Christians are to be physically in but no longer spiritually of or in love with the world (John 17:14-19; 1 John 2:15-17). We have been called out of it to become a holy (set apart, separated) people to God! And why is this so? We are to be and live holy because our God is holy (1 Peter 1:13-19, 2:9-10). Therefore, we are not to be “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” from the most intimate of human relations to the sinful things of worldly culture (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, NKJV). Yes, we are to “Pursue peace with all people and holiness,” but not in conformity to their wicked ways since we are warned that without holiness “no one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14-17, NKJV). Amazingly, in His permissive will God is now forcing the separation of His people from the cultures of host nations through their rising hate-filled hostility (John 15:18-16:4) leading to the foretold events presented in this edited conclusion to my 2013 blog post. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Originally Posted December 15, 2013
While concerned and saddened to see in my time our nation’s secular culture carry on its campaign to extract the biblically drawn truth of Christ and His birth from the celebration of Christmas, I do not ultimately fault them. In accord with God’s Word, I fault those professing Western European Christians that created the holiday to begin with.
Rather than just simply deciding as a matter of devotion to mark the birth of Christ as a special occasion and invite the world for evangelistic purposes to come observe (as ostensibly we do in inviting the unsaved to our worship assemblies), professing Western European Christians in their manmade Christianity the religion attempted to Christianize an already existing pagan festival. As a result, instead of transforming this pagan festival with the overpowering worship of Christ, the world from that day to this has insisted on and been welcomed to add their stuff to what the professing Christians were doing.
For hundreds of years, there was seemingly, deceptively a peaceful integration of the religious and secular at Christmas time. However, one needed not to be a prophet to see the day coming when the world would seek to extricate itself from the Christian aspect of Christmas. Those that allowed the pagan world to introduce their story lines, characters and activities into the mix of Christmas to show themselves friendly, open, accommodating and culturally sensitive, should have remembered from the Bible that no matter how outwardly nice it is at any given moment, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19, NKJV).
Satan could not have authentically offered “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” to Jesus as a prize for selling God out if he did not really control them (Matthew 4:8-10, NKJV). Consequently, any and every deal done with the devil is bound to eventually go south for it is not without reason the Lord calls him “a liar” (John 8:44, NKJV). He is the deceiver; deceiving is what he does very well (2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9).
The former years of apparent harmony between the religious and secular aspects of Christmas were just a satanic ruse waiting for this day (and going forward) of hostile, hate-filled and scandalous separation. It is another tragic outcome of subjecting the faith to the conditioning of culture. So, like Dr. Seuss’ tale of the Grinch who stole Christmas, Satan has now unmasked his seething hostility toward the Christ of Christmas.
He has unleashed his human cohorts to aggressively oppose what may have been well meant at one time as a “holy day” of celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world in order to denigrate and scoff at Him! Now, except for the persistence of faithful Christians, Christmas has degenerated into an eclectic humanistic mix of secular warm and fuzzy motifs carried along by ill-tempered shoppers and rank commercialism that measures the holiday’s “joy” in sales and cold, hard cash; where whiny and spoiled children complain that they did not get what they wanted for gifts.
Much more troubling are the many professing American Christians and their churches that as a jilted, lovesick lover refuse to face the truth that the relationship with secular culture is over. Desperate for cultural relevancy (translated approval) and members, they run after the world and adapt themselves to the world’s new politically correct and tolerant, “Happy Holidays.” They go all out in décor to create holiday cheer and drag dying and artificial trees into the sanctuary where supposedly the living God alone is to be worshipped to show the secular culture how in step with it they remain or worse: how completely they have done their work as its agents!
Never mind the God they claim to know has expressly forbidden such worldly accommodations that offend His holiness, pollute His house and corrupt His Word. All of these idolatrous things ancient Israel formally did too and were thoroughly condemned by God who warns us to pay heed (2 Kings 21:1-7; Jeremiah 7:29-34, 10:1-5; Ezekiel 8:1-6, 23:1-49; Hosea 8-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-7, 14-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1).
Therefore, the Lord calls all who profess to be Christians and are guilty to sober up and repent from their adulterous harlotries with secular culture (James 4:4-10). For in days shortly ahead, not only American and Western secular cultures but also all the cultures of earth will seek to rid themselves of Christians and every vestige of Christian influence arising legitimately from the remnant and corruptly from manmade Christianity the religion (they will make no distinctions in their hate-filled hostility).
