Calvinism, Arminianism and Universal Reconciliation.

These flavours are the different essential structure of beliefs about how God is busy relating and dealing with mankind!

These three options undergirds all the unconscious assumptions you as a believer hold  about the nature and character of God, and reflects your opinion about Gods Love, His Power and His Justice!

The fact is that the vast majority of Christians don’t really know what they actually have been told to believe! They operate under the false assumption that because they heard something from a ‘nice man’ in a three piece suit holding a King James Bible what they learnt must be the ‘gospel truth!’

The three positions are Calvinism, Arminianism and Universal Reconciliation.

Whether you like it or not you have been sold and have bought into one of these positions! Which one of the flavours are you?

Calvinism basically proposes that God in His divine sovereignty decided beforehand who He wants to save and have in His Kingdom! Therefore God pre-ordains those who will be saved and also those who He has rejection and selected and created and destined for destruction! In other words, God indeed has the Power to save everyone, but He refuses to use it! He loves everybody, but loves some of us only while we are alive, when we die He hates us enough to either annihilate us or tormented in hell! 

Arminianism believes that God loves all people unconditionally and desires that everyone repent and believe. Yet God is unable, for whatever reason, whether self-imposed or imposed by some other obstacle, to accomplish this own objective of the ultimate redemption of His beloved creation.

Despite His divine love, God does not have the divine Power to overcome Man’s stubborn unbelief or his free will!

Because of His inability to persuade the unbelieving portion of His beloved people to repent and be saved, God is thus compelled, because of His perfect Justice and inadequate Power to save, to ‘allow’ them to be condemned to eternal torture in hell!

In other words, God is Love, but He is not quite sovereign, or powerful or wise enough to allow man a free will, and to simultaneously guarantee that man ultimately repents or believes sufficiently to gain access into God’s Kingdom

Universal Reconciliation on the other hand, presumes that God is both all Loving and all Powerful, while being at the same time a God of Justice. In fact a God who’s sense of Love and Justice compels Him to take full responsibility for resolving the sin and subsequent demise of His own creation.

A God who has the desire to see all people come to an actual experimental relationship with Himself through repentance and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the only way provided to mankind.

A God who recognises that Man is unable to save himself and has unilaterally provided salvation exclusively and inclusively through Jesus Christ as the Saviour of all mankind, and especially to those who believe. That God not only desires for all mankind to be ‘saved’ but has accomplished that salvation in human history through the corporate atonement wrought in the representative and vicarious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is the only position that is consistent with all the Biblically revealed attributes of God and that correct asserts that God is simultaneously Loving, Sovereign while also perfectly Just!

It refutes the un-Biblical, irrational and grossly illogical philosophical notions of Calvinism and Arminianism that portrays God as so unwise and weak that He is incapable of allowing Man to enjoy free will and simultaneously influence Him by His grace and to ultimately include Him in His redeeming love freely given in Christ. It denies the presumptuous slander of a merciless and unloving God who sends certain of His creation to be tortured in a so called hell forever without any hope or relief. 

Calvinism and Arminianism both, by implication, create and exalt a special category of humanity, and do so at the expense of giving “all glory to God” and thus rob God of His essential Godliness. Both produce a man-centred instead of a  Christ-centred Gospel.

Although Calvinism acknowledges God’s sovereignty, it invariably turns Him into an unloving and sadistic tyrant who delights in torturing endlessly victims, human beings He  literally created in His own inage and likeness but destined for eternal perdition!

Well, what flavour of Christianity suits your pallet?

The one that totally honours God? Or one that exults man’s so called ‘free will’ above God’s own will and eternal purpose?

One that honours God’s essential nature and revealed character? One that esteems God as altogether Loving, Sovereign and Just, or one based on man’s irrational traditional religious philosophies?

A responsible eye surgeon, so as not to further damage but to rather heal, would first confine a once blind surgical patient to a darkened room and gradually introduce the bright sunlight light by slowly removing the layers of bandages over time, giving the eyes and the mind the opportunity to adjust. 

Likewise, the Spirit of Truth Reality has been doing critical eye surgery, recovering our lost spiritual insight and uncovering and re-introducing long lost truth concerning who Jesus Christ is, and  what the Trinity has accomplished on behalf of mankind by the vicarious Incarnation of the Son of God and the subsequent Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Glorification  of the Son of Man.

