a tragedy!

The living and active Word of the living and active God of the Word must be our source of wisdom and guidance in order to harmonize (without compromise) the seeming complexities of trusting absolutely “justification by Faith” with many other verses that may seem to require adding something to our Faith. How are we to understand: “Unless you Repent, you will all perish,” and “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Is the verse “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” adding a “good work” (confessing literally and verbally with your mouth) to simple Faith as a basis of Justification by the Blood of Christ? (Rom.3:22-24, 10:9-10; Luke 13:3; Mk.16:16; Acts 2:38). Since “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” was written before time and creation in the heart of the Eternal Godhead, it is well worth our while to penetrate deeply into every aspect of the Utterance of God recorded for us. Would you agree?

It seems reasonable that we should never relegate anything to a secondary place due to abuses perpetrated in the past. Right? What God says to us about any given subject we must hold precious and jealously guard. Make it your fervent quest to “let none of His Words fall to the ground” …for as we penetrate deeper into the Word of God, we penetrate deeper into Eternal Divinity. “…and the Word was God.”

Please do not, as you read this, make the mistake of letting the prejudices of the “empty traditions handed down by our forefathers” blind you to anything in His Word and Heart. There is so much that the Creator would desire us to comprehend more fully and respond to in Faith-filled obedience. Is that not the whole of the Christ-life, to walk in intimate fellowship with and obedience to “every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God?” (Jn.17:3-4; Jn.14:15-22; Deut.8:1-14; Mt.4:4). Please move on to the thoughts that follow with a “good and honest heart.” (This is the only “good soil” according to Jesus: Lk.6:43-49; 8:8-15.) Approach the Word, always, with instant “on earth as it is in Heaven” obedience if it is truly the Word of the Lord. Do not consider ramifications. Do not ponder the cost of walking in the Truth of God and then procrastinate or dilute the Truth or your response to appease mere men. It cannot be worth it, under any circumstances. Agreed?!

Jesus in His Fullness and ALL of His Word

A principle worth remembering is, as the writer of Psalm 119 said (by the authority and inspiration of God), “The sum of Thy Word is Truth” (RV, NAS, verse 160). What that means is simply this: We cannot take a verse of scripture that says what we’d like it to say and camp out on that passage as if it is not part of an integral whole. The Person of Jesus Christ is “Truth” (John 14:6; 1:1). Nothing less than the entire Word, and the entire Person of Jesus of Nazareth should be held out as “Truth” on any given subject. It was readily seen in Jesus’ day that the “experts in the Bible” did err, “not knowing the scriptures or the power of God.” They continually accused the Author and the Personification of Truth of being “unscriptural.” Take a step back in awe before you pigeon-hole baptism as some trite religious nicety for goopy zealots. Try to understand all that God has to say and all that Jesus did (and “is”) about any given subject!

EXAMPLE: Suppose that I said to you, “You must receive nutrition or you will absolutely die.” You would agree that the truth stands as beyond debate (particularly if God had made a sovereign statement to this affect). While this statement is absolute in terms of its accuracy, it does not eliminate the mandatory nature of other elements, such as air and water.

APPLICATION: “The sum of Thy Word is Truth.” It is therefore fair to say that we may not take a verse such as “If you confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:9) and call that verse the way unto salvation. Why? Because Jesus, our Lord said, “Unless you REPENT you will all perish” (Lk.13:3, 14:33). Since no one can at the same time perish and be saved (remember that “the sum of Thy Word is Truth”), it is absolutely necessary to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him a Name above every Name.

Clearly, it is also necessary to literally speak out loud with your lips that you hereby declare publicly that you acknowledge what the Father has done in Jesus: He is Lord of Heaven and earth. Henceforth He will also be recognized Lord of every nook and cranny, ambition, fear, vice and thought in your life also.

It is also clear (“the sum of the Word is Truth”) that repentance (the change of mind and implementation in a practical, observable way of the new direction you are now taking) is just as mandatory for salvation! The first passage is fully true, yet so is the second passage fully true. We need to fully embrace all Scripture, not accept some and push some to the “back burner” because we don’t completely understand how to harmonize the two ideas.

If other things, such as baptism, were given similar weight in the heart and Word of God, they would be no less valid because these other things are true. Would you agree with this much?

EXAMPLE: Because we know that it is true, “You must eat food or you will absolutely die,” that is not to say, “If you eat food you will absolutely live.”

APPLICATION: We have already seen that “If you confess with your lips, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Yet, who more than Satan believes that God raised Jesus from the dead? It is not enough to believe this only! “Even the demons believe—and tremble! You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” (Jas.2:19-26). Most that we say are “believers” don’t believe as much as the demons do. Few men that “go to church” have ever really “trembled” at the thought of approaching an all-powerful and Holy God. Most have been taught just to say a little prayer in order to go to Heaven. Since the demons believe enough to “tremble,” are they therefore saved? Of course not.

Let’s carry the analogy a step further. The confession with the lips that “Jesus is Lord” is apparently not a free ticket into salvation, in and of itself, either. Jesus Himself said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in Your Name,and in Your Name drive out demons, and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers! You did not do the will of my Father.’” (Mt. 7:21-23). To say with your lips “Jesus is Lord” isn’t the end of the road, is it? And obviously they believed God raised Jesus from the dead—they even performed miracles and cast out demons in His Name! While the Word of God is inspired and therefore confession of “Jesus is Lord” with the lips is mandatory, it is obviously not sufficient in itself to guarantee salvation. “The sum of the Word is Truth.”

What IS Water Baptism, According to God?

With that as a backdrop, let’s look without prejudiced or preconceived ideas at what the Bible, the heart of God, is on Baptism. We mustn’t, of course, eliminate or minimize the other expressions of approaching God through faith in Christ alone, but understand God’s heart and penetrate into what HE means when He speaks of “faith”.

On the next page, you will find a listing of every single time that God used the word “baptism” in His Word. If you are serious in understanding what God has to say about this, I know that you’ll find it greatly rewarding and enlightening to look up each of the references our God has made to water baptism. Look at His Word about this subject in the teaching of Jesus and His Apostles, and in the Book of Acts (where God was gracious enough to give us living examples of men walking in this teaching). The two (the teaching and the example) correspond, as we might imagine that they would. If you wanted to know everything that an encyclopedia has to say about “Relativity,” you wouldn’t look under “skydiving.” Nor would you try to understand God’s view of money by looking at Jesus’ teaching about divorce. It is also safe to say that the best way to learn of the mind of your Creator on baptism is to read each of the times our God (Who wastes no words) presents to us His thoughts on the matter.

Please read each reference. Honestly write down (as a child, in simplicity, without straining to apply some high and lofty denominational doctrine to it!) the weight that the Father has assigned to “water baptism.” Now if you believe exactly that (which Jesus, and the men of God that knew Him, had to say about water baptism), and tell others exactly that—you are not far from the Kingdom. I wouldn’t dare teach anything about baptism that gives it less value than these passages, would you?

Baptize, Baptized, Baptizing, Baptism

Matthew 3:1, 3:6, 3:7, 3:13, 3:11, 3:14, 3:16, 11:1, 11:12, 14:2, 14:8, 16:14, 17:13, 20:22, 20:23, 21:25, 28:19

Mark 1:4, 1:5, 1:8, 1:9, 10:38, 10:39, 11:30, 16:16

Luke 3:3, 3:7, 3:12, 3:16, 3:21, 7:29, 7:30, 12:50, 20:4

John 1:25, 1:26, 1:28, 1:31, 1:33, 3:22, 3:23, 3:26, 4:1, 4:2, 10:40

Acts 1:5, 1:22, 2:38, 2:41, 8:12, 8:13, 8:16, 8:36, 8:38, 9:18, 10:37, 10:47, 10:48, 11:16, 13:24, 16:15, 16:33, 18:8, 18:25, 19:3, 19:4, 19:5, 22:16

Romans 6:3, 6:4

1Corinthians 1:13, 1:14, 1:15, 1:16, 1:17, 10:2, 12:13, 15:29

Galatians 3:27

Ephesians 4:5

Colossians 2:12

Hebrews 6:2

1 Peter 3:21

There is absolutely no possibility that one could read what the Bible has to say about it and conclude that it is simply a ritual or symbol to obey because “Jesus said so.” Nor is the significance of baptism limited to the example of Jesus Himself being immersed in water. It is not simply a way to “place membership” at a local church. It is not just a horizontal “outward act.” At least that is not the way Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, Luke, and the men we can trust saw it! All of the folks we read about in the Bible, under apostolic teaching, that saw the opportunity of being immersed in water did so immediately, even after midnight! There was nothing in any of them that wanted to debate the issue or wait until “Baptism Sunday!” They saw something that today’s religious world often has overlooked about God’s Heart in water baptism.

