An Open Letter to Roman Catholics

by Lucien J. LeSage, Jr.

I was born a Roman Catholic and was given a Catholic education from the time that I was in kindergarten till I graduated from a Catholic High School.

*

When the Lord Saved me and Called me by His grace, I began to study the Bible and found the doctrines that I had been taught by the priests, brothers and nuns

to be contrary to the Doctrine taught in the Bible.

*

The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians stated that Love rejoiceth in the Truth, ( in 1 Corinthians 13:6).

And our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to John, chapter 17, declared that God’s Word was Truth.

And finally it was declared in the Book of Revelation given to John (Revelation 22:18), that if any man added to this Final Prophecy, then GOD would Add to them

the plagues that are Written in THE BIBLE.

After the Book of the Revelation was penned, God’s Word was complete, and any words given by men after that point in time can only be to expound that which has already been given.

But in no way can any man’s words override the Words that have been penned, nor can A MAN add to them.

Men may have dreams and men may have visions, men may even suppose to speak “ex cathedra,”, but it would be best for God’s children to listen to GOD’S written Word.

God Speaks to us now through His Completed Word,

and it is the Final Authority.

With all the religions in the world today, and the many ‘plans of salvation’ that are being proclaimed;

it may be asked,

who is right?

Can there be many ways in which to be ‘saved’

or Only One Way?

Jesus said,

“Enter in at the Strait Gate:

for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,

that leads to destruction,

and many there be which go in there:

Because Strait is the Gate,

and Narrow is the Way, which Leads to Life,

and few there be that find it”

(Matthew 7:13-14).

*

There is Only One Way for a sinner to be Saved

and it is the Biblical Way.

***

Segment 1: “Oh Shoot, I’m Married!”

Since I said “I Do” on December 31st, 2012, I’ve had these random occurrences during my days at random times where it really hits me that I’m married. Not like I don’t know or I forget… but it’s this weird reminder like “Oh Man… I really am married.” Now in no way is it a bad thing! I LOOOOVVEEE Being married. I’m sure those who are up in the double digits of marriage are saying to themselves “Just Wait” (lol). I don’t expect to ever get to the point where I don’t love being married. He may get on my nerves, but I’ll always love being married to my Mr…. I just know it.

It’s funny sometimes processing the fact that you’re married, especially if you’re use to getting up and walking away from relationships, cheating, or just jumping from one to another. When you’re married, you realize “Oh man… I CANNOT do that anymore!” I don’t believe in divorce, so being able to drop someone quick just because you don’t like them is not a part of my mindset or my life, nor will it ever be. Unless my Mr. goes crazy or off the deep end and does some really crazy stuff, I plan to be Mrs. Robinson for the rest of my life or until Jesus comes back, and even then, I’m gonna ask God if in the next life I can marry my Mr. (Laughing But VERY Serious). So when he makes me mad, the “Old Allyson” tries to kick in and process a way out, and then the Married Woman kicks in and says “It doesn’t work that way anymore!” I can’t try to get him to leave my house, cuz its our house. I can’t break up with him. There’s no breakups in marriage. Now that may seem silly to some people, but that’s REAL! You really sit down and realize that you can’t go anywhere. You could, but would that be the smartest thing honestly?

When you make this commitment, you’re promising to love an imperfect person for the rest of your life. If your mind is still focused on temporary relationships and you walk into a marriage knowing it won’t last, don’t waste your time. If you’re not in it for the long haul, just give it up or wait until you’re ready. Don’t drag someone who sincerely loves you into a marriage to just kick them down and pretend that they never said “I Love You” or sacrificed for you. Marriages are not your average relationship. Don’t get it twisted. This is commitment. This is for forever. For Life.

When my inner Married Woman would remind me that I was married, at first I would get nervous. It’s almost like running through a hallway with no closed doors, then you get to a certain point where you’re no longer free. Now I don’t say that to sound scary, but that same freedom you once experienced, even in a relationship, is not the same in marriage. It’s a complete life change. You can’t keep sending texts to people from your past. You can’t keep entertaining people who flirt with you. You can’t run around and live like a free bird. You are now a part of a unit and you soar together. Marriage is about becoming ONE BODY. Nothing is “Yours” anymore. You now share everything with someone else. You’re now committed to just one person. It’s not just your money. It’s not just your house. It’s not just your car. It’s a trade-off from Me, My, and Mine to We, Ours, Us.

Reading through what I just wrote… Definitely got that wake up call again.

“Oh Shoot, I’m Married!”

~The Mrs.

There are some Individual People

on whom No Wrath of God Comes,

here on Earth,

& on whom No Wrath of God will Fall,

hereafter, when their soul is required

to be returned to God.

*

Who are these Particular Individual People ?

God calls THEM the Vessels of Mercy,

that were BEFORE Prepared for Glory:

Concerning these Individuals,

Jehovah God Almighty says,

“Fury is not in Me”

*

The Triune Jehovah Godhead is All Love,

to these souls of mankind.

*

“Love” itself, as 1 John 4:16;

“And we have known

and believed the Love

that God has to us.

God is Love;

and He that Dwells in Love

dwells in God,

and God in him.”

*

So, are they Sinners ? “All have Sinned” ?

Sure.

*

The Historical FACT and RECORD before GOD 

is that these Individuals are sinners indeed,

and transgressors of the Law of God,

and they are Children of Wrath as others,

( as in Ephesians. 2:3; “Among whom also

we all had our behaviors in times past

in the lusts of our flesh,

fulfilling the desires of the flesh

and of the mind;

and were by nature

the children of wrath,

even as others )

which phrase not only means

that these People where serving Wrath,

but that, as they are sinners,

they where found guilty of not only serving Sin and Wrath,

but these People where ACTUALLY condemned

BY THEIR SINS AGAINST GOD.

*

THESE SOULS

THAT God calls the Vessels of Mercy,

that were BEFORE Prepared for Glory,

 where really under the Sentence of Wrath,

Condemnation, and Death ?

YES.

*

THEY SAY, ?

“And we have known

and believed the Love

that God has to us.

God is Love;

and He that Dwells in Love

dwells in God,

and God in him”

AND YET THEY WHERE STILL EXPOSED

to the Curse of the Law,

which is NONE OTHER than the Wrath of God ?

YES.

*

THESE PEOPLE WHERE JUST AS LIABLE

TO GOD’S LAW,

AS ALL OTHER NATURALLY BORN SINNERS.

*

WHERE THEY IN DANGER ?

OF THE WRATH OF GOD ?

YES.

*

  How DO YOU, OR ANYONE ELSE ?

Escape THE WRATH of GOD ?

***

BY BEING Secured

from

THE WRATH of GOD

by the Decree of God.

*

The Decree of God ?

IT IS GOD, BY GOD’S DECREE,

Who has Appointed these Individual Souls

not to Wrath,

but to Obtain Salvation, as God Tells us,

in 1 Thessalonians 5:9;

“For God

has not Appointed

us to Wrath,

but to Obtain

Salvation

by our Lord

Jesus Christ”.

*

THE DECREE OF GOD is Un-Frustrable

by the Oath of God,

Who has Swore that He will not be Wrath

with them, in Isaiah 54:9;

“For this is as the waters of Noah

to Me: for as I have Sworn

that the waters of Noah should no more

go over the earth;

so have I Sworn

that I would not be Wroth with you,

nor Rebuke you.”

*

THE ETERNAL DECREE OF GOD is Immutable/ Un-Changable:

by the Surety-ship Engagements of Jesus Christ

for these Chosen Vessels of Mercy,

as Jesus Bore their Wrath in their Place.

Jesus Bore the Wrath of God fro them

until that was Finished.

*

On the Just Basis that Jesus Bore God’s Wrath

the Individual’s themselves deserved,

God Restrained to Execute the Sentence,

ON THE CHOSEN VESSELS of MERCY.

*

THIS IS Called the Forbearance of God,

in Romans 3:25;

“Whom God has

set forth ( JESUS )

to be a Propitiation

( an Act of Appeasing God’s Justice

and Wrath of the Offended Godhead

and being Reconciled to God )

through Faith in His blood,

to Declare His Righteousness

for the Remission of sins

that are past,

through the

Forbearance of God”.

*

Jesus Christ’s actually Bore the Chastisement,

or THEIR PUNISHMENT of them TO OBTAIN Peace;

by JESUS CHRIST being Made a Curse

for them,

and BY JESUS Enduring the Wrath of God

in their PLACE.

  BY DOING SO, JESUS Delivered these souls

of lost sinners,

from Wrath of God to Come,

( Psalm 89:38;

“But You (God) have Cast Off and Abhorred,

You (God) have been Wroth with Your Anointed ( Jesus )

&  1 Thessalonians 5:10;

” Who Died for us (JESUS ), that,

whether we wake or sleep,

we should live together with Him.”

*

And by JESUS’ Righteousness,

OR PERFECT LIFE,

HE OBTAINED

WHEN JESUS LIVED PERFECTLY

UNDER THE LAW OF GOD ON EARTH,

being GIVEN, OR imputed to these Souls,

they are being Justified, by God,

Who NOW SEES THEM PERFECT,

( BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN JESUS’ PERFECT LIFE,

IN EXCHANGE FOR JESUS DYING FOR THEIR SINS).

*

THESE SINNERS are Saved

from THE WRATH OF GOD,

Romans 5:9;

“Much more then,

being now Justified

by His Blood,

we will be Saved

from Wrath

through Him.”

( JESUS )

*

and are ALL ARE Under

THE POWER of Sin.

ALL HUMAN BEINGS

ARE “CHILDREN of WRATH”,

*

Romans 1:18;

“For the Wrath of God

is Revealed from Heaven

against all ungodliness

and unrighteousness of men,

who hold the truth

in unrighteousness”;

*

Ephesians 2:3;

“Among whom also we all

had our behavior

in times past

in the lusts of our flesh,

fulfilling the desires of the flesh

and of the mind;

and were by nature

the children of wrath,

even as others.”

 * 

However,

there are some particularly individuals described,

on whom this Wrath of God Comes,

and they are called

“children of disobedience”,

in Ephesians 5:5, 6;

“For this you know,

that no whoremonger,

nor unclean person,

nor covetous man,

who is an idolater,

has any inheritance

in the kingdom of Christ

and of God.

Let no man deceive you

with vain words:

for because of these things

Comes the Wrath of God

upon

the children of disobedience.”

*

These individual human beings

who are spoken of, by God,

as the “children of disobedience”,

consist of any naturally born souls of mankind

who are disobedient to the light of nature,

rebel against the light of nature revealed to them

and conclude that there is truth in unrighteousness,

And ARE THEY who are also disobedient

to the Law of God, break it,

and are convicted by It, as transgressors.

*

These individual “children of disobedience”,

are THE ONES whom God’s Law Pronounces Guilty.

*

God’s Law, then,

is the Administration of Condemnation

and Death to them.

 These are individual human beings

who are disobedient to the Gospel of Christ,

they do not obey The truth,

but they DO Obey unrighteousness,

and they are slaves to their sinful lusts and pleasures.

