Christians in the Stone Age
The idea of theosis in the Orthodox Church has been described this time
as dealing with the "love" of God and a most wonderful promise. Love is
the centrality of our message and the driving force behind our coming in
and going out. What became the Orthodox Church was the first to appear
in the history of the church as the Ephesian church of the seven lights
of Asia in Revelation 2. The Lord criticized them because they had left
their "first love." For us to restore all things, we must first restore
the purity and innocence of the early church and that is: "look how they
love each other." This is the standard by which all Christians are
judged.
Many Christians are in the Stone Age. Because the restoration movement
is a full-gospel people with a message of love and humility and exhibit
all of the gifts of the spirit as well as our belief in the Bible, other
Christians will cast stones at us. Those that try to live the Christian
life solely upon the Word of God without being led by the power of the
Holy Spirit can never understand what we are trying to do here. The
deeper things of God only confuse them, so they get angry and think that
we are confusing others. It is very easy for those that lean upon their
own understanding of what the Bible says to get with others who will
deny the grace that saved them and return to the letter of commandments.
We obey the commandments of Jesus because we walk in His spirit, not
because we have to but because we choose to. Stone Age Christians will
never have a part of what we are doing in the restorative process unless
they get away from the idea that their malicious confrontations with
those that they disagree with are from God and not the adversary.
Our discussion group has been accused of "religious gossip." It's my
fault. I asked the question: "There is a manifest sons doctrine that our
enemies accuse us of preaching. What is it?" An enemy was found and we
had a few words to say about him, mainly that his site was libelous,
hateful, deceitful and disgusting. While those things are objectively
true, we did not cause the enmity; he did, among many, many others. It
is not our place to return the insults, too much said already and it
must now stop. We may be able to identify the heresies and divisions and
come to the truth ourselves but we are not to interfere with those that
attempt to divide and scatter the sheep because the Lord's true sheep
will hear His voice and come to Him. We must have the faith to know that
it is the job of others to cast stones - not ours. We are out of the
Stone Age and into the light. That light shines like a beacon with the
words "God is Love."
We must however, measure the temple of the Living God if we are to
restore it. Many analogies are used in the Bible to describe the work,
one of them is that we are to rebuild the walls. Many stones are used in
the construction and as long as God has only the chosen remnant doing
it, our kinsmen outside the walls of the temple will be jealous and cast
stones. What will we do with these stones? God is not through with us
and we are not through with the restoration, so we will cherish these
stones, identify the weaknesses in the walls and strengthen the work
that remains. If we pick up those stones and throw them back, we are
just giving them more ammunition. So we pick them up in all humility
through self-examination, polish the rough edges, shape them so they
will fit and put them in the wall to quicken the work.
For what is considered acceptable for others to do, will not be
acceptable for us. We must hold onto a much higher standard and not fall
into the same judgmental attitudes that our self-made enemies fall into.
Love them, pray for them, and take the battle into the heavenlies. God
is not finished with Stone Age Christians either and they may have to go
through this process for the destruction of the flesh. They have the
power to cast stones, we have the power to cast out demons. They hurt
and destroy, we heal and restore. As they lift up their spiritual swords
so as to cut the flesh of our brothers and sisters, we lift up our
swords to preach the truth. Ours is the better way. Ignore them, put up
with the harassment and fiery darts with the shield of faith and get on
with kingdom business. Use these stones not as an offense but as a
blessing. Do not cry but laugh out loud. We must stay focused on what we
have been commissioned to do and not give them the advantage of wasting
our time.
Psalms 40:3, 4: "And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto
our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not the
proud, nor such as turn aside to lies."
Jay
The subject of theosis is one that has been very important to me
recently.
This is the most wonderful promise God has given to us, and
so many Christians neglect it. Are we merely pardoned criminals, or are
we one body with the god who created the universe? Even more important,
the gospel of justification without sanctification is incomprehensible.
It is easy for Christians to ignore the contradictions inherent in an
incomplete understanding of salvation. In what way is punishing Jesus
for our sins any better than simply forgetting our sins and punishing no
one? All too often it is assumed that somehow letting the punishment
fall on someone else meets the requirement of justice. To unbelievers,
this doctrine seems like nonsense. The teaching of theosis makes sense
of God's plan of salvation. When judgment must be passed, the
punishment must be inflicted on the guilty one rather than on an
innocent, even a willing innocent.
The only way in which the sacrifice on the cross can be
understood is
if in becoming one with Jesus, we come to share in his sacrifice and
punishment. Having his divine nature, we endure punishment by his
strength, and are judged righteous because his righteousness is our
righteousness. The problem of evil and the problem of injustice appear
to be valid arguments only when you forget that salvation is more than
God deciding not to punish the guilty, or arbitrarily pronouncing them
not guilty.