Led by the definitive Antichrist, the world with its final divorce decree in hand will seek to destroy Jews and Christians from the earth and serve as God’s agents of judgment on the manmade religion of both as has been foretold (Daniel 7:15-25, 8:23-25; Mark 13:13-23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Revelation 12:13-13:15, 17-19:4). Organized Christianity and its local churches as they exist today (especially as outposts of manmade religion, sinful flesh led government, opinions, rules, traditions, programs etc.) will be no more forever! In those days, what benefit really will allowing the cultural conditioning of the faith have gained for the causes of which professing Christians among the many tribes, tongues and nations of men have done so?
Nevertheless, the deceiver and the world he has deceived will not themselves escape the judgment of God that is to be brought in full measure by the belittled, scoffed at and blasphemed Christ of Christmas when He comes; Jesus, the Anointed One of God who grew up and fulfilled His mission to “save His people from their sins” when He died on the cross (Matthew 1:21; John 12:27-33, 19:17-30, NKJV). Buried and resurrected on the third day after, Israel’s King and Messiah ascended back to Heaven forty days later and was glorified as foretold (Isaiah 9:6-7; Daniel 7:13-14; John 17:1-5; Revelation 1:9-18). He soon returns as is also foretold not to deal with sin, but to display His very real existence and consummate the deliverance of His two-fold elect among many other things (Micah 4:1-5:5, 7:8-20; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 1:4-8).
In this first part and next week’s conclusion of a blog repost from 2013, the Lord leads me to expose and cry out against just a very few of the many ways--including the celebration of Christmas--professing Christians have allowed their ties to worldly culture to corrupt their practice of biblical Christianity. This was important then and is so now because God loves and warns us in enough time to repent if we will before it is too late!
This is just as He did with Israel through her prophets and Christ which in the aftermath of and seeing in advance God’s calamitous judgment, Jeremiah and the Lord Jesus lamented respectively (Lamentations 1:1-2:22, 4:1-20; Luke 19:41-44). The exiles that returned from captivity in the time Jeremiah foretold, acknowledged their judgment was just; at His appearing the remnant of Israel in bitter weeping will acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah whom their forefathers in rejection sent to the cross (Nehemiah 9:1-37; Zechariah 12:10-14).
The tide may ebb and flow for Western Christians, but what is foretold for these latter days will come to pass as it is written! As an example, in last year’s blog I opened it talking about the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin decision that found the clergy housing allowance was unconstitutional. Now, a year later back on November 13th the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a decision that reverses the lower court and allows the clergy allowance to stand. Obviously this is good news for Christian clergy to be allowed to continue receiving a tax benefit from the nation that recognizes their God ordained service to the people.
However, demonic and human forces of evil that continue to persecute the followers of the Christ of Christmas will not give up; they will press their Heaven permitted cause to destroy every manifestation of Him through His people from the earth. Sadly, culturally conditioned professing Christians whatever all of their motives and in spite of their compromises do not see that they are still in the line of fire from secular culture’s rejection of things biblically Christian. They also clearly do not see that the manmade form of Christianity they love is to be destroyed forever by God who will use His enemies in part to carry out His foretold judgment. Unlike Israel, there will be no future recovery for this harlot to the great delight of Heaven and faithful saints (Revelation 16:17-19, 18:1-8, 19:1-4)!
Originally Posted December 8, 2013
Watching the systematic spiritual deconstruction of Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as growing open hostility to Christianity in our nation, I was not surprised at all to learn of the recent US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin tax ruling that declared the long standing clergy housing exclusion for those that own their homes unconstitutional. Does the Lord have your attention yet professing Christians and leaders? The secular culture of America and Western Civilization has called for and is taking purposeful steps to accomplish its divorce from manmade Christianity the religion as its spiritual, moral and ethical wife. Clearly, there is to be no possibility for reconciliation since Western culture and the world in rebellion against God will not rest until the divorce is final and its former adulterous lover is obliterated from the earth (Psalm 2:1-3; Revelation 17:15-18).