*

On these “children of disobedience”

comes Indignation and Wrath,

Tribulation and Anguish;

even on every soul of man that does evil,

& as in 2 Thessalonians 1:8;

“In flaming fire taking vengeance

on them that know not God,

and that obey not the Gospel

of our Lord Jesus Christ”

* 

And in Romans 2:8, 9;

“but to those who

are selfishly ambitious

and do not obey the truth,

but obey unrighteousness,

wrath and indignation.

There will be

tribulation and distress

for every soul of man

who does evil,

of the Jew first

and also of the Greek.”

*

These people DON’T BELIEVE.

And they are represented as unbelievers,

IN THE BIBLE:

 ”He that

believes not the Son,

will not see Life;

but the Wrath of God

Abides on him”:

*

The person that does not believe

that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,

that Jesus Christ is the Messiah

and Savior of men,

HAS the Sentence of Wrath

REMAINING ON THEM.

*

 The Sentence of Wrath

IS PASSED ONTO THEM by the Law,

making them a transgressor

of that LAW of GOD.

And since this UNBELIEVER denies Divine Revelation

and rejects the Gospel Plan of Eternal Salvation

through Jesus Christ

and disbelieves Christ as a Savior,

and that Salvation is by Jesus,

there is no help

for that Individual Human Being’s soul.

*

The Wrath of GOD is on THAT PERSON’S SOUL,

and without THE Remedy,

of SALVATION THROUGH THE SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,

The Wrath of GOD must REMAIN COVERING THEM

by The RIGHTIOUS JUSTICE of GOD.

*

“How will they believe on Him

of Whom they have not heard?”

(Rom. 10:14, 17)

This is speaking of those individuals

who have HEARD the GOSPEL,

but they still have disbelief

in the report of the Gospel.

*

These Individuals have the opportunity

of reading and hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ;

that Jesus Died, was Buried and Rose Again

as a Substitution and Satisfaction

of the Justice of God,

for the Sins of those who BELIEVE

and yet these particular UNBELIEVERS

either DO NOT RESPOND AND Attend

to the Evidence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ;

or, THEY ‘GATHER THE MESSAGE’

BEING PRESENTED

and reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

*

They SIMPLY DO NOT RECIEVE

the record God has Given of His Son,

and so THEY “make Him a liar”,

and there IS NOTHING that is more provoking

to THE Wrath of the Creator God of the Universe

AS GOD has Revealed to all mankind,

 in 1 John 5:10;

” He that believes on the Son of God

has the Witness in himself:

he that believes not God

has made Him a liar;

because he believes not

the record that God gave of His Son.”

*

This was the case of the Jews of old,

given to the whole world AS AN EXAMPLE,

in John 3:19;

“And this is the Condemnation,

that Light is Come into the world,

and men loved darkness

rather than Light,

because their deeds

were evil.”

 AND THIS IS THE SAME CASE

OF ‘RELIGIOUSLY LOST’ INDIVIDUALS

of the present age.

*

NAME ‘A RELIGION’.

1 John 5:10;

” He that believes

on the Son of God

has the Witness in himself:

he that believes not God

has made Him a liar;

because he believes not the record

that God gave of His Son.”

*

WHO ‘MAKES GOD, HIMSELF, “A LIAR” ????????

NAME ‘A RELIGION’.

A ‘RELIGION’ WITH A BILLION ‘FOLLOWERS’.

THE RELIGION OF ‘I THINK I CAME FROM A MONKEY’.

THE RELIGION OF ‘GOVERNMENT IS MY GOD’ ?

HOW ABOUT, THE ‘RELIGION’ OF ‘I WORSHIP MYSELF’.

OR, THE ‘RELIGION’ OF

‘I JUST DON’T BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE AND HELL’.

YOU ARE

AN “UNBELIEVER”.

*

WANT TO BLOW YOURSELF UP

FOR YOUR ‘REGION AND FACE GOD ?

*

In short, the Wrath of God Comes

upon men either for their sins

against the light of nature,

 or against the Law of God,

or against the Gospel of Christ.

*

“For the Invisible Things of Him

from the Creation of the world

are clearly seen,

being understood

by the things that are made,

even His Eternal Power

and Godhead;

so that they are without excuse”.

Romans 1:20

*************

The Bible is GOD’S MESSAGE TO MANKIND.

SALVATION through Jesus Christ

is GOD’S SALVATION TO MANKIND.

*

ALL OF GOD’S WORD TIES TOGETHER.

STAY “UNDER GOD’S ETERNAL WORD”.

*******************************

ADAPTED FROM

The Anger and Wrath of God

2b. There is the Wrath of God that is yet to Come.

in The Body of Doctrinal Divinity

within John Gill’s Archive

Social Center in Los Nogales, Estación Central – Santiago de Chile – developed in 2011 reusing old tires which were found on the streets of the community.  Three buildings are proposed which have a thick wall made of tires and a wood roof that changes its inclination degree to get more sun light.  It also considers the construction of the building itself with help of the community, filling the tires with earth and at the same time with the realization of an urban garden.

Thanks to Junto al Barrio (JAB) for the constant support.

_________________

Centro Social en la comunidad de Los Nogales, Estación Central en Santiago de Chile; desarrollado en el año 2011 reutilizando viejos neumáticos encontrados en las calles de la comunidad. 3 Edificios son propuestos, los cuales poseen paredes gruesas de neumáticos y un techo de madera que varía su inclinación para obtener mayor ingreso de luz solar. También considera la construicción del edificio mismo con la ayuda de la comunidad, rellando los neumáticos con tierra y al mismo tiempo con la realización de una huerta urbana. 

Gracias a la organización Junto al Barrio (JAB) por el apoyo. 

_________________

Social Center in Los Nogales, Estación Central – Santiago de Chile – im Jahr 2011 entwickelt durch die Wiederverwendung von alten Reifen, die auf den Straßen der Gemeinde gefunden wurden. Die drei entworfenen Gebäude bestehen aus dicken Wänden aus Reifen und einem Holzdach, das sein Neigunggsgrad verändert, um mehr Sonnenlicht ins Gebäudeinnere zu lassen. Geplant ist auch, dass die Konstruktion der Gebäude mit Hilfe der Gemeinde selbst verwirklicht werden kann, in dem die Reifen mit der Erde gefüllt werden und dadurch gleichzeitig ein städtischer Garten entsteht.

Ein Dankeschön an die Organisation Junto al Barrio (JAB) für die Unterstützung.

my life partner soon to be :*

Semoga dilancarkan untuk kita sampai waktunya nanti ya

-010513-

Rz

JUNKITECHTURE!

To make this event even cooler, we wanted to thank you in first place for visiting the site and for your interest in these kind of projects. We believe that there are thousands of ways of doing Architecture or Design or living, but we can actually decide whether the impact of those decisions have a  good or bad impact on the environment, the world and other human beings.

So first of all: We share nice stuff with you!

 1.Some Statistics

• Since we started we have been able to get to around 1500 people in one month!

• And also had visitors from all around the world! From almost 2000 views in Germany till just 1 humble Estonia

2. About the posts

• The posts we make are based on the idea of reusing, rethinking and recycling materials. We publish projects, which are made by artists, students, architects, creative  and motivated people, who commit themselves with mother earth by using concepts of sustainability on their projects, whether its architecture in a temporary way, students who did projects with their own hands or artists who show the beauty of waste with sculptures or furnitures.

3.   – What can you expect for the next year ?

• We will continue publishing projects with the sensibility of creating architecture and art out of  the so called “trash”, garbage or used materials. The range of areas will increase and the focus will be put on the symbioses of trash and asthetics.
• We are going to publish projects in english, spanish and german translation.
• “Ours” Section – which are  projects made by us – will grow (hopefully!!).

4.   – We would also like to know: What do you liked the most? What do you wish to see more? Other Comments?

5.   – We want to thank you all for visiting and supporting the junkitechture !!!

Man is a moral creature.

By this we mean that he is responsible for his actions.

This is one of the marks by which man

is distinguished from the beast.

Man is constituted a moral creature

by those faculties which

make him responsible for his actions.

***

These faculties are three:

I. INTELLECT

The intellect is the faculty of perception

or thought.

It is man’s power of knowing

or receiving knowledge.

Without this man

would not be a moral creature.

This is taught by Jesus

in John 9: 41;

“Jesus said to them,

If you were blind,

you should have no sin:

but now you say,

We see;

therefore your sin remains.”

***

“Jesus said to them,

if ye were blind,”

meaning:….

if you were sensible of your Sin,

and knew yourselves to be blind,

SPIRITUALLY,

and you were desired My Light

and Knowledge,

“you would have no sin”:

or your sin

would not be so aggravated;

your recognized Sins would

not be imputed, or credited, to you;

( eventually, by Salvation

through Jesus’ Blood )

through Jesus’ Blood, your Sins

 would be pardoned

and taken away from you:

BY JESUS

WHO WAS SPEAKING TO THEM.

*

  Because, the sense

of this passage can not be,

that their SPIRITUAL blindness

was not SIN & criminal,

or they would have

had to have no Sin in them,

or have never done any Sin.

The ‘only Problem with that is’

it had barely been their case,

otherwise, as Jesus said

“if ye were blind,”

meaning:…. And sensible of their Sin,

and they had known themselves

to be blind,

SPIRITUALLY,

there would have been

some hope of them,

that their sin might be forgiven,

and put away, and be no more;

*

as we see in 1 Timothy 1:13;

where Paul says this describes

his condition in Sin that he realized:

“Who was before a blasphemer,

and a persecutor, and injurious:

but I obtained mercy,

because I did it ignorantly

in unbelief.”

*

“But, now you say we see”;

which means

they were actually saying,

“they thought themselves

to be wise and knowing,

and they saw themselves as

in need of no illumination

from JESUS CHRIST,

but THEY WERE obstinate

and hardened in their infidelity,

and willfully opposed TO JESUS

and THEY shut their eyes

against all the Light

and Evidence of Truth:

“therefore”, JESUS TOLD THEM,

” your sin remains”;

*

THEIR SIN WAS NOT taken away,

THEIR SIN WAS, IN FACT,

immoveable, or unpardonable.

The guilt of THEIR SIN

STAYED WITH them;

*

THERE WAS NO hope

of THEIR SINS NOW

being removed from them;

WHY ?

BECAUSE, they saw,

and yet THEY believed not:

THEY WERE sinning willfully

against light and knowledge

in rejecting Jesus, as the Messiah.

*

THESE INDIVIDUALS sinned

the sin against the Holy Ghost,

which is never forgiven.

see Matthew 12:32;

“And whosoever speaks a word

against the Son of Man,

it will be forgiven him:

but whosoever speaks

against the Holy Ghost,

it will not be forgiven him,

neither in this world,

neither in the world to come.”

( These WORDS of JESUS serves as an introduction

to the Scriptural Reality of the ‘Sin Against the Holy Ghost’;

“The Unpardonable Sin”.

Man is a moral creature means we are responsible for our actions. )

***

II. CONSCIENCE

From a strictly psychological standpoint,

conscience is not regarded

as a separate faculty.

From this standpoint,

the three faculties are intellect,

sensibility, and will;

the conscience being regarded

as the combined action of these faculties

giving man a consciousness

of his moral responsibility

and judging between right and wrong.

