Tuesday, January 31, 2012

THE DESTINY OF BEING

The theory of evolution has deceived millions into believing that man is a product evolved from some lower animal species like the ape family through millions of years. But the evolutionists failed to understand that man is specially created in the image of God, in His likeness (Genesis 1:26). But this means is that man was created with the potential to be like God, for man was created to be the 'God kind', while all animals have no such potential.

This is the true Gospel message that Christ came some 2,000 years ago to preach to reveal the good news (the Gospel) of the total abolition of Satan's power over the world and banishment from the earth upon His return. The earth will be restored to the rulership of God with Christ as the King and the resurrected sons of God as kings. To those Jews who believe in Him, Christ said, 'If you abide in My word (the Gospel of the kingdom of God), you are my disciple indeed... you seek to kill Me, because My word (the Gospel message sent from the Heavenly Father) has no place in you... you do not understand My speech because you are not able to listen to My word (the Gospel message)... he who is of God hears God's words, therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.' (John 8:30-47). Christ commissioned His disciples to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of God and the church was raised to back such mission.

Man can understand the Gospel because human kind is created far beyond just the physical brain. 'But there is s spirit in man, and the breadth of the Amighty gives him understanding' (Jobs 32:8)  Man has a spirit which none of the species in the animal kingdom possess. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:11 gives an astonishing statement, 'For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God'.  What this means is that man can acquire human knowledge only because of the human spirit in him; and he can acquire spiritual knowledge only when the Spirit of God is indwelling him. Thus all human beings were created to receive two different kind of spirits - one at birth (the spirit in man) and the other upon repentance and baptism (the Holy Spirit).

Since only a small group of God's elect possess the Holy Spirit, man in general is unable to solve the problems of mankind which has spiritual roots at the core. This is inspite of all the advancement of mankind in medicine, science and technology. The converted mind possesses both the human spirit and the Holy Spirit, and both are working in harmony to produce the fruits of character, begotten of God and ready to be born again as immortal spirit being at the first resurrection (Romans 8:16-17). Character building is a process that takes time and the spirit in man is involved (Proverbs 16:32). When the physical life of the disciple has run its course, the human spirit is returned back to God (Ecc 12:7; Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59) with the personality, character, knowledge and a complete life history of experience intact ready to be merged with a new spiritual body at the time of resurrection (Hebrews 12:23). The Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 states thus, 'Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Human beings must acquire knowlege from the time of conception  in order to function properly. Animals operate mostly by instinct and is able to acquire only limited knowledge and nothing beyond that. While animals only have brains, a human being has a mind, containing the human spirit - and that sets man apart from animal. As such man has the power to choose between right and wrong. When the first parent Adam rejected the Tree of Life, he rejected the opportunity to receive the Spirit of God.  Since then, all man has cut himself off from God and the opportunity of eternal life. Except for a small group of those who are His elect, mankind is totally cut off from God until when Christ returns to earth to set up His kingdom. Man without the Holy Spirit is incomplete and a work-in-progress until Christ returns and make available the Holy Spirit to all who believe and accept the way of God.

When Christ returns to earth, He will bring reward to each person whom God has called in this age according to his works (Matt 16:27). However, the spirit in man is not by itself conscious. It will unite with the Spirit of God at the time of resurrection - the very mold that unlocks all that a person is from beginning to end. It is the spirit in man that works with the brain to form the human mind  and not the 'immortal soul' that many wrongly assume will transcend death. Man does not have a soul but man is a living soul (Genesis 2:7). And the soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4,20). If man already has an immortal soul, how could he be changed from mortal to immortality as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:54?

All who are called in this age are now in training to be ready for Christ's return to serve as priests and rulers for the great harvest yet to come upon the multitudes that survive the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. God has always warned His people from mixing truth with error, failing to heed the warning would result in death!








Sunday, January 15, 2012

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST

For almost 2,000 years, theologians and preachers have misunderstood the true gospel. They were and still are preaching the gospel about the Person of Christ instead of the gospel of Christ - which is the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom of God is NOT the gospel of grace or about the Person of Christ. Instead, Christ is to be preached in conjuction with the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father as a Messenger to proclaim the coming kingdom of God that will be ushered in when He returns to reign over all the earth and displace Satan as the god and ruler of this world (2 Cor 4:4; John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). If the gospel is about saving grace and the Person of Christ, it would be meaningless since when Christ started to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God with His disciples, none of His disciples then knew that He would be crucified, and could not have preached the gospel without having any knowledge of it!

