THE BIBLE IS GOD'S HISTORICAL RECORD

THE BIBLE IS GOD'S HISTORICAL RECORD...  A record of God's dealings with creation and his story of man's fall, man's condemnation, but also man's redemption.

Man became a less than perfect creation because of his rebellion and therefore cannot offer God any 'work of his hands' to make amends because that would necessitate God lowering his perfect standards... if this were possible God would cease to be God because he would cease to be perfect. 

Redemption therefore must always be by faith because faith is apart from works and in no way compromises God's perfect character.   When a man turns to God in faith alone, relying on the love and mercy of God, he is relying on God's grace alone and not on himself; God is free and uncompromised to pour out his grace and mercy upon that man/woman of faith.

The penalty for sin was paid by Jesus' whilst he hung on the Cross, he was forsaken of God the Father and the Spirit, and he died physically.   If men reject this and believe God will accept them upon their repentance alone they are in effect saying repentance is the wages needing to be paid to bypass God's judgement on sin. 

It seems to me Muslims believe Allah will forgive them if they but repent, that he will cleanse them from the sins they repent of and overlook the sins they have no memory of.  But how does Allah do this if he is a perfect God?  How can a perfect God disregard sin and remain perfect... he can't.  Sins MUST be separated from perfect God.  Separation from God IS spiritual death the initial judgement of sin, with physical death an inevitable consequence.

Sin is a fact of life in this world and in the lives of every human being... it must be dealt with.  God must deal with sin in his creation; deal with it and destroy it and its results, to free his creation from imperfection, so that once again God can look at what he has done and say "very good" (Genesis 1:31).

Human beings must be renewed... a complete makeover is required and that cannot be done by the human will, it must be done by God and his indwelling presence.

Jesus says "you must be born again", we must be renewed within our spirit to become attuned with God who is Spirit.  This is God's task and he will fulfil his word if we turn our hearts and minds to him in faith... not in human energy of will.  Willpower is of the flesh, emotion is of the flesh and are tainted by our sin... it is by faith alone that we are able to come to God in such a way.

But even with faith sin is the barrier still, it must be judged and condemned if it is to be removed as a barrier between us and God. 

All of us are tainted by sin, and our sin will separate us from God unless some perfect man can be found to bear that judgement on our behalf; some perfect man who at the same time is intimate with the God of Heaven and who is willing to sacrifice himself for the salvation of God's creation.

Messiah, Jesus the Christ is that perfect man.

With these things in mind I do not hesitate to say the 'religions' of the world are a lie from start to finish... Why are they a lie?  Because they oppose the Biblical story of Messiah coming in the flesh to be God's sacrifice for sin.  

Why do they oppose the Bible?  Satan is the originator of religion and the enemy of Jehovah and he seeks to destroy God's plans of redemption for mankind and for the world; and religion is Satan's most effective tool in destroying men.

Religion plays upon man's inherent belief in God and on our pride.  Just as Satan deceived Eve in the garden he deceives us into thinking we can be, or that we are 'like gods' (Genesis 3:5). 

But the fact of the matter is that we are not 'as gods', we are sinful weak creatures separated from God by sin and in desperate need of a Saviour.

APOSTASY or CATCHING AWAY?

"Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present" (as that the Lord has returned). 

"Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away (apostasy) come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 

The Lord will not return to the earth until there is an apostasy and the manifestation of the world ruler who sets himself up as God; the one who the Lord will slay 'with the breath of his mouth' (verse 8). 

There has always been apostasy within Christendom, but this is a notable apostasy, a total falling away from the way, the truth and the life.  That cannot happen whilst the true Church is on this earth, and this truth is emphasised when we consider verses 6 and 7 and the one who restrains these things from occurring.

There are those who believe the restrainer is the arch angel Michael, but Michael is a single entity limited to one point at a time. There have been other proposals but the reality is that sin and evil is universal which requires a universal restraint

He who restrains, katecho to hold down (fast) is one who has the power to restrain wickedness. It cannot be a man, for all are subject to the old nature and unless we abide in the Son of God by being filled with the Spirit we can do nothing, let alone restrain evil (cf. John 15:4-5; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9).  It cannot be an angel for such restraint would require omnipresence, and it cannot be God’s Son for he is at present, representing us before the throne of heaven.  It can only be the Spirit of God, the one whom the Son sent to be a comforter for us (John 14:16-17) and the one whose ministry is to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgement to come (John 16:8). 