In my humble opinion the Holy Spirit is shedding new light and bringing a fresh and fuller understanding in the following areas;

a) A rediscovery of the uniqueness of the Trinity, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as revealed and demonstrated in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ!

Particularly the significance of the union and communion of Absolute Love within the Trinity, giving rise to and ultimately defining the ‘relational aspect’ that gave rise to the creation and ultimate reconciliation of humanity with Divinity through Jesus Christ.

b) The dismantling of the human theological concept of a ‘limited atonement’ that erroneously reduces the potency and inclusivity of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Theoretically submitting its efficacy to the ignorance and fickle whim of sinners, and the seductive influence of the devil over man’s mind.

Reclaiming within the consciousness of mankind the rightful title of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, of all mankind. Recognising that Jesus Christ supersedes being merely an icon of the Christian Religion but is in fact the Cosmic Christ and Universal Lord of All.

c) He is cleaning up the poisoned well of the inconsistent and indefensible false doctrine and incorrect human interpretations that gave rise to the erroneous doctrine and teaching on ‘hell’ and ‘eternal punishment’.

This blot on the face of Christianity has done more damage to the cause of Christ, and has marred the image of our Heavenly Father more than even the devil could hope for.

d) The Sprit of Truth is revealing to us once again, that, consistent with its Divine nature, the Trinity always only thinks and acts redemptively, and has always taken full responsibility for the ultimate removal of evil and the total restoration of its creation.

"....My Father and your Father!"

....heralding the day.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” Rev 22:16

This poetic title indicates certain things unique only to Jesus.

In antiquity, a star was a title referring to one who was pre-eminent in power and royalty, one of princely or kingly status.

This title aptly recognises Jesus Christ as the King over all Kings, the Supreme Lord over all lesser Lords.

‘Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

The Morning Star is indeed the brightest of all stars in the heavenly expanse. This title correctly sets Jesus Christ int the forefront of all splendour and glory.

There is none other who remotely compares with Him. All other luminaries fade into dullness and pale into insignificance in comparison with the Morning Star.

Light of the world!

Likewise all other prominent figures in human history disappear into obscurity compared with the man who was called Jesus the Christ! He indeed outshines all as the Light of the world!

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:5

In the cosmic scheme of things, it is the glory and function of the morning star to act as herald of the dawn.

The appearing of the morning star announces the cessation of darkness and the breaking of the new day!

By its arising it compels the flight of the darkness of night by the coming forth of the full blaze of daylight!

No intensity of the darkness within the universe can extinguish or overwhelm brightness of its appearing.

“I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” John 12:46

Likewise the stepping down from out of eternity by the Son of God into the dimension of time and space shattered once and for all time the spiritual darkness that prevailed in the consciousness of mankind.

A Star is something cosmic, that cannot be hidden from sight. A star is universal, and is  owned by nobody, but yet belongs to everyone. Every man, woman and child can look upon a star and be illuminated and  guided by its light.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” John 1; 4-9

The Bright and Morning Star portrays Jesus the Christ as the Saviour of All mankind…..an idea which time has now come!

...the light that illuminates every man!

Rev.Andrew Murray, 1828 - 1917

Murray was a deeply spiritual man and a Dutch Reformed Minister in my native country of South Africa. He authored many books that are considered today as Christian Classics that   are still read and treasured by millions of Christians today. His works certainly enriched my life and ministry.

Some of his greatest works include Absolute Surrender, Abide in Christ, and the Deeper Christian Life.

Andrew Murray admits to being greatly influenced by the English cleric William Law. While admitting his theological concerns on such issues as election, Murray wholeheartedly endorsed William Law’s work ‘An Affectionate and Earnest Address to the Clergy’. Herein Law clearly outlines his personal belief in the universal salvation of mankind.

Murray later republished this book under the under the title ‘Power of the Spirit’.

While Murray’s earlier books reflected his own Calvinistic denominational perspective, it would appear that that he, like many ministers, including myself, later on in his life also recognized in the Scriptures and wrestled with the idea of the universal reconciliation of all men through Jesus Christ.

Here are Andrew Murray’s thoughts of taken from his book ‘God’s Will: Our Dwelling Place.’

The Salvation of All
By Andrew Murray
(Chapter 23 of his book “God’s Will”)

“I exhort therefore, that, supplications, prayers, intercessions, -and giving of thanks be made for all men …. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved’ –1 Timothy 2:14.

