You Need To Do More Than Read The Bible To Receive Eternal Life.

	John 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (New King James Version)

"The word "search" is ereuano in Greek, and means "to search, examine into." It can imply "to search by uncovering; to search minutely; to explore; to strip, to make bare; to search by feeling, by touch."

"Homer, in The Iliad, used this word to indicate a lioness and her dedication to her cubs. They were lost, and she was on a huge plain searching very carefully everywhere. In The Odyssey, he used the same word to picture a dog tracking its prey - having its nose on the ground and never losing the scent.

"Metaphorically, it can be used to describe one digging deep for treasure and precious metal, breaking every single clod that nothing would be missed. It means to shake and to sift until every meaning of every sentence, word, syllable, and even every letter may be known and understood.

"Jesus is saying that these people search out every tiny, minute thing in striving for eternal life. But they were not willing to come to Him, humble themselves, and change so that they would have real, eternal life!

"Can this happen to us today? Sure, it can! We see things that we are loathe to change in our lives, or we procrastinate. This is what Jesus is illustrating. Luke 18:9-14 gives us an example of a man who thought that he was doing wonderfully well. He probably knew more than the tax collector ever would. But the tax collector had the humility to humble himself before God and to repent. 

(John O.Reid, http://www.theberean.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/
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The spirit of life was still in them, even though they had lain dormant for thousands of years.

 Matthew 13:3-9

(3) Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow. (4) And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. (5) Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. (6) But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. (7) And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. (8) But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (9) He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
New King James Version   Change your email Bible version

"The seed is the Word of God, and its hitting the ground is not the end of the story. A variety of things can happen that will affect the growth of that seed. Some might fall on stone, others might be buried too deep. Rain may come and wash away some of it. Birds may devour others. But because life is in the seed, something will happen.

"In the last century, archeologists found wheat and cotton seeds in some of the burial chambers that they excavated. Those seeds—which were probably anywhere from 2,000-4,000 years old—grew when put into the right soil. The spirit of life was still in them, even though they had lain dormant for thousands of years.

"This is dramatic confirmation that, if a seed is sown, it will do something when it lands in the right kind of soil. Jesus shows in this parable that the environment affects the seed's growth. When we make the proper application—people are the ground, and our environment and what we do after receiving the seed—the word of truth, containing the doctrines—is what affects its growth. In this analogy, growth represents sanctification, which is is the formation of God's image in us by living His way of life empowered by His Spirit. What we do with the seed is "work[ing] out [our] salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). It is the equivalent of rain, sunshine, weeding, fertilizing, so that the potential for fruit is the greatest. Sanctification is worked out through application, by living the doctrines and the truths of God."  (John W. Ritenbaugh, http://www.theberean.org/)

The Lord's Prayer Is A Spiritual Request.

 Matthew 6:11 - Give us this day our daily bread.

New King James Version   Change your email Bible version

"This is apparently the only material request in the entire model prayer; all the other requests are for spiritual aid such as forgiveness, protection, and guidance. With this in mind, is Jesus telling us to ask for physical food every day? A literal meaning is often the most likely understanding, yet the continuing context of the chapter suggests He had more spiritual matters on His mind. Just a few verses later, in Matthew 6:25-26, 31, He teaches:

• Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? . . . Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or, "What shall we wear?"

"The close proximity of these instructions makes it clear that, in telling us to ask God for our daily bread, Jesus does not have physical food foremost in His mind. What, then, is this "bread" that we are to ask for? John 6:35provides  an answer: "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'"

"The Bible uses the word bread to mean "that which is taken into the body and provides nourishment." Scripture presents two basic types of bread, leavened and unleavened. Leavening consistently symbolizes the corruption of sin (for instance, I Corinthians 5:8, "the leaven of malice and wickedness"). Thus, a Christian has a choice of spiritual nourishment that he can take into himself: He can choose sinless, healthful bread or sinful, corrupting bread. This latter bread comes in a range of varieties from sinful and unhealthy to evil and downright poisonous bread.