Is it a “command?” Jesus did, we all know, “say so.” Specifically, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved” and “Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all things I have commanded you” (Mk.16:16; Mt.28:18-20). And, you surely agree, that the reigning King of the Universe “said so” is more than sufficient cause for anyone who has not been immersed in water to respond to His command.

Shouldn’t we all eagerly pursue all that God has for us? Remember the Treasurer of the nation of Ethiopia who responded to the teaching about Jesus (Acts with, “Here is water, what hinders me from being baptized?!” Certainly 100% of those that really love Jesus will “keep His commands” (Jn.14:15) without rationalizing. If you are a devoted follower of Jesus, or are ready to become one, and are not in Christ’s ultimate Will and have not been immersed in water to this point, you can (and should) quickly find a Disciple to immerse you, even it is after midnight when you read this.

That would be a response made in “good company.” Recall the man who was the apostle Paul’s guard in the jail cell in Philippi. He gave his life to Christ and was immediately baptized (Acts 16:33)—at probably 1:00 AM, not the next month, or three years later! The men and woman that heard the teaching about Jesus, and the response that God called for, were all seemingly very convinced at the urgency of response to the Good News about Jesus. We must also, if we are responding to the same Jesus and the same Gospel that they heard.

Even beyond that, no one could honestly read only what the Word of God has to say about baptism (as if on a desert island without preconceived ideas) and conclude that it is simply a visible ritual to compliment the religious life, or to join a local church roll. If you have read the attached complete list of verses in context, you must be impressed as I was at the awesome weight that God attaches to “baptism”/”baptizein, baptisma” (“immersion” is the Greek word that God selected) every time He mentions it. At no time is the idea of baptism in water, immersion of a person who has given his life to Jesus Christ, ever referred to, or treated by anyone in the Bible, as an optional symbol. It mustn’t be done at one’s leisure (or skipped entirely), or be done by sprinkling.

(God could have used the words “ballo” or “rhantizo” if He had meant them to be baptized by “pouring” or “sprinkling.” One could say that baptizo and the associated words for “baptism” may include “pouring, until totally saturated” based on certain references related to the Holy Spirit “outpouring”—though certainly never would the word baptism mean “sprinkled.”)

I know, fellow pilgrims, that God is not a tyrant that is looking to smoke anyone who does not line up with every “jot and tittle.” Yet I also know how presumptuous it is of mere men such as you and I to trifle with the Eternal Word that “was with God and was God!” Agreed? And the blessings that we forfeit by not penetrating fully into His Will for us! I want everything that He wants for me. I crave to “apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Surely that is no less than we owe the God who gave His Son to die for us.

Additionally, you must not be “yoked” to, be a member of, a Christian group that would persist in denying or rationalizing away what our One Lord has clearly said about this or any other subject. Our lives must be joined only to those that really love Him enough to obey Him from the heart every time they learn something new, regardless of the consequences. There is no time to waste!

Consider these examples:

1. (Acts 2:36-41) A multitude were “cut to the heart” and asked what to do to be saved. Would you have a different answer than an apostle who was “filled with the Holy Spirit?” If someone asks me: “What must I do?” I dare say I am not going to answer as men often do today “Bow your heads and ask Jesus to come into your heart to be your personal Savior.” Nowhere in the Bible is the “Sinner’s prayer” (or sprinkling of an infant) given as the hope of salvation.

The majority of popular teaching makes Jesus out to be a wishy-washy “do me a favor” kind of “savior,” rather than the Infinite and Immortal Creator of the galaxies. If we really “see Him Who is invisible,” we bow our knee to Him, in reverence and sorrow that we were the cause of His death when He walked among us. And we “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” because He is a great and mighty King over all of the heavens and the earth.

To demonstrate that the popular view of “conversion” just mentioned cannot be correct, look at the multitude of conversions that occur in the New Testament church record. Not even one time is anyone asked to say a “sinner’s prayer” and invite Jesus into their heart. In light of that fact, how could we, even one more time, dare to answer the question “What must I do to be saved” with an answer like that? (Remember—you gave me the permission to be frank with you early on in this discussion. Don’t get upset now—just see if these things are true. Can you find even one example of “asking Jesus to come into one’s heart and be their personal Savior?”)

Personally, when asked what a person “must do to be saved” I’ve got to answer, at least within the conversation somewhere, like the inspired Apostle Peter did: “Repent and be immersed everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.” Why, Peter? “So that your sins may be forgiven.” No matter how you translate it, what a great reason to repent and be immersed!

Peter went on to warn them and plead with them to “save themselves” (vs. 40), and “those who accepted his message were immersed”—3,000 of them heard the message of Jesus and were baptized and added to the number of disciples (vs. 41). How would you or I be added to the number of disciples in some other manner? Let’s give Peter’s (therefore God’s) answer when someone asks us “What must I do to be saved?” It may not be popular with the denominations that teach something else, but no one can deny that it is the answer that the inspired, spirit-filled apostle gave when he was asked that question. Only if you go with that will you be on God’s ground.

2. (Acts 8:26-39). Philip, the evangelist, was told by an angel to go to the road to Gaza, a city near Egypt. He explained to a high-ranking official from Ethiopia “the Good News about Jesus” (vs. 35). The man’s immediate response to whatever Philip taught him about Jesus was “Look—here’s water. What hinders me from being immersed?” He ordered the chariot to stop. Both Philip and the man went down into the water and Philip immersed him (vs. 36-39).

It seems clear to me that whatever I teach as the “good news about Jesus” had better included something that inspires the one I’m teaching to say: “Look, here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized right now?!” Does your message about Jesus inspire that question? Please! It must!

3. (Mark 16:15-16, Matthew 28:18-20). The last words that a man speaks before he departs are always carefully chosen, aren’t they? The Son of God issued a command to make disciples of all nations, immerse them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and then teach them to obey all of the commands of God. These were amongst His last words before He left this earth to ascend back into Heaven. Ask Jesus why a person should be baptized, and He’ll answer this way every time, “He that believes and is baptized, immersed, shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).

He states at the end of that verse that believing on Him (“putting our full weight on Him,” in absolute trust) is the foundation. Baptism is just “getting wet” without our faith in Him.

How it must grieve the Father when even a single person is taught in such a way as to cause them to depend on a “formula.” Or to depend on a “church” that claims to have all the “biblical” answers. Oh, please! Turn to a living friend named Jesus that “was dead, and behold! is alive forever and ever!” What a heartache that must be to the Father that He gave the very life of His Son to purchase men back from a well-deserved and certain death, and some have the ignorance or audacity to make a doctrine out of a Person. The “Way of Salvation” is a PERSON, and a friendship with Him. There is no other salvation available! (Jn.17:3; 14:6; 7:39-40; 2Cor.13:14; 2Cor.3:16-18; Rom.10:13) There is no single issue in all of a man’s span of life in this realm that is more crucial to understand and stand upon with unwavering conviction. Our God can only be pleased with a People that approach Him solely on the basis of Jesus as their “all in all” and only access to His Glorious presence.

Even so! Our Lord Jesus did not stutter—He meant what He said. Man says: “He that believes and is saved shall be baptized.” Did you catch the order that man has worded this? Man says: “He that believes and is saved shall be baptized.”

Christ says it in a drastically different way. The Son of the Living God said: “He that believes and is baptized—that man has salvation.” Not “either/or” at some man’s discretion. I’m not going to trifle with God by re-arranging His words. I will “believe and be baptized” as the Lord taught.

If this is intimidating you, or making you angry or defensive, that is surely not my intention. I am trying to state everything in terms that are extremely clear, even if to the point of overstating something, in order that all of this cannot be overlooked or forgotten! We must together “abide in His Word” rather than the traditions of men. OK? All of His disciples “hear Him gladly” and “hang on every word that He says”—without compromise, or furious rifling through Bible pages to “prove” that Jesus didn’t mean what He said. Let’s just believe Him and obey Him together in peace.

You must see by now that though many do, unfortunately, rely on a form and “works” to justify themselves before the Father, whatever the scriptures say (about baptism in water, or anything else) is the Father’s application of the gift to us of His Son. It is not something “in addition” to His Beloved Son…it is His Son, the Word.

