And the Word became Flesh
By Richard Peter Joseph
Introduction
America is full of churches. America is not full of Christians. It appears that there is a paradox of some sort when there is a church on every corner but our country is still full of people who are ignorant of God and in many instances wholly corrupt. We have entire populations still in the clutches of sin and no directions on how to get out. We have crooked politicians who keep many of their constituents in the dark just to gain power for themselves. We have infanticide on demand and a general poverty mentality. With a church on every corner, how can this be? Perhaps “church” and God have nothing to do with each other. Perhaps most churches are simply just another man made religious organization with no other purpose but to deceive the flock into wasting their entire lives on senseless and fruitless existences. In this book, I would like to take an apologists view at the church and what Christians should believe and why.
Forward
In this world full of “religions”, how does one know which religion to follow or if one even needs a religion. People also want to know, what is a religion? Any normal High School textbook makes it clear that Christianity is just one of many religions, all of which are somehow equal and related to each other. In this book, I would like to eclipse this by saying that all “religion”, as we commonly know religion, is senseless and a waste of time. I would rather believe in reality. In reality, God created the universe and therefore God is reality. God was here before man and has created man. Anything that varies from God is false and therefore is a waste of time and is harmful to the human race and the earth. So now we have two questions, what is a religion and who is ‘God”?
Well, a religion is something that man has invented in order to describe God. Unfortunately, man is not smart enough to describe God as he really is. Therefore it is best when God describes himself to us and he has, at least to the extent that we as humans can understand him. The first thing that you need to know is that God does not fit into religion. God is God. God exists as the ultimate and fundamental truth of the universe and therefore cannot live in a box we call religion. I once heard Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer, describe god and he said “and Allah is his name”. This, my friend, is the ultimate indication that Islam is a religion. Anytime you give God a name, you are wrong. God has no name. Remember, when God created Adam, he gave him power to name all of the creatures on the earth. This is another way of saying “Adam, you have dominion over all of creation”. When a religionist attempts to name their god, they then have dominion over their god. When Moses asked God what his name was, God answered, “I am, who am”. What God was saying is that you cannot comprehend me and you have no dominion over me. This is why the Ten Commandments are so explicit in the first four commands that no one or no thing is above God and no one can name him neither can they make an image of him. So, in reality we worship a God with no name. We also worship him together with the church. Wait a minute, what’s a church if there is no religion? Church comes from the Greek word ekklesia (ecclesia) which means “the called out assembly”. The church is the people that have been called out of the “world's system” into “Gods Kingdom”. Church is not a religion, it’s people. They are the saints. So now we have people, called saints, worshiping a God with no name and we do not have to do it in a building. Now don’t take me wrong, it is vital that we meet as a church, preferably in a building, but the building or the organization is not the church, the saints are the church.
So if you are in a religion and go to church, don’t panic, I’m just being a little straight forward but as we go through this book, we would like to clarify what it really means to be a Christian and how to enter into God’s eternal kingdom.
Chapter 1
I remember having lengthy discussions with my Catholic cousin about “church” and “religion”. I had many concerns about people seeing God through the eyes of religion and I still do have those concerns. My cousin, who is very intelligent when it comes to such matters, reminded me that it was the church (people) that gave us the canon, not the other way around. Although the church organized and presented the canon, I believe it was Peter who originally endorsed the New Testament books before his death. Books can’t just write themselves and then end up in an organized collection. This is like the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case the people came before the books. So the point was made that an organized religion is essential as God’s visible church. I can go along with that so long as the cart never gets ahead of the horse. But that is exactly what happened and that is why Martin Luther protested the Catholic Church in the 16th century. People needed an organized church for many reasons. One big reason is that during the first 1400 years of New Testament times most people couldn’t read and even if they could read they wouldn’t have anything to read being that the printing press had not yet been invented. So the Catholic religion did play a vital role in preserving scripture and serving the people. So all in all I am not against religious organizations, I am just against religion.