“The Lord is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance “–2 Peter 3:9.

After Paul urged that supplications, prayers, and intercessions should be made for all men, he reminded us that we may do so in confident assurance that it is good and acceptable to God. He wills that all men should be saved. The knowledge and faith of God’s will for all is to be the motivation and the measure of our prayer for all. What God in heaven wills and works for His children on earth we are to will and work for, too. As we enter into His will for all, we will know what we are to do to fulfil that will. And, as we pray and labour for all, the faith in His will for all will inspire us with confidence and love.

Perhaps the question arises-If God wills the salvation of all, why is it not happening? What about the doctrine of election, as Scripture teaches us? And, what about the Omnipotence of God, which is surely equal to His love that wills the salvation of all? As to election, remember that there are mysteries in God and in Scripture which are beyond our reach. If there are apparently conflicting truths which we cannot reconcile, we know that Scripture was not written, like a book of science, to satisfy the intellect. It is the revelation of the hidden wisdom of God, which tests and strengthens faith and submission, and awakens love and childlike traceableness.

Absolute Surrender

If we cannot understand why His power does not work what His will has purposed, we will find that all that God does or does not do is decided by conditions far beyond our human comprehension.

It requires a Divine wisdom to grasp and to order God’s ways. We will learn that God’s will is as much beyond our comprehension as God’s being. And, it is our wisdom, safety, and happiness to accept every revealed truth with the simplicity and the faith of little children. We must yield ourselves to it to prove its living power within our hearts. Let us not fear to yield ourselves to the utmost to this blessed word: God will have all men to be saved.

God is love. His will is love. As He makes His sun to shine on the good and the evil, so His love rests on all. However little we can understand why His love is so long-suffering and patient, we can believe in and be assured of the love that God gives to us-a love whose measure in heaven is the gift of His Son, and on earth every child of man.

His love is nothing but His will in its Divine energy doing its very utmost in accordance with the Divine law. Thus, His relationship to mankind is regulated to make men partakers of His blessedness. His will is nothing but His love in its infinite patience and tenderness delighting to win and bless every heart into which it can gain access.

If we only knew God and His love, how we would look on every man we see as one upon whom that love rests and for whom it longs. We would begin to wonder about the mystery of grace that has taken up the Church, as the body of Christ, as a partner in the great work of making that love known, and rendered itself dependent upon its faithfulness. And, we would see that all who lives to do God’s will must believe this to be its central glory: our doing the will that wills that all men should be saved.

God will have all men to be saved. This truth is a supernatural mystery. It can only be understood by a spiritual mind through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. It is in itself so Divine and beyond our apprehension-the difficulties that surround it are so many and so real-that it needs so much time and sacrifice to master its teaching. To very many who do not possess a humble, loving heart, the words carry little meaning.

To the believer, who in very deed seeks to know and to do all God’s will, God’s words give a new meaning to life. He begins to see that this call to love and to save his fellow­men is not something accidental or additional. He begins to realize that, along with the other things that make up his life, he can devote as much time and thought to this as he sees fit. He learns that just as this loving, saving will of God is the secret source of all His will and rules it all, so this loving, saving will is to be the chief thing that he lives for, too. I have been redeemed, organically united to, and made a member of the saving Christ, who came to do this will of the Father.

I have been chosen and set apart and fitted for this as the one object of my being in the world. I begin to see that the prayer, Thy will be done! means, above everything else, that I give myself for this loving, saving will of God to possess, inspire, use, and if need be, consume me. And, I feel the need of spelling out the words of the sentence until my heart can call them its own: God-my God, who lives in me–will have, with His whole heart, in that will which He has revealed to His people that they may carry it into effect–all men, here around me, and to the ends of the earth–to be saved, to have everlasting life.

Paul wrote these words in connection with a call to prayer for all men. Our faith in the truth of God’s loving, saving will must be put into practice. It must stir us to prayer. And prayer will most certainly stir us to work. We must not only seek to believe and feel the truth of these words, but we must also act. This will of God must be done. Let us look upon those around us as the objects of God’s love, whom His saving will is seeking to reach. Let us, as we yield ourselves to this will, go and speak to those around us about God’s love in Christ.

