Christians aren’t the only ones in rebellion against God. We’re just the ones who know better or should know better. And the most basic point concerning humanity’s rebellion is that God has made it obvious for those of us in these last days to know that Jesus is God. While there are tens of thousands of different religions in the world and multiple times that many opinions about who actually represents God, He made it a no-brainer for our generation to know the truth. Since “God is love” (1 John 4:8 KJV), He’s been merciful to the last generations of this “present evil age” (Gal. 1:4, YLT).
God is Speaking Louder and Clearer
It’s only been in the last 70 years that we’ve had the level of proof that we now have revealing that the Bible is the actual Word of God. As far as I can see it started in 1952 with the book Science Speaks: An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences by Peter Stoner and R. C. Newman.
More recently a math professor revealed that the odds of one man fulfilling just eight prophecies about the Messiah are 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000, a number so big hardly anyone knows how to say it! You can read about it on this article. And the thing is that Jesus fulfilled 351 of the Messianic prophecies not just eight. In other words, God went overboard to make it clear to us that we can and should believe in Jesus since statistically it’s LOADS easier to win the lottery than for all of these prophecies to have been fulfilled in one man.
Even more recently Dr. Don Bierle published what I found to be the clearest book on the subject, Surprised by Faith, revealing that the New Testament, and therefore the Bible, is the most reliable ancient book humanity has been given.
Then, even more recently, we have the movie The Case for Christ which essentially goes over the same information as Bierle’s book though not as thoroughly.
And there are several movies which have come out in the last few decades, like The Visual Bible and The Miracle Maker, helping us better grasp the life of Christ and His teachings. The following one comes at it from a Jewish perspective which is important since Jesus was a Jew, The Messiah: Prophecy Fulfilled.
Lovers of Evil
Given all this evidence, the typical response is still like the one expressed by an unbeliever who watched The Case for Christ and said “That was interesting” and kept on business as usual, ignoring the evidence! As Jesus, our Maker and God says, “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead” (John 3:19, NIV). This is God’s main point, that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9, KJV).
And nothing proves God’s point better than Christian historical rebellion since Christians not only know the truth, that Jesus is God, but profess to love Him. Yet they don’t actually obey Him as most actually know and God has me revealing through this ministry having had me follow Him through the so-called churches and Christian groups for decades. Being that Jesus is “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3, NIV) He’s using this ministry to nail His point (Hab. 2:2-3. While Christians know they don’t obey Christ they lie to themselves that they do or that it doesn’t matter, proving what God has said of the human heart (Jer. 17:9).
Jesus is God
While Jesus never said that He was God, the Jews “tried all the more to kill him; [because]…he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18, NIV). And when Thomas finally confessed “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28, NIV), it’s not as if Jesus corrected him saying ‘No Thomas! I’m not God!’ Rather, He rebuked him for not having believed sooner. He said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29, NIV).
God is Father and Son
I’ve never heard anyone explain it this way, but this is what I discern God did, as summed up with the graphic. I discern that like in cell division God, the Father, split in two, forming His Son, “the only begotten-God” (John 1:18, CLT). CLT stands for the Concordant Literal Translation. As a literal translation it’s more accurate than the others, most of which always call Him the only begotten Son. But He was both, the only-begotten God by way of mitosis and only begotten Son as carried by Mary.
Mary was a Carrier. I was enlightened to this by someone else in a book. They weren’t all that clear about it but what they were saying, which makes sense to me, is that God used Mary as the surrogate mother of God. According to surrogate.com, “in gestation surrogacy the child is not biologically related to the surrogate mother, who is often referred to as a gestational carrier…The embryo is created via in vitro fertilization (IVF)…Gestational surrogates…are not blood relatives to the babies they carry – they have no biological connection…only oxygen and nutrients are passed to the baby from the pregnant woman through the umbilical cord.” God used Mary like a surrogate mother.
Therefore, we shouldn’t idolize Mary like Catholics and some others do since “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Mary was “highly favored” (Luke 1:28, NIV) by God because she was the one He picked for the job. It’s like when we pick a chip out of the bag, we don’t even give it a second’s thought since they’re all basically THE SAME. So while He did give Mary this very special job, our affection, our worship, should be on God, the Creator, rather than on Mary, a created being. Like everyone else, Mary needed the Lord’s saving grace.