If a religious organization exists for the express purpose of promoting the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ as the king, I will be the first to promote it. But for the purpose of this book, I will limit the discussion of this matter to religion vs. Christianity. This discussion is of paramount importance. All too often, the cart gets ahead of the horse. When people get religion ahead of the church, we have a problem. Religion can usually be described as a set of rules or a set of doctrine that the flock subscribes to. They are convinced that this will fulfill their obligation to God (or their religion, which they confuse with God). I have had discussions with many people and I can honestly say that most people are entirely ignorant of biblical truth and the difference between religion and God. Whereas religion was thought to lead people to God, it ultimately leads them to more religion. So as far as most people are concerned, I would like to have a short discussion on the historical God versus the comfortable religious lives most Americans tend to fall in.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." After that man began to create god. In fact they have created many gods, perhaps millions of them. Even today in America I have been told on many occasions, “You believe in your God and I’ll believe in mine.” Worse than that, I have been told many times, “I worship the god who loves every body,” or “My god doesn’t judge,” etc, etc, etc. This is, of course, idle worship. They might not have an actual physical statue in front of them but they certainly have a mental statue in front of them. An idol is an idol any way you look at it.
So without getting too long winded I would like to sum up what I am getting at. I am not against religion as a form of understanding God via the scriptures and the Holy Spirit, but I certainly warn people against joining a religion to get religion. Religion is not the goal, knowing God through Jesus Christ only is the goal. Once you understand the history of the earth you will then begin to understand that God is the normal thing and life without God is abnormal. Life with God makes sense of who you are and why you exist; life without God is void and empty. Life with God gives hope and freedom; life without God is desperate and oppressive.
Chapter 2
Many people who are new to their faith may need to know exactly how they can avoid the trap of being caught up in a religion or if they are truly serving God. Here are a few basic tenants of Christianity that might help you on your journey. A short history of the bible might be appropriate at this time also.
Remember that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If you have a problem with that, then you will have a problem with your entire walk with God. I will elaborate on these issues more in a latter chapter but suffice it to say that you really need to understand that God was here first, not man. If God didn’t create you then you created God and there is no other way to view this. The next thing you need to understand is that once man was created, it didn’t take long for him to sin and the sin was exactly what we just talked about (us creating God). Read this next passage from the book of Genesis real carefully. It is when Satan was tempting Eve.
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Here Satan was telling Eve that she could be “like God”. When man attempts to take full control over his destiny, he has become god himself and there is one thing that I know for sure; I make a poor god! So your first lesson is that God is God and you are part of his creation. We will find a much more fulfilling life when we serve God instead of serving ourselves.
When Adam and Eve sinned they were ashamed and felt naked and hid themselves making an attempt to cover up with leaves that they had sewn together. God found that their covering was insufficient so he sacrificed an animal and used the skin to produce an appropriate covering that was made by God himself. This also is a vital lesson to learn. You and I are not capable of fixing our sin problems, this must be done by God himself and the act in the Garden of Eden was a sign of the ultimate sacrifice God would make when he came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life and then paid in blood on the cross for our sins. That is why John the Baptist called Jesus, “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. Jesus was God’s sacrifice that He brought to the altar for our sakes just like he did in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. The Old Testament law written by Moses is very consistent as it takes great pains in describing man’s sin and the need for a sacrifice. A lamb without blemish or another appropriate sacrifice was offered by the Jewish community as an atonement for their sin. This of course was a prophesy of God’s gift he would finally give as the final blood sacrifice and ultimate gift of love for the human race.
What this really means is that we need a savior. This is where Jesus comes in. We may try and try and try again to cover up our sins but we just keep getting deeper and deeper in trouble. Once you understand the complete depravity of mankind, you will then be able to focus on Jesus Christ. Remember that being good is not what Christianity is all about, it is about becoming a new creation in Christ. Bowing humbly to the will of God and producing holy fruit acceptable to a holy God is the real meaning of Christianity. Check this scripture out that Paul wrote about:
2 Corinthians 5:17 (New King James Version)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
If you are a person contemplating Christianity, please remember that this is not just a choice of a religion, it is not even in the same category. Responding to Christ’s call is the difference between life and death, between old and new, it is becoming a new creation where old things pass away and a new life of destiny has begun. Jesus also made this clear when he was talking to a very educated and religious man named Nicodemus. It is believed that Nicodemus became a very influential Christian in the first century.
Here is what Jesus told him:
(New King James Version)
John 3
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.[a] 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[b] have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Obviously I cannot say it any better. Jesus is not calling you to just another physical change; he is calling you to be born again from above. That which is flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit. This is not about choosing a religion, it is about becoming a new creation, experiencing a complete spiritual change that will transform your life forever even to the point of eternal life. Jesus operates in the light and all who seek the light will be drawn to him. This is not like a night club where things are hidden in the darkness but in God’s kingdom things are done in the open because there is no shame in it. Admit your sin to God and call on the name of Jesus Christ to give you a new birth. Do not be ashamed to walk in the light of Christ, you will not regret it.