"The manna with which God fed the Israelites while they journeyed through the wilderness was symbolic of Christ, the Bread of Life (John 6:49-51). The account of the giving of the manna in Exodus 16:4, 14-21, 26 shows that the Israelites had a part to play in receiving nourishment from it. They were required to rise early and gather their daily amount before the sun "became hot" and melted it away, or they would go hungry for that day—and perhaps for the next day, if it were a Preparation Day for the Sabbath.

In "the Lord's Prayer," Jesus is instructing His followers to rise early every day and ask God to send the unleavened, sinless Bread of Life to dwell in them. Without the indwelling of Christ through God's Spirit, there is no spiritual life in us (John 6:53, 55-58).

"Why is it important that we ask each and every day for this? It is important because God, in His concern to preserve our free-moral agency, will not enter in and live in us uninvited. God is not like an evil demon that will possess us and take control of our lives against our will. He wants us to choose willingly to believe and obey Him and to seek a relationship with Him.

"Like a boat trying to dock against the tide, if we do not actively pursue God, then we will slowly drift away from Him (Hebrews 2:1). The cares and pulls of the world seem to distract us easily, and we lose our focus on God. If we are ignoring Him, God may soon become unsure whether we are still choosing to walk with Him. He will try to get our attention back where it should be—on Him and His righteousness—through trials or other circumstances.

"Yet ultimately, in order not to override our choice in the matter, God will allow us to slip away unless we repent and actively seek Him and  ask for His Spirit. Without God's Spirit in us, we are trying to live and overcome on our own. If Jesus Himself says, "I can of Myself do nothing" (John 5:30), what chance does an individual have to overcome without Christ in him?"  (http://www.theberean.org/http://www.theberean.org/, Daryl White, 03/13/2017)

It takes only one sin for God to impose the death penalty!

Hebrews 2:14-15 - "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (New King James Version)

"Some religions make no mention of Satan as a reality. Others include him as a reality and enemy, yet they make little or no accounting of him actively working to destroy mankind and God's purpose. Jesus makes no bones about Satan actively working to destroy men. In John 8:44, in accusing the Jews of unbelief, He puts Satan's nature in plain words:

• ""You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

"Satan is clearly responsible for drawing Adam and Eve into the first of mankind's sins, opening the floodgate to the sins of all of their progeny, all physical and mental sickness, countless emotional agonies, and the billions of deaths that mankind has experienced.

"God makes it clear that the wages—the ultimate penalty—earned by one's sins is death (Romans 6:23). The sobering truth of this matter is that it takes only one sin for God to impose the death penalty! He warned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they ever sinned, "In the day you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The death penalty falls immediately on anyone who sins, even if it is the first time!

"Any religion that is without Christ leaves the door open to thoughts that salvation can be earned by means of good works. The idea is that the evil an individual has done in the past can be compensated for by doing good deeds. This is the very charge the apostle Paul lays against the Jews in Romans 10:1-4:

• ""Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

"In order for one to be justified before God and accepted by Him requires a righteousness that no man who ever sinned even one time can achieve. No amount of good works can compensate for even one sin. God will accept only the righteousness of One who has never sinned, and He will accept that payment only when a repentant sinner by faith believes.

"Peter's statement in Acts 4:12 confirms that salvation is found nowhere else: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (emphasis ours). Christ's involvement in the forgiveness of sin for salvation is imperative; there is no alternative! Peter is not saying we can be saved or may be saved. The word "must" reveals necessity according to God's decree. Salvation is found through no other person and no other way of life except through the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth.

"Salvation denotes deliverance or preservation from harm or evil. In this case, it is deliverance and restoration from the effects of sin. The result, then, is deliverance from eternal death (unless one goes on from that point to commit blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus says God will not forgive; see Matthew 12:31-32). This is because salvation begins upon one's repentance from his sins and faith in the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. This combination of acts justifies a person before God, and no human works, regardless of their quality or quantity, are acceptable for the forgiveness of sins.