It is possible that we are not succeeding in doing God’s will in our personal life because we neglect the chief thing. As we pray to be possessed and filled with the knowledge of God’s will, let us seek, in all things, to have our hearts filled with this love. Let us have tongues which speak of Jesus and His salva­tion, and a will which finds its strength in God’s own will–that all men be saved. So will our life, our love, our work, and our will in some measure be like that of Jesus Christ–a doing of the Father’s will, that none of these little ones should perish.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this is because a dichotomy exists deep down in their thinking regarding God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son.

As though they sub-consciously relate to them as being different, as divided, and as having two completely contradictory and  opposing natures and different agendas.

The 'bad' and the good 'guy'!

This reminds me of the typical ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat ‘scenario in the old western movies when I was a kid. The hero, usually a clean cut ‘good guy’ type, always wore the white hat, and the ‘bad guy’ the black hat!

It seems that our early Christian mindset was formatted along these lines, I know mine was. I clearly recollect, that the earliest impressions made on my tender young soul about God at Sunday school 101, went something like this;

God was a mean old Judge and He was watching my every move!

He was an angry old man, with a white beard and robe, seated behind a huge book wherein He kept a detailed record of each of my sins, big and small. He was building a case against me in preparation for the Judgement day!

On that grim and fatal day, I would be dragged before the court of heaven in order to receive my punishment or reward!

As the book is read, and all our secret sins publicly exposed for all to see, the sheep and the goats will be separated! That day our mothers and grandmothers would wail of sadness and hang their heads in shame! The thought was terrifying!

If it is found that Andre had been a ‘good enough’ boy, St Peter would fling open the pearly gates, and I’ll be welcomed into heaven as multitudes of angels choirs rejoice!

However, if I tipped the scale on the ‘bad’ side, Andre, together with the other ‘damned and doomed’ ‘goats ‘would slide down into the open pit of hell as hoards of vile demons screech with delight!

There I would face the ‘vengeance’ and ‘wrath of God’…and there I would weep and gnash my teeth forever, as I roast in flames! I would now officially belong to the devil!

Yet, how both God and the devil somehow had a hand in my eternal torment was never fully explained!

God’s primary character was also introduced to me as that of an exceedingly jealous God, who hated all those who hated him, or by implication ‘sinned’ against Him.

There was no escaping His vengeance because God was going to exact His pound of flesh from you personally for ‘sins’ going all the way back to parents, grandparents and great grandparents …and possibly many generations beyond!

This fact alone, coupled with the notion that ‘you were conceived and born in sin’ made me a two time loser!

Not only was I probably sold down the river by my lousy family, I had lost my innocence when I had yielded to temptation myself! There was the grievous incident when I silently cussed a policemen driving by on a bicycle, to see if heaven would fall or lightening would strike me dead!

Not to mention the little blond girl next door, who insisted on playing ‘I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours?’  In God’s eyes I was toast!

Religion was fear inspiring and very confusing, but my parents insisted we needed it to be ‘decent folk’ and I especially needed it so I could make ‘something of my life!’

Gentle Jesus meek and mild.

‘Dear gentle Jesus’, God’s Son on the other hand, was depicted as ‘meek and mild’ and all goodness and light! He was portrayed as a handsome, friendly, smiling shepherd, rubbing little kid’s on the head and radiating love and peace! He just loved everybody, did miracles to help people all the time and wanted us to be happy!

He loved me so much that He even died for me to save me from Gods ‘wrath’ and ‘anger’ and to force  God not to send me to ‘hell’ because of  Adam’s lousy mistake!

Jesus was somehow ‘saving’ me from God, the devil, my sin and from eternity in hell, getting my sins forgiven and taking me to heaven when I die!

It is obvious who wore the white hat, and who wore the black hat in my mind!

God was a mean Judge, and Jesus was my loving Saviour!

Yet ironically in the New Testament no fewer than eight occasions it is God who is called Saviour!

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Luke 1:46

‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,’ 1 Tim 1:1

‘…but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;’ Titus 1:3

‘For to this end we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.’ 1Ti 4:10

‘For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,

Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?’ 1Ti 2:3-4

‘….not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.’ Tit 2:10

‘But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared’ Tit 3:4

‘To God our Saviour, Be glory and majesty,Dominion and power,Both now and forever.Amen.’ Jude 1:25

This is of the utmost importance to our thinking and out theology!

This forbids, once and for all times setting in contrast the ‘love’ of Jesus over against the ‘wrath’ of God!

This absolutely forbids any consideration or viewpoint that suggests or implies that the life and work of Jesus the Son was about altering the attitude of God the Father towards mankind!