God sent forth the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ first to the sons of Jacob beginning at Jerusalem, then reaching to Judea, Samaria and the farthest reaches of the earth where by grace, He has also welcomed Gentiles that believe (Isaiah 49:1-6; Luke 24:44-47; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:6-18, 11:11-22). As the Lord leads me to plainly infer in Chapter Sixteen of my book, The Strong Man Of God, “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” was to penetrate and transform the cultures of men, but never be co-opted or taken captive by those cultures (Jude 3, NKJV). However, because of the lack of appropriately maintaining this understanding through mistaken notions of evangelism, willful compromise and sin especially as displayed by those engaged in practicing manmade Christianity the religion, the biblical faith purely presented by Christ and His apostles has been culturally captured and conditioned among many peoples.
This captivity and conditioning of the biblical faith has enabled much corruption from the toleration of idolatry and sexual immorality to great doctrinal heresies and bloody wars. As it concerns doctrine for example, I have pointed out in other blogs how Americans living in willful sin (many of whom that have made no public claim of being Christ followers) are still put on a straight angelic flight to Heaven at death. Also, even otherwise solid Bible teachers allow themselves to imagine they will relate to departed loved ones in Heaven and the bodily resurrection to immortality as they did in this present age on earth.
In both cases, Bible instruction is clear: neither faithless unsaved sinners or willfully sinning unrepentant professing Christians--no matter how nice or worthy in our eyes--go to Heaven since God is the final Judge, not us. The shed blood of Jesus may be the grounds for salvation, but persevering faith (demonstrated by faithful obedience to the end) in Him and His sacrifice are the only grounds for obtaining it (Luke 13:22-30, 14:25-35; Ephesians 2:8-10; Hebrews 3:14, 12:1-2; James 2:14-26; Revelation 20:11-15).
Marriage created by God in this present age for procreation as His priority is completely dissolved at death and there will be no such thing in Heaven or the resurrection to immortality (Genesis 1:27-28; Luke 20:27-40; Romans 7:1-3). So, for professing Christians to imagine or speculate that marital ties remain after death in any measure is not drawn from Scripture, but inspired by personal desire along with the romantic ideas and conditioning of culture in this present age.
Indeed, it is cultural conditioning that causes professing Christians to stumble over the reality of a complete bodily transformation for an entirely new eternal order at the resurrection God has revealed in His Word that will end femininity (tied to marriage and procreation that is eliminated) as we have known it in this present age (1 Corinthians 15:35-38). They imagine God will just take these old bodies and make them indestructible. But even among earth’s creatures God has revealed the transformational magnitude of His intentions for us in the incredible reality of the caterpillar that dies and becomes a butterfly (1 Corinthians 15:50-52; 2 Corinthians 5:16-17; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2)!
Of course, it is now the Christmas season when this business of culturally conditioning the faith leaps vividly into view. Purposely declining to discuss when and how professing Western European Christians morphed the St. Nick legend into Christmas, I am concerned with the fact we are watching the secular culture rapidly remove its Christian aspect. Its media arm is leading the charge on this front cranking out many sappy and sentimental holiday yarns that rip off biblical themes, words, mores and values then secularizes them.
The angel’s glad announcement of Christ’s birth from Luke 2:10 and 14 for example, has particularly become source material for holiday words such as “joy,” “peace” and “goodwill.” But they have cast aside “Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23, NKJV) whose birth summons those words into reality and carry on as if in their sinful flesh; in the willful decadence and lawlessness of the times, they can and will yet bring those words to actuality on earth--I don’t think so!
The Son of Almighty God came riding a donkey humbly into the city of Jerusalem on this day almost two thousand years ago to celebratory shouts of praise and laying of palm branches before His procession. Christians call this day Palm Sunday because of this event which occurred in precise fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) and is recorded in all four New Testament Gospel accounts (see for example John 12:12-15). The Lord Jesus rode into the holy city openly presenting Himself as God’s Anointed One and King! By Friday He would be soundly rejected as the religious leaders and many of the people following their leadership called for His crucifixion (Luke 23:13-25).