Notice that Jesus didn’t question Nicodemus on his religious order but went right to the heart of the matter, his soul. We were all born of the flesh and sadly most of the world stays right there. Jesus is saying that there is another dimension that most people ignore or out right refuse to partake in and that is the spiritual world. In Jesus’ mind, the spiritual world preempts the physical world. Jesus clearly said that he was with the father before coming to earth. He claimed he knew the prophets of the Old Testament personally and was actually witnessed talking to two of them in front of Peter, James and John. To remain only in the physical is actually like missing reality. Personally my greatest fear in life is to come to the end of my time and say that I just went to work, watched TV, ate a bunch of food and died. I recently went to a funeral of someone who died of cancer. We loved this person but I certainly did not feel like he left a strong legacy. I will not go into all the things he did in life but I did notice one sad thing at the showing. As he lay there at the funeral I noticed a new pack of cigarettes neatly displayed in his shirt pocket. A close relative explained that, “that was him” so we wanted to display him as we knew him. I am not sure about you but I hope my legacy in this world is not summed up in a pack of cigarettes. I clearly explained to my kids that I am hoping to leave a “Christian” legacy behind. A Christian Legacy does not end with cancer but becomes like a good seed planted in a well toiled field that will produce fruit over and over and over again. This is what Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand. Do not only look at the physical world but make the physical world come alive by sparking your soul with the Holy Spirit.
Chapter 3
By Richard Joseph
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Peter makes it clear that there is a definite spiritual change that takes place and that spiritual change causes physical changes. We are physically removed from the darkness of the “world system” into God’s marvelous light. So what is this “world system” and how did I get in it in the first place?
Understand that you are in one place or the other. There is no third choice. You are either in the “world” system or in “God’s” kingdom. You cannot be neutral. Jesus made this plain in Mathew chapter 12.
Matthew 12:30 (New King James Version)
30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
This is a lesson in light and darkness, lost and found, good and evil, fruitful and desolate. I have met many people who become irate when they hear of the idea that they might end up in hell when they are, for all intents and purposes, a good person. They have never robbed a bank, they don’t drink and drive, they work hard to support their family and do all of the other “normal” good things that keep you out of jail. Unfortunately, these things do not get you into heaven and they are even possibly working against God’s plan. One of the most common mistakes many people make is when they think that being good equates to being a Christian. When you stand before the throne of God, He will not ask you if you were in jail or if you were late on your credit card payment. He is concerned about one thing and one thing only and that is “are you covered with the blood of Jesus”. Please understand that you cannot perform God’s will unless you are on God’s team. If you don’t go into the huddle, how can you know what play the quarterback called? And since you don’t know what the play is, you begin to create your own play. It might look good from the stands but to the coach you look silly. Your efforts are not coordinated with the team. You might run down the sidelines at record pace but that will not mean a thing if you were supposed to block for the halfback.
Remember that being in a religion or being good does not accomplish God’s goals. Only those that are spiritually connected can produce fruit for God’s kingdom. Only those that are born again can even see God’s kingdom. So when you come to God you must come through Jesus Christ who actually is God incarnate. You cannot think your way to heaven, you cannot work your way to heaven, and you cannot use an alternate route to heaven. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except by him and him alone. If you are arguing with what I just said then you are trying to “think” your way to heaven, which means that you want to work your way to heaven, which means that you are using an alternate route to heaven which means you will not end up in heaven. In fact you must have faith and believe before you can even understand what I just said. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so please do not try to have insight without the fear of the Lord first. Walk in the light so you can clearly see where you are going.
Jesus is in the business of calling his people out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Darkness is the place one goes when he is ashamed of what he is doing. Light is the place where one goes when he is not ashamed of what he is doing. A bar is dark. Kids play outside in the light. Those in a bar usually have something to hide. Kids on a playground are usually carefree. If you choose to live in the dark you do not know what is outside and therefore it seems silly to you when someone tries to describe the Christian life to you. But the truth is that they can see into your life but you cannot see into theirs. This is where a little faith comes in. Just take a peek out of your dungeon and let the light of Christ shine on you for just a moment. Bask in it and let it penetrate your darkness. Let your eyes be opened and you will never look back. Become part of the chosen generation, the royal priesthood that serves the most high God. Begin to proclaim his majesty. Take the focus off of you and onto Jesus Christ, the giver of life. Bust out of the world system and walk into the kingdom of freedom and light.
But what actually is the world system? Listen to what Jesus told his disciples:
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Let’s make this the topic of the next chapter.
