Great post Paul,
As you can see below Ray has addressed this very subject in http://bible-truths.com/twelve.htm (12 God Given Truths);TRUTH NUMBER 5
"It is the spirit that quickens [gives life]; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are SPIRIT, and they are life" (John 6:63).
"But this spoke He of the SPIRIT…" (John 7:39).
"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the SPIRIT which IS the word of God" ( Eph. 6:17).
Everything from Genesis to Revelation pertains to a higher SPIRITUAL meaning than the physical examples, parables, metaphors, allegories, stories and symbols in which they are written. "Let us make man in Our Image" (Gen. 1:26) are words of SPIRIT: "…Surely I come quickly…" (Rev. 22:20) are words of SPIRIT. God does not look like a six-foot man or a five-foot woman. Jesus comes quickly to us, not to the world.
John tells us that:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word was MADE FLESH… grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:1, 14 & 17).
God is not "flesh." Jesus had to be "made flesh." And then AS flesh, Jesus had to "grow and wax strong" (Luke 2:40). God does not "grow or wax strong," but Jesus "made flesh" had to grow and wax strong. Jesus also had to "overcome" (John 16:33). God does not need to overcome anything. Jesus had to "suffer" and "learn obedience" (Heb. 5:8). God does not suffer: God does not learn anything, seeing that God is all knowing (Isa. 46:10).
Jesus was "troubled in His soul" (John 12:27). God is never troubled in HIS soul. Jesus got "weary" (John 4 6). God never gets weary (Isa. 40:28). Jesus became "exceeding sorrowful" (Matt. 26:38). God never sorrows. Jesus was famished after fasting for 40 days and nights. He was so "hungry" that he was ready to die (Matt. 4:2). God never gets hungry. God can never die of hunger. Jesus got very "thirsty" (John 19:28). God never gets thirsty. Jesus "wept" (John 11:35). God never weeps. Jesus was acquainted with "sickness" (Isa. 53:3). God never gets sick.
How sad that many Christians believe that nothing bad ever happened to Jesus before His crucifixion. If it were not for God IN Jesus, Jesus would have been as helpless as a newborn baby. In fact, Jesus said with all humility and truth: "I can of Mine Own Self do nothing…" (John 5:30).
Jesus Christ is our Example of just how man (mankind) is to "be made into the Image of God." Jesus is our example, our way, and our destiny:
"For whom He did foreknow, [that’s US, and eventually all humanity, I Cor. 15:28], He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
Jesus was made a physical man so that He could show us the way to the spirit God.
And so it was that this Jesus, in the flesh, who became human, became a man of flesh, was conformed into the spiritual "Image of God," and spoke to us through His "words of spirit." It is Jesus Who "was the word of God" back in Genesis, Who did the speaking when "…God [the Word] said, Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). It was "the word" in Genesis 1:26 Who said: "Make will We humanity in Our Image…" (Concordant Version).
What kind of words were those words, which The Word spoke back there in the garden? Why they were the words of Jesus, and Jesus plainly tells us that His words "ARE SPIRIT" (John 6:63).
"And creating is God humanity in His [spiritual] Image. In the Image of God He creates it. Male and female He [spiritually] creates them" Gen. 1:27).
Why of course, that is why Paul teaches us that we are, "…to be conformed to the Image of His Son." Jesus now is in the very spiritual image of God, just as He was prior to being emptied into human flesh, in the form of a servant:
"And now, O Father, GLORIFY You Me with Thine Own Self with the glory which I HAD WITH YOU BEFORE THE WORLD WAS" (John 17:5).
If mankind is not in the literal, physical image of God, then what, pray tell, does God look like?
"To whom then will you liken Me, or shall I be equal? Says the Holy One… I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me… I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things… I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded… To whom will you like Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be like?" (Isa. 40:25; 45:5, 7, 12; 46:5)
"God is not a MAN…" (Num. 23:19), regardless of how many millions of theologians want to make God into the image of sinful man. God is not in our image: neither are we yet in His Image.
Obviously the words that Jesus spoke were "spirit," seeing that His very words came from GOD, Who IS SPIRIT:
"For He [Jesus] Whom God has sent speaks the WORDS OF God, for God gives not the SPIRIT by measure unto Him" (John 3:34).