"Does any other religion have a Savior with the qualifications of Jesus Christ? No other religion offers such a magnanimous gift. Forgiveness, and therefore justification, is available only through that perfect sacrifice, along with the sincere repentance of a believing sinner who exhibits faith in the God/Man Jesus Christ and in God's grace. God will then give us of His Spirit." (http://www.theberean.org/, John W. Ritenbaugh, 03/12/2017).

Compassion, Is A Fundamental and Distinctive Quality Of God

  

Matthew 14:14

(14) And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

  Mark 6:34

(34) And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
New King James Version   Change Bible versions

"Jesus is "moved with compassion" when He sees the needy multitudes exhausted and wandering like sheep that had been tattered from cruel fleecing. Twice He is "moved with compassion" when He sees the hungry multitudes without food (Matthew 14:14; 15:32). The two blind men (Matthew 20:34) and the leper (Mark 1:41) also stir His compassion, as does the sorrow of the widow at Nain (Luke 7:13).

"In addition, Jesus uses the word translated "compassion" in three of His parables: The king has compassion on his bankrupt servant and forgives him his debt, showing how we should forgive one another (Matthew 18:21-35). The Samaritan has compassion on the Jewish victim and cares for him in love (Luke 10:25-37). Finally, the father has compassion on his rebellious son (Luke 15:20).

"We, too, should show compassion toward others. Compassion, a fundamental and distinctive quality of God, is literally "a feeling with and for others." It lies at the foundation of Israel's faith in God because, in an act of compassion, He delivered them from slavery and called them to be His own people. His compassion does not fail (Lamentations 3:22). Jesus teaches that it should be extended, not only to friends and neighbors, but to all, even to our enemies. 

(Martin G Collins, http://www.theberean.org/, "Today's Verse and Comment, 03/02/20107)

Jesus warns us that we will receive the same kind of judgment that we make of others.

 

 Matthew 7:2

(2) For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
New King James Version 

Jesus warns us that we will receive the same kind of judgment that we make of others. Do we really want that? That warning ought to sober any thinking person! Do we really believe God when He gives us such a stern warning?

Jesus adds another warning: Our judgment may be distorted because we may have a flaw of far greater magnitude in us than the flaw we observe so critically in our brother. The unspoken intimation is that because the flaw is ours, and we love ourselves, we are willing to be lenient in our self-judgment. By focusing our criticism on another, it enables us to avoid scrutinizing ourselves carefully and critically. Some enjoy correcting others because it makes them feel virtuous, compensating for failures in themselves that they have no desire to face. But the judgment we make about others is in reality the judgment we will receive from God.
(The Berean.org, John W. Ritenbaugh, http://www.theberean.org/)

— John W. RitenbaughJohn W. Ritenbaugh

The Crucifixion and The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  (Matthew 12:38).   

Jesus told them that the only sign He would give was that of the prophet Jonah: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).  Jesus told them point blank that He was going to be in the tomb for three days and for three nights.

We now come to the week Jesus was crucified.  “And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him.  But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.” (Matthew 26:1-5).

“Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?  And he said, go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master said, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.  And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover.  Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.” (Matthew 26:17-20).

Since it was against Jewish law to do anything on a Sabbath Day, this preparation had to take place the day before and it did because the scripture said that they sat down to eat, “when the even was come”.  It was after sunset, night time now, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning when they are celebrating the Passover meal and then leave to go to Mount Olives.

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink you all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  (Matthew 26:26-28).

After the meal they left the room where they were and went to Mount Olives where Jesus prayed.  It would have been Tuesday night into Wednesday morning when this transpired.  It was during this time period that Jesus was betrayed by Judas, captured, tried, convicted and sentenced to death.  The scriptures indicate this all happened during the night into the next morning when it was that day that they executed Him.  That would place the crucifixion on Wednesday, during the daylight hours of that week when Jesus dies on the cross. (Matthew 26:30 thru Matthew 27:55).

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?  That is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, this man calls for Elias.  And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.  The rest said, let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”  (Matthew 27:46-50)

“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:  He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.  And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60)

Notice the next events outlined in Luke 23. Jesus’ moment of death, as well as His hasty burial because of the oncoming Sabbath that was going to begin at sundown.  This is also narrated in Luke 23:46-53.