Chapter 4
We saw in the last chapter that Peter described the new church as a royal priesthood, a chosen people and a holy nation. We also discussed how Jesus called us out of the darkness and into his light.
In 1776 a new nation was born. People at that time saw a better way to live and rejected the oppression that they were currently living under and began a new way of living. They became a “New Nation”. They were no longer under the rule of a tyrannical king but now under a new law or constitution. They switched from one nation to another. This scenario can help you understand what happens when you come out of darkness and into the light. You become a “Holy Nation”.
Our entire globe is sectioned off into different nations with their own form of government. However, within those nations and all around the earth is a group of people that not only belong to an earthly nation but also to a heavenly nation. They serve a holy and righteous king. They not only serve him but he serves them even more. Not that this king stoops to humans but because he is a loving king he is a protective and serving king. Our king has a covenant with us, his people. A covenant is the opposite of a contract. A contract is somewhat of a selfish document with the purpose of protecting oneself whereas a covenant is a document or agreement that each is vowed to protect each other. A marriage is a covenant not a contract. That is why it is laughable and sad to see people entering into a so called marriage with a prenuptial contract. This shows a complete ignorance of what they think marriage is. Contract is to covenant as lust is to love. A contract and lust both seek to protect ones own interests and is selfish as far as a relationship is concerned. A covenant and love, conversely, seeks for each party involved to protect the interest of the other. Marriages that are covenants are usually the most stable unions one can find. God and his people are under a covenant, not a contract. We are priests unto God and he is a father to us. We serve him but we cannot ever out serve him. We are a holy nation under the auspices of the creator of all things. A covenant is light and a contract is dark.
This new nation is a nation that lives in truth therefore you do not need to hide in the darkness. All is exposed. Instead of stumbling over the lies and greed of the world system we walk freely on a lighted path. Our lives are subject to review. Our lives have a different arrangement.
Jesus used the word cosmos when teaching his disciples to hate the world. He didn’t mean to hate the earth or the people but to hate the “arrangement” of the godless realm. My wife and I watched a movie called A Respectable Trade from Mobil Masterpiece Theatre. If you are able to watch this movie, you will get a visual of what I am talking about (You might find it at your local library). The quick version of the story is about a man who wanted to be a big shot in the slave trading business. He sucked up to the merchant venture community who he thought were the high rollers in society. I will not give the movie away but look for the ending when he is left penniless and wifeless while the scene shows the business tycoons laughing him to scorn as a fool. This is a perfect picture of those who seek approval from the “world system” instead of the hand of God. I promise you that you will be laughed to scorn, even if you make something of yourself. A house built on sand cannot stand for long. The foundation must be of solid rock before you can build a lasting house. And each solid home creates a stable society. A stable society can then be a blessing to the world.
So how do you create a solid home? Well, by serving a solid God. Those that do not serve the one and true God are certainly serving someone. My definition of freedom is “One's ability to choose which master he will serve”. In other words you are going to serve a master even if you think that you are an atheist. I serve the living God who is eternal. Those in the World System serve human masters. I recently lost my job and in my search for another job I got behind on my house payments. One of the World System gods (The Bank of America) came after me with a vengeance. They had no pity and could care less that I would be thrown out on the street. They were completely ruthless even going to the point of creating false documents in order to get past loosing money. I only mention this to prove a point. If your only god is humanism, good luck! You better watch that movie I mentioned above. Or just get on the wrong side of the world gods such as the IRS, the bank, the loan officer, the crooked politician, etc. Even though these institutions are part of the normal economy on earth they are none the less devoid of human compassion. They are human institutions. My goal is to live beyond human rules and live under divine laws. You can and will be punished under divine law also but you will be shown mercy beyond anything that this world can give. If you choose to reject that mercy then the blood is on your hands, not God’s.
So, in concluding this chapter, I am hoping to convey the idea that there are really only two realms that a human can live in. He is either in the “world system” or he is in the “Kingdom of God”. You cannot be in both at the same time. Even though we are in this world, we are not of the world. We are born into this world and with ease we can glide right into the “world arrangement” and never know it until the light of Christ bursts into our lives. We at that point have an opportunity to be born again from above into the “Kingdom of God”. This takes energy. This takes boldness. This takes strength. This takes faith. And all of that is supplied by God himself and is yours for the asking. As Jesus said in the book of Matthew; 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. This leads us into a discussion on what I call spiritual entropy.