4. (1 Peter 3:21; Romans 6:3-5). The Apostle Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes this bold, unthinkable statement: “Baptism saves you.” To say that it has nothing to do with salvation would put you in opposition to Peter and the Holy Scriptures—not a good position to try to defend on the judgment day. The question is not “whether or not,” but rather “how” it saves you.

Certainly we know that the blood that was poured out during the scourgings and ultimately on the cross is the only hope that any of us have. It is very obvious that some “good work” can never justify us before the Eternal God—only the death and resurrection of the Only Begotten Son. So how can Peter (by the Holy Spirit) make such radical statements as “Baptism saves you” and “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins” and “save yourselves?”

The correct way to handle the Word of God is not to pretend that Peter never said these things because, after all, we know that the atonement of Jesus is what saves us—period. Remember, it was Jesus who said: “He that believes and is baptized—that person shall be saved” (Mk.16:16). Jesus, through Peter, said “Repent and be baptized” and “baptism saves you” (Acts 2:38; 1Pet.3:21).

It says what it says—no man has the right to ignore it or try to alter it. God is intelligent enough to “get it right.” Therefore, our job is to understand “baptism saves you” in light of the work of Jesus—not pretend that it’s not there because of the atoning work of Jesus.

Let me say that again. God said what He meant and meant what He said. We know the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus “saves us”—not our “works.” That is an absolute. However, if God Himself said “Baptism saves you” and “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins” and “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved”—these things are also absolutes. Our job is not to “write these off” as “surely just not so.” Our job is to understand how these things are tied into the work of Jesus. “Understand them in light of the work of Jesus, not pretend that they’re not there because of the work of Jesus.” Do you see? “All scripture is God-breathed.”

Peter goes on to explain how baptism saves us (it is a fact from God that somehow it’s involved). Baptism is not washing away dirt from the physical body, it is not “getting wet,” taking a bath. It is the “crying out of a good conscience towards God”—repentance and faith in Jesus expressed physically. It “saves you” (Peter reaffirms in case we missed it), “it saves you by the resurrection of Jesus.” Aha! The link between this strange thing of “immersion in water” and Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul explains the connection between repentance, baptism and “the resurrection of Jesus” for us in Romans 6:3-5. Here the Holy Word says clearly that “If we’ve been united with Him in death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” Sounds great. It is conditional, however, on being “united with Him in His death.” How does that happen, Paul? “We were, therefore, buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead we too may walk in newness of life.” The Word of God says clearly that we die to our sins (repentance), bury them, immerse them in baptism, and rise to walk in “newness of life.” Literally “born again—of water and the Spirit.” Literally “having our bodies washed with pure water,” “saved by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Submitting ourselves that we may face Him having “washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” having “clothed ourselves with Christ in baptism” (John 3:5, Heb. 10:22, Titus 3:5, Rev. 7:13-14, Gal. 3:26-27).

Most would agree that there is no disagreement between the all-sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ and the necessity of confessing with your mouth “Jesus is Lord.” We agree it is simply an outward expression of our faith—that the Bible says is mandatory, or the Faith was not truly Faith. Likewise, there is no disagreement between the all-sufficiency of the blood of Jesus and the absolute necessity of “repenting of acts that lead to death.” Repentance is essential. Jesus said clearly: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” No man will go to heaven without repenting of his sins, changing his mind about what life is about. As Peter said, if you want to be saved, you must “repent and be baptized” (Heb. 6:1, Luke 13:3, Acts 17:30, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19-23). Certainly repentance is nothing more and nothing less than an expression of our faith in Jesus, “placing our full weight on Jesus.” Repentance on our part is mandatory for our salvation and yet in no way minimizes what Jesus accomplished at Calvary. It is simply our expression of true faith.

Satan, “the father of lies,” would have you read all of these crystal clear teachings from Jesus Himself, as well as other words of the Holy Spirit, and push them out of your mind as “insignificant” or “legalism” or something worse. Before you fall prey to that, I beg you again to go back to the words of Almighty God and forget everything you’ve ever been taught in the religious world about baptism. In the fresh, exciting days of the New Church of the Book of Acts (a world unadulterated by various “kinds” of “christendom”), there is no record of any confusion about this at all! Let’s go back to that simplicity, please! What does God say it is for? Does God assign value to it other than a “simple act of obedience”? The only One who was immersed as a “simple act of obedience” (“to fulfill all righteousness”) was Jesus Christ. (Matthew 3:13-17). Surely even one verse would be sufficient to prompt a true Believer to act immediately to be immersed in water?

5. Again, as we have touched on previously, there was at no time an occasion in the Word of God where something other than immersion (such as sprinkling or pouring) was ever commanded or done as an example of “the method is unimportant,” as some teach today. And, in fact, there is an example of Paul reimmersing twelve men that had already been immersed, but with an incomplete Faith. (Acts 18:24, Acts 19:9). Think about it. Is it really worth rolling dice with your relationship with God to protect your pride?

6. Also, never was an infant immersed (baptized) in any instance in the Holy Word. There are no infants at all found amongst those baptized in the Scriptures, though many children were in the company of those that followed Jesus. Since the prerequisite (according to the Bible) for baptism is to believe and repent—an infant could not possibly have been Biblically baptized. And the examples in the book of Acts certainly do not show anything of the kind. If that is what Jesus and the apostles had taught (that infants were to be baptized) we would see long lines of children to be baptized forming in the book of Acts, the historical record. Rather, “Those who believed his message (about Jesus as the Savior and the Lord of Heaven and Earth) were immersed, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41). As for the children, the truth is that Jesus said that “you must become like a little child” in order to go to heaven. The children are just fine (as can be demonstrated with a number of other scriptures) without a religious ritual that we might do on their behalf. Any infant that can be “cut to the heart,” repent, put their full weight on Jesus and “call on the name of the Lord” is a candidate for baptism.

7. Probably an example that will be helpful as you make your decision to risk that opposition of the religious world (it seems that Jesus had that problem too!) to be immersed in water, a helpful illustration, might be the conversion of the Apostle Paul.

In Acts 9:1-9 Saul/Paul saw Jesus Christ as a glorious light. He was blinded and cried out “Who are you, Lord?” The answer was: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Paul knew He was “Lord”—it seemed rather obvious at the time. He certainly believed Him to be the Son of God and obviously raised from the dead at this point. He fasted penitently without food or water for three full days. By anyone’s definition, of all people, Paul “believed” at this point. Paul recognized Him as the indisputable “Lord” and called Him so with his mouth. Surely he’s a Christian—because he believed in Jesus. Virtually no religious group around would consider a man with that kind of experience and faith as yet an “unbeliever.” True? Ask your “preacher.” Virtually none would consider any man with this testimony a non-Christian.

Later, in Acts 22:6-16, Paul is retelling the story of his conversion to a crowd of unbelievers. Paul says that God sent Ananias to him to tell him what he must do. Paul quotes Ananias (by the Holy Spirit’s words) as saying “Saul—what one are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized (immersed) washing away your sins, calling on His Name!” He was not yet a Christian! Note this carefully: A man can believe with all his heart that Jesus is risen from the dead. He can know for sure that Jesus is Lord. He can even fast and pray for his sins for three days—AND NOT BE A CHRISTIAN. Some of you may fall into that category…still a non-Christian, though you have had possibly years of christian experience.

Paul believed. He confessed the Lordship of the Risen One with his lips. And yet his sins were not washed away (according to God Himself). He was not a Christian—He was still in his sins, even though he had actually seen Jesus and called Him “Lord.” “Saul—what one are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized (immersed) washing away your sins, calling on His Name!” As Jesus Himself said: “Not all who confess with their mouth ‘Lord, Lord’ will go to heaven” (Matthew 7:21-23). Please drop all prejudice or defensiveness and reconsider! It surely can’t be worth being wrong, even for the sake of pride or family. The stakes are too high!

And now the key question of all of this:

At What Instant Is A Person Saved?

The primary reason that all of this seems to be so traumatic is that man has taken apart the act of making covenant with his God and disassembled it in a way that God never intended. Man has wrecked the simplicity of entering into a Marriage Covenant with Jesus Christ in such a way that only God’s Spirit can interpret and apply the Truths previously mentioned to the jumbled mess of a splintered christendom today, and show us what to do next.