The foretold spiritual realities and truths surrounding all of the foregoing are intended by God to remain unchanged forever! For in them and all that follows bound up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the glorious outcomes are issues of eternal life and death for mortal man. And yet, nearly two millennia later, professing Christianity is completely twisted and conflicted on even the most basic elements of God’s salvation through the Gospel and written instruction that comprises “the faith” as proud men and women in the thousands clash over their personal theologies. In the edited 2012 blog repost for this Palm Sunday, I exalt the one Lord and one faith He has established for us through His blood as it is written in Holy Scripture (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Originally Posted March 25, 2012
As the annual commemoration of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ approaches, I am reminded from the New Testament accounts of His ministry that He never allowed for anyone to believe He represented any way to God but one: through Him (John 14:6)! Similarly, Jesus always stood on the righteousness and wisdom of God as already written in the Old Testament Scriptures (Matthew 4:3-10). He is never quoted as citing the writings of the great minds of history to give authoritative weight to His teachings. He also never offered opinions but taught the people in the absolutes of authority. No mystery here as to why since He is the eternal Word of God made flesh (John 1:1, 14-18). He was faithful to all of His own previously written Word and the divine will.
While even the Lord’s eyewitness apostles initially struggled to fully grasp and faithfully disseminate the essential Gospel and instructions of the faith to believers in the early years of Christianity (Acts 10:1-11:18, 15:1-29), the apostle Paul was absolute by the late fifties of the first century that there was only one Gospel and called for the divine destruction of any one preaching another (Galatians 1:6-9). Certainty does not elude Jude, the half-brother of the Lord either when he writes his short epistle calling for believers “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,” (Jude 3, NKJV). Most Bible students would agree Jude writes well after Paul wrote his Galatians epistle. The point being that contrary to the madness that exists in the world today, the Bible unapologetically asserts there is only one way to relationship with God and that is through faith in the one Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).
Too, in spite of the insane confusion that exists doctrinally in and among the churches today, there is only one faith plainly presented in the pages of Scripture and gladly illuminated by the Holy Spirit to all who will take the time to seek Him. Otherwise, those that are presenting their many different theologies supposedly taken from the Bible would have us believe contrary to it that God is confused and tolerant to the point He is the author of confusion among those He loves (1 Corinthians 14:33). This is outrageously evil beyond words and blasphemy! There is a such thing as error which is clearly seen when any doctrine of sinful men arises that does not only line up with a particular passage of Scripture, but the whole thrust of instruction in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation inspired by God (Galatians 2:1-4:31; 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Yes, believers are free in Christ to live and conduct our lives how we please before God as it concerns personal freedom. But this freedom is by no means a license to sin, invent doctrines that flow from our own prideful flesh or speak authoritatively on spiritual matters apart from drawing directly out of Scripture (Romans 14:1-15:6; Galatians 5:1-15). In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, I present faith in Christ crucified, buried and risen as the only way to salvation. I also declare Him to be the One bidding men to follow Him in the one and only faith He and His apostles present from the whole counsel of God existing in the Bible. Aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ embrace the one, true biblical faith and are ready to die in contending for its veracity, their Lord and hope in Him (Luke 9:23-26). In His footsteps, truly, a number have died and will die doing so in days ahead in accord with God’s eternally enduring Word (Luke 21:12-19, 33; Revelation 6:9-11, 12:7-12).
I join with all laborers that can in taking an extra day off from my labor on Labor Day. For me (and I hope all faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ), the day is also a time to thank God for work and very important secondly, work that is exceedingly meaningful, rewarding and a blessing beyond words! This is so for me in spite of the intense spiritual warfare I regularly face in the Lord’s causes to include crying out to the churches that outwardly profess to belong to Him, but that resist His Scripture rooted call to repentance through me and others as though we as His messengers are the enemy rather than Satan (James 4:1-10; 1 Peter 5:8-9).
Since the same spirit of religion is involved, Christianity as a religion of men in America is no different than what it has been since it came forth not long after the passing of the Lord’s apostles. Brought to the “New World” in all of its many varied expressions, but uniformly legalistic1 dogmas by Europeans beginning in the late 15th century, the major distinctive of real and counterfeit Christianity was the political and related cultural context both developed in. After the 1783 end of the Revolutionary War for independence in what was now the United States of America, both types of Christianity evolved for the first time in a democratic republic rather than under human monarchy.