Chapter 5
The word entropy is a scientific term used to describe the idea that all things degrade to its lowest energy level if it does not receive energy from an external source. For example, all life on earth is dependent on an external energy source; the sun. If the sun disappeared, the earth would “starve” to death. All energy on earth would equalize into its most basic form. In other words we would rot. Entropy is perhaps the biggest obstacle for evolutionists but that is a discussion for another chapter. What I would like to talk about now is spiritual entropy.
Because American churches have transformed from preaching the solid word of God to a watered down “seeker friendly” sermon platform, we are now experiencing what I call Spiritual Entropy. While some countries are experiencing a growth in Christianity, America is decomposing. We now have an entire political party, the Democratic Party, dedicated to the destruction of Christianity. Along with that are some of their biggest supporters such as the ACLU which is a legal organization apparently dedicated to the destruction of Christianity in America. The Democratic Party has become a cesspool for those that want to promote gay marriage, legal marijuana, pornography, communism, fiscal irresponsibility, racism and unproductiveness. The Republicans are not much better but at least it is not part of their platform to be hostile to Christianity. Ignorance of the bible and an outright attack against Christianity is now the order of the day. It began long ago and finally got a foot hold in when they took prayer and bible reading out of the public schools in the early 1960s. In a book by David Barton called "To Pray or Not to Pray", Barton documents the destruction that occurred after school prayer was halted. This destruction continues today as we see kids shooting, raping, and doping each other to death. As you can clearly see we are in a state of spiritual entropy.
If we are spiritual beings, as we are, we must have an outside source of the spirit of God. This source is Jesus Christ who supplies the Holy Spirit. If we block Jesus from society, it is the same thing as blocking the sun from the earth. If we block the Holy Spirit from our lives then we remain in a condemned state of being. We have asked Jesus to get out of our schools, our courts, our capital and our lives then we wonder what happened when someone walks into a theater and shoots 30 people to death or when terrorism and gender confusion are the order of the day. We wonder how we get crooked politicians when we were the ones who voted them in office. We wonder why we are attacked by terrorist but we can’t speak up against them. We wonder why most people have not a clue of why or how they got here and what real meaning there is in life.
In early America you would be hard pressed to find an atheist or if you did, he still had respect for the basic tenants of Christianity. Now you would be hard pressed to find a Christian, let alone an educated one. We are in a state of ultimate decline and the only answer is a third Great Awakening. It takes energy to do the right thing. It takes energy to live for Christ. It takes energy to get up and go to work each day. It is not a struggle to love God but it is a struggle to worship God in an oppressive world. Those that do not put effort and energy into life simply decay. If you want the energy for life then bow now and ask the eternal God to send the Holy Spirit upon you that you might receive light from above. Your eyes will be opened and you will see things that you have never seen before. You will have a purpose that you have never had before. You will feel loved like you have never been loved before. You will be forgiven like you have never been forgiven before. You will give like you have never given before.
Chapter 6
Like I said at the beginning of the book, if you have a problem with God creating the world, then you will have a problem with Christianity. So where did we come from in the first place? Is there even a real reason that we exist or are we just a cosmic accident that happened billions of years ago and the molecules just happened to come together freakishly and form the earth, the air, the sea, the trees, the red blood cells, the immune system, the eyes, the nerves, the fins, and the feathers? Even if I had the faith of Jupiter I still would not have that much faith. So, where did we come from and how did my foot get at the bottom of my leg instead in my mouth. How did my vitreous body and my aqueous humor get in my eye instead of my backbone? How did I obtain an attraction for women instead of a rock? If this was an accident then it was one heck of a lucky crap shoot.
So, where did we come from? There is not one shred of doubt in my being that we were created and are sustained by God himself. I get most of this boldness from science itself being that everything that I have studied up to this point indicates that this earth was designed and brought forth miraculously. In Dinesh D’Souza’s book “What’s So Great About Christianity”, He talks about the Big Bang theory. It is obvious to me that this is the correct answer as the bible clearly states that when God spoke something big happened. The Big Bang theory appears to be a legitimate answer in that at one point there was nothing. Some describe it as all mass was compressed in one small condensed form and for some reason exploded at a certain time and you can now see the universe expanding, or at least in a separated state, in all directions. D’Souza believes this happened billions of years ago and this is where I might not agree (Actually I disagree with D'Souza on his entire evolutionary outlook). The billions of years can be calculated by the distance that the stars are from the center point so to say and using the current rate of expansion they came up with the billions-of-years time table. When you use the current state of affairs in the universe as a stable reference then you may be making a big mistake. Current speeds of objects today do not necessarily mean that they were traveling that fast in the beginning. The stable state is called the uniformitarian principle. This is the idea that things in the past are moving at the same rate as they are today. That would be like my wife watching me pull in the driveway and assume that I was traveling 5 miles/hour for the past two hours of highway driving. Things on earth today are a far cry of what the early earth looked like. This, I imagine, is the same for the universe. At the time of creation, things moved much faster than they do today. Even if we do not understand everything about creation, we do know certain things for sure.