God Our Father. One of the reasons God calls Himself “Father” (James 1:17, NIV) is because He views us as His “dear children” (Eph. 5:1, KJV), something like how some of us view our little spring plants as our babies, except we really are His babies since He created us. As He had the psalmist write “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13, NIV). As our Father He wants to bless and protect us while, at the same time, not being taken for granted for the rest of eternity. Therefore Scripture says “the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in” (Prov. 3:12, NIV). That’s what God is doing through the ages, a vision I summed up with this graphic.
God’s vision is drastically different than Christians have been teaching for centuries, for most of Christian history for not having taken God as seriously as we should have (2 Cor. 10:5, NIV). And the truth isn’t based on wishful thinking, hypocrisy, or religion but on the work Jesus did on the Cross (Jer. 29:13).
Human Vessels of Clay
Another way God views Himself and us is as Potter and clay. Scripture says “You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isa. 64:8, NIV). When we did pottery as homeschoolers my girls and I each had a vision in mind of what we wanted to make. Then we started by taking a lump of clay and banging the mess out of it to get rid of air bubbles. In humans it’s all that proud ‘hot air.’ That’s in great part what the trials are for, as Christians have been informed in James 1:2-4 for example.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4, NIV
After getting rid of as much air as possible, working as the potter we proceeded to flatten, cut, gouge, scrape, etc., and finally placed our clay in a very hot kiln so as to end up with what we had envisioned. It’s what God, our Father, the Potter, is doing with every single human being He created. And it works out best for us if we let Him do what He wants with us rather than fighting Him on it. Sure, it hurts. But it hurts less this way since it’s the FAST FORWARD approach which Christians refer to as the Refiner’s Fire.
And God’s vision for us is a replica of Himself, specifically Jesus, of whom they “were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37, KJV). God is making everyone He has ever created into a genuinely loving person who always honors Him and, therefore, is always also loving to others. But He’s working in stages, through the ages pictured in this graphic with a bit more explanation.
Christian Historical Rebellion
Like the Israelites to whom Joshua said “Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses” (Josh 24:22, KJV), Christians have been witnesses against ourselves because we either profess to be Christian when we’re not or are unfaithful born again Christians, again as God foretold we would be in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3.
And while “The Lord is slow to anger…[He] will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nah. 1:3, NIV). That’s what the Age of Judgment is about (my term based on Scripture). So, again, it’s better to let Him correct us sooner rather than later—better for us and for others, but especially for us.
God is Always Calling Out to Us
As He’s revealing through an aspect of this ministry which He has entrusted to me, exposing Christian historical rebellion (Hab. 2:2-3, KJV), God is always reaching out to us. The problem is that you have to be born again in order to hear His voice and understand it since “the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness” (1 Cor. 2:14, NIV).
Unlike those who simply claim to be Christian, a real Christian is “born again” as Jesus says we “must be” (John 3:7, KJV). Being born again means that we have “the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32, NIV), obeyed Him for a season of time at least. I’ll cover it on my next blog post.
Hearing God’s Voice. The New Testament says “if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15, KJV). In other words, if you want to hear God’s voice, don’t be hard-headed about what He has revealed to us, both with the evidence pointing to Christ and in Scripture, especially in relation to “the new covenant” (Luke 22:20, NIV). Yet even professing Christians will say “I’ll never believe that!” about Jesus being the only way to heaven (Acts 4:12). That’s not only super hypocritical but outrageously proud since even geniuses make mistakes. And “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6, NIV). If we’re going to grow we always have to be teachable, and that’s especially true when it comes to God.
Let the Evidence Lead the Way. If we’re going know the truth and be set free by it, set free from deception (John 8:2), we have to be open to the possibility that we may be wrong and willing to admit the truth as revealed by the evidence. If evidence meant nothing then this world would be total chaos. But there’s order in it, at least somewhat, because society relies on evidence as with medical trials and in a court of law. Likewise, Jesus says “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly” (John 7:24, NIV) or “Judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24, KJV). If all the evidence is pointing in one direction, as it clearly is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, then it’s foolish to continue in another direction.
