Just a reminder for those who may not see themselves in scripture (OT and NT) yet...
HOW HARD IS GETTING SAVED
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3849.0.htmlThere is a way to understand the scriptures. Not in a day, but in a relatively short period of time, you’ll get the main points, and then you’ll build upon that. You’ll get the idea, and you’ll say, wow.
After Jesus’ resurrection, before he left them, it says he opened up to them the scriptures. Remember that? He opened up their understanding to the scriptures. Oh yeah? And how did he do that? They were with him for 3 1/2 years and they didn’t understand the scriptures. But before he left he, it says He opened up their understanding of the scriptures…how did he do that? How do you sit down and open up my understanding to the scriptures? God has ways. God can teach you things. That’s why you’re here today. This is no accident that you are sitting here. And believe me there are not too many groups like this anywhere on earth, teaching what I’m going to teach you here today. There just aren’t. It’s no “feather in my cap”; it’s just a fact. We’re looking for them. There must be somebody out there. We get thousands of people looking, searching the website, from Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, the British Isles, Scotland, Ireland, Wales….and they are all sending me websites saying “You believe just like this guy here” I read the first paragraph and I can see he lied three times! And that’s as far as I go and I let them know, “No, I don’t believe like that, not at all.”
But there are spiritual principals in the bible that God has left us, and if God has not opened up your understanding, I’ll give you these spiritual principals, but you’ll still go out of here and say, “I don’t know what Ray is talking about.” But if He opens your understanding and only God can do it, and then you’ll say, “I know what he’s talking about now.”
You read in the gospels all these maybe 30 or 40 comments from the Old Testament with some reference to Christ. And when you go back there and read it, you think, “this has nothing to do with Christ!” He’s talking about something else. But the Apostles say it’s talking about Christ. “What? I don’t see it…” Why did they do that?
Right in the beginning in Acts, (before the Holy Spirit came) Paul says, “For it is written in the book of Psalms let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his bishopry let another one have.” Now that sounds like it might be a quote from one of the Psalms, right? No. He took two Psalms, part of this one and part of that one, and put them together. It says, “let his habitation..” It doesn’t say “his” habitation when you go back to read it, it says “their” habitation. He takes part of a verse here and part of a verse there, changes the words, and says, “this is what God says we should do.” And yet if I quote any scripture from anywhere in the bible, every theologian on earth says, “Ray, you quoted that out of context.” If I say, “God is Love”, oh but ONLY IN CONTEXT Ray! God is only love in the context in Romans 6 or 7 where that is used, you can’t just lift that out and say it like it’s a truth. Boy, I’m telling you, you just have no idea how far down the road theology has gone.
But this looks like it’s a little over the top…Peter takes a scripture from here and there, part of one, part of another, CHANGES THE WORDS and says, “What God is telling us here is that we have got to find a replacement for Judas.”
How could he do that? Does anybody know how he did that?
How could he get away with that? You don’t have to be too much of a theologian to look at that and try to find that in the book of Psalms, and you have to go to two Psalms, and then you find he changed the words…HOW DID HE GET AWAY WITH THAT??
Is that scriptural or is that heresy, what Peter did there? Jesus Christ, before He left, He opened up the scriptures to Peter. What did He tell him? What did He tell him, that he could do that…?? He showed him, that whenever the scriptures talk about Israel, they are talking about Him. You follow that? Whenever the scriptures talk about Israel, it has reference to Christ. And whatever has reference to Christ has reference to us! Because Christ is in us: as Christ is so are we. Are you following that? Who got that? Anybody?
“In as much as you’ve done it to the least of these, my brethren, you’ve done it unto me!” (Matt. 25:40).
ANYWHERE! EVERYWHERE!
That’s what He taught them! “Any scripture you read, it has reference to me (Christ)! And if it has reference to me, it’s talking about you!” Therefore, when I read Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, I know what it’s talking about. Fire should come out of your mouth, and you will devour them. That’s talking about this ministry, TODAY. That’s this ministry! “You fools, you hypocrites, you snakes!” That’s fire from heaven. And that’s going to devour people. It’s going to make them very angry when that heat from that fire hits them. Now are you starting to understand?