John also writes, “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a high day,) sought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31)

Luke 23:54 also states, “That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.”  Could that day they are talking about here be the Saturday Sabbath?  If He was placed in the tomb at sunset of the day He was crucified, that means the first full day He was in the tomb would have been Saturday.  But the scriptures, thru Jonas told us that Jesus was going to be the tomb for three days.  That day could not possibly be the Saturday Sabbath.

Many assume that it is the weekly Sabbath mentioned here, and that Jesus was therefore crucified on a Friday. But John 19:31 shows that this approaching Sabbath “was a high day”—not the weekly Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) but the first day of Unleavened Bread, which is one of God’s annual high, or Sabbath, days.   John wrote; “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a high day,).” (John 19:31). 

These feasts are explained in the Old Testament.  “These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s Passover.  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.  In the first day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.  (Leviticus 23:4-7)

The weekly Sabbath is not a Jewish “High Day”, therefore the next day did not necessarily have to be Saturday, it could have been another day of the week.  Exodus 12:16-17 and Leviticus 23:6-7 describe Jewish High Days. These annual Holy Days could—and usually did—fall on days of the week other than the regular weekly Sabbath day.

If we use the sign from the prophet Jonah as a benchmark for identifying the day of the week Jesus was crucified, three days before a Sunday resurrection would place the crucifixion on Wednesday. This high-day Sabbath would have to have been Wednesday during the night and Thursday during the day.

Luke 23:56 says that the women, after seeing Christ’s body being laid in the tomb just before sunset, “returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils” for the final preparation of the body.  They could not have done this work on a Saturday Sabbath or a High Day Sabbath since it would have been considered a violation of the Sabbath. 

The day that they prepared the spices would have been the next day, making it now Friday, since they celebrated the High Day on Thursday. This is verified by Mark’s account, which states, “Now when the Sabbath was past (Thursday), Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, (Friday [which they would not have purchased on the high-day Sabbath {Thursday}, or a Saturday Sabbath]), that they might come and anoint Him” (Mark 16:1).  This they were planning to do on Sunday morning, the first day of the week.

The women waited until the annual “high day” Sabbath was over before they bought and prepared the spices to be used to anoint Jesus’ body. Then, after purchasing and preparing the spices and oils on Friday, “they rested on the Saturday Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). This second Sabbath mentioned in the Gospel accounts is the regular weekly Sabbath, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

By comparing details in both Gospels—where Mark tells us the women bought spices after the Sabbath and Luke relates that they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath—we can clearly see that two different Sabbaths are mentioned. The first, as John 19:31 tells us, was a “high day”—the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—which, in A.D. 31, fell on a Thursday. The second was the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.

After the women rested on the regular weekly Saturday Sabbath, they went to Jesus’ tomb early on the first day of the week, which would have been Sunday, “while it was still dark” (John 20:1), and found that He had already been resurrected (Matthew 28:1-6; Luke 24:1-3).  Jesus was actually resurrected before daylight which would mean that the resurrection occurred sometime during the night.

“And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came to the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.  And they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher?  And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.  And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.  And he said to them, be not affrighted: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.  (Mark 16:2-6)

The details in all four Gospel accounts indicate that the picture is that Jesus was crucified and entombed late on Wednesday afternoon at dusk, just before a Sabbath began at sunset.  Because of the sign given by Jonah, that day could not have been Friday.  It had to be another day of the week, the scriptures indicate it was probably an annual High Day that fell that year on Thursday. It was a high-day Sabbath, lasting from Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset that week, rather than the regular weekly Sabbath, lasting from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

He remained in the tomb from Wednesday at sunset until Saturday at sunset, when He rose from the dead. While no one witnessed His resurrection (which took place inside a sealed tomb), it had to have happened near sunset on Saturday, exactly three days and three nights after His body was entombed. It could not have happened on Sunday morning, because when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb that morning before sunrise, “while it was still dark,” she found the stone already had been rolled away and the tomb empty.