The question of “when” a person actually “becomes” a Christian in a “technical” way is a question that reveals the misunderstanding of the one who asked it of the nature of Salvation itself. Being “born of God” will never be of “natural descent, of human decision, or of a husband’s will”—to our dismay and God’s Glory. “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything: what counts is a New Creation.” I mean to say (by inserting these verses here) that meeting the Person of Jesus Christ, having an encounter with a Resurrected Lord, and being therefore “translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son” will never happen by knowing all of the technical verses about it. It is either an encounter with the Living Godhead, personally, and truly—or it is a counterfeit. The technicalities are not the issue. God has a habit of blowing up our great cerebral achievements anyway, historically speaking. (For example, Jn.7:45-52; Acts 2:13-16; 10:44-11:18; etc.)

A close friend of mine came in from out of state a few years ago to be married in her home town. In all of the excitement, she and her spouse-to-be had forgotten to get the blood tests and the marriage license. Now, the State has a “book” that spells out what it takes to be legitimately married, and they had taken some liberties due to this “oversight”. Because the sequence of the “book” had been violated, a big problem had resulted. At what point are they married? Is it at the moment the preacher says “I now pronounce you man and wife?” Well, maybe not, since there was no “authority invested in him by the State” to perform the ceremony without a license. The governor of the State would be positive that they were not married after the church ceremony. Well, though, doesn’t the heart, the intent, count for anything? Is it marriage when “a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife” as a “heart” issue, or is there a need to obey the laws of the land? The preacher, and the State, reached different conclusions. Or is it marriage when it is consummated in the act of the “two becoming one flesh?” What about the soldier boy that gets whisked away overseas before the two physically come together? In all fifty states an annulment (“a judicial declaration that no valid marriage ever existed between the two parties in question”) can be declared in situations where the marriage is never “consummated.” Were they ever married? At what instant are they married? Is it when the license is filled out that the marriage is truly a marriage? But wait! If the license isn’t mailed in a certain period of time, the marriage is invalid. Or is it? As you can see, all of the trauma of “at what instant is a person married” only even becomes a question when the “rule book” is violated. But, oh what a problem! Can you go on a $100.00/night honeymoon that has already been paid for, or not? Would you be in bed with someone who you are not married to, since no one with “authority invested in him” to perform the ceremony had yet joined them? What a trauma.

And likewise, AT WHAT INSTANT IS A PERSON SAVED? Only because of man’s ignoring God’s Ways has the question even come up! If we would instantly “at midnight” respond to the teaching about Jesus with “here’s water, what hinders me from being baptized?” we would never have to ask “at what instant,” in the midst of “calling on the Name of the Lord,” is the person saved. It is a ridiculous question and unnecessary if we respond (as the now-married couple wished they had) out of the Truth and harmony and Spirit of the Word of God. If man had not confused the whole issue by fooling with the making of a “covenant” with God (by separating the giving of one’s life to Jesus, from repentance, and from baptism by weeks or months or years) there would be no such questions about “at what instant is a person saved” ever raised. Again, we have created the dilemma by breaking the covenant-making experience into little pieces and separating them by time, as was absolutely never the teaching or the case in the Scriptures.

The illustration previously offered, “at exactly what instant is a couple married,” cannot be fully resolved. Nor can this more Eternal issue. Cry out to Him! Get on your knees and appeal to Him from a good and sincere heart to translate your life from the corruptible to the Eternal. Tell Jesus of your selfishness, your self-indulgence, your pride and ask Him for a new heart. Our response to His love for us is to offer all at once to Him, as a sonnet of our love and thanksgiving. Put the “Ring” of water baptism on as a seal of the Covenant. Let the Lord of Hosts baptize you in His Spirit.

In summary, we get ourselves in a fix the moment we elect to separate the Marriage consummation in a technical way, rather than simply plunging into the whole counsel and love and promises of God. If we elect to follow men’s denominational traditions instead of God’s Ways, from then on we must “pound a square peg into a round hole” in our attempt to answer questions on these subjects. Let’s simply respond as God has called us to respond. Let’s all have the honesty and guts and humility to swim upstream against what we’ve thought (or even taught) and tell others that are followers of Jesus or anxious to become so, the truth about WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT WATER BAPTISM. It is a very freeing alternative! And an urgent matter…

And of course it’s tough! Our battle is not with flesh and blood and merely “understanding” of Bible verses, but with principalities and powers, according to Paul. If God values anything, Satan will desperately try to soft-sell or pervert it! While in western India, some brothers and I discovered how true this is. There, to tell those in your village (or those in law enforcement) that you are a Christian will seldom have consequences. Yet to be baptized will result in being severely ostracized and often imprisoned.

Another man, once a Jewish atheist, and now a teacher of the Truth of God in Jesus Christ on several continents, adds his testimony to this. He also has seen what seems to be supernatural opposition to baptism in water that goes beyond logic. He has seen again and again those of his own Jewish heritage telling their families and their rabbi that they believe that Jesus, Y’shua, is the Messiah and that they have given their lives to Him. This, he says, is often met with “That’s nice.” But when they say they have been baptized in water, great and violent fury and disinheritance takes place almost inevitably. Frequently an actual funeral is held for the baptized Believer.

No doubt you too will suffer the retribution of Satan and prideful, fearful men as you respond to the Truths of God’s Word about baptism. It is a privilege. Count it all joy, and don’t shrink back, procrastinate, or compromise one tiny bit. If you follow Jesus in Truth, you will always leave all to do so (Luke 9:57-62, 14:33)!

A few beautiful pictures, before we part, might show us something of God’s heart in calling us to be immersed in water. In 1Corinthians, chapter 10, God gives us the picture of the baptism into the sea and the cloud (water and the Holy Spirit, John 3:5, Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5). This is representative of our victory over all of the enemies of God. The armies of bondage and (“Egyptian”) slavery to selfishness, lust and the world system gallop after us when we choose to give our lives to our Savior and Lord. These are DROWNED under the ocean of God’s grace, just as they were in the Red Sea.

This is water baptism’s purpose—to drown our enemies and God’s enemies, amazingly, both in type and in reality! If you can explain how the Lord’s Supper is both symbolic and supernatural at the same time (1Cor.11:29-30; 10:16-22; Jn.6:53), then you’ve got a shot at understanding this!

A similar picture is in Romans 6. Here, we have made a covenant with God to die to sin (repentance) and that sin is then buried under the water of baptism. We now rise to walk in newness of life. If we’ve been buried in baptism, we’ll rise in the same resurrection life that He rose into (vs. 5). Sounds good to me!

In 1 Peter 3, God paints for us the picture of all of the mountaintops of our sins being forever buried under the water of baptism. As surely as the wickedness of Noah’s day was totally immersed, our corruption in the “old man” is buried with Christ. Then, the dove brought back an olive branch representing a whole new world, a “new creation!” In Him, if we’re truly converted, we “Taste the Powers of the coming Age.” In Him, we receive a “downpayment guaranteeing our inheritance,” the Holy Spirit of Almighty God filling us with the Life of the Eternal Kingdom, and the Ages to come! (Read prayerfully Eph.1:13-14, 18-20; Rom.8:9-11; Acts 2:38-39; Jn.3:5,8; Ezek.36:24-27; Jer.31:31-34; Heb.6:5; Jn.17:22, 7:38-39). This is just simple, fundamental, undeniable, biblical christianity. What a joy! Thank your God for this opportunity!

In Galatians 3, Paul states that our Sonship, our Faith and Baptism are all inseparable. The picture is given by God that as we are baptized, we are “clothed” with God’s precious Son, Jesus. From this moment on, He sees only Jesus (as we’ve “hidden our life” in Him) when He looks down on us.

Now, if you have “ears to hear,” you have been given a very clear opportunity to see, understand and obey the Lord Jesus Christ on this matter of immersion in water. I don’t claim to understand everything about the subject of Baptism. Not at all. I can only pray, along with you and an army of others, that God will shed Light on this in the days to come that all of us might be fully equipped for battle with our only real enemy, the devil. I must say that if you have not yet been immersed in water, and you truly desire to fully walk with your Lord, you now have more than enough cause to lose a lot of sleep until you have prayerfully yielded yourself to all that God has held out for you.

Almost always, the battle is not waged against “what the Bible says about baptism,” per se. Here’s an observation that you can test against your own heart. Nearly always the one who refuses immersion in water is in one of two situations. Either they have never been shown God’s heart about it in the Word of God, or he or she has never truly repented of their fears and desires for the world’s goodies or men’s approval. Baptism itself is seldom the hangup.

Are you ready to “eagerly accept the good news about Jesus,” surrender your life to Him and cry out “Here’s water. What are we waiting for?” As the song goes, “I only want to see you there!” Let’s go all the Way, my friends and brothers.