Did Jesus give His Apostles the power to speak words of SPIRIT? Yes, He did:
"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the SPIRIT and of power" (I Cor. 2:4).
"The spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue" (II Sam. 23:2).
"According to the word that I did covenant with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My spirit remains among you; fear ye not" (Haggai 2:5).
"For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit" (I Cor. 12:8).
"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17).
And we too are to speak with these same "words of SPIRIT"
"For it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaks [words of spirit] in you" (Matt. 10:20).
And of course the same thing was true for Christ:
"…the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s [God is spirit] which sent me" (John 14:24).
Now then, how did Jesus teach the multitudes, ALWAYS? In parables:
"All these things spoke Jesus unto the multitudes in parable; and without a parable spoke He not unto them" (Matt. 13:34; Mark 4:33-34; John 10:6; 16:25).
Parables are "words of spirit."
The day that we fail to believe Jesus when He tells us that His words "are SPIRIT," is the day that we will fail to understand anything spiritual. The words of Jesus are not to be taken literally, physically, materially, carnally. All of Jesus’ teachings are SPIRITUAL. I will keep this section short, as this principle overlaps with all of the rest of the principles.
TRUTH NUMBER 6
"…that in the mouth of TWO OR THREE WITNESSES every word may be established" (Matt. 18:16).
"…In the mouth of TWO OR THREE WITNESSES shall every word be established" (II Cor. 13:1).
"And I will give power unto my TWO WITNESSES…" (Rev. 11:3).
This particular law of Scripture is constantly violated. We are to have at least a second witness to establish a Scriptural truth or doctrine.
Unfortunately, the Church does not follow this truth of God in establishing doctrine. Truth be known, orthodoxy has not even one witness to support any of their doctrines! Example: The Scriptures tell us that man is "mortal," not "immortal." They teach that man’s soul is immortal. Where do they have a Scripture to support this claim? No Scripture—no witness. Where is their second witness to this claim? No second witness. They will not be encumbered with Scriptures to support their damnable heresies and lies.
God told Adam if he ate of the forbidden fruit he would die: "And the Lord God commanded…you shall surely die." (Gen. 2:17). Theologians teach that, "once we are born, we shall NEVER surely die." Say, doesn’t that sound like the very same thing the lying serpent told Eve? Check it out:
"And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘Ye shall NOT surely die"
Can we all agree that the phrase: "shall NOT SURELY die" is a contradiction of the phrase "SHALL SURELY die"?
Does the Church teach what God said or what the serpent said? Why would you prefer to believe what the serpent said rather than what God said? Am I going to fast for anyone?
So do souls actually die, or are they immortal? A "soul" in Hebrew is a "nephesh." Does the Church have "two witnesses" that souls do not die? They don’t have even one. Well then, do we have two witnesses that tell us plainly souls do die?
Yes we do:
"…the soul [Heb: ‘nephesh’] that sins, it [the soul, the ‘nephesh’] shall die. (Say, isn’t that exactly what God taught us back in Gen. 2:17? Of course). (Ezek. 18:4). Doesn’t this then contradict both the lie of Satan and the Church?
"The soul that sins, IT SHALL DIE" (Ezek. 18:20).
Jesus tells us in parable of two great witnesses:
"Then said He unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which brings forth out of his treasure, NEW AND OLD" (Matt. 13:52).
What "new and old" treasures do "scribes" preserve for us regarding the "kingdom of heaven?" Why the NEW Covenant Scriptures and the OLD Covenant Scriptures, of course. And both the Old (Deut. 17:6 & 19:15), and the New (II Cor. 13:1 & Matt. 18:16) command that we must have two witnesses to establish every Word of God.
I will keep this truth short, as it overlaps with the next spiritual truth # 6 which requires that we compare and match spiritual with spiritual.
The next time your pastor mentions "immortal souls," "Christians going to heaven," "Jesus being in hell for three days," "not all men will be saved," "Christian tithing," "consciousness in death," "resurrection of the body," "parables make the teaching clear," "man’s will being free and independent of God," and dozens of other such nonsense, ask him to give you two Scriptures to support each of his unscriptural heresies.
His Peace to you,
Joe
Author
Topic: Luke 22:38 - Two Swords are Enough. (Read 9751 times)