CALL OF THE KINGDOM
HIDDEN MYSTERY OF PAUL'S GOSPEL
Part2
"ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST"
Because of the inconsistency of Christian theological thought and teaching for at least fifteen hundred years, the apostles and brethren of the early church from Jesus to Constantine taught the assured salvation of all mankind. In the fifth century Augustine who had been a pagan philosophical exponent propagated endless torment for unbelievers.
Reconciliation was the focus of the apostles and the early church, and it permeated many of their messages. Opposition to the power of the cross of Christ to save all mankind began in Paul's day. And it fermented in instability until the Roman church was of such power in 553 AD, that they decreed that Reconciliation of all men could not be taught. They enforced it by the sword and excommunication. Some brethren teach that the propagation of eternal torment brought on the "dark ages," or the dark ages was the result of that dark teaching, which is the greatest "enemy of the cross of Christ," ever.
The teaching of eternal torment is a "thief and robber." It robs (in peoples mind) the cross of Christ of its all inclusive power to save all humanity. Through the teachings of the "enemies of the Cross of Christ", God is made to look like a mere weakling. One that can not accomplish that which He originally intended in His love for all mankind. Or that Jesus death on the cross was wishful thinking on God's part.
This is the Father's will which has sent me, that all which He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." Jn. 6:39. "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand." Jn. 3:35.
In John 3:35, , "Things" is not in the original. The translators added "things." The Concordant Literal translation has it correct: "The Father is loving the son and has given all into his hand." The "enemies of the cross of Christ" won't admit it, but they imply that God has failed, in that they believe that He can not save all. God sees the end from the beginning, and man lives in between, and sees only where he lives .God sees all, beginning, between and the end too. Isaiah 46: 9, 10.
"I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure."
God is saying that there is no man like Him. That He stands alone in His role as Sovereign Creator. And all that come after can not be compared to His creative all knowing, omnipotent majesty. He will do all His pleasure, and His counsel will stand. And there is none that can gainsay nor resist Him. Paul received the same revelation.
"In (Christ) Whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him, who works all things after the counsel of his own will." Eph. 1:11.
Every thing that has ever happened on earth, through out time, God has known it before hand, using it for His purpose. It is all a part of His purposes and intentions to bring about that which He began and wishes to perform. His preoccupation is the salvation of all mankind. Phil. 2:9-11.
God began by creating man "a living soul." Gen. 2: 7, 1 Cor. 15:45. But that was not God's ultimate intention. His first prophetic word was: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Gen. 1:26.
So man as "a living soul" was not all that God meant for His creation. God's intention was man in His, God's likeness. "God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Jn. 4.
Jesus was the first man like God, He "became a life giving Spirit." l Cor.15: 45. If man had remained on the "living soul" plane, he could not fulfill the preordained purpose and intention of God. If Adam had not ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of death (carnal mind), he would have stayed in the state he was in prior to eating its poisonous fruit., and all humanity with him. But God being sovereign, had certain purposes for man to fulfill. And His sovereignty kept mankind on His preordained path way through the ages.
Adam being created a "living soul" had a "NATURAL BODY," and God's intention was for humanity to ultimately have a "SPIRITUAL BODY." 1 Cor. 15: 44.
"The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
1 Tim. 1:14
In the Concordant Literal version we find: "The grace of our Lord overwhelms, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."
The word "overwhelms" in the Greek is only found here in the NT This shows the absolute supremacy of grace over sin and evil forces. And Paul could put himself up as an example of the grace of our Lord Jesus that "overwhelms," as he said that he had been, "Before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious..." 1 Tim. 1:13.
The grace of God is so "overwhelming" in its grandeur that it cannot be connected with any hint of works. And as Paul said, "To the worker, the wage is not reckoned as favor, but as a debt." Rom. 4:4.
And that means you earn it, making God indebted to you. but God is not indebted to anyone. "For by grace are you saved through faith, not of works lest any man should boast." So men cannot do anything to earn salvation, so is there anything he can do to forfeit it? Anything to prevent him from attaining his glorious destiny in Christ? Paul says through the apostolic anointing: "Where sin abounds, Grace super abounds." Rom. 5: 20. And again, "Nothing, consequently, is now condemnation to those in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:1, LCV.