*

Yet conscience can, in a sense,

be regarded as a faculty;

for it is the power of the mind

to know right and wrong

and to feel obligated to do the right.

Thus judgment is involved in conscience.

And reason is involved in judgment.

After all, conscience is man’s ultimate guide.

It is unsound to make a distinction

between following one’s conscience

and following the law of God.

*

The law of God has no way of reaching us

except through the conscience.

When we do right

it can be only as the result

of the prompting of conscience.

Conscience acts according

to the standard accepted by the mind.

Thus conscience guides us right

only in proportion to the rightness

of the standard we have accepted as our guide.

Hence the need of correct knowledge

of the Word of God.

***

III. WILL

The will of man is defined

by A. H. Strong

as “the soul’s power to choose

between motives and to direct

its subsequent activity according

to the motive thus chosen—

in other words, the soul’s power to choose

both an end and the means to attain it.”

*

The same author says:

“The choice of an ultimate end

we call immanent preference;

the choice of means

we call executive volition.”

As we have remarked

in considering God’s will,

the will is not independent

of the nature or its possessor.

*

Our ‘Will” is not, as it were,

another self within us.

The character of the will

is the character

of the individual possessing it.

The will is simply a power of the soul.

*

The acts of the will

are determined by two factors—

motives and character.

We use the term “motives”

to mean reasons and inducements

influencing toward certain acts of the will.

Of these two factors,

character is the most dominant;

for in every act of the will

we make choice between

two or more motives,

and it is our character that determines

which motive we choose.

*

Every act of will

is an expression of character in view of motives.

And every act of will

tends to modify or confirm character.

This explains why

a given choice of the will

becomes easier each time it is made.

The question of the freedom of man’s will,

being such a broad subject,

will be treated in another chapter.

“One God and Father of all,

Who is Above All, and Through All,

and In you all”

And in that famous text, 

1 Timothy 2:5;

“For there is One God,

and One Mediator

between God and men,

the Man Christ Jesus”.

And 

the apostle James commends persons

for assenting to this truth, when he says, 

James 2: 19;

“You believe that there is One God,

You do well;

the devils also believe

and tremble”.

I have not made any remarks on these texts of scripture,

because I will consider them later,

and give the sense of them.

I proceed now,

to explain the sense of this blog,

or show what we mean, when we say,

that there is but one God.

 1st , We do not understand this in an Arian sense;

( ‘low information’ folks may be offened

with a reference to Satan, here,)

HOWEVER, Satan employs all his strength and cunning,

either to destroy or make confused and unclear

the Proper Deity of the Son and Spirit,

within the Divine Godhead

and to bring the Son and Spirit’s Respective Character

THE Deity of the Son and Spirit,

AND the Divine Offices

of the Eternal Son and Holy Spirit,

AS WELL AS, God the Son’s Divine Works,

INCLUDING SALVATION,

and those of the Holy Spirit’s Divine Works

into contempt.

 HERE WE SEE SATAN WOULD ATTEMPT an ‘idea’: 

that there is but One Supreme God,

and two subordinate or inferior ones.

Those phrases of Scripture,

which express the Unity of God,

are not so much leveled against this notion

 of there being ’more supreme gods than one’.

Since this ‘more supreme gods than one’ notion

could never prevail among the Gentiles;

there is not much danger of people falling for it.

This ‘idea’ or notion is so absurd and contradictory.

 But WE DO SEE SATAN

ATTEMPT an ‘idea’:

“that there is but One Supreme God,

and two subordinate or inferior ones”

Satan is chiefly appealing to

‘the weakness of man’s sin-cursed reasoning’.

Satan has already ’inspired’ men with the ‘idea’

of a number of petty and inferior gods,

which men have been inclined to embrace and worship.

Either these two inferior ‘gods’ are Creators,

or creatures.

If they are Creators,

They are the One Supreme God;

for to Be a Creator is Peculiar

to the Supreme God:

If they are creatures,

as there is no medium between a creator

and a creature,

then “they are the gods

that have not Made the Heavens

and the Earth”,

and therefore will

“perish from the earth,

and from under there heavens”:

THE creatures ought not have religious worship

and adoration given them;

because to do so

would be a breach of that Divine Command,

“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”;

( Exodus 20:3)

and would be serving the creature more,

or besides the Creator,

complained of in the Gentiles, Romans 1:25.

So, these ‘two inferior gods’

Can’t be.

Nor, 2. Do we understand it

in a Sabellian ( ‘Satan inspired’ ) sense,

OR, as SATAN introduces a total confusion

into the Sacred Trinity,

by denying a distinction of Persons in the Godhead,

by attempting the ‘idea’

“that God is but One Person”:

For although there is but One God,

 there are Three Persons in the Godhead.

Though the Father, Word, and Spirit are One,

yet not one person;

because if so, they could not be three testifiers.

And when our Lord says, in John 10:30;

“ I and My Father

are One”,

He cannot mean one person;

because, Jesus speaks of Himself

as Distinct from the Father,

and of the Father as Distinct from Himself:

And as it would be absurd to say,

“I and my self are one”;

which He must mean

‘ if there is no distinction of persons’;

so it would be contradictory to say, that

” I, who am one, and my Father,

who is another, are one person”.

When Jesus Specks these Words,

“ I and My Father are One”,

 Jesus’ Meaning is that Jesus and His Father

 Are One in Nature, Essence, Power, and Glory.

Nor, 3. Do we understand it

in a Tritheistic ( SATANATIC LIE ) sense;

that is to say, “”That there are ’three essences’

or ‘beings’ numerically distinct,

which may be said to be one essence or being,

ONLY ‘IN A MATTER of SPEAKING’

because they are all three of one

and the same nature,”"

AS,

Satan continues to employ

all his strength and cunning,

either to destroy or make confused and unclear

the proper Deity of the Son and Spirit,

within the Divine Godhead

and to bring Their Respective Character and Deity,

 of the Son and Spirit,

AND the TRUE Divine ESSENCE

of the Eternal Son and Holy Spirit,

AS WELL AS, God the Son’s Divine Works

and those of the Holy Spirit’s Divine Works into contempt.

Satan attempts the lie that,

“”That there are ‘three essences’

or ‘beings’ numerically distinct,

which may be “said”,

ONLY ‘IN A MATTER OF SPEAKING’,

 to be one essence or being,

because they are all three

of one and the same nature,”"

and try to ‘PASS OFF THIS IDEA’ that

“Just as three men may be said to be one man,(?)

because they are of the same human nature”(?).

But this is to make three gods,

and not One;

with those ‘three gods’ having

their essences being numerically distinct.

Whereas,

We say, that there is but One Divine Essence,

which is Common and Undivided

to Father, Son and Spirit;

and in this sense we assert

that there is but One God.

There’s but One Essence,

though there are Different Modes

of Subsisting in One God.

WITH One Essence.

We say that the Whole Divine Nature 

is in the Father;

and that the Whole Divine Nature

 or Essence is in the Son;

and that the Whole Divine Nature

 or Essence is in the Holy Ghost;

and that 

THE DIVINE NATURE

AND ESSENCE 

is Simple and Undivided,

and Common to All Three.

Moreover, when we, with the Scriptures,

assert that there is but One God,

we mean that there is but ONLY One True God,

in opposition to all false gods,

to the idols of the Heathens;

to all nominal gods,

or such that are only called so,

and are not so really, are not gods by nature:

And also, in opposition to all figurative,

or metaphorical ‘gods’:

Thus angels, civil magistrates,

and judges, are called ‘gods’,

because of their exaltation and dignity. 

Moses is said to be a god to Pharaoh, 

and to Aaron. 

A man’s belly is called his ’god’,

when he indulges it in an Epicurean way.

And Satan, because of his usurped domination,

is called the ’god’ of this world.

THAT’S BIBLE.

DO NOT ‘ALLOW’

SATAN’s ‘usurped domination’,

TO BE OVER

YOUR UNDERSTANDING

OF THE GODHEAD.

******

This Doctrine:

THE PROOF OF THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE:

that THERE IS ONE DIVINE TRIUNE GODHEAD,

adapted from The Gill Achieve ,

is THE Doctrine of a Trinity of Persons;

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

in the Unity of the Divine Essence

and is Pure Revelation

( Revealed by God Himself,

or would never be able to be known ).

kalo memang udah rezekinya, udah jodohnya,

pas udah direlain buat gak dimiliki lagi,

ternyata balik ke tangan juga

*edisi gelang-rantai titanium setaunan kembaran ama si Mas-yg udah diikhlasin ilang 2 hari yang lalu ditemuin lagi di kantor sama anaknya ibu ketua tim yg ganteng, makasih ya Ihsaan

Semoga berjodohnya bukan cuma ama gelangnya tapi juga ama yang ngasih, aamiin *nyengir lebar *

-290413-

Rz

The Testimony of an Ex-Roman Catholic

or

The Testimony of a Wretch

by Lucien J. LeSage, Jr.

This is my testimony of how the Lord saved me.

I walked an aisle, came up to the front, or whatever you want to call it, in a Baptist Church over 32 years ago, but let me say this; there was an amazing experience that went on in my soul before I ever walked that isle. Walking an aisle and coming to the front was only the results of something else that was so personnel between my lost soul and God

that it is hard to explain.

I had lived a sinful life before I was ever saved. In fact I was not even really sure that God existed. I was raised Roman Catholic and was taught the 10 commandments and about Jesus Christ and the Trinity, etc. The Catholic Church does teach some Truth about God and Christ.

They certainly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was God Manifest in the Flesh. At least that was what I was taught through 12 years of Catholic Schools.

But the way of ‘salvation’ in the Catholic Church was through the sacraments and by not committing mortal sins and if you did going to confession to absolve you of those sins.

And doing what the Catholic Church obligated you to do.

I was taught that there was NO ‘salvation’ outside the Catholic Church. They taught that you could only receive Christ through the Catholic Church. So anyway, I did have some foundation about God’s Laws

which does mold a person’s conscience.

But just having a conscience and being religious and going to church is not what Salvation is all about.

That alone will never Save a person and it never Saved me.

I was very religious in my early years but just as lost as I could be and didn’t know it.

As time went on my life changed somewhat and I got completely out of the Catholic Church and only attended a few meetings in a Baptist Church because

I was dating my future wife at the time.

I remember one time that the preacher gave a sermon that did bring conviction and I could not wait to get out of there.

BUT when I left the church service it was OK.

I know now, that was the General Work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit evidently was in that message but not in me because when I got away from there I was at peace again (but not the peace of God, that’s for sure).

I can even remember a few years later on a camping trip that I mocked Christians

that were singing Gospel hymns in the camp ground.

I still remember that because I realized for some reason I was so eager to mock them, but if they would have been signing some other song I would have never thought a thing.

Why?

That did stick in my mind.

Why was I so eager to mock them?

It was years later in 1979 that something happened to me.

I was not in a church at the time

and had not been attending church.

It was probably at a time in my life that I was about as far away from God as a person could get. I certainly was not seeking after God at that time. I am not sure I can really explain what happened other than, to keep it very simple,

I became “God aware.”