The New Covenant
Humanity is under the covenant Jesus made on the Cross having said “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28, NIV). It’s a good thing He did for us!
We Have All Sinned. While I’ve actually heard some people say “I’ve never sinned,” we have all sinned and sinned hundreds of thousands of times, at least (Rom. 3:23, NIV). If you’ve ever told just one lie, no matter how small, you’re a sinner (. And if you don’t “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” you’re a sinner because “this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:29-31, NIV). I’ll cover it on another blog post, and I’ve covered it on videos, but this graphic of the two mounts pretty much sums up what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
What Jesus Saved Us From
Satan is a fallen angel who was followed into rebellion against God with one third of the angels (Isa. 14:12-14 & Rev. 12:4) and he’s their “king” (Rev. 9:11, NIV). Working out His vision, God allowed Satan to be “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4, KJV). Therefore, through His death on the Cross Jesus fulfilled Satan’s requirements while at the same time saving us from Satan’s curses, the worst of which is death (Heb. 2:14-15, NIV).
But Jesus also saved us from ourselves. Having hearts that are “deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9, KJV), we could never end up with a righteous loving kingdom. The current state of the Church and world prove it, and humans will further prove IT at the end of the next age since they’ll rebel against Him and His followers so that “in number they [will be] like the sand on the seashore” (Rev. 20:8, NIV). Left to ourselves we’d always end up with hell on earth, sooner or later. Mostly sooner. That’s God’s point, what He’s getting through to humanity through the ages and the reason He allows so much suffering in the world. We can’t appreciate what He did for us until we admit that we’re a sinner in need of His salvation.
The Problem with Cherry Picking
Picking and choosing what to believe out of Christ’s teaching—as people have been doing in increasing measure for the past 2000 years—is to rely on our own opinions which come from a “heart [that] is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9, KJV). In turn, according to polls, some 81% of Americans today claim to be Christian. Yet that would mean Jesus is a liar since He says the way to life is “narrow…and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14, KJV). He means “the life that is truly life” (1 Tim. 4:16, NIV), which is not the one of this age. And “whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar” (1 John 2:4, NIV). God warned us saying “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22, NIV).
Yet, as He has me clearly revealing through this ministry, which is the combined work of many people, even born again Christians have historically lied about God and ourselves in many and monstrous ways. What Christians have been practicing for most of the past 2000 years—including the “born again” (John 3:7, KJV)—is Churchianity rather than true Christianity. As noted on the previous post, Frank Viola and George Barna proved it in their book Pagan Christianity over two decades ago!
Again, God wants to bless and protect us through Christ. And for Him to be able to do that to the fullest potential, we “must be born again” (John 3:7) and continue growing in Christ as summed up with this graphic.
True spirituality, the most important aspect of this life, is achieved by a repetitive cycle of seeking, believing, and obeying. While obedience has become a dirty word for our depraved generation, it refers to a genuine show of respect. What Jesus did for us on the Cross was beyond measure an act of selfless love and devotion to both the Father and all of humanity. He should, therefore, be highly respected for it. And one day He will be so that it’s as He has foretold “Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God” (Rom. 14:11, NIV). But again, it’s much better to do it sooner rather than later.
And that’s the thing. God doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Again, that’s the reason there’s so much suffering in the world. It’s not God’s fault but ours (James 4:17, NIV). God has allowed all of the suffering because He has a great vision in mind which He’s working out through the ages. It will finally be completed when each and every one He has created willingly humbles him or herself before Him. And He’s made it clear that most will NOT during this evil age (Matt. 7:13-14). But He’s also made it clear that there will be a “latter rain” outpouring of His Spirit (Joel 2:23) so that many will humble themselves before Him as this age comes to an end.
But, because Satan, “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4, KJV) is “a liar, and father of lies” (John 8:44, NIV), there are many so-called revivals taking place which aren’t actually a work of God but “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9, KJV).
Be Not Deceived. The New Testament says “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world: (1 John 4:1, NIV). This is the reason we “must be born again” (John 3:3, NIV) and become a faithful follower of Christ (Matt. 4:19, KJV).
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 4:14-19, NIV).