We can be assured that the length of His entombment that Jesus gave as proof He was the Messiah was exactly as long as He foretold, which is proof that He is the Son of God.  To ignore this would disprove His claim that He was the Messiah.  Jesus rose precisely three days and three nights after He was placed in the tomb.

Because most people do not understand the biblical high days Jesus Christ and His followers kept, they fail to understand the chronological details so accurately preserved for us in the Gospels.

 

Does It Really Matter What You Believe?

The simple answer to this question is, yes it does.  To clarify the answer, it matters if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of immortality and salvation to eternal life.  Immortality and salvation is a gift from God, given to us freely.  We cannot earn it.  But, there is one important thing that people forget.  God does not force us to take this gift.  We can accept the gift or we can refuse the gift.  If you do not care about this gift, then the answer to the question is that it really doesn’t matter what you believe.  You can believe whatever your heart desires.

                Using the Bible as a basis for this discussion, it tells us that that those who want to know and have a relationship with God should hold on to beliefs that are based on His laws and not compromise.  “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4, emphasis added).

                Why should what we believe be important to us?  It is because what we do in life and what decisions we make are ultimately based in a large part on what we believe.  If our decisions are based on God's laws, then we can resist the pressures to conform to the standards and values the world imposes on us. We can live in the world, yet not take part in its sins. We can avoid the breaking of God's laws that so often takes place in society.

                “But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, KJV).  Jesus is saying that what we believe, and ultimately what we do is determined by what we think.  What we think should come from the words that “proceed out of God’s mouth”.

                There is a thought process that supports the idea that there is no absolute truth when believing in Jesus Christ, thus, the act of believing is all there is.  The theory is that "there is no objective standard by which truth may be determined, so that truth varies with individuals and circumstances" (David Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion, p. 348).

                So, does it really matter what we believe?  The idea of finding the truth or real meaning to life escapes some people’s minds.  People spend their lives developing their idea of truth.  It does not matter if you are sixteen years old or sixty years old.  Up until that point in time you have spent 100% of your life developing your idea of truth and put up walls resisting any thought that would change that idea.  As you get older, most people spend what they feel is a lot of time, energy, and, (for some), money in formulating their thoughts and ideas on truth and it is only natural to defend what you developed over the years.

                People have always valued their act of belief more than the object of their belief.  William James lived from January 11, 1842 until August 26, 1910 and was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. He was the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.  He stated, "Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact”.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ William James”).

                Is this statement true, especially when we are discussing Biblical truths?  The belief in something will not make it true.  You can believe that an object is something that it is not.  You can believe it with all your heart and soul, but that will not make your belief fact, outside of your own mind.

                The truth of a belief is determined by all of the facts supporting that belief or disproving that belief.  The only alternative to this is closing your mind to ideas that are new to you and this could ultimately lead to your eternal destruction.

                Belief is not determined by the strength of one’s faith.  There are many who get seriously injured and/or die every year because of their faith in something.  Teenagers are prime examples of the support for this idea.  They develop a belief or an idea to do something.  Their parents, because of their experiences in life, tell them it is wrong and could get them in trouble or in some cases injured, or even killed.  Teens commonly think they know everything and therefore what they believe overrides any warnings or threats that their parents give them.  When things go horribly wrong, which they usually do, the teenagers and, or friends and family in the case of a death, now try to answer the question, “Why?”.

                The Bible also emphasizes the fact that it is vital what one believes.  Jesus says that we “... are from beneath” but He is “...from above: (we) are of this world; (but He is) not of this world.” (John 8:23, KJV).  Jesus went on to say, “I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.” (John 8:26, KJV).

                Jesus said in chapter three of the gospel of John that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36, KJV).  Most Bible translations interpret the first half of the verse and the second half of the verse to mean the same thing, but they do not.