One thing we know for certain is that life on earth seems to have appeared abruptly and fully functional. There is no such thing as a “missing link” anywhere to be found. Not only did life appear abruptly and fully functional but it was, in the past, even more complicated than it is today. This is the exact opposite of what we learned in school. I, not only have a high school education, I also have a bachelor’s of science degree. For all of those years I was taught blatant lies about cavemen, and from life starting as simple forms and then evolving into more complex organisms. They used no facts to teach this but outright lies that have been documented. They also used stupid cartoon pictures of monkeys turning into cavemen then into modern man. In reality it is the exact opposite.
The earth reveals that in the beginning the flora and fauna abruptly appeared and were highly complex and fully functional. Not only that, they were in abundance. Today we have deciduous forms left over of what was once a magnificent past. This is completely opposite of what your school taught you. They told you that life arrived somehow out of a primordial soup then became more complex as time went on eventually forming higher life forms. Anyone who knows anything about paleontology knows that that is not true. I can go on for page after page but suffice it to say that we have been lied to by our uneducated teachers and by the God hating book editors and pseudo-scientists. This is an area that you should self-educate yourself. There are many good books out there to choose from. So why is this so important anyhow?
First I would like to tell you a true story. I work in a medical laboratory. One day I was looking under the microscope at some organisms from a patient sample. There was something in there that I couldn’t quite see clearly. I decided to put my evolutionist co-workers to the ultimate test. I told them that I was going to report the organism out to the doctor as an “intermediate evolutionary form that was evolving from bacteria to yeast”. They immediately said “that is the quickest way to get fired for sure”. I said “wait a minute, I was taught that evolution was true my entire life and now I can’t use it; and besides that all of you believe in it”? They all were speechless. The point being is that evolution is a completely non-functional lie that the Godless world fell for. It cannot be used for any functional purpose what so ever. The only scientific advancements are those that do not part from biblical teaching. Even the simplest thing like each plant has its own seed within it. Everything that you read in the bible is functional. It is not like certain other religions that have mythological origins and non-functional idle worship. Christianity is not a religion where the people serve their idle but it is a faith where our God actually serves us. We might say that we serve only the true God but in reality we could never out-serve him. Jesus came and served us, not the other way around. It is our prerogative to accept the gift of life and forgiveness that Jesus offered to us. So this is an important subject. If you were indeed accidentally evolved from mush-posh then you need not answer to any god. You just survive any way you can, breed, then die and rot. You would have no purpose other than that. And that wouldn’t even be a purpose. On the contrary, if you were created by a benevolent God who actually knows you and cares about you, you would now have purpose in life. There would now be meaning and direction to your very existence. You would then be motivated to find that purpose and to pursue it and to discover it and to bath in it. There would now be a driving force to your once sessile form. Knowing the truth about creation is a matter of intense concern. Why do you think that there is such a vicious fight over text books and curriculum in school? Why do you think that the National Education Association will not relinquish any control of the public education system? There is a real propaganda fight going on and most people are completely in the dark about this. The NEA and the left thinkers are bent on making sure that our youth grow up thinking that they are in this world alone and they only have to answer to themselves and to the state. If it feels good do it! They do not want people to be free from sin and free in general. Freedom is unique to Christianity and all dictator minded people must crush Christianity in order to rule over the people’s minds. So, where do you stand today? Were you just an accident with no purpose or are you a child of the living and eternal God? Are you subject to just mere fate or do you have a destiny? Are you selfish and only seek to please your flesh or do you have a mission to be fruitful and to make the world a better place by caring for others? It is your choice. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord; and he will out serve us.