Therefore when you are baptized into Christ, you are justified, and are a recipient of the super abounding, overwhelming Grace of God. Rom. 6: 3-7. And nothing can be held against you. And should you trespass/sin, you "Have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." So any abounding sin, brings a super abounding of grace.
To show the greatness of the advantage of the grace of God as revealed to Paul over the preachers of the circumcision, contrast James teaching with Paul's:
"What does it profit my brothers, though a man say he has faith if it has not works? Can faith save him?
Even faith if it has not works is dead." Jam. 2: 14, 17. James as well as Peter speak of grace as relative and restricted in its operations. In their account grace is limited for the reason that, in their letters, works are a necessary addition to faith for salvation.
Paul's revelation of God's grace is just the opposite of James and Peter who walked with Jesus during His ministry on earth. Paul through his apostolic authority of the Spirit of the ascended Christ, threw the works of the law out, and proclaimed Grace in Christ as absolute and unrestricted.
"By the works of the law, no flesh at all shall be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the recognition of sin." Rom. 3: 20.
"For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Eph. 2: 8, 9
Christ Jesus consummated our salvation, and the ultimate reconciliation of the human race through the "blood of His cross." Col. 1: 20. And He intended that it should be entirely His achievement. He Our Father conceived the end through the cross of Christ, and by His blood ensured the means of our salvation, full and complete.
"Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Col. 1: 20.
There are those who teach kingdom principles, and the manifested sons of God message to an extent. They teach that the sons of God is to "deliver creation" from the thralls of sin and death, and in the next breath say that 99 percent of creation is going to eternal flames. This is most contradictory, and cannot be overlooked by those searching for God's best, nor embraced by those in the truth. Such has been derived from Babylon's graveyard. They would rather believe a lie than dig the truth out of the rubbish heap, where more truth has been buried for centuries than has been restored.
There are people today, whether regenerated or not, only the Father knows. All men are saved, but not all are regenerated. There is a difference. Anyway, I was going to say there are those in certain circles who embrace reincarnation. Which teaching is an "enemy of the cross of Christ." Such teaching says in essence that you can become perfect by being reincarnated over and over again, even if it takes a thousand reincarnations. Thus making the cross of Christ void, and worthless. One fellow in the sons of God teaching about fifleen years ago, in Sacramento, said, that his present wife was pregnant with his former wife's (then deceased), spirit. That when his wife had h&r baby, it would be his former wife reincarnated. He didn't use the word reincarnation, but another that meant the same. And there are people who fall for all kinds of trash.
There is a new breed of godmen arising on mount Zion today, judging the mount of Esau (flesh), and the kingdom is the Lord's. Obadiah 20, 21. Our Father is placing the golden trumpet in the mouth of these apprehended ones, and they can not remain mute, for the Spirit of the Father is quickening them. "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts." Not only is the mount of Esau being judged, but the mountains of Babylon are being removed by the Spirit of the Lord. And "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." "In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Rev. 18: 24.
If one person were condemned to eternal torture, would not God's purpose for His creation be defeated? The answer is: "Love never fails." 1 Cor. 13: 8. Our Father God is the Love that never fails. He is Sovereign, and all goes according to His sovereign will.
Through the Grace of God in Christ we supersede the law and live above it without conscious effort. Christ governs us from within and we don't have to try to keep the external law. Through the inner man we live by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel of the Grace of God as presented by Paul is "Not of men, neither by man." Gal. 1:12, 17, 18. It came by the revelation of Jesus Christ, just as it does today. And that through a personal intimate relationship with the ascended glorified Lord. Paul did not study under the apostles that were before him.
The true faith in Christ comes by grace to you. There is nothing that we can do but yield to Christ. Paul knew Christ through a New Covenant experience, whereas the first apostles walked with Him and was taught by Him before His death and resurrection that abolished the law of sin and death. Rom. 8: 2, 2 Tim. 1:10. They preached a mixture of faith plus works, whence the Christian world gets their mixture today.
Peter, James and John as we said, had walked with Jesus alter the flesh, were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost Acts 2. Yet were not separated from the law. They healed the sick, cast out devils, and raised the dead, and preached victorious life in Christ. But they still taught law and tradition of Judaism, keeping the believers in Jesus under bondage to the Mosaic law of sin and death, the system that Jesus came to set them free from. Under such they could not be set free from the flesh man and his deeds. That is the principle of law.