2/22/2001

The Call to Be the Body of Christ, Rather Than To “Attend” Something

It has become more and more obvious to God’s Chosen, worldwide, that the typical expression of what is known as “church” has been influenced by the enemy, and through worldly culture. Our understanding and expression of “church,” in generation after generation, around the world has been led down a Machiavellian path of shallowness, pride, greed, lukewarmness, worldliness, and Ishmaelic infrastructure. In the institutions of today, the quality of the sermons and teaching is sometimes good. I hesitate, after visiting many hundreds of “services” of every conceivable denomination and “non-denomination,” to say that “most” teaching in these assemblies is Truth-filled. But, certainly some of it is quite good. Sometimes the “worship time” is “encouraging” or “inspiring.” We need to add, though, that accomplishing this has often required Spiritual prostitution to acquire “talented” musicians to “lead”—in spite of the fact that they may have little or no real relationship with Jesus. Their unregeneracy, or worldly life is often overlooked in order to accomplish our desired end of a wonderful worship experience to attract larger numbers. Frequently the “programs” of modern religious assemblies have targeted “worthy” objectives, such as feeding hungry unbelievers, building homes in Nicaragua, or distributing tracts to passers-by in an urban area. Many groups have a formidable number of creative efforts ongoing, many or most of which may be good things to be involved in. And yet…

And yet the quality of DAILY LIFE of people in these organizations is what it’s all about. THIS is the TRUE measurement of how much of what is going on is really of Jesus. The lack of the daily application of the Word of God, by the Priesthood of Believers with one another, is cataclysmic. In most religious assemblies, only the 5-10% “committed nucleus” (a number offered by many “pastors” as the norm) even TRIES to be involved in each other’s lives on a visible daily basis as Jesus commands, and demonstrated. And this number is still fairly accurate, even with the “cell group” programs that have sprung up everywhere as an acknowledgment of this crisis. Even within these cell groups, the stories of surprise suicides, rampant concealed pornography, love of the world, gossip, unforgiveness, pride, ambition, and general shallowness are legion. Simply changing the size of the group, “assigning” a less experienced leader, and trading the religious facility and seating for a home and a sofa…doesn’t change its DNA.

By the way, running away from “institutional religion” so that “you don’t have to answer to anyone but GOD!” is usually a deception as well. Caution and wisdom, and learning God’s Ways are in order here. You cannot just run out and “start a group” (the way men typically do such things) and expect to find much more than heartache, confusion, division, and a colossal waste of time and emotion. Ask most of those that have tried it! Let’s proceed carefully with such delicate and Holy matters as Jesus’ Church!

Laying down their lives for one another, being involved in the homes and work places, sharing in the children’s lives together, living in vulnerability, “confessing sins one to another,” “bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the Law of Christ,” the mutual Life and dependency and Priesthood of 1 Corinthians 12-13…these are almost unheard of as a description of an entire congregation of Believers. And such a congregation, Biblical and mandatory as it might be to live this way, would be viewed with suspicion and called names. Yet, the rampant lukewarmness and leaven amongst the general population of most congregations is forbidden by God. It is only “preached to”—rather than resolved. The insanity of deception and worldliness amongst the teenagers of these organizations is beyond words. I could refer you to folks from any number of the most highly-respected congregations anywhere that have been totally devastated by what has happened “backstage” at their congregations. All of these tragedies and fatalities, and more, simply say what Jesus said: “You know a tree by its fruit” and “Wisdom is proved Right by her children.”

There is (as hundreds of thousands are now shouting from the mountaintops in every language) something fundamentally wrong with the understanding and expression of “church” as has been so frequently practiced for the last bunch of years!

HOWEVER! This is still worth saying: Though most churches bear precious little resemblance to the Life-filled Church we read of in the Bible (in spite of their good teaching, good worship, and good programs), most who energetically participate in the organizations of today have had only the highest motives all along.

So, why the “wake-up call” now? Why haven’t we seen all of this before? Some in previous generations have, of course. But most of them were martyred, as Jesus predicted. Some were martyred physically, some by slander and libel and politics. Those with something to lose have suppressed God’s prophets in every generation. Why are multitudes in ever-increasing numbers and courage raising their voices as One today? Perhaps, the “Two Witnesses” are ready to stand, and the Bride is sensing that the time of preparation for the Groom is growing short. Perhaps “the Spirit and the Bride,” discerning the Hour to say to Him, “COME!” is drawing near. And still there’s so much lacking in this Preparation!

Too often, we have been hypnotized by the immensity and traditions of the religious world as we’ve known it (“It’s everywhere, and all we’ve ever known!” “Mom and Dad were good folks. They ‘loved the Lord,’ so what’s the problem?”). We’ve been decoyed by men’s religious sentimentalities and emotional devices (“It’s all so nice, so sweet, so moving, so soothing, so fulfilling….”). We’ve allowed ourselves to be threatened and blackmailed into subservience to it. (“You don’t want to oppose GOD, do you? Touch not God’s anointed!”) Sometimes we’ve even been seduced by promises of advancement within it. (“You could be a leader one day! You have a true calling and gift from God! You could have your own ministry one day! Just ‘work from within’ and you can really help us.”) “Pinnacle of the Temple” stuff, for sure.

Yet most of us who have offered our involvement into typical church situations around the world, “staff” or not, have had only the best of interests in serving our resurrected Messiah, Jesus. We have rightfully chosen and attempted to serve Him within a relevant and Biblical expression of His Body, the local visible Church.

The good news: On a level of global magnitude—stuff’s getting better every day. Many everywhere have been awakened by the Holy Spirit to His Call for the Life of Jesus to be lived out DAILY in the local Church, reflecting His Glory and Wisdom and Holiness. Though we get letters literally every day in this season of Awakening, there is undoubtedly far, far more than we could ever be aware of. Even the letters we receive come from a cross section of many countries and languages and cultures, crying out to know about Jesus and the daily Life of His Body in the local Church. I mention this to you for a reason. Many times the letters or telephone calls we receive are moistened with tears. “I’m so happy! I’ve been told my whole life that I’m crazy. I’ve been told that I’m a troublemaker and just looking for perfection that I’ll never find. I should just be content with things as they are, and try to make them better. But I’m not crazy, and God does want to build a VISIBLE Church that lives every day as His Son lived every day!”

He does want a Church that, while not “perfect” of course…still “everyone, from the least to the greatest” loves Him and knows Him and “loves the light!” We mention these other folks out there, because we want you to know that you are not alone, and you are NOT crazy. Or maybe you are crazy like Enoch, like Abraham, like Moses, like Elijah and Jeremiah, like Paul…and like Jesus. So maybe you’re crazy, but you’re not alone.

In Malawi, Africa, a very dear friend and brother (native to Malawi) has likened the Call of the Holy Spirit regarding the functioning of Jesus’ Church to this: “David Livingstone brought to Malawi the Good News of Jesus (in 1859). David Livingstone’s Gift to us is like Life-giving Bread in a basket. And now, the Good News of the KINGDOM, and the LIFE of the Body of Christ as a daily Priesthood is giving us another companion Gift. This Gift has given us the ability to truly take the lid off of the basket, take the Bread out of the basket, eat it and be nourished to the full!” Precious insight.

In spite of what we have all been conditioned to accept as “church” for so many, many years, many people now know that the Bride of Jesus must be “making herself ready.” And this real Church is unrelated to sitting in a pew, on a bench, or folding chair, or even in a home or living room. Involvement in a setting constructed and controlled by mere men is still not what God intends. Even if some “amateur talent ‘specials’” are permitted, or some filtered teaching or utterances are allowed in some controlled settings (so that all the “laymen” feel involved), this is not the Real thing—born of, sustained by, and defined by Relationship with Jesus and His Body. A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, daily LIFE involvement by 100% of the “members” of Jesus’ Body, with one another, breaking down hell’s gates—this is all that will ever satisfy His Heart and fulfill His Prophetic Teachings. And the Valley of Dry Bones, touched by the Wind of the Spirit that brought Jesus Christ back from the dead, shall arise by His Grace and Mercy! I love it. Stuff’s getting better every day.

Working Out His Dream!!

And so. An inner call of God’s Spirit is precipitating a coming “outside of the camp” to fellowship in His Sufferings and BE His Body—instead of just “studying” about it, or singing about it. DAILY. The Church really becoming the CHURCH! As so many are in a Holy pursuit of His Holy City descending from Above, it is increasingly more important to speak, as Paul did, of “the administration” or the “practical working out” of the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8-10). In other words, there are some really practical issues that come up as we move towards being the Church on a daily, interactive, “joined and knit” basis.