Chapter 7
In 1978 we received grueling news about the demise of nearly 1,000 members of the religious cult called the People’s Temple led by a nut case hireling named Jim Jones. He led his flock to South America where he attempted to create a giant commune named Jonestown. Like all cult leaders he was a drug addict and sought power and who knows what else; probably sex, like most of them do. Finally one day when reporters came to do a story on his efforts along with some senator’s to see what was going on, he finally flipped and had the reporters shot and then ordered his flock to drink poisoned cool aid. There have been other cults that have had the same fate. We all remember the demise of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas led by another sex addict named Vernon Howell. Howell took the cult name (something to do with the Seventh Day Adventist religion) David Koresh as his spiritual name as he told his flock that he was the Messiah. He led a life of lies, sex and guns. But as far as we know he did not break any gun laws outright but our corrupt government lead by Bill Clinton, attempting to make a statement for gun control, sent the ATF in on a raid. They had no idea of what they were dealing with until at least four of the officers lay dead before they entered the compound. I personally believe that the government had no legal right to attack like they did. In the end, however, many of the followers who stayed to the end were incinerated in a huge inferno. Again, this is another cult leader, leading his flock to the death. This, not to mention the Hal bops kooks who all died thinking that they were going to be transferred to the commit to go to who knows where. There is one thing that all of these cults and all false religions have in common. Their leaders are what Jesus called “hirelings”.
A hireling is a hired hand. He does not own the business, he is just hired to do a job then get the heck out of Dodge. Sort of like a hit man. The hireling does not care about the flock, he just cares about himself. This is one of the best ways to separate the true shepherd from the hireling. Jesus put this very eloquently in the gospel of John in the 10th chapter. All cult leaders flee to save their own hide or at least try to but in the end, either way, their flock goes down with them. This is in contrast to what Jesus did when he was going down. When he was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter attacked one of the guards. Peter, and the others would have been killed for doing this but Jesus stepped in and saved his flock and then took the punishment himself. That is what a true leader would do. Jesus is the “real thing”. He does not send us into the fire. He himself took on himself our punishment by dying on the cross for us. We are not left abandoned like cult members but we are instead protected. Of course there have been many who died for the faith but they were not abandoned by the leader. We can’t stop an evil government from attacking its people but we can rest assured that our leader has not abandoned us and has never exploited us. Jesus was never caught up in a sex or money scandal which of course is unheard of from a person with so much power. He cared for his flock. He laid down his own life for the flock. He suffered in our place. This is what the real God does for us. A hireling always leaves the flock exposed. That is one way to differentiate truth form lies. There is another way of discernment also.
If you want to know what a cult is then here is the surest way to find out. The bible is very clear that Jesus is God incarnate. This means that Jesus is actually God come down from heaven. God appears to have taken on three dimensions that we call the Father the son and the Holy Ghost. This is one God who can appear in three forms. The bible is full of references to the fact that Jesus is God himself. One of my favorites is from Revelation 21:23”…for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”. John saw the glory of God and said that the light was coming “from” the Lamb. It was not shining on the Lamb; rather it was proceeding forth from the Lamb. Jesus is God any way you slice it. This is the great mystery. All cults, including but not limited to, Islam, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormon’s, etc, believe that Jesus is NOT God. No matter what other differences those religions have, they all have one thing in common and that is that they have degraded the name of Jesus to a mere man or prophet at best.
Cults should be avoided at all costs and they should never be put in the same box as Christianity. There is no room for lies in God’s world. The eternal God stands alone and there is no other. Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us. When you come to Jesus you are coming to the very throne of God. Jesus therefore has the power to forgive sin, perform miracles and to rise from the dead. This also gives him the power to bring us to be with him forever in his dwelling place.
Chapter 8
How many times have you heard sermons or references to the end of the world? Some churches preach on it regularly and some almost never mention it. In fact some make most of their converts by advertizing it. The Seventh Day Adventists seem to dwell almost exclusively on this as far as their advertisements go. I only have one problem with it; I can’t seem to verify it in the bible.
In fact I can not find a direct reference for it in the bible at all. There are some passages that allude to the idea that this could occur and if it does, I’m ready. But most of what I read refers to “the end of the age”, not necessarily the end of the “world”. This is one of those areas of study that can create much emotion on both sides but suffice it to say that what I read and what I hear are often two different things. Just like the teachers who keep teaching evolution but never check out the facts, we now have 99% of the preachers regurgitating what they have heard in seminary but never stop to check the facts out. So just like I did with evolution, I had to do also with end time events. Here are two basic questions that must be answered:
If Jesus says it, then does it really have to come about and happen just as he says it or did he make mistakes?
Of all of the end time remarks in the New Testament, Where does it talk about it being 2,000 years and counting away?