While purposeful steps were taken by the nation’s founders to protect its predominant Christian religion from government meddling, as evidenced by history, most professing Christians in their churches took no serious similar steps to guard themselves against freely adopting the secular political, economic, social and cultural ways of the society. Initially, since a basic faith in the existence of Christianity’s God and its moral and ethical system held dominating influence in the new nation, the dangers of cultural conditioning were clearly not considered a major issue. In fact, the secular and religious components of society as I have written in other places worked very well together.2
In the wake of God initiated revivals, the secular and religious components of early America worked so well together clergy were urged to bring their unique skill set to bear in government proceedings with prayers, exhortations and Bible readings. Settled down in and foundational to the fabric of the young nation, Christianity the religion of men easily blended in alongside of that which was real because so many of the majority white citizens were nominal in their faith and undiscerning or simply chose to look the other way in silence as such evils as slavery with all of its immoral abuses were deemed acceptable to God by corrupting Scripture. Civil War revealed the true divine stance.
While most churches aligned with the mother Roman Catholic Church or bodies in their countries of origin retained their authority and organizational structures and doctrinal systems in America, they with emerging Protestant groups such as the Baptists wholeheartedly embraced the democratic spirit of the new nation and reveled in self-governance. Blacks as slaves and later freedmen adopted some of all the ecclesiastical patterns displayed by their oppressors. So ingrained in the Christian black psyche that everything white is right and superior, to this hour many uncritically cling to the unbiblical religious tenets, covenants, creeds, practices and ways of their former masters.
Many black churchmen as proud American, independent, Christian religionists in their own segregated houses have kept for themselves their former masters' proclivity to corrupt Scripture to justify sin. As a result, Jesus Christ is not Lord over an American church, but only a relative few churches that actually submit to His authority, Word and priorities in the Spirit’s power! Blinded by Satan as his captives and in deafness hardened into their sinful ways, God’s call to repentance and revival through me and other prophets to American religionists largely go unheeded. Indeed, after much labor preaching God’s uncompromised Word through media and in person among the churches in obedience since 1985, I have seen little positive response and mostly hostility.
While the Lord is pleased with His faithful remnant as it were, those religionist churches not dying in judgment holding onto their own form of Christianity are well on their way despite evil attempts at survival through carnal self-effort, worldly compromise, marketing and success models. It is late; a post-Christian America is not just statistical conjecture, but reality! Nevertheless, I continue to cry out as the God of mercy (Ezekiel 33:10-11; 2 Peter 3:9) who called me has commanded because the results belong to Him and there is still hope for some due to His success with a proud religionist recorded in His Word (Acts 26:1-23). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Having been accused of legalism many times for calling Christians and churches to obey God’s Word as it is written, it is important here to note that these groups as true
legalists were ready to kill to defend their humanly devised systems of theology and distorted appropriations of the Old Testament Law along with extreme and rigid rules of conduct based on it. Faithful Christians easily discern what is to be literally obeyed from the heart in God’s Word as led by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:17-20; John 14:15-18; Romans 10:1-4; 1 Corinthians 14:33-37; Galatians 2:11-3:14, 5:16-25).
2 See for example, my December 2014 reposts, Culturally Conditioning The Faith, Part 1 and 2. Also, read the and multi-part 2003-2004 Journals, The White Man’s Reli-
gion and The Black Man’s Religions at https://fromslaverytovictory.org/Journal-Archives.
As the Director of Strong Man Ministries and lead instructor in our Strong Man Institute in-person and virtual course offerings, I am excited to announce the roll out yesterday of our Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course on our Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel!1 With the Lord’s leading, this video course addresses the great need in His Body for knowledge of the Word through the spiritual discipline of Bible study in these latter days. For He and His apostles warned us great deception would exist in the times before His return as it does and lacking knowledge of the Word, many are being deceived and fall away as also foretold (Mark 13:3-6, 22-23; 1 Timothy 4:1-5).
Though there are many false and deceitful doctrines of demons within professing Christianity at this hour, one of the most insidious is in fact “a different gospel;” the likes of which the apostle Paul puts the purveyor under a curse of destruction and that strikes at the very heart of the Christian faith “once for all delivered to the saints,” (Galatians 1:6-10; Jude 3-4, NKJV). It asserts that God does not judge what people do in sin anymore since Christ completely atoned for human sins past, present and future on the cross. Those who know the truth from their regular, Holy Spirit led and helped study of the Bible recognize the foregoing assertion is preposterous and thoroughly false!