The argument that the Spirit being omnipresent cannot be taken out of the way can be offset by such passages as John 7:39 where we see a special dispensation of the Spirit: -

“But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”

And Acts 1:8 where the Holy Spirit is seen as coming upon men: -

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The restrainer is in both the masculine and neuter gender which strongly suggests it is the Spirit of God (masculine) within the body of the Church (neuter).

The resurrection or ‘rapture’ of the Church must occur simultaneously with the taking of the Spirit out of the way, for God has said that while we live, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”.  Also, the Spirit of truth who dwells with us and is in us, is God’s pledge until the redemption of our bodies (the purchased possession) and is the one by whom we are sealed (Hebrews 13:5-6; John 14:17; 2Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13-14).

For God to be true to these promises, the indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit must continue until the redemption of their bodies at their resurrection, at the ‘catching away of the saints’; from which moment on, they will ever be with the Lord.

It should be clear that the Church will be removed prior to the coming of the man of sin; that Wicked one.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he (the Holy Spirit) who now restrains will restrain, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”

Blood Sacrifices from the Beginning

Blood sacrifices were needed to atone or cover the sins of men. 

God showed this requirement by killing animals for their skins to cover the results of Adam and Eve's sin. 

In Leviticus 17:11 God says "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul"

In this we see that by the shedding of the blood of an innocent animal a life was given in exchange for the deaths brought about by their sin.  We know sin brought about Adam and Eve's deaths because the very day they ate of the forbidden fruit they were separated from God and removed from the garden and the tree of life. And some 900 years later they died physically (it obviously takes a long time for a perfect body to deteriorate to the point of physical death).

Men became responsible for offering up a blood sacrifice to cover (atone) their sins, and as is seen in Genesis chap. 4 it did not take long before faith and sacrifice were seen in the stark reality of Adam's family.

Cain offered the fruits of his labour, he was a tiller of the land, and he brought a fruit/vegetable offering and it was rejected.  He showed his rejection of God's way and in arrogant pride offered up his deeds, his preferred method.  He did what a lot of people do today... tell God how they will worship him.

Able on the other hand displayed his faith by offering up one of his flock as a blood sacrifice in accordance with God's way, and was accepted.  (Cain could very easily have asked a lamb of his brother)

Noah took 7 of each of the clean animals and sacrificed that odd number when the Ark landed and they were safely on dry land. 

Levitical Priesthood:

The precedence of blood sacrifice was well and truly set and became the central theme of the Jewish Levitical system of worship.

In this system given in God's instruction to Moses, a priesthood and Temple was established in which on specific feast days a High Priest would offer a blood sacrifice for himself before offering up blood sacrifices for the sins of the people.  The Temple in Jerusalem became the only place such sacrifices could be made, which exclusiveness accentuates the holiness of the Levitical system; a Holy Temple in the Holy City.  Other religions may not like this but it is God's decree...

This was to happen year after year because of the continuing sinfulness of the people, and in this constant, unvarying  necessity there were a number of major problems.

1.  The difficulty of going to Jerusalem to offer your sacrifice

2.  The High Priest, also a sinful man, constantly needing to make atonement for himself, and

3.  The High Priest had a habit of dying.

4. The system was only effective in time and if continued.  There could be no breaks, no 'time outs'.  Every year these sacrifices must be made or sins were not atoned for (covered).

These difficulties were overcome when Jesus offered himself up as a blood sacrifice for all mankind including the Jewish people.

He was sinless and had no need to offer a sacrifice for himself... and although he shed his blood as a sacrifice for us all (he was made sin for us) and died, he was raised from the dead in a glorified body leaving our sins in his grave (the fulfilment of the scapegoat sacrifice).  He is now in heaven at the right hand of God, a glorified High Priest, ever living, ever able to intercede on our behalf.

He was perfect in his humanity, and his sacrifice fulfilled all the blood sacrifices offered in faith in the past.  Believers in past ages were covered by their faith offerings.  Today we live by faith, in remembrance and thanksgiving for that same fulfilling sacrifice.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.