Jesus Christ came to be KING over all the earth when He returns to reign with the kingdom's headquarters in Jerusalem. The kingdom of God will be the time of  'Sabbeth rest' that those who are called and chosen to be sons - members of the Divine Family - they will have to strive now (Hebrews 4:11) to become overcomers (Rev 3:21) in order to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). When the kingdom of God is ushered at His return, sufferings, misery, wars and evils will disappear - world peace and prosperity, happiness and righteousness will prevail over all the earth. In essence, the gospel is the Good News of the coming government of God that Christ was sent by the Heavenly Father to preach (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43) and all His disciples are commissioned to do likewise (Matthew:28:19-20).

The Apostle Philip preached the gospel of the kingdom of God AND the name of Jesus Christ to the Samaritans (Acts 8:12) as two separate matters. Similarly, Paul preached the gospel of the kingdom of God to the Gentiles for three months (Acts 19:8). And  to both the Jews and Gentiles, Paul preached the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25)... repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (verse 21)... showing that the gospel is preached alongside the role of Christ as Saviour and Lord. When Paul was in house arrest, he faithfully preached the kingdom of God AND teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:31).

The Apostle Paul warns in 2 Cor 11: 4 about preaching 'another Jesus or a different gospel'.  If Christ is the gospel, why would Paul cites these two as separate doctrinal errors? Paul plainly distinguishd the teaching of a false Jesus and a false gospel as two separate errors! All these clearly show that the Messenger is Christ and the gospel message is the kingdom of God. A deceived world has confused the gospel message with the Messenger. They simply focus on the Messenger and ignore His message. Such grave ommision will bring about God's judgement upon the coming Day of the Lord!

The message about the coming kingdom of God is the very core of the Bible. Enoch - Noah's great grandfather - prophesied that the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment on all (Jude 14-15),  a reference to Christ's Second Coming to reign as King over all the earth. Noah is the eighth preacher of righteousness (the coming kingdom of God) - 2 Peter 2:5 - while Enoch is the seventh preacher, showing that there were eight preachers in all proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God with Abel as the first preacher of righteousness in the centuries leading to the Flood.

The same gospel was also preached to Abraham (Galatians 3:8) - probably by Melchizedek - in that through him all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3). This can only happen when Christ returns to establish the kingdom of God on earth. Since Moses penned the book of Genesis, he must have known of the gospel of the kingdom. In many of his Psalms, David wrote of the coming kingdom of God, like 'For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth' (Ps 67:4). The major and minor prophets of the Old Testament all preached the gospel of the kingdom of God.

The prophet Isaiah is a great preacher and writer of the coming kingdom of God. In the often quoted but misunderstood verses of Isaiah 9:6-7, he prophesied of the First and Second coming of Christ Who will sit on the throne of David (currently occupied by Queen Elizabeth II of UK) to establish His government of peace and righteousness forever. It will be a time when the knowledge of God will be made known throughout the entire world (Isaiah 11:9) and how the government of God will be spread throughout the earth and war will be no more (Isaiah 2:2-4). The prophet Micah recorded this identical prophecy in Micah 4:1-3. Christ spoke of this in His parable of the leaven recorded in Luke 13:20-21 in which the kingdom of God is like a leaven which spreads until it fills its host.

 The prophet Jeremiah foretold of a time when Christ the King shall reign over all Judah (Jews and Benjaminites) and Israel (the 'lost ten tribes of Israel') as the THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jeremiah 23:5). This can only happen when Christ has returned to earth to reign as the King of kings and Lord of Lords! Ezekiel describes of a time when God will bring all the Israelites, who are now scattered all over the earth, into the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) - Ezekiel 36:24.  Daniel wrote of a time when God will set up a kingdom that will stand forever (Daniel 2:44).

As to the minor prophets, with the possible exception of Jonah (he probably did but was not recorded), all of them wrote and preached the gospel of the kingdom of God (Hosea 2:16, 19; Joel 2:21-27; Amos 9:11-15; Obadiah 21; Micah 4:1-3; Habakkuk 2:14; Zephaniah 3:14-20; Zechariah 14:1-3, 8-9; Malachi 3:1-3) in one way or another. The Apostle Peter spoke and wrote that God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets the gospel of the kingdom since the world began (Acts 3:21). All who are called by God to be His servants will preach the same message as Christ preached, as did all the prophets and the Apostles. The Lord Christ Himself affirmed that, 'the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me' (John 14:24).

Make no mistake, no man can bring about the kind of government that will solve man's problems. Only a miraculous divine intervention through Christ will bring about permanent change ruled by the Family of God with Christ as the King. The ultimate destiny of man is to be born again as immortal spirit god-being upon resurrection to participate in the future spreading of God's government - not just upon the earth, but throughout the universe (Isaiah 9:7)! Those who have ears, let them hear.