Peter could take any scripture….and this “Context, context, context” garbage is just that…GARBAGE! The context is; if it’s talking about Israel, it’s talking about Christ and if it’s talking about Christ, it’s talking about us.
Now we have a whole new bible! And I’m going to show you that that same theme goes through everything.
God is…how many?? ONE. What is this? (holds up bible) It’s the word of God right? If God is One, wouldn’t we also possibly think that His word is One? Yes it is.
AND
There are 39 parables recorded in the gospels, but there are only ONE! The Kingdom of God is like this or like that; it’s like a farmer, it’s like a fisherman, it’s like a guy hunting treasure, it’s like a woman putting leaven into a meal. It’s all the same parable! You’ll find these theme, running not just through the parables, but running through the whole scriptures. I’ve just jotted down a handful here:
1. Many are called, few are chosen. Do you know what all the parables are about? All of them, every one of them. Do you know what they are about? Many are called, few of chosen. That’s what they are all about. Are you getting it? Every parable is about many called, few chosen.
2. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18). Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a tax collector. And the one prayed inside of himself thus, I thank you Lord that I’m not like one of those, dare I say it, this tax collector over here, this sinner, this piece of garbage. I fast twice a week, I tithe all that I have… and this and that…. That’s what every parable is about: the Pharisee and the tax collector! This is heavy stuff!
3. The Wise Virgins and the Foolish Virgins. Same thing.
4. The Lost Sheep and the 99
5. The Old Cloth on the New Cloth
6. The Wheat and the Tares
7. The Carnal Mind and the Mind of Christ
8. Judge Now, Judge Later
9. Physical Israel, Spiritual Israel
10. The First Adam, The Second Adam
11. Heart of Stone, Heart of Flesh
12. First the Shadow, Then the Reality
13. The True Gospel, Another Gospel
14. Image of the Earthly, Image of the Heavenly
15. The Tree of Good and Evil, Two: the Pharisee, the tax collector… You get it? The whole Bible!
16. Cain and Abel The Pharisee and the tax collector!
17. Some was sown in the good soil, and some was sown in the stony places
18. Seed of the Woman, Seed of Satan
19. Joseph and Joseph’s brothers
20. Sarah and Hagar
21. The Shadow and The Reality
22. The Law of Sin and Death, and the Law of the Spirit of Christ
23. The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus
24. The Faithful Servant, The Evil Servant
25. The Elder Son, The Prodigal Son
26. The Old Wine Skins, The New Wine Skins
27. The House on the Sand, The House on the Rock. It’s all the same thing.
28. Eonian Chastisement, Eonian Life
29. First the Physical, Then the Spiritual
30. The Old Covenant, The New Covenant
31. The Carnal Law of Moses, The Spiritual Law of God
32. Physical Blessings, Spiritual Blessings
33. Temporary Blessings, Eternal Blessings
34. First Resurrection, Second Resurrection
35. The Image of Man, The Image of God
Are you getting it? It’s all ONE. God is ONE. His message is ONE. You just have to know what that ONE is. THE ONE IS JESUS CHRIST! That’s the ONE. Because He’s the first Adam, and He’s the second Adam. But He’s only ONE.
And when we are given the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, guess what? We become ONE! This is so easy, but the greatest minds that ever lived cannot comprehend what I am telling you here today. This is spiritual stuff. There’s no other way to understand the scriptures, they will never. They’ve got these theological seminaries, some of these guys have 8 doctor degrees (Kennedy has got 6: he’s got a PhD, a D of Divinity, D of Theology, D of Sacred Letters, D of Literature and I think one other Doctor… amazing!) Does not know what the gospel is! Reads Hebrew and Greek fluently but does not even have a clue as to what the gospel is! Just amazing. Here's a bunch of carpenters and roofers, God says, 'Here’s what this means Ray…' But it doesn’t make us anything. We’re nothing! God calls the weak, the nobodies, to confound the mighty, there it is again.
But it’s all leading to that last one: Image of Man, to Image of God. It’s a big jump, that’s what you call a quantum leap.
May God open some more eyes today
Anthony