Christendom is of the consciousness that Adam's transgression outweighs Jesus "tasting death for every man." Heb. 2: 9. Though He Himself became the "Saviour of all men." 1 Tim. 4:10. He is unable to bring His own creation back to Himself from the bondage of sin and death.
Law consciousness (works) places the initiative on man rather than on the grace of God. It is seldom indeed today to hear ministries preach the gospel that Paul wrote. His proclamation was: "In Adam all die (or are dying), even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each man in his own order." I Cor. 15: 22,23.
Now that is God's grace, and it is the Gospel unadulterated, not watered down by mans ideas. Mans ideas say: "The cross is not sufficient to save all mankind-we have to lend God a little help, we have to try to be like Jesus, imitate Him. Women must wear clothing that covers every inch of her body. We must keep the Sabbath holy. We can't buy anything, or do any work on Saturday.
Beloved, God's love and grace and forgiveness is all encompassing. His all encompassing love constrains me, I want to see all of His creation come into the understanding of it. And "all creation" shall come into a consciousness of God through Christ. "For the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Rom. 8:20.
From the time I was born, my father was a "Seventh Day Church Of God member. He didn't believe in an eternal hell, but in "soul sleep," and annihilation. This didn't go well with me. I read the bible, and wrestled much over what they taught, but couldn't reconcile it with the bible, nor my conscience. I had fears and tears over this kind of God. I often visited the Pentecostal Holiness church in our small town in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. Their message was scary too. They declared that Jesus was coming back at any minute to Rapture the saved away to heaven, and the rest was going to receive the mark of the beast, and go to a burning hell forever. These people were honest and sincere, and probably did their best to live for God. My cousin married the pastor's daughter, and they are still married today. Also, my mother, my oldest sister and I went to the Baptist meetings. Sometimes father would go along. During the summer these good people would have "Brush Arbor" meetings too on some Christian farmer's property. Usually a visiting Baptist preacher would do the speaking at these evangelistic services. They had a desire to get everyone saved from hell. One of the preachers was brother Jones. Well brother Jones could preach hell fire and brimstone as fast or faster , and as convincing as the Pentecostal Holiness preacher did. And like the Pentecostal preacher, brother Jones not only got the sinners there, to come to the old fashioned altar, he got all the saints come forward, and kneel too. God used them to convert many. My mother and sister went to the altar of that fiery Baptist preacher. The next week I was teasing my sister about her conversion, and mom jumped right on me. So that ended my teasing.
My father was firm in his convictions of the Lord, and scripture, and they never got him to go to the altar. But he would stand and testify of the saving power of Jesus, and what the gospel of Christ had done for him. Father lived as clean a Christian life as anyone I ever saw. He could at times get angry over what he thought was right or wrong.
When I was about seven years old, father and I was out in the field, and he was working, when grandpa came out and stopped my father. We all lived on the same ranch, grandpa on the north and we on the south of the ranch. On that day we were fairly close to grandpa's house. Grandpa was a member of the Church of Christ. Of course their belief's were poles apart. My father was a Sabbath keeper, and grandpa believed that Sunday was the right day for Christians to rest. Soon an argument ensued. Grandpa was well over six feet tall, and a striking figure in any crowd. He loved to debate the bible. He became pretty loud and angry, and slapped my father hard across the face. Father grabbed his father, and threw him to the ground, and held him, calling for Cleo, his sister to come and get grandpa. Grandpa was yelling for my father to release him, when finally Cleo came, and father let him up, and he went into the house with Cleo. They didn't talk for awhile, but soon they were over it. Neither would ever talk about it, but I suspect that it was over which day was the right day for Christian's to keep.
Mother was a Cherokee Indian, and the homestead that I grew up on was handed down to her from her mother. And when I was about ten years old, a terrible drought hit that part of the country, and was persistent. Everything was baked, the fields were stubble, and the creeks, and ponds dried up. WE had to draw water from the well for the livestock. The best water I ever tasted was from that well on the old homestead. Quite a number of Cherokee's were given homestead's prior to the Oklahoma run for land. One day as the drought grew in intensity, I was out in the field walking barefooted one morning, looking at the parched fields, and I began to cry out to God, as a compassion for everyone in the drought area came over me. I said: "God have mercy on us, let rain fall on the land, or no one will live much longer, let it rain."