For the first time I REALLY and I mean REALLY knew that God existed. The more this progressed in my soul I began to search for answers. I went back to the Catholic Church but found no rest for my troubled soul. Just attending some religious service did nothing to bring relief.

In fact I left more troubled and empty than when I got there.

I kept looking for answers.

At first I could not even figure out what was going on.

When I thought maybe I was a good person that would just get shot down quickly. NO WAY!

When I looked back at my life

I wasn’t a righteous man.

I figured the answers I was looking for were in the Bible.

This went on for some time with me, but not an excessive amount of time, looking back on it. The more I found out the more empty and troubled I became. I would here someone say this or that about the Bible

and I only became more troubled.

I was beginning to see how HOLY God was and how UNHOLY I was. I tried to forget about it all and just go back to the way it was before all this started

but IT WOULD NOT go away.

I couldn’t figure my way out of it.

The more I tried to figure my way out of it the more trapped and cornered I became. I eventually went and spoke with a co-worker that was in the hospital from a car wreck. The reason I went to him was because I knew that he knew more about the Bible than anyone I had talked to

or who had tried to help me.

I figured if anyone could help me it would be him.

Well, when I left his presence I was under more conviction than I had ever been. I was still troubled with no fix.

I was more cornered than ever.

God’s Holy Law and my sins had me cornered and it looked like God’s Righteous Wrath was going to be my lot.

I remember riding home that night

and I broke out in a cold sweat from fear.

It was the fear of God. I had never been so lost.

I was as lost as a bug in a hurricane.

But later I read in the scripture that the Fear of the Lord is the very beginning of spiritual understanding

(Psalm 111:10 and Proverb 9:10).

That’s why John Newton wrote in the song “Amazing Grace” that it was “Grace that taught my heart to Fear.”

Notice he said heart to Fear.

The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing

to fall into the Hands of the Living God” (Heb 10:31).

The fear of the Lord may be Reverence to a Saved sinner but to a lost depraved sinner who sees his sins and condition it is just fear of a Holy, All Powerful and All Knowing God.

In this experience I never heard a voice other than scripture being quoted by men, or saw any vision that some people claim to see, or anything like that,

but there was something wrong in my spirit.

I don’t understand how God

conveys that to a person’s spirit but He does.

Well, I found myself to be a lost sinner

and deserving of God’s punishment.

This was not something that I sought.

Why would I seek to shut myself up in a corner

with no seemingly way out?

Things were just fine before this all started,

so I thought.

Why would I want to make myself

a miserable lost sinner?

Why would I want to make myself undone?

When Isaiah saw God in his glory, he said,

“Woe is me! for I am undone;

because I am a man of unclean lips.”

Man was I unclean and undone.

I remember after I was saved that a preacher told me that all that fear that I had was not of God but was from the devil.

I wondered why would the devil want to make me fear God’s judgment and flee to Christ.

I knew God had His hand in it all in some way.

It didn’t take me long from reading the Bible to see that was a bunch of nonsense.

If the fear of the Lord in the beginning of conviction is only reverence then why would Newton write in his song

“Amazing Grace” that grace taught his heart to Fear

and Grace relieved that Fear.

We should always reverence the Lord with reverential fear.

Anyway going back to when I left my co-worker in fear,

I found myself cornered with no way out.

The next Sunday after my conversation with my co-worker and finding myself just lost, we went to a local Baptist Church.

The pastor preached a simple sermon

on Jesus Christ being the Savior.

Man was I ready to Receive JESUS Christ.

I needed relief and Christ was The Way Out.

JESUS was the Door that was The Way Out of this misery and mess that I found myself in.

For the first time I really knew in my HEART

what THE GIVING GRACE of SALVATION was all about.

JESUS had Taken Care of all my sins at the Cross

and I bare them no more.

What a relief! And believe me they were a heavy load on me at that time. Those sins were always against me but they never were this kind of load until the Holy Spirit dealt with my heart. I believed ON Christ for the first time.

I had believed ABOUT Him in the past as a young Catholic with a head knowledge, but now

I had believed ON Him from the HEART.

Guess what, the Bible says that a saved person

believes from the heart (Rom 10:9).

It is a heart thing not just a mental decision.

No one had to beg me.

They didn’t need to sing another stanza of some song.

It was as easy as falling off a log.

There was nothing to work up.

It had already been worked up for me.

Does anyone need to be worked up

to flee a burning building?

That kind of comes natural doesn’t it.

It was as natural as a baby taking that first breath of air

because he or she NOW has life.

I was amazed afterwards and asked myself,

“Is this the way it is? Is this how a person is saved?”

I knew that I had nothing to do with it.

I read in the Bible how Paul was saved

and for some reason I could relate

to what happened to him so much.

I wasn’t blinded and did not hear JESUS Christ Speak

as Paul did, but there were some similarities

and a pattern that were the same.

Paul was not seeking Christ.

In fact Paul was on the road to Damascus

to put Christians in prison.

It was on that road that Christ, who is God, stopped Paul.

I was not seeking Christ while on my road of rebellion.

I was on the road to destruction and Christ Stopped me.

You see it was not I did this or I did that,

but it was God that Stopped me.

I was Apprehended by the High Sheriff of Glory.

Paul said in Philippians 3:12 that

he had been Apprehended of Jesus Christ.

It was not an apprehension where I was dragged

against my will kicking and screaming

but I was very willing to seek Christ NOW.

But why now and not before?

From my testimony, you can clearly see why.

The book of Psalm has the answer:

“Your people will be Willing

in the Day of Your Power…”

(Psalm 110:3).

I remember at a choir practice in that same church

some of us gave our testimony.

After I gave mine the choir director said

that he did not have

the Damascus Road experience that I had

and then he went on to say a few things about his Relationship with Christ.

But that stuck in my mind because I could relate

to Paul’s experience in so many ways

as I already mentioned above.

Well then I read what Paul said about his experience.

Paul said,

“How is it for this cause I obtained Mercy,

that in me first Jesus Christ

might Show Forth all Longsuffering,

for a pattern to them

which should hereafter believe on Him

to Life Everlasting” (1Tim 1:16).

It is not that we all have this

same exact experience but it is a pattern.

It is how God deals with sinners

and I believe backslidden Christians

may be brought back in a similar way sometimes.

It is a pattern to how God

will save the Unbelieving.

They will be turned to Christ.

Dear reader, a heart change had taken place in me.

The treasure chest of my heart

had something new in it whereas before

it was just old corrupt stuff in there.

Remember Jesus said that

out of the “treasure of the heart”

a man does this or that.

It is out of the treasure chest

of a man’s heart that ‘works’ come.

The fruit of a tree is the evidence

of life and not the cause.

It shows what kind of tree it is.

You could hang all kind of fruit on a dead tree

and it would still just be a dead tree.

That’s religion without regeneration.

No wonder Jesus said,

“You must be Born Again”

(John 3:7).

Paul explained it when he told the believers at Ephesus,

“And you has He Quickened ( Made ALIVE, SPIRITUALLY)

who were dead in trespasses and sins…”

Lost sinners are dead in their sins

and can do nothing

to raise themselves from the spiritual dead.

For a sinner to be saved

and believe on Christ

a Quickening by the Holy Spirit

must take place

in order for SPIRITUAL Faith to be exercised.

Well, now I had Peace, but it was the Peace of God.

It was real Peace.

And that is not any ‘peace’

as the world ‘attempts’ to give,

but the peace that

“passes all understanding”

( Philippians 4:7).

This Peace brings Joy.

I said JOY not FUN.

There is a big difference.

When Christians were being burned at the stake

I don’t think they were having fun.

They may not have been very happy

but they had Great Joy.

Now that is something that I want in my life.

A Joy that if I was about to be killed for my faith

that I would just have a Joy Unspeakable.

Man that would be something!

I have heard it said that

“God gives dying grace on dying days.”

I have one last thought

and I put it to you as a question.

Do you think that what happened to me

God had Planned it?

Or was it an accident?

And if He Planned it

how long ago did GOD Plan it?

The answer is in 2nd Thessalonians 2:13.

“But we are bound to give thanks

always to God for you,

brethren beloved of the Lord,

because God has

from the beginning chosen you to salvation

through sanctification of the Spirit

and belief of the Truth:”

& in Ephesians 2:8, 9, 10

“For by Grace are you Saved through Faith;

and that NOT OF YOURSELVES:

it is the gift of God: 

Not of works,

lest any man should boast. 

For we are His workmanship,

Created in Christ Jesus

unto good works,

which God has Before Ordained

that we should walk in them.”

Paul said this after he first mentioned

that they were dead in sins but were quickened.

Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.

I was definitely lost

and Jesus Who is the Christ found me.

I was blind but now I could see what it was all about.

Yes, it was Grace that taught my heart to Fear

the Wrath of a Holy God

and that same Grace eased my fears

into Reverence when GOD Gave me Faith

to Trust the Completed Work of His Son, Jesus Christ,

IN ETERNAL SALVATION, as my Substitute.

Oh yea, I sweated from fear,

but He Sweated as it were great drops of blood in my place.

I will never fear the Wrath of God

in a Lake of Fire

because JESUS took my place

and Bore all that I should have.

God by His Grace Started a Work in me

and I am confident

that He Will Bring it to Fruition

in the Day of Jesus Christ

(Philippians 1:6).

I wonder how many people sing “Amazing Grace”

and have never had

the experience John Newton was writing about.

I wonder!

The call goes out to those

who are heavy laden under their sins.

Jesus said,

“Come to Me, all you that labor

and are heavy burdened,

and I Will Give you Rest”

(Matthew 11:28).

Jesus said again,

“for I Am not Come

to call the righteous, but sinners to Repentance”

(Mt 9:13).

Please read “I Am Looking for Sinners” by Curtis Pugh.

By His Grace ALONE,

Lucien LeSage, Jr.

You may also be interested

in An Open Letter to Roman Catholics.

and see what they say about

“20 Random things a dead terrorist

knows NOW about God’s Word, The Bible.”

1.) HELL IS: A Lake of Fire – Revelation 20:15

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life

was cast into the Lake of Fire.”

***

2.) HELL IS: A Bottomless Pit – Revelation 20:1 & 3

“And I saw an angel

come down from heaven,

having the key

of the bottomless pit

and a great chain in his hand.”

“And cast him

into the bottomless pit,

and shut him up,

and set a seal on him,

that he should

deceive the nations no more,

till the thousand years

should be fulfilled:

and after that he must be

loosed a little season.”

***

3.) HELL IS: A Devouring Fire – Isaiah 33:14

“The sinners in Zion are afraid;

fearfulness

has surprised the hypocrites.

Who among us will dwell

with the Devouring Fire?

who among us will dwell

with Everlasting Burnings?”

***

4.) HELL IS: A Horrible Tempest – Psalm 11:6

“Upon the wicked

He Will Rain Snares,

Fire and Brimstone,

and an Horrible Tempest:

this will be

the portion of their cup.”

***

5.) HELL IS: A Place of Bitter Sorrow – Psalm 18:5

“The sorrows of Hell

compassed me about:

the Snares of Death

prevented me.”