Truly, as Scripture teaches the Lord’s death on the cross most certainly did make a full and eternal atonement for human sin before God (Isaiah 53:10-12; John 1:29, 19:30; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:17, 9:11-15). However, it is only the one who repents of his sins, places faith in the Gospel and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit that will be saved which Scripture also teaches (Acts 2:36-39; Romans 1:16-17, 3:21-26; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). As it is written and cited in Romans 1:17, ‘“The just shall live by faith,’” (NKJV). There is no work or deed a sinner can do to earn salvation wrought through Christ’s sacrifice God has made available to all mankind by grace (Romans 3:27-4:25; Ephesians 2:1-10).2
I will declare it again. Although He died for all mankind, only those individuals who genuinely repent of their sins, believe the Gospel and receive new birth by the indwelling Holy Spirit, obtain salvation! Those who refuse to repent and believe the Gospel remain in their sins, will die in and face Christ’s “judgment seat” to answer for them (John 8:21-24; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11, NKJV).3 For of first importance salvation is “remission (by God’s forgiveness) of sins” upon repentance and faith in Christ (Luke 24:46-47, NKJV). Anyone who preaches anything contrary to this core, historic and biblical truth for salvation, puts themselves justly under the apostle Paul’s curse since it is a different gospel!
Now, even though no work or deed we do of ourselves prior to salvation can earn it, works and deeds afterward matter as evidence of its authenticity, fruitfulness and enduring faith in Christ which is not a one and done thing (James 2:14-26). We enter salvation through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and continue living by faith in Him moment by moment going forward. Purposely practicing biblically defined sin without repentance is not proof of faith, but of possible insincere or false profession, rank disobedience which is rebellion or apostasy which can never please God who despite another false doctrine, ‘“will judge His people,’” (Hebrews 10:26-39, 11:6, NKJV)!4
Thus, even though Christ’s work to pay for human sin was finished on the cross, our responsibility before God for personal sin does not end there! For this reason, the Lord Jesus explains one must “believe in Him” whom God in love sent into the world to die for our sins in order to “not perish” and instead, “have everlasting life.” Otherwise, apart from appropriating His saving work to themselves by faith, the unsaved are “condemned already” with no other hope; their deeds certifying God’s righteousness to condemn them (John 3:16-21, NKJV).5 Also, what professed Christians do reveals whether they know Christ and bear good fruit (Matthew 7:15-23,13:1-9, 18-23).6
Indeed, the whole Word of God teaches what one does whether in sin or not during this mortal life matters to God! Consequently, every human being that has ever lived will face judgment by Jesus Christ to be rewarded accordingly--those with the fruitful deeds of faith in Him having nothing to fear (Job 34:10-15; Psalm 62:12; Proverbs 24:12; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Romans 1:28-2:11, 14:10-12, 23b; Revelation 22:12). Ours is not a made to order salvation of human construction. It has sprung from the heart and mind of the living God from eternity (1 Peter 1:13-21)! Christians must get and stay in God’s Word to recognize and avoid the many false doctrines today; careful not to even pass along sound good posts on social media from maybe well meaning sources, but that are not biblical.
1 The very first Short-Term Study from the Strong Man Virtual Institute can be viewed on its dedicated YouTube Channel. A course overview with description is provided in Session One of the six session study. While it is not required, a Study Guide is available as a free download in the Strong Man Store to help interested learners as they engage with the video course at their own pace.
2 Read the March 21, 2021 post, Good Works Cannot Save You, under the category, The Cause.
3 See the April 24, 2022 post, Messiah Comes Second For Salvation, under the category, The Faith.
4 What has death been to mankind but judgment from God who lovingly, graciously warned Adam of it as the consequence in the day of his disobedience (Genesis 2:15- 17, 3:6-11, 17-19)? And as it concerns Christians, the falsehood God does not judge what we do becomes crystal clear from faithfully reading and studying the New Testament where God is seen intentionally instilling fear of offending His holiness through willful sin after He put to death Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, on the same day for lying to Him--something many professed Christians in our times foolishly consider no big deal (Acts 5:1-11). For further reflection on God as the Judge of His people in the New Testament, read the two-part post that begins August 23, 2020, The Churches Under Judgment, under the category, Instruction.