They are, of course, mostly irrelevant to those who try to center Christianity around meetings, buildings, hired clergy, and programs. To those religious organizations that have little difficulty or discomfort with known or unknown “leaven in the batch,” there is not much to think about. If someone wishes to move in and “place membership” at such a place, they are always most welcome. At an institutional assembly, the questions are fairly simple. If they’ll “tithe,” have some talents they can offer, and have a commitment to attend regularly, that would nearly universally be sufficient. They would be more than welcome to move and “become a member.” While there are surely many true Christians who are part of these groups, that is not to say that Jesus is happy with those organizations, or that much of anyone will reach their full potential in a place where “a little leaven leavens the WHOLE batch.” Just as Uzzah discovered, when we use the Philistine’s ways to accomplish God’s Purposes, people get hurt and people die. In a Church that is not building God’s Way, even the true Christians will suffer loss. Don’t mistake anything here for saying, “So-and-so can’t be Christians.” We’re not discussing that. This is about how we build. It is shameful that many will never reach their potentials for Jesus because we’ve “tried to grow an orange tree at the North Pole.” It really does matter how we build.

“If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If what he has built is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

Now, for those that want to build out of Relationship—rather than org chart hierarchy, programs, forms, traditions, and calendar-ized times, places, and events…there is much to talk about.

J. Hudson Taylor dared trust God with his whole life, and found Him to be true to His word at every step and trial.

Today we are without the role models of men like J. Hudson Taylor, and God knows we need them.

Steve Blackwell

Blessed Adversity

J. Hudson Taylor

❦

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.”
—JOB 1:21

A ll of God’s dealings are full of blessing. He is good, and does good, good only, and continually. The believer who has taken the Lord as his Shepherd can assuredly say in the words of the psalmist, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Ps. 23:6). Hence we may be sure that days of adversity, as well as days of prosperity are full of blessing. The believer does not need to wait until he sees the reason of God’s afflictive dealings with him before he is satisfied; he knows that all things work together for good to them that love God (Rom. 8:28).

The history of Job should teach us many lessons of deep interest and profit. The veil is taken away from the unseen world, and we learn much of the power of our great adversary, but also of his powerlessness apart from the permission of God our Father.

Satan would very frequently harass the believer in times of sorrow and trial by leading him to think that God is angry with him. But our heavenly Father delights to trust a trustworthy child with trial. Take the case of Abraham: God so trusted him that He was not afraid to call upon His servant to offer up his well-beloved son. And in the case of Job, it was not Satan who challenged God about Job, but God who challenged the arch-enemy to find any flaw in Job’s character. In each case grace triumphed, and in each case patience and fidelity were rewarded.

The reply of Satan is noteworthy. He had considered God’s servant and evidently knew all about him. The arch-enemy had found all his own efforts ineffectual to harass and lead astray God’s beloved servant. He had found a hedge around Job, and about his servants, and about his house, and about all that he had on every side. How blessed to dwell so protected.

Is there no analogous spiritual blessing to be enjoyed now? Thank God there is. Every believer may be as safely kept and as fully blessed.

❦

Almighty God, help me to see that I dwell in the shadow of Your wings, and that I’m kept by Your power for a salvation that one day will be revealed for all to see. I praise You for the hedge of protection around my life. Keep me focused on You. Amen.

The Cross and Deception

Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 2:1-5.

1 Cor. 1:18: “The word of the cross… is the power of God.”

1 Cor. 1:23,24: “We preach Christ crucified… unto them that are called… Christ the power of God.”

1 Cor. 2:2: “I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

In the KJV it says “The preaching of the cross”, instead of the word of the Cross. That is quite an unfortunate translation, for here it is the Logos of the Cross; the same word and title as given to the Lord Jesus in the beginning of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word” (the Logos). You will also have noticed from the context and the other passages that we have read, that what is in view is Christ crucified, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is not a doctrine, a teaching; it is a Person, and that Person crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God; the word of the Cross. That is comprehensive and includes a very great deal, but there is one specific emphasis in my own heart for this particular hour in relation to the times in which we are living.

It is said in the Word that “in the last days perilous times shall come”, and I think most of us, certainly those who have spiritual perception, will agree that these are very perilous times. Perilous times spiritually, perilous times for the people of God, and a very special word from the Lord seems to be necessary for His own people in these times to secure them, to establish them, to hold them, to make them safe, and bring them into a place where they are established, because the peculiar nature of the peril of these days is that of deception, delusion. What is delusion? Well, it is to lead from truth into error. It is to mislead the mind or the judgment, to beguile, to lead astray, to cheat, to frustrate, to disappoint, to impose upon. It is something that is not the truth. These are days peculiarly marked by that peril. There is a sense in which we may say that the gospel itself has as one of its main features, the deliverance of man from deception. Of course, it is delivering them into the truth, into the light, but in a very real way it is for their deliverance from deception, and we shall see in a little while how true that is. I feel, beloved, that the Lord has a very great need of a ministry by which His own people will be safeguarded in a day when deception and delusion is so widespread, many-sided, persistent, and so extremely subtle. The Lord surely would serve His Body by such a ministry, and so it may be that we gathered here are in line with that desire of His, both to safeguard us, make us sure, put us in a safe position by light, and through us minister to others who are in peril of making shipwreck of their faith and being led astray by what is abroad today as the imitation of the truth.

In that connection it is necessary to see exactly what happens at the end of the dispensation. We find at the end that a great angel descends having a great chain and he lays hold of the dragon who is the Devil, and Satan, the Deceiver, and casts him into the abyss that he shall deceive the nations no more. There you have the titles of the adversary: the Dragon, the Serpent, the Devil and Satan, and the Deceiver, and his work of deceiving the nations. Now such words occur more than once in the book of the Revelation if you care to look them up, almost the identical words occur on two occasions. You have it in the twentieth chapter, the other occasion is in the twelfth chapter where, the man-child reaching the throne, the Dragon is cast down and there is no more place found for him in heaven. He is again designated Dragon, Serpent, the Devil, Satan, the Deceiver.

We could gather a very great deal of Scripture containing the very same thought and expression, as to the universal activity of the Adversary as being the work of deception and delusion, and the Lord Jesus related to that activity in a special and intensified form to the end time. “Many shall come in My Name saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect.” “He doeth great signs, that he should even make fire come down from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth.”

Now these are marks of the end time. It is but one strong emphasis and stress upon this, that the end times (and we believe that we are in those times) are going to be marked particularly by an intensified activity on the part of the enemy along the line of deception, and deceptions are deceptions. That is, they are with very great difficulty detected, and require a very keen, clear insight and perception to be recognised. This, of course, is, while true in a special way at the end, true of all times. The chief peril of all ages has been deception. Paul tells us that it was so. In a reference to what happened at the beginning he said: “For the man was not deceived, but the woman”. Deception was the first weapon of the enemy against God, and the first method of the enemy by which he would secure his end, attain his object, accomplish his purpose. As the result of man’s complicity and sanction, or failure to resist what he knew to be contrary to the express will of God, the whole race has become a deceived race. The race is deceived universally. Deception is not something now that is out in the air, objective, apart from man. Deception is now something in man as a part of him. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

Beloved, deceitfulness was not a constituent in the man that God made. Deceitfulness is something that has come into the nature of man, a foreign something, and it is in the race. It is in man. It is a part of his very nature. God’s greatest opportunity is always with the honest in heart, and God never stands a chance when there is not honesty of heart. His beginnings are there. He wants a contrite heart, an honest heart, an open spirit, where there is no covering things over; for that was the very first thing that happened when deceitfulness entered the race. Man went to hide himself, and deceitfulness is always that which is hiding something, keeping something under cover, not transparent, clear, open before heaven. God always demands absolute openness and honesty before He begins negotiations. God can always get on very rapidly when He has an honest heart to deal with, and that life with an honest heart will go ahead with God by leaps and bounds, and those who will not be honest with God, meaning business whatever it costs, will make no progress. (That is somewhat aside, we want to get to the real main factor in all this.) We have said that deception is a universal method of the Deceiver. It is universal, but it is adapted to the special realm in which he may be active. That means, his deceiving work is suited to those with whom he has to deal, and there are, I think, mainly three realms.

Three Realms of Deception

There is the realm of the ungodly, the realm of the religious and the realm of the spiritual. In every one of these realms the Deceiver works projecting his deceptions, but he adapts his deceptions to suit the realm.