By answering the first question we base our entire existence because if Jesus did make mistakes then he isn’t God and we can forget the whole thing. If Jesus said in Matthew 24 that “this generation will not pass until all is fulfilled” was he mistaken? Or when he said “there are some here who will not taste death until the son comes in his glory”, was he stretching the truth a little? When he predicted that every stone of the temple would be dismantled, was he just talking symbolic? And as far as question 2 is concerned, where is the reference to an end of the world and where is the reference to it being thousands of years hence? I can’t find it. Can you? So, simply said, it must be as it was written.
Once you study the history of ancient Israel and the Roman Empire, there really is only one conclusion that one can come up with. As it appears by the evidence is that Jesus and all of the New Testament writers agreed that the so called “end time” events would occur very soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The historical records indicate that they actually all occurred within 40 years from the death of Christ. My intention in this book is not to document the entire history of that period but only to let you know that there is some dissention in the ranks over this issue and I encourage you to make a study of it and always keep in mind that if something doesn’t sound right or make historical sense, then you should be weary of it. I will attempt to give you a quick overview below but again this is an area that you should self educate yourself on. One good reference would be www.preterist.org. This is a great web-site with many references. Ed Stevens has made great inroads to the study of eschatology which seems to help the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
In Matthew 24 the disciples inquired as to when the end would be and when Jesus would come in his glory. At this point I cannot confirm if some of the disciples still thought that Jesus would be crowned king or if they actually knew that he would establish an everlasting spiritual kingdom that would be worldwide in distribution. The answer is quite telling however. Jesus had them view the temple, which represented Judaism. This is the established faith of the Jews and the laws of God that were given to Moses. The Jews, like anyone else, have failed miserably in their attempt to find the real meaning of the law and they certainly failed to live up to the many laws that Moses put forth for Israel. However, hidden in this law and in the Jewish Holidays, was the idea of redemption by the Messiah and his perfect life, his sacrificial death and his resurrection. The Messiah fulfilled the requirements of the law and then paid the price of our sin for us. Jesus not only fulfilled the requirements of the law He personally became the fulfillment of the law. The law then would become a person, not a set of rules any more. Jesus has become the Sabbath rest for us. When Jesus predicted to his disciples that the temple would be torn down, he meant it literally and also spiritually. He made several predictions that all came true by A.D. 70. The temple was completely destroyed and the Jewish sacrifices came to a screeching halt. They have not resumed even to this day.
Besides Jesus’ predictions of his coming in glory (Parousia), every author of New Testament books told of this time as to be very soon in occurrence. They all were in agreement that this would come to pass in a very short time. None of them made any mention of a long and protracted time range. I have actually heard a few preachers say that “the disciples thought that the end was coming soon but they were mistaken”. In other words they said that Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter and others were wrong but that the preacher is right! Does that make sense to you? It sounds a little fishy to me. This then makes Jesus sound like one of those idiots who keep giving dates for the end of the world. When you make your study of the history of the Jews you will find that what was actually going to occur was the “End of Judaism” as far as the Law was concerned. Jesus fulfilled the law and the disciples established the Kingdom of God that has no end to it. This kingdom has Jesus as the king and all of those that were called out of the world system as his subjects, including me!
Again, I am not going to re-write a historical account here because there are better references that you can go to but suffice it to say that if Jesus said it, it did come true just as “He” said it would which of course is well documented. This separates Jesus from every false prophet and every kook who predicts the end of the world. He also shuts the mouths of the scoffers. This gives the Christian real staying power. Once you understand the preterist view you will no longer be subject to a preacher saying that he is right and the disciples and Jesus are wrong. Once the infallibility of the scriptures has been compromised, there is no longer any leg to stand on as far as the believability of the bible is concerned. The bible means what it says and what it says is correct every time. Of course there is symbolism used in scripture and anyone with half a brain can tell when symbolism is used instead of actual events. One other thing to remember while you make your study of eschatology is to keep in mind that the revelation of the majesty of Jesus Christ is the real issue, not the idea of the end of the world. The book of revelation is not about the end but rather about the beginning of the church age. It is the revealing of who Jesus really is. On earth Jesus appeared to us as a meek and humble man who was born in a manger and worked as a common carpenter. Stephen’s speech in the book of Acts is very telling as he attempts to show his accusers that Jesus would come back as a mighty king. They stoned him to death for this but soon after the end time events vindicated him as a great tribulation ensued, Jerusalem was sacked, Judaism was ended, the wrath of God was poured out on the guilty, the rapture of the remaining Christians occurred and the true and everlasting church was established. So it is really about a beginning not necessarily an end.