5 There are those in Christian media and not a few pastors that refute the Bible they claim to uphold teaching God does not condemn. Some even boast that you will not hear them talk about such a thing, though the whole narrative of salvation in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about God saving willing mankind from our sins in light of His certain coming wrath and condemnation to Hell! Being unwilling to declare “the whole counsel of God” especially for the sake of gaining money from people who want to hear nothing but positive statements about Him for them, followers or to fill auditorium seats is fraud (Acts 20:26-31; 2 Corinthians 2:17, 4:1-2, NKJV)! It is also false teaching to deny or purposely omit the fact unrepentant sinners stand condemned before a holy God--woe to the false teachers who bring the Lord’s judgment upon themselves (2 Peter 2:1-3)! Who really cares for your soul: the one that tells you only the parts of God’s Word you like and want to hear or the one who gives you God’s whole Word (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)?
6 Though he may struggle, the saved one is done with sin and is helped by the Holy Spirit to live a holy and righteous life in the image of Christ through his purposeful, persevering faith (Romans 6-8). As the Lord leads, I present this truth in some detail to the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study as well as Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study. These are all available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
In the post, Kings And Judges With Christ, under the category, Encouragement, on August 8, 2021, I wrote to encourage God’s faithful about the glorious vindication and victory our God gives us after suffering in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom. This vindication and victory comes at the forced end of three and one half years of what the Lord Jesus describes as “great tribulation” the saints will endure with only a tiny remnant surviving. They will see Christ’s return with mortal eyes before being “changed” and joining the greater number of resurrected saints en route to Him in the sky (Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NKJV).
To “bypass death”--one of the common mortal human experiences of living on earth--as the Lord had me mention in another place, is a prospect of magnitude beyond incredible!1 Biblically conservative teachers of God’s Word all well know, believe and teach His consequential judgment of death for Adam’s disobedience presented in Genesis 2:15-17 and set in motion as his and his progeny’s experience in perpetuity the day he actually sinned (Genesis 3:6-11, 17-19, 4:8, 5:5). Death has been so routinely the normative experience of mankind since, it is a byword for certainty and inevitability. Even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died--not for any sins of His, but ours!
Indeed, the Lord took on a mortal body and permanently became one of us as the Son of Man, to die in our place and make atonement for our sins (Isaiah 53; John 10:14-18; Romans 3:9-26; Hebrews 2:14-17, 9:22-28). And though the Lord was resurrected from the dead on the third day after and is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18, NKJV) still, He died! The Bible records only two exceptions to the rule mortal humans die. Enoch and Elijah bypassed death millennia apart by God’s sovereign will and actions (Genesis 5:21-24; 2 Kings 2:9-11). These men had in common a single minded devotion to God. So then, a mortal bypassing the experience of death is extremely rare!
Yet clearly, bypassing death is exactly what the apostle Paul sets forth as revelation from Christ he is to convey as a reality for those among the saints “who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord,” (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:15, NKJV). Rather than death, these remnant saints are instantaneously transformed from mortal to glorious immortal and “caught up together” with those resurrected “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, NKJV). The bypass of death here is plainly the experience of those saints who remain alive through great tribulation until that “day of the Lord” and His wrath arrives (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, NKJV).2
As I wrote in a August 9th Facebook post promoting the August 8th blog, “God has ordained that His saints should suffer in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom in part as a matter of His “righteous judgment” to “be counted worthy of” it and the glories that follow (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, NKJV). This “is also totally consistent with His eternal spiritual principle: “…before honor is humility,” (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12; 1 Peter 1:3-12, 5:5-11, NKJV)” as I wrote too. Seeing the revealed weakness and falling away to date of many professed American Christians during God’s Coronavirus judgment, it is evident many do not possess a mindset to suffer anything for Christ and the Kingdom.3
This, of course, is the other reason the Lord in wisdom allows His professed people to go through various trials and finally, the great tribulation to demonstrate our faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance; naturally separating out from our midst those that are not really His or sold out to Him!4 The perseverance of the saints is not a foregone conclusion as some teach. The Bible allows for real Christians to fall away in unbelief (Matthew 24:10; Hebrews 3:7-19). Perseverance is the God expected and helped outcome of a real Christian’s displayed faith, love (shown by obedience) and faithfulness through the most severe trials and tribulation to the end (Mark 13:13; Romans 5:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:20-24; Hebrews 6:11-12, 10:32-39; 1 Peter 1:5-9; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:9-13).
