All people who believe in God, even though they do agree in their common belief that God is the creator of all things, do have differences in their acceptance of other bible doctrines that prevent everyone from coming together in the complete unity of the faith.
One thing that is made clear in the scriptures, is that in order to be saved and inherit eternal life, according to a statement by Jesus, is that you must believe the Gospel and be baptized. Out of these two requirements, the baptism has been under interpretation by many churches as to what the baptism formula should be. Some say that you must be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Others say that you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Still others differ on the way the person should be submerged in the water. Since the scriptures are not perfectly clear about the method or formula, I believe that any of these methods would comply with the command by Jesus to be baptized.
Although the scripture does speak to a particular formula to be used, which was commanded by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost. Peter commanded the people to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Since this method was approved by Jesus, it stands that anyone not baptized in the name of Jesus Christ would not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Without going into all of the involved details at this time because they are covered in much detail in other articles that I have written, it stands that those who are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and have received the Holy Spirit will avoid the final White Throne Judgment. While those who have been baptized in other ways still have the opportunity to inherit eternal life, but that will be subject to the outcome of their final judgment by God.
The one and only thing that is imperative in all of these cases is that all people must believe the Gospel, no matter how they are baptized and the Gospel states that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. There are many churches that hold to their teaching that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but that He was God the Creator Himself. This belief, although controversial is not supported by scripture by a preponderance of the evidence that the scriptures provide.
The Deity of Jesus Christ being God was the main issue taken up by the Nicene Council in 325AD and as the result of their discussions it became accepted that the Deity consisted of three persons (the Trinity) being composed of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which made Jesus the second person of the Trinity and being a part of this triune being it made Jesus God. The conclusion that Jesus was God by this Nicene group was instrumental in producing a doctrine that has permeated in many churches since that time.
Since it is imperative according to scripture that in order to receive eternal life, the belief in the Gospel stating that Jesus was the Son of God becomes the most important belief that must be accepted.
All of the articles that I have published have been for the benefit of all churches and all people for the purpose of directing their attention to actually what the bible scriptures state. Unfortunately most people have become comfortable with what they have heard in their churches, which unfortunately have been a mixture of bible truth and mans interpretation of scripture.
One group of believers who are very near to my heart and so important to me because of my prior association with their church and teaching are the followers of William Branham who call themselves Message of the Hour believers. It completely saddens me that this message of the hour that they believe and hold to is so contradictory to bible scripture and because of the fame of their founder, blinds them to the biblical truth that exists.
The most important thing that has been taught to this group of believers which is contradictory to the Gospel is that Jesus and God are the same person. Of course this also has occurred because of the Trinity teaching that began many years ago when it was decided that Jesus was a part of the Godhead.
This teaching arose from William Branham saying that God made Himself a body in the form of Jesus in order to come to Earth and shed His own blood for the redemption of mankind. This is not what the Gospel of Christ says and is preventing this group of believers from believing the true Gospel which is the most important thing and could prevent them from inheriting eternal life. The words of Jesus as He preached were “repent and believe the Gospel”. To repent in this statement of Jesus is to turn from your unbelief in the Gospel and believe what it says.
2 comments:
Do you really believe that if you say it enough it will be true? You are being deceived by the Devil. You will never "convince" the real believers of this lie that the Devil has put in your mind. Again, stop worrying so much about others and what they do or don't believe and concentrate on yourself. We all have to answer for ourselves when the time comes. You get so frustrated because you can't convince anyone to think your way. There is not one single person on this earth that believes that God and Jesus are the same that you are going to convince otherwise. Not one.
Anonymous, you asked me: “Do you really believe that if you say it enough it will be true?” That could be the case as it has proven to be true by some bible teachers who have employed this tactic over many years. When a person has a captive audience, this does work, but this is not my intention. My motive in addressing any bible subject is for the purpose of inviting everyone to study the scriptures and determine in their own mind what the scriptures alone are saying to them.
You have decided that your judgment of me is that I am being deceived by the devil and he has put these things in my mind for the purpose of deceiving true believers. You also state that your opinion of me is that I am frustrated because no one is convinced that my beliefs are true. Oh, how can you be so sure of that? Do you know the minds and hearts of all people who read my articles?
So you say that not one single person on this Earth believes that God and Jesus are not the same person? Well the only way for you to know that is if you are all knowing like God or the devil himself. Should I bow down to you and worship you now? It appears that my teaching about the bible must be hitting a nerve in your heart for you to attack my teaching so vehemently.
You are right about one thing and that is my inability to convince anyone of anything concerning the bible. But that is not my motive or concern about my convincing abilities, instead my motive is to persuade everyone to examine bible scriptures in an unbiased manner as they are able in order to determine for themselves what the truth of God’s Word really is.
The key operative word mentioned above is unbiased. Most of us are biased about everything because of our past experiences and what we have learned. That is true especially about the bible and the word of God. We tend to be biased because of what we have been taught by someone behind a pulpit who has the ability to be convincing because of their presentation about the subject matter whether they are right or wrong.
In any case, since you are so against my teaching about what the bible says and believe that the devil is deceiving me, I would suggest that you check out what I present to my readers in your bible and verify for yourself what is the truth without depending upon what someone else has told you.
Of course what you can understand about the truth contained in the bible only if you are guided by the Holy Spirit which God has given to the believer to teach them. If you are not able to come to the true understanding of scripture in an unbiased matter, you probably should examine your own conversion experience and judge yourself rather than to judge another person and their motives.
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