***

6.) HELL IS: A Place where all wail – Matthew 13:42

“And Will Cast them into

a Furnace of Fire:

there will be

wailing and gnashing of teeth.“

***

7.) HELL IS: A Place of weeping – Matthew 8:12

“But the children of the kingdom

Will be Cast out into

Outer Darkness:

there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth.”

***

8.) HELL IS: A Place of Torment – Luke 16:23

“And in Hell he lifted up his eyes,

being in torments,

and saw Abraham afar off,

and Lazarus in his bosom.”

***

9.) HELL IS: A Place of Filth – Revelation 22: 11

“He that is unjust,

let him be unjust still:

and he which is filthy,

let him be filthy still:

and he that is righteous,

let him be righteous still:

and he that is Holy,

let him be Holy still.”

***

10.) HELL IS: A Place of Cursing –

Revelation 16:11

***

11.) HELL IS: A Place of Outer Darkness –

Matthew 25:30

***

12.) HELL IS: A Place WITHOUT Mercy

- Luke 16:24

***

13.) HELL IS: A Place where tongues are gnawed

– Revelation 16:10

***

14.) HELL IS: A Place where the Devil will be

- Matthew 25:41

***

15.) HELL IS: A Place where the Fallen Angels will be

– Matthew 25:41

***

16.) HELL IS: A Place where abominable men will be

- Revelation 21:8

***

17.) HELL IS: A Place where there is no repentance

- Revelation 16:9

***

18.) HELL IS: A place of gnashing of teeth

- Matthew 24:51

***

19.) HELL IS: A place where THOSE IN HELL

DO NOT WANT THEIR RELATIVES to COME:

“And in hell he lift up his eyes,

being in torments,

and saw Abraham afar off,

and Lazarus in his bosom.

*

And he cried and said,

Father Abraham,

have mercy on me,

and send Lazarus,

that he may dip

the tip of his finger in water,

and cool my tongue;

for I am tormented in this flame.

*

But Abraham said, Son,

remember that you

in your lifetime

received your good things,

and likewise Lazarus evil things:

but now he is comforted,

and you are tormented.

*

And beside all this,

between us and you

there is a great gulf fixed:

so that they which would pass

from Here to you cannot;

neither can they pass to us,

that would come from there.

“Then I beg you, father,

send Lazarus to my family,

For I have five brethren;

that he may testify to them,

lest they also come

into this place of torment.”

*

Abraham saith unto him,

They have Moses

and the prophets;

let them hear them. 

And he said, No, father Abraham:

but if one went to them

from the dead,

they will repent.

*

And he said to him,

If they do not hear Moses

and the prophets,

neither will they be persuaded,

though one rose from the dead.”

Luke 16:23 – 31

A family photo: Anzor Tsarnaev (left), Zubeidat Tsarnaeva,

and Anzor’s brother Mukhammad Tsarnaev in an undated photo.

They are holding young Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon Bomber died at 26-years-old,

after an overnight shoot-out with police on April 18, 2013.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after his younger brother, Boston Marathon Bomber 2 above,

dragged him for 40 feet underneath his car during his escape from police.

***  

HER SON KNOWS BETTER.

“If they hear not Moses

and the prophets,

neither will they be persuaded,

though one rose from the dead.”

*

Hell is a terrible Place

Hell is  humanly incomprehensible,

and a Place to be avoided

at the cost of all things

which this life has to offer.

***

The Savior Jesus Christ, God the Son,

asks,

20.) “For what will it profit a man,

if he will gain the whole world,

and lose his own soul?”

(Mark. 8:36).

If you are reading this and you feel that you are a good person,

this is not for you.

You may as well cease reading this blog and mosey on.

At this point in your life, at least, you have no part in these things.

“How dare I write such a thing about a good person such as you are,”

you ask?

It is because Jesus said the same thing

that I dare to write as I do.

Jesus said,

“They that are whole have no need of the physician,

but they that are sick:

I came not to Call the righteous, but sinners to Repentance”

(Mark 2:17).

Of course there are none who are truly righteous, OTHER THAN WHEN GOD CREDITS THEIR SOUL WITH THE PERFECT LIFE JESUS LIVED, IN WHAT IS CALLED, “SALVATION.”

but the point is this:

if you feel that you are righteous,

if you feel that you are a good person,

you have no interest in the Work of JESUS Christ.

 JESUS Came to Call sinners to Repentance, not good people.

This is not for you.

***************

adapted from

I AM LOOKING FOR SINNERS

by Curtis Pugh

]]> http://awareofthegodhead.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/accept-christ-come-to-christ-repent-and-turn-to-god-believe-or-trust-him/ Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:17:23 +0000 awareofthegodhead http://awareofthegodhead.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/accept-christ-come-to-christ-repent-and-turn-to-god-believe-or-trust-him/ PRAYER AND

SALVATION

Prayer Prompted by Faith

can Claim God’s Promise of Salvation

“For everyone who shall calll upon the name of the Lord

will be saved.

How then will they call to Him Whom they did not believe?

And how will they believe Him of Whom they did not hear?

And how wil they hear without a preacher? . . .

So then the Faith is from hearing,

and the hearing is through the Word of God.”

( Romans 10:13-17 )

Can a lost sinner or should a lost sinner pray ?

And if a lost sinner does pray, will God hear him?

One preacher tells the sinner to “accept Christ”;

Another preacher urges a lost sinner to “come to Christ”;

A third preacher demands that the sinner “repent” and “turn to God”;

Then, a fourth preacher says “believe” or “trust” Him;

Still another preacher invites the sinner to ask God to save you

“for Jesus’ sake.”

Are there so many different ways to be saved?

Or are these just different ways of directing sinners to the one Way, Jesus Christ?

Our answer must depend upon whether these and other invitational expressions are Scripturally Explained and Understood.

*********************

adapted from

PRAYER AND SALVATION

By Rosco Brong
Former Dean, Lexington Baptist College (KY)

if men are evidently Unsanctified,

they must be Renewed by a thorough a Powerful Change,

or else they cannot escape the Damnation of Hell.

‘Be not deceived;

God is not mocked.’

[Gal 6:7]

Whether it be your baptism, or whatever else you pretend, I tell you from the living God, that if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company

(Prov 13:20),

in a word, if you are not a Holy, strict, and self-denying Christian,

you cannot be saved shown by Heb 12:14;

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness,

without which no man will see the Lord”

Follow peace with all men,…. That are in a natural and domestic relation to one another, being of the same family; and that are in a civil and political one, being of the same nation, city, or society; and that are in a spiritual one, being members of the same church; or, if not, yet being saints, and though in some things different in judgment; even still, peace is to be followed with enemies, as much as is within us possible; through Prayer and dependance on the Holy Spirit.

To “follow peace”, signifies an eager pursuit after PEACE, in the use of proper means;

exerting the utmost of a man’s power to attain it,

in all things possible:

many things serve to enforce this upon the saints;

this is most agreeable to all the Three Divine Persons;

to God, Who is the God of Peace;

to Christ, the Prince of Peace;

and to the Spirit, One of Whose Fruits is Peace;

and to the characters of the saints,

who are sons of peace,

and who are called to peace,

and who make a profession of the Gospel of Peace;

and to the privileges of Peace they enjoy,

being interested in the Covenant of Peace,

who are partaking of Spiritual Peace now,

and being entitled to Eternal Peace hereafter:

Peace is One of the Names of God.

And Holiness: there is a Perfection of Holiness in Jesus Christ; and Holiness is to be obtained, by going to Christ for more Grace, and exercising Faith on Him, as our Sanctification; and by eager desires that the Spirit of God would Sanctify us more and more, and Enable us, by His Grace and Strength, to walk in the way of Holiness, until the day we are safe to Heaven:

“without which no man will see the Lord;

that is, no man will see a Vision of the Beauty Waiting in Heaven: or the Lord Jesus Christ, “our Lord”,

Even in this life,  as Born Again children of God have Communion with Jesus Christ;

and hereafter, in Heaven, we will behold His Glory,

both intellectually and corporeally:

THE SIGHT of HOLINESS is Necessary;

God is Holy,

and JESUS Christ is Holy,

THE HOLY SPIRIT is HOLY.

Just as here; so ARE GOD, The Son and Holy Ghost in Heaven,

So are the Angels, in Heaven.

The Angels in Heaven are Holy.

And so are the souls of men in Heaven.

& Matthew 15:14;

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.

And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Let them alone,…. Have nothing to say, or do with them; do not mind their anger and resentment, their reproaches and reflections, nor trouble yourselves at the offence they have taken; if they will go, let them go; they are a worthless generation of men, who are not to be regarded, hearkened to, nor to be pleased; it matters not what they say of me, and of my doctrine:

they be blind leaders of the blind; the people that hearken to them, and are followers of them, are “blind”, as to any true sense of themselves, their state, and condition by nature, as hellbound sinners before God;

They are “blind” as to any spiritual, saving knowledge of God;

They are “blind” as to any acquaintance with the Messiah, and the method of Salvation by Him;

They are “blind” as to the Spirit of God, and the Work of Grace, Regeneration, and Sanctification upon the soul;

They are “blind” as to the Scriptures of Truth, and Doctrines of the Gospel.

And their “leaders” of them are as “blind” as they are:

by whom are meant the Scribes and Pharisees,

the learned doctors and rabbins of the Jewish nation;

who thought themselves very wise and knowing,

yet they were blind also; and none more than they.

This was predicted, in Isaiah 42:19;

“Who is blind, but my servant?

or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?

who is blind as he that is perfect,

and blind as the LORD’S servant?”

All such leaders and teachers are blind, who, notwithstanding their natural abilities, and acquired parts, are in a state of Unregeneracy; including those who teach this doctrine that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized.

All such leaders and teachers are blind, in a state of Unregeneracy, and know and have nothing more than what they have from nature, or have attained to at school; and as apparently all such are, who lead men from Jesus Christ,

to mere apperance of morality, and to a dependence upon their own righteousness for justification,

which was the darling principle of the blind leaders in the text.

And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch;

This is The Ditch of ignorance and eternally fatal error.

This is The Ditch of immorality and profaneness,

This is The Ditch of distress, if not despair, temporal ruin and destruction;

This is The Ditch which was notoriously verified in the VERY ‘RELIGIOUS’ Jewish people, and their guides.

THIS is the DITCH 0f ETERNAL DAMNATION, the LAKE which BURNS with FIRE and BRIMSTONE;

WHAT ELSE CAN BE EXPECTED ?

That there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized ?

No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No.

That is ‘a Lie’.

Jesus is

the Savior.

that your sins may be blotted out,

when the times of refreshing shall come

from the presence of the Lord.”

(Acts 3:19)

Conversion is not putting on the badge of Christ in BAPTISM.

Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus were baptized as well as the rest.

How many make a mistake here, deceiving and being deceived;

dreaming that Effectual Grace is necessarily tied

to the external administration of baptism,

so that every baptized person is regenerated ??,

not only sacra-mentally regenerated, but really ??

and  SPIRITUALLY regenerated ??

THEN PEOPLE IMAGINE that because

they were “regenerated when baptized”,

they need nothing further.

But if this were so, then all that have been baptized would by necessity be saved, because the promise of Pardon and Salvation is made

to Conversion and Regeneration (Acts 3:19; Matt 19:28).