Therefore, bypassing death is not the experience of billions of professed Christians in an “any moment” secret mass event that removes them from tribulation as is popularly depicted by many conservative evangelical Christians in what is called “the rapture.” But consistent with its biblical rarity, the bypass of death is for a remnant of faithful saints. Their faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance enduring the greatest hardships and persecution against the saints of God in human history will be rewarded with the honor of bypassing death and being made immortal wherever they stand at the Second Coming of Christ!5 Whether they are conscious of it or not, these will all be of those we are teaching to be aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ!6
1 See the two-part post that begins January 5, 2020, Revelation’s Seven Churches In Time, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 Included among these preserved from death remnant saints are Jewish Christians who have suffered as a group historically longer than any other Christians! Read the two-
part post beginning February 16, 2020, Christ’s Message To His Faithful, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Encouragement along with the one that follows on March
1, 2020, Offended By The Truth? It is under the category Call To Repent for very serious reasons tied to the February post.
3 In the January 5, 2020 blog already cited, the Lord enabled me to foresee the negative consequences that have occurred because professed Christians were not able to “go
to church.” Once again, the never should have been day of soft pedaling the Gospel to build big churches and pastor egos is over! Sincere repentance fed revival remains
the only solution for helping willing professed Christians prepare for so many even more severe trials and tribulation than the Coronavirus pandemic that are on the way.
Read also the March 29, 2020 post, Standing In Christ’s Strength, under the category, Encouragement.
4 See the two-part post starting June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Read the two-part post, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy that starts on March 16, 2014. Also, read my 2017 multi-part purposeful work to dis-
till what is coming and motivate professed Christian men to get in the game entitled, Restoring Men In Two Minute Drill, beginning on July 30th under the categories Bible
Prophecy and The Cause. Sadly, many of these men do not possess the heart of Lot for God much less Enoch or Elijah (2 Peter 2:7-8).
6 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is my flagship instructional resource for teaching aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ who are the
Lord’s faithful! The book and companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are available at your favorite internet
book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
Listening this past week to the heartfelt singing of Gospel music legend, Mahalia Jackson, as she sang a standard of the genre, How I Got Over, I was joyfully reminded again of the rich legacy of faith in God through Christ reaching back to slavery Christian black Americans have. It is also a recent addition to and on par with the biblical legacy of faith God has bequeathed to His saints the world over who must contend with the foretold rise in satanically inspired oppressive hatred, persecution and suffering of these latter days (Matthew 10:16-26, 24:9; John 15:18-25; Hebrews 11:17-40). This Black History Month, consider how--like my Christian forefathers--we can get over by simple, child-like faith in God (Matthew 19:13-15)!
1 A prime example of culturally conditioned biblical faith is the entrenched and accepted attitudes of racism and bigotry still practiced without thinking by many professing Christian white Ameri-
cans in the churches. This was highlighted recently in a national news article where a coalition of Asian-American pastors and leaders wrote an open letter to white evangelicals urging an
end be brought to racial stereotyping within its ranks (click here to see the article). It is time for professing white Christians that are guilty to face the reality that the smelly skunk of racism in
your midst can no longer be masked by theological subterfuge, force of intimidation and deceitful denial or will you doggedly corrupt biblical Christianity maintaining this evil to the end very near (John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:10-23, 4:7-5:3; Revelation 22:10-16)?
2 Visit our companion Web Site, www.fromslaverytovictory.org to learn more about this biblically rooted and Holy Spirit inspired understanding of the enslavement of West Africans in Europe and throughout the so-called “New World.”
3 Click here to be linked to a formerly published article on the from slavery to victory Web Site entitled, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Revisited that refutes Uncle Tom in the famous book as “a sellout”
and instead holds the character up as an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ!
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