Eric
Jay,
Such love comes through the airwaves from this message!!! All of the
responses deal with the "love" of God. The illustrations concerning the
steel "becoming" fiery is even more awesome!!! How much clearer can it
be
that the foundation of all things in establishing ourselves with God is
love
- which is another name for God??!!?? Is it not clear that we are under
the
Grace of the loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave us two
commandments to live by? I believe so. Jay, correct me if I am wrong,
but
the progression of these discussions truly has direction that is now
highly
discernable:
1. the church (body) does exist in a radically "pure" form right
now -
"purity" not referring to the perfected state of each member, but rather
to
the formation;
2. this church, like the waves of the ocean, has no boundaries, yet
stops at well-defined points;
3. the only doctrine of this church is "love"; and
4. the goal of this church is to prepare for receiving the Lord
Jesus
Christ through constant refinishing in the fiery flames of truth.
Far be it from me, to try to put things in a neat little box - there is
no
way I would even attempt that with the slightest jot or tittle with
respect
to our Most High God. But there is something truly inspiring and good
about
this discourse. I am absolutely ecstatic about the wide variety of
'food'
being served. Blessings, Jay. Please keep serving. God is moving
mightily
these days --you can feel it!
Bill Caraway
Thank you for signing me up on your "religious gossip" newsletter. I
could just sit and read about everyone disliking other religion's point
of view on life, religion, and theology, but I prefer to keep closer to
Christ's teachings and remove the plank from my own eye before I point a
finger at anyone else. And when I say Christ, I mean Jesus THE CHRIST,
since without the Biblical accounts of what He taught us with His words
AND actions, we would just be common Gentilies, blind to the world and
unworthy of God's love, much less salvation.
Didn't He also say that the measure which you measure by, you will
also be measured? So, please, I beg all of you to measure yourselves
first. By this I mean to realise that none of us know all that there is
to know about philosophy or religion, or thoelogy, or even God, and when
we start calling people heretics who base their beliefs on scripture, we
become the Pharisees who did it to Christ. When we badmouth a religion,
we become the Jews who beat the early Chrisians.
Remember that denominations are of man, while scripture is from
God. When we keep in mind that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and
the Life, and whoever comes in anyone else's name comes as a thief, we
keep ourselves from being stolen from the flock. Be keepers of the
Peace that Christ gave us, and not a stumbling block for those who are
trying to find their way to the Truth. Peace and Joy. James
Salvation:
I recently went through your site while I was looking for some material.
I was doing a paper on Antiochus Epiphanes, and happened to come across
this info at your site. Being a Christian, I opted to browse around a
bit. I saw quite a few references to the Old Testament, little
reference to the New Testament. I also saw that you failed to explain
how people are to receive these gifts of Christ that you talk about.
Eternity in heaven depends on the obedience of the gospel. Christ said
that, "no man cometh unto the Father but by Me". This means that we are
to follow His commands in everything. You do not mention anything about
baptizm on your site. This could be misleading to some one who doesn't
know any better.
Any way just thought I would bring these things to your attentions. If
you have any questions I would be glad to answer them for you.
Thank you for your time.
Roger
Jay,
My name is Roger Bentley, and I have joined your site and have read many
of the things stated
by the people who comment. I first came on your site and asked you some
questions about
salvation. You have sense evaided my questions and continued on. I
have been completely
disgusted with the way every one talks about what they believe and
feel. There has never been
a sinble comment made about what the Bible teaches. Perfect in its
entirety, the Bible is the
sole basis for spiritual growth. We can read and take only what is said
in the Bible as truth,
not the teachings of man. The teachings of man and false doctrines are
a straitway to hell.
You can call me agnostic, dogmatic or even legalistic, but I affirm that
if one is to stray
from what the Bible teaches and listens to the false pretenses of those
claiming to be
Christians, they will be lost. Read Gal. 1:8. Salvation and eternal
life in heaven is not
based on what we fel or believe, but what is stated in the scripture!s.
I am not sure where
some people get their doctrine, but it would appear to me that it is
not in whole from the Bible. I would caution you to return to your
Bible and come into full
understanding of what is taught in there. You will also find that those
who are teaching a
false doctrine, will not only answer for there own folly but those he
has lead astray. It is
not of anger or ill will that I write these things, but out of the love
of mankind. For man to
become unified in Christ, as you are striving to do, we must all come to
an understanding of
the truth. That is what is covered only in the inspired word of God,
"The Holy Bible". I have
not referred to any scriptures, but if you do an exstensive search you
will find that
everything I have stated is in there.
Thank you,
Roger
Hi Roger,
Sorry, I deleted this [first] message, it is not the type that I respond
to. For us to discuss things, it must be in the spirit of love and
humility, not condemnation. Apparently you were not able to see much of
my site to say that I do not mention anything about baptism on my site.
There is a search engine on most of my pages. Here is my page on
Baptism: latter- rain.com/ltrain/baptism.htm. And this page on the
baptism of the Holy Ghost at latter-rain.com/church/baphg.htm. And on
the Baptism of Fire at latter-rain.com/escha/bapfire.htm and the Baptism
of John at latter-rain.com/gospel/bapjohn.htm
I would like some elaboration on this please. In your first letter, it
was entitled salvation but there was no question concerning salvation as
you stated in the next one. I was wondering what your intentions are
here. I get a lot of people that would like to take us from life-giving
spirit back to the dead letter. We are discussing the manifest sons
issue right now and it is certainly from the Bible. We are full-gospel
people and love to study from the word of God. If you have something to
contribute, let me know. Otherwise I will leave this correspondence the
way it is.
Jay
August 30, 2000
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