I remember it as though it was last week. And the next morning before daybreak it began to rain, and rain. God answered this 10 year old boy's prayer. I am sure there were thousands of people praying for rain also. The drought/famine was over, and everything became green again. It was 19 years later that I surrendered my whole heart to Jesus Christ. And I have come to know Him to be faithful and true.
After some years of conformity to orthodox evangelical theologians, and walking among their hierarchy, I could not reach the plane that sensed the Father had called me to. About one week before He unveiled the sonship dimension to me, He told me: "You are eminently going to come into a glory that you have not dreamed of" And bless His wonderful Majesty, it happened as He said. My Big Torpedo detonated (K.J.V.), jammed and blew up all around me. It sunk my theological ark that I had worked so hard to keep afloat. Ah, so much Cyrus I. Scofield crap went down with my sacred ark. I found that the plainest teaching of scripture has been obscured and perverted by inconsistent and incorrect words of Hebrew and Greek, by scribes, priestcraft, and translators who would sell their soul to please men in authority.
It is unconscionable that so many doctrines not taught in the bible could be attested to and marked in church creeds as truth. As long as Christians embrace the hierarchy of the church system, they will remain in confusion and ignorance. Traditional Christendom believes that their God created everything perfect. But the devil slipped in and deceived the ancient pair in Eden. This taking God by surprise, He had to devise a completely new design to salvage mankind. And the story goes that God's new provision was inadequate for the salvaging of all mankind. Yet as we said before, if one accurately translates the scripture, he will discover that the Elohim Who designed the beginning, also designed the ending. And wills that all mankind be saved, and regenerated by His Spirit and Word. He has
reconciled all mankind to Himself through the "Blood of the cross of Christ" 2000 years ago, in time, but from the "disruption (casting down) of the world." Rev. 13: 8.
The bible was not written in English, it was written in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek. False translations have for the most part created divisions and sects in Christianity. And inaccurate, and misleading translations of important words in the bible has given an increase to false hopes, and consequently apathy, unbelief, and atheism.
Someone asked this question: "If one can only blame himself for going to "hell," does one only praise himself for going to heaven."
With that, I wish to pose other questions that have been asked. When Jesus said, "It is finished." Did He mean that salvation is the "finished work of the cross," or God's "offer" of salvation? If it is God's OFFER then salvation must by all means be by self effort (works). If it is Jesus "finished work of the cross," then "salvation is by grace," God's work, not mans effort.
If one person goes to what is popularly pictured as "hell" would not love fail? Paul was inspired to write: "Love never fails." I Cor. 13: 8.
Does scripture teach that there is only one single power, "from Whom are all things," or two powers? God, and the devil, and the devil getting the majority of mankind in the end?
Jesus taught: "Love your enemies...pray for those who hate you...forgive seventy times seven," or perpetually. Will He tell us to do that, and He Himself not do it? Why would He tell us to forgive our enemies, and burn His enemies forever?
"God is Love," was hell designed of "Love"? I Jn. 4:8, "Love is not provoked to anger." 1 Cor. 13:5. Does the teaching of "eternal punishment" make an eternal monument to God's Love, Truth, Mercy and Grace? Did Jesus lie to us when He said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth I will draw ALL mankind unto myself"? Jn. 12:32. Was Paul mistaken when he wrote: "But is now made manifest (our full salvation) by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality (incorruption) to light through the gospel."? 2 Tim>
1:10.
Then Paul went on to say, "Where unto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the nations.
For which cause I suffer these things: nevertheless less I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which have committed unto him against that day." Vs 11, 12.
That 10th verse knocks the legs out from under all the annihilationist's vilification of the scripture:
"Our Saviour Who has abolished death..." He is not talking about the flesh man. The flesh man has always died and gone to dust. Yet Christ illuminates life and incorruption through the Gospel, the Good News of salvation to all humanity of all time.