We touch lightly upon the first and the second in order to come to the third more specifically.

1) The Ungodly

But first we want to say something about the deceiving work among the ungodly. “The whole world lieth in the Wicked One”, and “the god of this age hath blinded the minds of them that believe not”, they are in the “kingdom of darkness”, they are utterly deceived though they know it not. They are so utterly deceived that this letter to the Corinthians in its earlier passages tells us that the world in its very wisdom, at the very height of its wisdom, slew the Lord of Glory, killed the Prince of Life, so blind was it. Saul of Tarsus was an excellent specimen of the wisdom of this world in setting his hand against the Lord, and the Lord’s own, to hound them to death. When the light came and he was undeceived, how completely he saw the blindness in which he had been. But the ungodly are even more deceived than that. Many of them before they close their earthly course wake up to the fact that they have been deceived. You find in the end of their life so frequently they realise that they have been out full stretch in quest for something to make life complete, to make it full, to satisfy themselves. Now in some cases disaster has overtaken them, calamity has befallen them and all that they set their hearts upon has been lost. They have nothing left of time or ability or strength or any kind of resource to begin again, and life has gone and now laughs back at them. Everything was put out to reach an end which has eluded them, which they have missed, and the only thing that they can honestly say is, that they have been deceived. On the other hand many reach their goal, accumulate wealth and possessions, position, influence, power and still heart-hungry they end their lives.

Well, we have had many instances of late. We have read of one who took his own life, not because things had gone wrong, for he had accumulated his wealth, but he turned his hand upon himself because he had nothing more to live for, and if that is not deception what is? Indeed, the ungodly are in the grip of a mighty deception and in the end the Deceiver is going to laugh at them whether they succeed or whether they fail in what they set their hands to in this life. In the end they are going to discover that the thing for which they were given a being has been missed and life has been just one delusion. That is the meaning of the commission given to the Apostle Paul. He had had his eyes opened and the Lord said to him “Thou shalt stand before kings and rulers, and nations to whom I send thee to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” Turning from the power of Satan unto God, from darkness to light, is the result of having eyes opened; thus becoming disillusioned, undeluded by having eyes opened. They are blind and the blindness is the work of one who has got them in his grip. Kings, rulers and people, yes, many of them repudiating any such suggestion that they are blinded or deluded, but the Lord knows how “to open their eyes”. That is what we meant when we said that the Gospel in a sense is peculiarly for delivering men from deception, universally. That is all we have to say about the ungodly.

2) The Religious

Next we want to say a word about the religious, for the same thing holds good here, adapted by the Deceiver to the realm in which he is working, the type of people with whom he is dealing, the religious. Yes, religiously deceived, to put it in another way, deceived by their very religiousness, and that is a strong and a mighty delusion. There is power in that delusion that seems so often to defy every kind of attempt to deal with it. The religious are deceived by religiousness! What more can be expected than the recognition of the fact of God and the giving to God of reverence, acknowledgment, and recognition: of taking active interest in things which relate to God, attending religious services, and being very busy in religious activities and interests, and finding your chief interest in religious things and the religious realm? What more can be expected? What is the matter with that? Be patient, bear with me if I say with very great emphasis: that may be one colossal delusion. So often that very thing obscures one fundamental thing, a true and living relationship with God. “Ye must be born again”, and religion very often obscures that issue. Oh, religion is no argument for salvation. Religion can be found in the darkest places of the earth. Universally there is religion; depraved and very low in many places, but universally there is the consciousness of standing in relationship to some supreme object of worship, demanding worship. Then men’s minds or imaginations get to work to give some kind of expression to that consciousness, of that supreme object of worship. The imagination produces that sometimes out of a tree, a stone, or in the heavenly bodies. Somehow it is expressed, but it is the thing that is there, behind all the forms of expression which is universal. All the highly civilised forms of that brought into the realm of Christendom are only the same thing developed. It does not say that Christendom’s more intelligent, civilised, educated interpretation of God, even though it gets its ideas from the Bible, is salvation. It may be a mighty delusion and very often is.

I have asked people if they have been born again, and they have said “It is not necessary; I have been confirmed.” Such may be an extreme case, and I do not take it up for criticism but by way of illustration. You may take on religion because you have got a religious temperament and that does not mean that you are saved. The Devil may be holding you just as firmly, tightly, in the grip of an unsaved state by your religion as he does the worldly by his pleasures. He does not mind how he holds you. By the most aesthetic religious activities, self-denials and such like, so long as he can keep you from the main thing. This is mentioned in passing, as deception is our subject. There is a vast difference, beloved, between vital union with God in Jesus Christ and religious formalism, and as we said at the outset, there is a very great need for a ministry by which deception, even amongst religious people, shall be shattered and broken and the fact of an essential, vital union with God by new birth shall be brought home to religious people. Along that line the enemy is destroying the whole testimony of the Church by packing it full of active, energetic, unconverted people. That is where he is sapping the strength of the Testimony of God.

3) The Spiritual

Now we come to the third realm, the spiritual people, and we are now dealing with the truly born again children of God, the spiritual people. The enemy will adapt his work of deception to this realm as cleverly and even more cleverly and ingeniously than to any other realm. But he does not give up the children of God as incapable of being deceived, for it is here that we find delusion and deception in its finest, its most acute forms. It is here that so often dear children of God have been utterly led off into error by something which bore all the semblance of absolute Gospel truth. It is in this realm, amongst the Lord’s own children, that the deceptions of today are most rampant and active.

What is the mark, the peculiar mark of the Deceiver’s deceiving work for the Lord’s own people? It is the counterfeit of all that is of God, the counterfeit system which includes anything that is of God. Now if you will study your Bible you will be able to trace that counterfeit system as it moves into every connection with God. First of all you will see that there is a counterfeiting of the very Godhead. That is saying a terrific thing, but it is true. A counterfeiting of the very Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The counterfeiting of the first Person in the Trinity: God. What does the Scripture have to say? “The god of this age hath blinded…” The god of this age, and Satan is seen in the Word of God to set himself up all the way through as the supreme object of worship to draw away from God Himself. You have not to go very far into the Bible to see that. It is implied in his very first act. “Hath God said?” Well, “I am a greater authority than He is.” That is what is implied in that. “You listen to me”, and so by subtle insinuation he captured God’s place of reverence, of fear, of acknowledgment, in the heart of man and in so doing became man’s god obtaining worship. The subtle insinuation by which he did it was, “God knows if you do that, you will be as God knowing good and evil, and God forbidding you to do that is simply robbing you of something which, being yours, would make your life fuller and larger and greater; and so God after all is not favourable to you, and is keeping something back. He is making life smaller and narrower than it need be, and if you will only do as I tell you, you will have a life higher than that.” Yes, become a Christian, give your life to God, and life will become a narrow, mean thing, and you will have to give up this and that. That is always the insinuation of the enemy. He never lets you know what you are going to gain by going on with God, and the deception works, that instead of gaining you lose, when you give heed to the enemy. “The god of this age hath blinded.”

When Israel came out of Egypt, the supreme object of their coming out was not the coming into the land or the wilderness, but that they should come out to the Lord, belong to the Lord, be His people. “Let my son go”; that was the word: coming out to, belonging to, the Lord. They had not been in the wilderness very long before Moses went up into the mountain for a period with the Lord, and the enemy broke into the company. What was God saying to Moses in the mount? “Let them bring me gold and silver and brass and precious stones and fine linen, and let them make me a sanctuary.” The enemy broke in at that time and said in effect: “Not if I can help it”. He provoked the people to bring their gold for a molten image, taking the gold away from God. What is gold? That which is representative and typical of God Himself, of His divine nature. This theme runs all the way through the Bible. The god of this age is seeking to get the worship due to God, and he simulates the first Person of the Trinity. He imitates and counterfeits along the line of religion to get worship. Then the second Person of the Trinity (you realise that we cannot make a thorough study of each one of these) is the Lord Jesus, God Incarnate in the Son. We read: “Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.” Antichrist is the simulation of God Incarnate: taking the place of god amongst men in human form to capture the worship of men’s hearts; sitting in the temple of God giving the impression that he is God. “There shall come false Christs.” The Deceiver is out to counterfeit Christ, simulate Him even to the point of incarnation, the Devil incarnate, Antichrist. As far as possible he takes all the semblance of Christ.