                In the first part of the verse, the phrase “He that believeth” deals strictly with “belief” alone.  It means “to think, to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit or to place confidence in” something.  The phrase in the second part of the scripture comes from a different Greek word which carries the meaning of refusing belief and obedience and not to complying with something.  That is, not obeying and complying with everything that Jesus testified to.  A person is not allowed to pick and choose what they want to or do not want to believe.

                The scriptures do not place the weight on the act of belief.  It places it on the object of the belief.  It is not your act of faith but who and what your faith is based on.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, NLT).

                “People today believe whatever they wish to believe, but this will lead to their ultimate destruction. Let's look at an example from biblical history. One of the darkest periods in the history of Israel occurred in the time of the kings. During this time, there was a contest between the Lord God and Baal, a highly regarded cult deity. An altar of wood was built, with pieces of an oxen laid upon it as a sacrifice. The god who answered by fire and consumed the sacrifice would be acknowledged as the true god in Israel. Baal went first.

                If anyone could start a fire from the sky, it was Baal – the great nature god who controlled the weather (i.e., rain, thunderstorms, lightning). The priests of Baal paraded around the altar all morning and until late afternoon, beseeching Baal to respond. These false priests jumped all over the altar, cut themselves with swords, danced into a frenzy, raved and pleaded all day. No one can say they were not sincere, or did not believe. Yet, nothing happened.

                After they were finished and the altar was rebuilt, the Lord God answered with fire from heaven and consumed the altar and sacrifice. The false prophets of Baal were then slain.

                If sincerity and belief saved, then these prophets should have been spared. But sincerity and belief are not enough. These prophets had their trust in the wrong object. They had never chosen to investigate the truth. (emphasis added).  God requires man to put his faith in Jesus Christ; nothing less will satisfy either them or Him.” (http://www.bethinking.org/is-christianity-the-only-way/q-does-it-really-matter-what-i-believe).

                There are many people who go to their deaths believing something that had overwhelming facts that go against that belief.  History is full of people who died needlessly because of this.  The reason this is brought up here is because of the topic of this article concerning Biblical truths. 

                This statement is a two edged sword.  All but one of the apostles were put to death because of what they believed.  In the context of this discussion then, it matters which edge of the sword you are cutting with.  Are you cutting with the edge of the sword based largely on what comes out of the mouths of men?  I am talking about beliefs taken out context and not supported by other scriptures, or are disproved by other scriptures in the Bible.  Or; do you base your beliefs on what comes out of the mouth of God?  The word of God is the Bible, plain and simple.  The facts that you base your beliefs on need to be supported by “every word of God”, every word found in the Bible.  Your belief when it comes to God can be based on no more nor no less.

What Will Heaven Be Like?

 

                There will come a time when we who are alive and remain shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  When this happens, a paranormal event will occur.  It will be a supernatural event where our bodies will be transformed from mortal physical bodies into glorified spiritual bodies.  We will have ghostlike attributes with all the power associated with the spirit world.  We will be transformed and when this happens we will be under the protection of the Lord forever.

                When we are finally in heaven, in the paradise Jesus referred to while hanging from the cross, the Bible promises that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and there won’t be any more death.  Pain and sorrow will be a thing of the past so there will be no more crying. The pain we feel physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually will be gone forever because the Bible says that former things will have passed away.

                The cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will be put to death and God’s preferred method of execution is the use of fire.  The wicked will be gone forever because they will be burned up into ashes in God’s ‘Lake of Fire”.

                God’s eternal city will be the seat of the “Kingdom of the World” present on the earth at that time.  It will have a great, high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels will be posted at each gate.  On the gates will be written the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel as a reminder to all who remain of how God does keep His promise to all people.  The wall of the city will have twelve foundations, and on them will be the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  This will signify to everyone exactly what God’s government is now and will be based on. 

                No one will enter the city that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie.  This will include the likes of a lot of people on the earth today.  Only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be allowed to enter this Holy city.  There shall be no more curse, the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in this city, and His servants will serve Him, ruling the entire earth from there.

[1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:35-39; Philippians 3:21; Revelation 21:3,4,12,14; Revelation 22:3,5; John 14:2-3 ]