And IF conversion and baptism WERE the same, then men would BE SMART to carry a certificate of their baptism when they died, and AFTER ‘GOD’ SEEING THIS ! there WOULD BE no doubt ‘HE’ WOULD Admit them into HIS Heaven ??? where no sin is ??????????

In short, IF ???? there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized, this will fly directly in the face of that Scripture, Matt 7:13-14,

“Enter in at the Strait Gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because Strait is the Gate, and Narrow is the Way, which Leads to Life, and few there are that find it.”

as well as multitudes of others.

If this is true that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized, we shall no more say, ‘Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way’ for if all that are baptized are saved, the door is exceeding wide, and we shall henceforth say, ‘Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads unto life.’

If this is true that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized, thousands may go into Heaven shoulder to shoulder; and we will no more teach that the righteous are scarcely saved, or that there is need of such a stir in taking the kingdom of heaven by violence, and striving to enter in

(1 Pet 4:18; Matt 11:12; Luke 13:24).

Surely, if the way be so easy as many suppose, that little more is necessary than to be baptized and to cry out, ‘Lord, have mercy’, we need not put ourselves to such seeking, and knocking, and wrestling,

as the Word requires in order to salvation.

Again, if this is true that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized , we will no more say, ‘Few there be that find it’;

instaed, we will say, ‘Few there be that miss it.’

We will no more say, that of the many that are called,

only ‘few are chosen’ (Matt 22:14),

and that even of the professing Israel

but a remnant shall be saved (Rom 9:27).

If this doctrine that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized, is true, we shall no more say with the disciples,

‘Who then

 will be saved?’

[Matt 19:25]

but rather, ‘Who then will not be saved?’

Then, if a man be baptized, though he is a fornicator, or a railer or covetous, or a drunkard—yet he shall inherit the kingdom of God! (1 Cor 5:11 and 1 Cor 6:9-10).

But some will reply, ‘Such as these,

though they received regenerating grace in baptism,

are since fallen away, and must be renewed again,

or else they cannot be saved.’

I answer,

1. There is an infallible connection between Regeneration and Salvation, as we have already shown.

2. Then man must be again born again,

which carries a great deal of absurdity in its face.

We might as well expect men to be twice born in nature as twice born in grace!

But, 3, and above all, this grants the thing I contend for, that whatever men do or pretend to receive in baptism, if they are found afterwards to be grossly ignorant, or profane, or formal, without the power of godliness, they

‘must be

born again’

(John 3:7)

or else be shut out of the kingdom of God.

So then they must have more to plead for themselves than this doctrine that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized.

Well, in this you see all are agreed, that, whatever it is, besides getting wet, that is received in baptism, if men are evidently Unsanctified, they must be Renewed by a thorough a Powerful Change, or else they cannot escape the Damnation of Hell.

‘Be not deceived;

God is not mocked.’

[Gal 6:7]

Whether it be your baptism, or whatever else you pretend, I tell you from the living God, that if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company (Prov 13:20), in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, and self-denying Christian, you cannot be saved Heb 12:14;

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness,

without which no man will see the Lord”

Follow peace with all men,…. That are in a natural and domestic relation to one another, being of the same family; and that are in a civil and political one, being of the same nation, city, or society; and that are in a spiritual one, being members of the same church; or, if not, yet being saints, and though in some things different in judgment; even still, peace is to be followed with enemies, as much as is within us possible; through Prayer and dependance on the Holy Spirit.

To “follow peace”, signifies an eager pursuit after PEACE, in the use of proper means;

exerting the utmost of a man’s power to attain it,

in all things possible:

many things serve to enforce this upon the saints;

this is most agreeable to all the three divine Persons;

to God, Who is the God of Peace;

to Christ, the Prince of Peace;

and to the Spirit, One of Whose Fruits is Peace;

and to the characters of the saints,

who are sons of peace,

and who are called to peace,

and who make a profession of the Gospel of Peace;

and to the privileges of Peace they enjoy,

being interested in the Covenant of Peace,

who are partaking of Spiritual Peace now,

and being entitled to Eternal Peace hereafter:

Peace is One of the Names of God.

And Holiness: there is a Perfection of Holiness in Jesus Christ; and Holiness is to be obtained, by going to Christ for more Grace, and exercising Faith on Him, as our Sanctification; and by eager desires that the Spirit of God would Sanctify us more and more, and Enable us, by His Grace and Strength, to walk in the way of Holiness, until the day we are safe to Heaven:

“without which no man will see the Lord;

that is, no man will see a Vision of the Beauty Waiting in Heaven: or the Lord Jesus Christ, “our Lord”,

Even in this life,  as Born Again children of God have Communion with Jesus Christ;

and hereafter, in Heaven, we will behold His Glory,

both intellectually and corporeally:

THE SIGHT of HOLINESS is Necessary;

 God is Holy,

and JESUS Christ is Holy,

THE HOLY SPIRIT is HOLY.

Just as here; so ARE GOD, The Son and Holy Ghost in Heaven,

So are the Angels, in Heaven.

The Angels in Heaven are Holy.

And so are the souls of men in Heaven.

& Matthew 15:14;

“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.

And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Let them alone,…. Have nothing to say, or do with them; do not mind their anger and resentment, their reproaches and reflections, nor trouble yourselves at the offence they have taken; if they will go, let them go; they are a worthless generation of men, who are not to be regarded, hearkened to, nor to be pleased; it matters not what they say of me, and of my doctrine:

they be blind leaders of the blind; the people that hearken to them, and are followers of them, are “blind”, as to any true sense of themselves, their state, and condition by nature, as hellbound sinners before God;

They are “blind” as to any spiritual, saving knowledge of God;

They are “blind” as to any acquaintance with the Messiah, and the method of Salvation by Him;

They are “blind” as to the Spirit of God, and the Work of Grace, Regeneration, and Sanctification upon the soul;

They are “blind” as to the Scriptures of Truth, and Doctrines of the Gospel.

And their “leaders” of them are as “blind” as they are:

by whom are meant the Scribes and Pharisees,

the learned doctors and rabbins of the Jewish nation;

who thought themselves very wise and knowing,

yet they were blind also; and none more than they.

This was predicted, in Isaiah 42:19;

“Who is blind, but my servant?

or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?

who is blind as he that is perfect,

and blind as the LORD’S servant?”

 All such leaders and teachers are blind, who, notwithstanding their natural abilities, and acquired parts, are in a state of Unregeneracy; including those who teach this doctrine that there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized.

All such leaders and teachers are blind, in a state of Unregeneracy, and know and have nothing more than what they have from nature, or have attained to at school; and as apparently all such are, who lead men from Jesus Christ,

to mere apperance of morality, and to a dependence upon their own righteousness for justification,

which was the darling principle of the blind leaders in the text.

And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch;

This is The Ditch of ignorance and eternally fatal error.

This is The Ditch of immorality and profaneness,

This is The Ditch of distress, if not despair, temporal ruin and destruction;

This is The Ditch which was notoriously verified in the VERY ‘RELIGIOUS’ Jewish people, and their guides.

THIS is the DITCH 0f ETERNAL DAMNATION, the LAKE which BURNS with FIRE and BRIMSTONE;

WHAT ELSE CAN BE EXPECTED ?

That there is nothing more to Conversion, or Regeneration, than to be baptized ?

No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No.

That is ‘a Lie’.

Jesus is

the Savior.

The famous passage in Deuteronomy 6:4

which is introduced in a solemn manner, still excites attention,

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord!”

and is the very Scripture to which Christ refers the scribe to,

 as being the First and Chief Command,

in Mark 12:28, 29; 

“And one of the scribes came,

and having Heard them reasoning together,

and Perceiving that He had Answered them well, asked him,

Which is the first commandment of all?

And Jesus Answered him, The First of all the Commandments is,

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is One Lord”. 

JESUS asserts that there is but One Jehovah;

HOWEVER, JESUS IS Not saying that, “there is but One Jehovah”

in a way that this, “Lord our God is One Lord”, is Peculiar to the Father,

as One Jahovah,

or that, “there is but One Jehovah” as in any way excluding of the Son and Spirit.

Jesus Christ the Son of God is Jehovah and is often called Jahovah,

as when we COMPARE these two Scriptures;

SHOWING JESUS AS JAHOVAH LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

in the Old Testament

from Exodus 17:7;

“And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah,

because of the chiding of the children of Israel,

and because they tempted the LORD,

saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?”

& in Numbers 21:6;

“And the LORD Sent fiery serpents among the people,

and they bit the people;

and much people of Israel died”

 with 1 Corinthians 10:9;

“Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted,

and were destroyed of serpents,”

& Jeremiah 23:6;

“In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely:

and this is His Name whereby He will be Called,

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

&  Zechariah 12:10;

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications:

and they will look on Me Whom they have Pierced,

and they will mourn for Him,

as one mourns for his only son, and will be in bitterness for Him,

as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

Also,  the Holy Ghost, is Jehovah and is often called Jahovah,

as when we COMPARE these Scriptures in Isaiah;

SHOWING THE HOLY GHOST AS JAHOVAH LORD GOD.

(Isaiah. 6:1, 5, 8, 9 compared with Acts 28:25, 26)

COMPARE:

Isaiah. 6:1;

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord

sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,

and his train filled the temple.”

Isaiah. 6:5;

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone;

because I am a man of unclean lips,

and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:

for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”

& Isaiah. 6:8,9;

“Also I heard the Voice of the Lord, saying, Whom Will I Send,

and Who Will Go for Us?

Then said I, Here Am I; Send Me.

And He said, Go, and tell this people,

you Hear indeed, but understand not;

and you see indeed, but perceive not”

WITH

Acts 28:25, 26;

“And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed,

after that Paul had spoken one word,

Well Spoke the Holy Ghost by Esaias ( = Isaiah) 

the prophet to our fathers,

Saying, Go to this people, and say,

Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;

and seeing you will see, and not perceive.”

 JESUS, GOD THE SON & GOD THE HOLY GHOST with GOD the Father,

are the One LORD or Jehovah.

GOD THE SON & GOD THE HOLY GHOST & GOD the Father

are manifestly included in Elohenu, a word of the plural number,

and may be rendered our LORD God,

or rather our Divine Persons are One LORD.

JESUS Christ the Son is One of the Divine Persons,

Who is that God Whose Throne is For Ever and Ever.

 And the HOLY SPIRIT IS that God, or Divine Person,

Who Anointed JESUS Christ as man,

in Psalm 45:6, 7;

“Your Throne, O God (JESUS), is For Ever and Ever:

the Sceptre of Your Kingdom is a Right Sceptre.

You Love Righteousness, and Hate Wickedness:

therefore God, Your God ( THE HOLY SPIRIT), Has Anointed You

with the Oil of Gladness above Your fellows.”

The Three Divine Persons OF THE TRIUNE GODHEAD

Who are the One Jehovah are meant, here.