Counterfeiting the Holy Spirit

Then, there is the third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The enemy is out certainly along this line to counterfeit the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt about it. If this is the dispensation of the Spirit, it is also the dispensation of the counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. What is the work of the Holy Spirit? Well, it is many-sided, but, beloved, the enemy can give false signs, which are an imitation of the signs of the Holy Spirit. The enemy can give false guidance which is an imitation of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Experiences? Yes, you can have experiences, supernatural experiences, which are a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. Teaching? Yes, teaching from the Bible: doctrines of demons, false doctrine. But they would not be deceptions, delusions if they were not based upon biblical content.

There is also imitation of the Holy Spirit by miracles, working great signs and wonders, calling down a fire from heaven to deceive them that are on the earth. Miracles, signs, wonders, power, yes, and even life, to give life unto the image, power to give life unto the image, and, even conversions. Apparent new birth, changing lives. Here we are on perhaps the most terrific ground when we say that. Questions would at once arise: “Does the devil make men pure and turn men from godlessness to a life of God-interest?” “Does he really change men for the better?” Is that true? He will stand at nothing if he can get his ultimate end. Which is to give you a false baptism of the Holy Spirit so that you have a wonderful experience, full of wonderful sensations, sublime sensations, and accompanied by remarkable gifts, powers, supernatural abilities. His purpose is to give you that and let you glory in that for a time and then withdraw it, and with the withdrawal suggest to your mind at once “you have sinned against the Holy Ghost”, “you have committed the unpardonable sin.” Thus he has cut from under your feet the ground of any hope whatever. The power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ is no longer of any value to you because there is no more pardon. What is the good of the blood if there is no more pardon? All the atoning work of Christ is no longer effective for you if once you take that suggestion on. Christ and His Cross have lost their value for you.

Yes, Satan will stand at nothing if only he can really strike a vital blow at faith in Christ, and he has done that with many, and he is doing it. There are many dear children of God who, if only they knew, if only they had light and the knowledge, would be saved from the most awful state of mental hell today under that pressure of accusation from the enemy that they have sinned beyond forgiveness, that they have grieved the Holy Spirit so that He has left them. There are many dear children of God like that today. I say we need help in these days for the people of God to be made secure, to be saved from these awful deceptions. And in many other ways the Deceiver is imitating. He can use Scripture as much as anybody. He can provoke worship, he will set up his own church, “the synagogue of Satan”, imitating. He will teach wonderful teachings, biblical truth, to get people in a corner and bewildered and eventually get them into such a mess that they do not know where they are, and they get into a place of fatal inertia and wonder if they can ever believe anything again. You see, delusions!

The Ground of Deception

Well, now, that is the position. Unfortunately, having said all that, I only get to the beginning of my message because at this point, beloved, we have to say that not one scrap of that deceiving work of the Devil has the vestige of a chance apart from something in man himself. There must be some ground for all this in man or it could never, never work. It would stand no chance of success. Deception is not something out there that is put upon us willy-nilly, or in spite of ourselves. All deception has its own ground in man. What is that ground? It is the fact that man is now a psychical being. Now if you can get to the bottom of that, if you can apprehend that, you will understand the whole thing.

The ground of all this is in the fact that man is a psychical being, and when Satan interfered with man at the beginning and man consented along the line of his own soul-life, Satan made man suitable to his own government. It was not that he came and set himself up as man’s ruler and subjected man by sheer force to his own government. How did he do it? By breaking into that realm in man’s being where man was linked with God, and that was in the realm of man’s spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit”, and man was in fellowship and communion with God by means of his spirit, not his soul, not his body. These two were under the government of his spirit. The enemy, the Deceiver came to man’s soul, and instead of man reacting by his spirit-fellowship with, and knowledge of, God, he dropped down on to his soul, came out of his spirit and reacted in his soul. What is soul? It is reason, emotion, feeling, desire, and then, of course, choice, will. And the enemy reasoned through the desires and captured the will by deception. You see what happened when man violated the very organ of his union with God, his spirit. He was in the deepest sense, in his unfallen state, a spirit having a soul and a body, but he violated that with the result that it was severed from God, and, as a means, an instrument, a vehicle of divine fellowship, it died. It does not mean that it was annihilated, or it ceased to have an existence, but it fell out of fellowship with God, and that is spiritual death. It fell out of union with God with the result that the soul has taken ascendency, and from that time man is another species from that which God created. He is now a man of soul, and in securing that the enemy had adapted man to his own government. So the enemy governs man, and the whole of the race now through the nature of the soul-life. What is the basis of deception? It is just that! How do you get a counterfeit Holy Ghost operating? By reason of your psychical nature. You can become mediumistic in your very psychical nature and open all the avenues of your being to supernatural guidance and come under the power, the sway, dominion, of deceiving spirits operating in a multitude of ways. You can so suspend your soul and come into a state of utter passivity that you are open to everything to play upon you. You can have your quiet hour in your soul, which is the most perilous hour of your life. That happens by suspending all spiritual activity and becoming utterly passive and opening your psychical being, which is a most dangerous thing.

God never asks you to become spiritually passive. Waiting upon God is not being spiritually passive. God wants us active in spirit even when waiting on Him in silence. You see what I mean. It is the very nature of man, now adapted by the enemy to his government, that has made possible all this mighty system of counterfeit in its success. Now leaving a whole mass of evidence I come to the point.

What Christ Did at Calvary

What did the Lord Jesus do in Calvary? He took that man to death and made room for a spiritual man. In Christ Jesus we are no longer soulical men, we are spiritual. That is the whole argument of the first Corinthian letter. Now, says the Apostle, “the soulical man (he is the ‘natural’ man) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them.” “The spiritual judgeth all things.” In the new birth of a man his spirit is brought back from the realm of spiritual death and banishment from God, into new creation union with God, joined to the Lord in one spirit. The right organ of divine government is re-established to bring man’s soul and his body under divine control, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within the born-anew spirit of a man to govern his desires, his thoughts, his reasonings, his decisions.

What I want to close with is to remind you of the tremendous thing that Christ did in His Cross. We have never fathomed Calvary yet. It is a blessed thing to see Him taking our sins and bearing them in His own body on the tree, but even more blessed to see that He took the whole ground of satanic activity in man. He took that to the Cross and put that aside, and the deep meaning of the Word of God is just that we were crucified, we were buried with Christ. He did not deal with sins alone, He dealt with man, the race, and put it aside; not just to bring a race to an end, but to bring the sphere of the Devil to an end; not to end man in his fallen state, but to break the power of Satan and destroy his work as Deceiver. He did that in the Cross.

It is a tremendous thing to see that the Lord Jesus was not just striking a fatal blow at man in dealing with the flesh, but in dealing with the whole body of the flesh He was striking a blow at the satanic activity in man. That is the word of the Cross. What is the bedrock truth for the people of God in perilous times? That they should come to that and recognise the fact that the backbone of nature has got to be broken by the Cross of the Lord Jesus. It is that every one of us in Christ must come to the place where we know that the backbone of nature has been snapped and that no longer can we, dare we, follow nature in things, reasonings, desires, affections, choices and decisions. All must now come out from God, to be given by the Holy Spirit to govern our lives, and we must not in any way lean to our own understanding.

Nature’s backbone has got to be broken and we have to be men who, like Jacob, go for the rest of our days leaning upon our staff because the sinew of our natural strength has been touched, broken, dried, withered. Yes, to carry the testimony of Calvary all the days of our lives to the fact: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I…” I have been met and smitten and there must be no insinuating of “I” any more. It is no longer “I”. We have perhaps thought of the Cross, death-union with the Lord Jesus, in the hard light of having to let go, having to give up and having to die; being crucified, and all the pain of it. However, beloved, it is to translate us out of the kingdom of darkness into that of the Son of His love; from the power of Satan, to deliver us from deception. Now unless our soul-life is met in the power of the Cross, and subjected to God, and we know what it is to live in and walk after the Spirit, we are exposed to deception. You will find where the counterfeit Holy Spirit works, there is a tremendous amount of soul-excitability, soul-emotion, lack of soul-control and sometimes indecency: and yet supernatural things. Yes, but that is not the Holy Spirit. There has been a reaching out of soul in an intensified quest for some kind of experience, a supernatural experience. That has opened the being to the other and you can get anything. You can get guidance, you can get miracles, anything along that line; but beware! The counterfeit, beloved, has its ground of success in our very nature, and nature must be broken. That, of course, must be applied more carefully, but do take the truth of that. If the Lord is going to save His children in these days from delusion and deception, He has got to bring them back to the bedrock truth of identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection, and what that means as to the passing of one kind of man and the coming in of another kind of man.

In this matter, as amongst many others, we see that Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God.