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Giving Christ His due

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Dynamo54:

I read a question and answer to Ray on the BT website. Here is his answer to someone’s comment that Herbert Armstrong “taught Jesus Christ”:

  “I don't believe Mr. Armstrong said, "Follow CHRIST."  When I look back in retrospect, Mr. Armstrong avoided the Name of Jesus Christ like the plague. He spoke of God and the Father, but seldom did the name of Jesus Christ ever come across his lips.” (WWCG/Armstrong, April, 2007).

I have to say from experience that what Ray said is true…and therein lies my comment.

As I referenced in an earlier post, I was associated with the WWCG  for 18 years baptized and an additional 7 years studying. From that experience I have found/thought that I have not always given Christ His due. By that I mean until starting to study with Ray I always prayed only to the Father, and that is appropriate, but I believe I really only thought about God in my life via the Father. Oh of course I know of His only begotten Son, and Christ’s sacrifice and His being the God of the Old Testament.  It is that because of 20 something years of all the focus on The Father and on the “law” , and we having to overcome and keep the law, and Jesus in reality being given short shrift via teaching…that I realize that I haven’t in my thoughts given Christ His due.

When you are convinced that Christ did indeed fulfill the Law and the Prophets as Ray taught (instead of “filling full” the law and requiring more enhanced keeping of the Sabbath, the holy days, the tithes, etc as taught in the WWCG) then you (by that I mean me) really have to have Christ as your focus and not the commandments. It was about a year after studying with BT that I came to realize how much I in my thoughts was not thinking about Jesus Christ, and was still focusing on the Father.

I have been asking the Father to help me more fully understand the Elohim family and Christ in particular in my thoughts and meditation.
We know that all is of God, and right now all is of Christ by command of the Father. I know that I never spoke to Christ in my prayers, but did always end by asking in Christ’s name, but I began wondering if I was just saying rote words by saying “in Christ name, amen”.

So Ray’s video’s and writings have focused me more on the Son, as I think is intended by the Father, both in my thoughts and in my prayers.
Coming from a strict legalistic background which really emphasized YOU overcoming was an eye opener when I found BT. I at first would read something like tithing is not scriptural and say to myself “that can’t be right”. And then after study and much prayer I saw that it, and much much more WAS right.

When you are focused on “you” overcoming you don’t focus much on Christ. While still attending the WWCG I always felt down because I never could spiritually do what I wanted, and I knew that God was not fooled. So now, knowing that all my focus has to be on Christ and Him in me, that is what I pray about a lot now because I have a long way to go allowing Christ to work in me.

Legalism focuses you away from Christ. Focusing my thoughts and prayers on my relationship with Christ is my goal now, so that I can give Christ all praise and worship.

indianabob:
hello Dynamo,

appreciate learning of your history in WCG.
I was a participating member from 1969 to 1999 and experienced much of what you have related to the forum. Thanks for sharing.
Indiana Bob

Dynamo54:
I was there a long time but do not look on that time with anger. I know some hold strong negative feelings about that/those churches. No one ever twisted my arm or held a gun to my head, and I have always felt I have to own the decisions I make in life. I am responsible for my actions and no one else.
But through Ray at BTruths I know now there is no free will…something that took me awhile to study through until I really saw it.

So I now look on my life and everything that happens and understand that what happens was meant to happen…even the “bad” stuff. Who I am to question God’s plan for the world and for me?

That knowledge gives me some comfort when I see all that happens in the world today and also makes me ask God to hurry His kingdom if it be His will. I sure hope it His will that we are in the very very last days.

indianabob:
Hi again Dynamo,
Thanks for your reply. Very helpful.

On a slightly side note about living the Israelite life.
I find that living as a Jewish proselyte all those years gave me an insight into God's plan that I could not otherwise have had. It also convinced me that I did not belong to that administration, but rather to an administration of grace.
So when Christ returns to rule and installs the chosen people of God into global government in Jerusalem as promised, it will be easier to understand the fulfillment of God's plan.

Dynamo54:
Interesting way to phrase it, “Jewish proselyte”.

Even I after I quit attending in 1998 because of the different factions and changing doctrines, I always after that, until I found BT, believed that the WWCG prophecies were going to happen. When I was asked by others where I attended I told them I was in the church of You and me Lord, You and me.  And I was okay with that for many years because I saw no other church that I thought had the “truths” as I understood them.

It is interesting to me how many of the commenters to BT were part of the WWCG churches. And when I first  read Ray his style seemed right and familiar. It was probably 6 months after that I found out he had been a WWCG minister, and another year that I found out that he had died in 2012. I so wanted to ask him a few questions!

I know now those years were not wasted but were meant to be. Each in his/her own time to understand. And maybe I am one of the elect…only time will tell. It seems unrealistic for me to think that I am.

One of the the questions I so wanted to ask Ray was about the 144,000 in Revelation. Is that truly the number of the elect? Revelation said it is 12k from each of the tribes of Israel, but we know that the called are spiritual Israel so it can’t be physical Israel.

144,000 out the billions of those who have lived makes it even MORE fantastic that I would be an elect. Many are called but few are chosen. How few? Revelation says Christ returns with the ten thousands of His saint army. Tens of thousands fit nicely into 144,000. Mind boggling to think about it. 😀

Anyway, it really won’t matter in my case if I have not allowed Christ to make me ready….either ready for the first resurrection or ready for the second where I would be able to get up to speed quickly.

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