THIS is not only the sense of Christian writers but even of the ancient Jews,

JESUS CHRIST GOD the Son and GOD the HOLY SPIRIT are entitled

to the same sincere and fervent Love of men as GOD the Father,

 EVEN the same sincere and fervent Love of men which is required

to be given to the

ONE JAHOVAH,

WHO IS;

The Father,

Son,

and

Holy Spirit.

****************

adapted from

A Body of Doctrinal Divinity

Book 1—Chapter 26

The Unity Of God.

OUR REASONS FOR THE SEPARATE EXISTENCE OF THE BAPTISTS

This paper was left by the distinguished author at the time of his death,

IN the year 1879 I attended, as fraternal messenger from the Southern Baptist Convention, the Anniversaries of our Northern Baptist brethren

at Saratoga, New York.

Being invited to speak he urged on them the importance of greater devotion to the work of Foreign Missions (Dr. Jessup himself a foreign missionary).

Failing in this he asked the Baptists what reason they could give to God for their separate existence from any denomination.

The interrogation of Dr. Jessup chanced to be in a line of my own thinking and stirred me up to the question afresh;

-what reason is there for the separate existence of the Baptists as a denomination?

Why should we have our separate churches, ministers, colleges, boards, missionaries and societies?

Why not merge our existence and enterprises into those of our fellow Christians of other denominations?

This is a question that will apply to others as truly as to us; but we are responsible for our own existence and must give answer for the same to God and to a generous public whose sympathy and support we desire.

I wish there could be an intelligent, candid and loving discussion of this question.

The public has the right to demand of each one of the different sects, upon the penalty of withholding sympathy and support, a reason for its separate existence.

As to ourselves, we recognize the justice of the demand and will offer our answer. Let the people hear and judge of the strength of our plea.

NOT A GOOD PLEA

The first reason that would arise in the mind of an intelligent, free people would likely be: This is a land of religious liberty, and if the Baptists wish to maintain a separate existence no one has the right to object.

According to this the right to our separate existence lies in the fact that we wish it.

I desire emphatically to deny this right and the principle upon which it rests.

Religious liberty does not consist in the right to do as one pleases in religious matters.

Government can not hinder my being a Baptist.

This is true: but it is very poor logic to say that because Government has no right to interfere with my religion, therefore I may do as I please.

The exercise of religious liberty is subject to two very important restrictions:

(a) It must not run counter to the will of God. Christ said,

”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I Commanded you.”

There is no liberty of man that can supervene this law of the risen Lord.

In accordance with this the apostle writes:

”As free . .

using your liberty …

as servants of God.”

”To this End was I Born and for this Cause came I into the world,

that I should Bear Witness to the Truth,”

said the Lord.

”The church is

the pillar and ground

of the truth.”

There is no room left for the exercise of my individual preferences

in the kingdom of Christ.

Others may claim their right to a separate denominational existence on the ground that this is a land of religious liberty;

but God forbid that Baptists

should urge this poor plea,

(b) Again, the exercise of our religious liberty must not interfere with our duty to our fellow men.

Brethren, I solemnly avow that in the present religious condition of mankind the needless multiplication of denominations is a crying sin against humanity.

The great bulk of the human family are without the knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

Think of this, and then look at this typical town. It has 1,500 inhabitants.

There are in it six

or seven Protestant denominations.

Each has its own house of worship,

minister, services.

These represent

thousands of dollars every year.

Yet the people who attend services might be easily gathered into one house of worship and served by one minister.

Before the bar of reason and conscience, the remaining five or six with the attendant cost must stand as a needless expenditure of labor and means, for which I believe God will hold men responsible.

The needless consumption of men and means in this way is to-day more than enough

to supply the destitution of our country.

In our own State it is more than we all have ever done to give the gospel to the heathen.

If we had all the men and all the money that we need for Christian work at home and abroad the case would be different. But how does it stand ?

Here are six or seven men to supply a population of 1,500; and in China or India there is one minister to four or five million.

Needlessly to multiply denominations because we wish to, while the bulk of the human family is dying without the knowledge of Christ, is folly and wickedness;

it is rebellion

against the last command of Christ;

and argues an indifference

to the perishing souls of man.

Again, I say, with increased emphasis, God forbid that Baptists should justify their separate denominational existence on the ground that this is a land of religious liberty and no one has the right to interfere with us.

RECOGNITION OF UNITY

In the further discussion of this subject, it would be an injustice not to recognize the substantial unity that exists among the various Protestant denominations upon many of the cardinal doctrines of the gospel.

I need mention only the Divinity and Messiah-ship of Christ,

His Atoning Death,

His Resurrection,

Ascension

and Mediator Reign,

the Office of the Holy Spirit,

the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures,

the Necessity of Repentance and Faith,

the General Judgment

and the Rewards and Punishments

of the future life.

I gladly recognize all this and rejoice in it.

While not agreeing about everything, I praise God that there is so much about which we are agreed.

Some one may say: ”If there exist this substantial unity why let minor differences disturb you?

Let each go his way as he thinks best and all live in peace.”

In answer we ask, Does not so great unity demand that we strive after complete unity and escape the many and grievous ills of having so many different sects?

If we differed about the things upon which we are agreed and agreed only upon the things about which we differ, then truly we would be compelled to say, Let each go his way and live in peace.

But since there exists so great community of sympathy and thought and effort among us why should there be six or seven Protestant denominations in a town of a few hundred inhabitants?

There should be an intelligent, candid and loving discussion of this subject.

GETTING A BETTER VIEW

I wish now to clear the subject of a serious misapprehension.

The Baptists are often charged with dividing Christendom upon a bare ordinance, and that one of the externals of religion.

We are charged with building up a denomination upon the shallow and narrow basis of a mere rite; with riling the air with our cries about the little thing of how much water is to be used in baptism.

We are charged with separating ourselves from others by the arbitrary restrictions that we have placed around the Table of our common Lord, and with bigotry arrogating to ourselves a wisdom and sanctity superior to others.

These are the characteristics that are supposed to mark the people called Baptists.

Even among many Baptists this subject fails of an intelligent understanding and therefore of a correct and proper statement.

Ask scores of Baptists what is the difference between their own and other denominations and the answer will be: Baptists believe in immersion.

This is a correct answer as far as it goes; but it is a very imperfect and shallow presentation of the truth.

Or perhaps the answer would be: Baptists practice close communion.

This again is correct so far as it goes; but as a full and fair answer to the question it is superficial and misleading.

Even intelligent Baptists are sometimes very careless in the statement of the fundamentals of the denomination.

Dr. Gotch, the president of a Baptist College in England, says in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, perhaps the most splendid monument of learning in the nineteenth century, ”The Baptists as a denomination are distinguished from other denominations by the views they hold respecting the ordinance of baptism.”

To proceed from so high a source this statement is a marvel of shallowness and carelessness.

I demur to the statement of the venerable Dr. Armitage in the North American Review for March, 1887, that the distinguishing difference of the Baptists is ”in the demand for a positive moral change wrought in the soul by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit as an indispensable qualification for membership in the churches.”

And what shall I say of that popular and useful little book from the pen of the venerable Dr. Pendleton, ”Three Reasons Why I am a Baptist?”

A truce to all these brethren, honored and beloved as they are; but in the statement of the fundamental distinction of their denomination they need to go deeper and lay bare the broader foundation that the full truth may be known.

AT THE VERY BASE

The fundamental principle of the Baptists is their belief in the supreme authority and absolute sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures; and their separate existence is the practical and logical result of their attempt to apply this principle in all matters of religion.

This is the bed rock on which the denomination rests; and we do not come down to the true foundation until we reach this.

I will show you by the shortest of short methods that the statements of Drs. Gotch and Armitage and Pendleton come short of the full truth.

Ask Dr. Gotch why the Baptists believe in immersion; and he will tell you because the Scriptures teach it.

Ask him if some other way would not do as well his reply would be: We have no right to alter any of the plain and positive commands of the Bible.

This brings us to the bed rock truth stated just now.

In the same way you ask Dr. Armitage why Baptists believe in a converted church membership; and he will tell you that it is because the Scriptures so teach.

But why not admit to the church all who belong to the same family and nation?

The answer would be: We have no right to go beyond the teachings of the Scriptures.

If you ask Dr. Pendleton why he practices close communion so-called, that is, why he restricts the invitation to the Lord’s Table to baptized believers;

there is but one answer that he would think of giving you:

The Bible teaches us that the Supper was Ordained by Christ;

and He has taught us in His Word that only baptized believers are to approach it; and that we have no right to go contrary to His Word.

Let us look a moment at this principle and its importance.

A father says: Son do this.

But his son does something else.

When asked about it he says: Well, I thought that what I did was as well as what you told me to do.

A master says to his servant: Do this.

But he does something else and when asked about it replies that what he did was altogether more convenient and withal more proper.

Such a course of conduct in a son or servant when deliberately settled upon is a direct arraignment of the wisdom and authority of the father or master.

Baptists say that in matters of religion there must be absolutely nothing like this.

God’s Word is the Supreme and Infallible Rule for our Guidance.

We must not go contrary to it in any article of belief or in any duty enjoined.

It is no partial Revelation.

By it the man of God is thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

This is the fundamental position of the Baptists; and every peculiarity which characterizes them is the practical outcome of this principle.

This is the ground on which the Protestants of the sixteenth century planted themselves-the ground on which Luther stood in his great struggle against the Church of Rome.

When he stood at the Diet of Worms in the presence of the emperor and the dignitaries of the Church and State and was called on to recant, his reply was, ”I am bound by the Holy Scriptures: my conscience is held by the Word of God.

Here I stand; I can not do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

In accord with this is the justly celebrated saying of Chillingworth: ”The Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Protestants.”

Baptists say that the decrees of Popes, Councils, Assemblies, Conventions or what not are of no authority save as they are sanctioned by the Word of God.

Traditions are worthless save for their historical or probative value.

THIS PRINCIPLE AT WORK

And let me show you how it is that this fundamental principle has led to the separate existence of the Baptists and to the peculiarities that mark their denominational life.

(a) Take for example, the question of baptism.

Luther said that the primitive baptism was immersion and that the primitive practice should be restored.

The Baptists said the same thing and following out their belief immersed all who came to them even though they had been sprinkled before.

Strange to say, for this Luther hated the Baptists hardly less than he hated the Catholics.

Calvin said that the word baptize means to immerse and that it is certain that immersion was the practice of the primitive churches, but that in this matter the churches ought to have liberty.

Here now are the points of agreement and the points of difference between the Reformers on the one hand and the Baptists on the other.

They all agreed that immersion was the practice of the primitive churches.

Luther and Calvin thought that they were at liberty to practice another form, the Baptists said that we ought to do what the Master commands;

and that we have no liberty to change a positive ordinance which he has ordained. Here the work of separation begins.

The issue was not as to what the act of baptism is, but whether we have the right to change it.

Before the court of the highest scholarship of the world it has never been an open question as to what the true baptism is.

It really is not now, as it was not in the time of Luther and Calvin.

The question is about the right to change it;

and it is not that Baptists think too much of one form above another.

I am frank to say for myself, that if it were a matter left to our choice whether we should immerse or sprinkle, while immersion is a beautiful and significant ordinance and sprinkling is a meaningless ceremony, still I would give up immersion rather than divide Christendom on a mere rite:

I say if it were left to our choice.