Would you say that Jesus failed to destroy the works of the devil? "For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." I Jn. 3: 8. And would you say that the "first Adam's offense unto condemnation and death for ALL accomplish "much more" than the "last Adam's free gift of grace unto justification for ALL? Rom. 5:15. Which is greater, "the offense of the one, and judgment coming on ALL men to condemnation", or the "free gift of righteousness of the One bringing justification of life unto ALL men"? "Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon ALL men unto justification of life." Rom. 5:18.
Eternal punishment is thought of by the majority of Christians as being inerrant truth of scripture. And this must be challenged, and shown for what it is, paganistic in its origins. lt is as a corrupt tree,
bearing corrupt fruit. Our heavenly Father's character is slandered, and made to look like a mad selfish monster, instead of the loving, caring Father that He is. He totally loves all, and will Discipline to the utmost those who stubbornly resist Him, and His loving mercies in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Our Father requires that all give account of himself to his Creator, and chastises all for rebellion and unbelief Yet should it be unending, what good would that do? It would not prove that God loved His creation that had unwillingly been subjected to such vanity. "The creation was made subject to vanity (of the fall), not willingly, but by reason of Him (God) Who has subjected the same in hope (of restoration)." Rom. 8: 20. Adam man was subjected to this ordeal of sin and corruption not of his own design, but God subjected him to it, and the whole race following Adam had the sin principle inoculated into its veins. But God the Father has made atonement through the blood of His Son.
We have no record that the church councils of the first four centuries embraced the teaching of "eternal punishment." Those church councils of Nice in A.D. 325, in Constantinople in A.D. 381, in Ephesus in A,D. 431, and in Chalcedon in 451 did not embrace "eternal punishment." It was just the opposite, there is recorded documentation that many church leaders, elders and teachers of the first three and a half centuries wrote proclaiming the "reconciliation of all" mankind. And the astonishing thing is, none of them were reprimanded, blackballed, reproached, stigmatized, excommunicated or remonstrated until 553 A.D. It was then that the Roman church had become so powerful that it denounced the teaching of "ultimate reconciliation" as heresy. Then the "Bottomless Pit" ministry began its ascendancy. Rev. 9: 1, 2. That same church in the 2nd century began calling the "elders" priests. In the 3rd century began the "sacerdotal mass," telling the church members that it was the "Sacrifice of Christ." In 300 A.D., subscribed to praying for the dead. In 375 A.D., indorsed praying to and reverencing angels, dead saints, and images. In 431 A.D., they exalted Mary with the distinction of "Mother of God." In 526 A.D., they instituted "Extreme unction." And in 553 A.D., they repudiated the teaching of "Ultimate Reconciliation."
Is not history a loud witness of inquisitions and martyrdom's manifesting the self righteous, vindictive spirit in believers of "eternal punishment?" Does it not foster such a spirit? These believe that God is a vindictive tyrant who is out to get all who disagree with him. Queen Mary of England got her title "Bloody Mary" killing and extremely torturing the non-Catholic's 1516-1558. She thought she was doing God service, saying: "As souls of heretics are to be hereafter eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the divine vengeance of burning them on earth." Mary's vision of such an idol god is alive and well on planet earth now, instituted in the church system of Christendom. what did the Psalmist say of idol worshipers? "They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusts in them." Ps. 115: 8. Most who believe that God writes off alt who don't give Him their heart, rejects them as hell bound sinners. This perverted image of God is Pharisaical, and divide's the church into a thousand splinters.
"Eternal punishment" aligns the church system and it's adherents hand in hand with the Pagan religions. They proselyted it's members by fear and ruled them the same. The impact that the early church had on the then known world was so magnificent, so glorious. The disciples of Christ took the whole Roman Empire preaching the power of the cross of Christ to reconcile all mankind. But when the Reconciliation of All mankind, was struck down by the newly established, but powerful organized Roman church, the "dark ages" was the next step for that apostatized system. There she became the greatest "enemy of the cross of Christ" this world has ever witnessed. Yet she parades crosses on her churches, in her churches, all over her property, with a false Jesus on those crosses.
Is endless torment "good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people?" Luke 2:10.
Much more continued...
Scott Paris
Pastor's church in Modesto, CA.
Live in Stockton, 35 miles south of Sacramento.
Author's Call Of The Kingdom, a monthly news letter that goes out internationally, by snail mail, at no charge for the asking.
Scott & Louise Paris, 2037 Del Rio Dr, Stockton CA 95204-1620