But it has never been left to our choice:

And when others say that they will change the ordinance, the question between them and us is, not what is the true baptism but whether there is any right or authority to change it.

Baptists do not yield their position about baptism because it is the surface indication of a great underlying principle.

Principles are of use to us because of the guidance they afford us in practical life.

What honor or consistency is there in avowing a principle and then denying it in our daily conduct ?

We see how it is then that the peculiarity of Baptists upon immersion results from their fundamental position.

They must be peculiar or they must give up the principle that the Word of God is our supreme and all-sufficient rule.

(b) Take the Baptist peculiarity upon infant baptism, so-called.

They refuse to practice it or to recognize it, because the Scriptures afford no warrant whatever for it.

Luther’s struggle here was great.

He saw that the Bible says nothing in favor of infant baptism.

The question with him was: Shall we give it up as our principle requires?

In fact infant baptism had gained so great a hold upon the public heart that Luther feared the consequences of his radical and penetrating principle and hence modified his position and said: The Word of God does not forbid it and so I will retain it.

Zwingli was hesitating and perplexed and failed at last because he did not have the courage of his convictions.

The Baptists said: We will stand by the principle.

The Word of God does not authorize the baptism of infants but only of believers.

Here the work of separation is still going on and upon the same principle;

namely, the supremacy and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures.

The question of the baptism of infants was simply the surface indication of the underlying principle.

The opposition of the Baptists to infant baptism was also strengthened by the vicious error that lay under it, viz.:

the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

Infant baptism had its rise in the mischievous idea that any one dying without the waters of baptism went straight to the flames of torment.

This is one of the palpable facts of history.

Baptists are sometimes charged with making too much of baptism.

In the light of history the charge is ludicrous.

One of the peculiarities of the Baptists is their opposition to those who, in times past, made so much of baptism as to contend that without it new-born infants could not get to heaven.

If you will suffer the remark I will say that the Baptists are the only people who have never made either too much or too little of the ordinance of baptism.

They make no more of it and no less of it ’than the Scriptures require.

(c) Take the peculiarity of the Baptists respecting the Lord’s Supper.

They believe that it is the Lord’s ordinance, not theirs; and that they have no right to make any other use of the ordinance than that which the Lord has ordained.

He tells us that it is to show forth his death till he comes; and that it is to be administered only to baptized believers.

We do not profess to be better, wiser, holier or in anywise above others except in our rigid adherence to the terms that he has ordained for the government of this ordinance.

Suppose that a citizen of the English government should undertake to vote at one of our elections for president of the United States.

The judges of the election would be compelled to refuse him:

He might claim to be a more intelligent man than any of the judges, of better social position, of greater wealth, of truer knowledge of American institutions;

still they could not allow him to vote because he was un-naturalized.

It would involve a violation of their solemn oath if they should allow him to vote.

Pity ’tis that sometimes the administrators of human law have more respect to a strict obedience to its requirements than do the administrators of the divine law.

STANDING BY THE PRINCIPLE

I am not a Baptist because Baptists practice restricted communion, or immersion, or refuse infant baptism.

I am a Baptist because by the fundamental principle of Protestantism I am bound by the Word of God in all matters of faith and practice.

I believe in immersion not because I believe in one act above another but because the Bible teaches it;

so of close communion;

and so of the rejection of infant baptism.

For these peculiarities as peculiarities I care nothing at all.

Indeed I am sorry that we are peculiar in these matters.

But these peculiarities embody an underlying principle in religion that is more important than reputation or life itself.

And to surrender these peculiarities is to surrender that principle.

And if an honest adherence to it and an honest endeavor to practice it bring odium upon us let us have the manliness to bear it.

To seek odium is detestable;

to run from the post of conscience or of duty to avoid it,

is cowardly and traitorous.

And let us give our principles our hearty sympathy, our earnest prayers, our cordial and liberal support.

To what better cause can we devote our time, our energies, our means, ourselves?

As a group of Christian men and women were standing on the shore gazing after a ship, going out to sea and on which a number of missionaries had embarked for foreign lands, one of the group enthusiastically exclaimed, ”That is what ships were made for, to carry missionaries to the heathen.”

If I am a Baptist and if I am proud of it, I want that it shall affect me not in the way of making me narrow and bigoted and intolerant, but humble, patient, loving towards those who differ from me, and hearty, generous, energetic and persevering in the use of my time, talents and means for the furtherance of the good cause.

Let us show our devotion to our principles, not by boastfulness and arrogance, but by a watchful attention to the needs of the cause we love.

Thus shall we best show to men our fidelity and zeal; and thus best help the truth in its onward march to complete and final victory.

[The Address of the Committee of the United Baptist Churches in Virginia assembled in the city of Richmond, August 8, 1789.]

To the President

of the United States of America:

     SIR,– Among the many shouts of congratulation that you receive from cities, societies, States and the whole world, we wish to take an active part in the universal chorus by expressing our great satisfaction in your appointment to the first office in the nation.

When America on a former occasion was reduced to the necessity of appealing to arms to defend her natural and civil rights, a WASHINGTON was found fully adequate to the exigencies of the dangerous attempt, who by the philanthropy of his heart and prudence of his head led forth her untutored troops into the field of battle, and by the skillfulness of his hands baffled the projects of the insulting foe and pointed out the road to independence, even at a time when the energy of the Cabinet was not sufficient to bring into action the natural aid of the association from its respective sources.

      The grand object being obtained, the independence of the States acknowledged, free from ambition and devoid of a thirst for blood, our HERO returned with those he commanded

and laid down his sword

at the feet of those who gave it to him.

Such an example to the world is new.

Like other nations, we experience that it requires as great valor and wisdom to make an advantage of a conquest as to gain one.

      The want of efficacy in the confederation, the redundancy of laws and their partial administration in the States, called aloud for a new arrangement of our system.

The wisdom of the States for that purpose was collected in a grand convention, over which you, sir, had the honor to preside.

A national government in all its parts was recommended as the only preservative of the Union, which plan of government

is now actually in operation.

      When the Constitution first made its appearance in Virginia, we, as a society, had unusual struggling of mind, fearing that the liberty of conscience (dearer to us than property and life) was not sufficiently secured; perhaps our jealousies were heightened on account of the usage we received in Virginia under the British Government when mobs, bonds, fines and prisons were our frequent repast.

      Convinced on the one hand that without an effective national government the States would fall into disunion and all the consequent evils; on the other hand it was feared we might be accessory to some religious oppression, should any one society in the Union preponderate all the rest.

But amidst all the inquietude of mind, our consolation arose from this consideration, the plan must be good, for it bears the signature of a tried, trusty friend; and if religious liberty is rather insecure in the Constitution,

“the administration will prevent all oppression,

for a WASHINGTON will preside.”

According to our wishes the unanimous voice of the Union has called you, sir, from your beloved retreat, to launch forth again into the faithless seas of human affairs, to guide the helm of the States.

Should the horrid evils that have been so pestiferous in Asia and Europe — faction, ambition, war, perfidy, fraud and persecutions for conscience sake — ever approach the borders of our happy nation, may the name and administration of our beloved President, like the radiant source of day, scatter all those dark clouds from the American hemisphere.

      And while we speak freely the language of our own hearts, we are satisfied that we express the sentiments of our brethren whom we represent.

The very name of WASHINGTON is music in our ears; and although the great evil in the States is the want of mutual confidence between rulers and the people, yet we all have the utmost confidence in the President of the States, and it is our fervent prayer to Almighty God that the Federal Government and the government of the respective States, without rival-ship, may so co-operate together as to make the numerous people over whom you preside the happiest nation on earth, and you, sir, the happiest man, in seeing the people whom, by the smiles of Providence, you saved from vassalage by your martial valor and made wise by your maxims, sitting securely under their vines and fig trees enjoying the perfection of human felicity.

May God long preserve your life and health for a blessing to the world in general and the United States in particular; and when, like the sun, you have finished your course of great and unparalleled services, and you go the way of all the earth, may the Divine Being, who will reward every man according to his works, grant unto you a glorious admission into His everlasting kingdom through Jesus Christ.

This, great sir, is the prayer of your happy admirers.      By order of the committee.

			 SAMUEL HARRISS, Chairman. 
	Reuben Ford, Clerk.

---

George Washington’s Reply
To the General Committee

representing the United Baptist Churches in Virginia:

      GENTLEMEN, — I request that you will accept my best acknowledgments for your congratulation on my appointment to the first office in the nation.

The kind manner in which you mention my past conduct equally claims

the expression of my gratitude.

After we had, by the smiles of Divine Providence on our exertions, obtained the object for which we contended, I retired at the conclusion of the war with the idea that my country could have no farther occasion for my services, and with the intention of never entering again into public life; but when the exigencies of my country seemed to require me once more to engage in public affairs, an honest conviction of duty superseded my former resolution and became my apology for deviating from the happy plan which I had adopted.

      If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; and if I could now conceive that the General Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against

the horrors of spiritual tyranny

and every species of religious persecution.

– For you doubtless remember I have often expressed my sentiments that every man conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.

      While I recollect with satisfaction that the religious society of which you are members have been throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously, the firm friends to civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious revolution, I cannot hesitate to believe that they will be faithful supporters of a free yet efficient General Government.

Under this pleasing expectation I rejoice to assure them that they may rely upon my best wishes and endeavors to advance their prosperity.

      In the meantime be assured, gentlemen, that I entertain a proper sense of your fervent supplication to God

for my temporal and eternal happiness.

      I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

			      GEORGE WASHINGTON.

[Taken from Robert. B. Semple,

History of Virginia Baptists, 1810,

revised 1894; rpt. 1976, pp. 484-489.

The titles have been supplied for these letters.

A photocopy of Washington's letter may be found at the Library of Congress website:

George Washington Papers, 1741-1799:

Series 2 Letterbooks. - jrd]

“aku terlalu posesif?”

“Hah? Apaan?”

“Emang aku terlalu posesif ya? Itu kamu tulis di twitter.”

Dan ternyata edo sama sekali ga pernah nulis status kaya gitu. Pas gw cek lagi, itu tweet dari BB, jadi gw tanya aja bb kamu dihack ga? dan dia bilang kalo dia lagi scdc, BB dia dia kantongin. Jadi sampe saat ini kita masih belum tau siapa yang ngehack -,-

Posesif itu sendiri artinya kita kaya terlalu mengkekang pasangan kita. Jujur, gw akuin mungkin dulu gw juga termasuk ke dalam kategori posesif ini. Tapi, posesif itu sebenernya ada baiknya dan bisa juga tidak, semua tergantung apakah sikap itu sesuai dengan batasan atau tidak. 

Kalo kurang posesif, menyebabkan terlalu bebas, jadi kaya berasa ‘dia peduli ga si sama gw’. Tapiiii, kalo posesif juga berlebihan, itu malah bikin pasangan ga betah, karena semua hidupnya terbatasi dan dia ga bisa jadi diri dia apa adanya. 

Someone told me that relationship is like a sand, 

once you grab it too tight you will lose the sand, 

and once you grab it too weak you will lose it too. 

So, you have to know the perfect strength to hold it.