That defies any notion that insinuates that Jesus had to turn the wrath of God into the love of God on our behalf!

It debunks the idea that Jesus had to persuade God to withhold His hand stretched out to destroy!

Our God is the Saviour God!

Jesus Christ did not live and die to change the attitude of God the Father towards men!

No! No! No!

Jesus Christ lived and died to demonstrate what that attitude really is!

Paul the Apostle

Neither was he a man of straw!

In fact, Paul was separated from his mother’s womb to be a Prophet to the nations.

He was an intellectual giant among men.

He was highly educated and morally superior, capable of being advisor to the Caesar’s.

Paul took his calling very seriously, and courageously stood his ground and spoke out boldly and fearlessly against Prophets and Priests and Kings.

His unique combination of uncompromising intestinal fortitude, combined with his brilliant mind, must have been why the Glorified Christ personally arrested and commissioned him, of all men, to be the greatest  revelator of spiritual truth of all time.

Paul on the Road to Damascus

Paul’s unique ability to conceptualize and articulate abstract truth, must have been why the Lord Jesus Christ later personally appeared to him in the Arabian Desert, and first revealed to him the divine mysteries hidden from all ages and previous generations.

As ordained spokesman for God, Paul could claim on five occasions in Scripture, that that the mysteries of God were delivered uniquely to him. Not channelled through the agency of man, but received directly and personally from the Risen Lord Himself!

Paul could boldly assert that every man would be judged according to the Gospel that he preached.

He was ordained as a divine mouthpiece to explain God’s redemptive dealings with mankind, and to expose the inner workings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

He was given the understanding and subsequently revealed the significance of the Incarnation, the vicarious Death, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Glorification of Jesus Christ!

Paul was indeed the first man able to reveal the mystic secret of Who Jesus Christ is within the Trinity, and how Christ was in fact the very Source, the Agent,  and Fulfilment of all of Creation!

He explained the meaning of the Grace and Reality that came through Jesus Christ, The meaning of the First and the Last Adam, also the Second Man, revealing therein fallen mankind’s reconciliation with God through Christ Jesus, and the bringing about of a New Creation Mankind!

Paul personally wrote fourteen Epistles, comprising two thirds of the New Testament!

In these Epistles he laid down doctrine and addressed, confronted and corrected numerous errors, abuses, failures, heresies and deviations from sound doctrine and church practises.

Not only was Paul proficient in the entire body of Old Testament truth, including the  Law of Moses and the Prophets,  but of all men, he received the most accurate and extensive New Testament revelation. He was even caught up into the heavenlies and there received revelations to profound to utter!

Not only was the divine intentions and the decisions made, from before the foundation of the earth, within the eternal council of the Godhead, revealed to him, but Paul was also privileged with an  understanding of the reconciliation and final restitution of all things, when God becomes All and in All.

In presenting the Gospel, Paul came face to face, and confronted a wide spectrum of individuals and groups.

These included people with blood on their hands, cruel Roman despots and merciless and cold hearted soldiers.

There were gross and guilty sinners, outright heathens, some were demon possessed others were ignorant idol worshippers and  appeasers of false mythological God’s. Then there were those who blasphemed Jehovah  God, many apostate Jews, backslidden Christians and and also obstinate, mean and outspoken rebellious unbelievers!

Much of Paul’s ministry, his motives, his messages, his methods and his movements were recorded in his own handwriting and also captured by the hand of Luke in the Acts of the Apostles!

Paul could with a clear conscience declare that as an able minister of the New Covenant he ‘had held back nothing’, and had declared the ‘complete council of God!’

He could affirm that he had not run the race in vain!

On the contrary, he had poured out his very life as a living sacrifice in service of the gospel and was expecting his heavenly reward, a crown of recognition for a job well done!

Yet, have you ever read what Paul had to say about ‘Hell’?

Not ONE single word !

".....turn or burn!"

Absolutely nothing !

He never even hinted about, taught about , preached about , warned about or even  threatened a saint, a sinner or an unbeliever with the idea of a so called ‘hell’!

Do you think that perhaps the greatest teacher of the Church, the Apostle Paul, missed it?

Or was Paul perhaps a ‘false prophet’ or better still, a ‘heretic’, for not ‘pushing the doctrine of hell’?

After all, Paul’s neglect could be dooming and damning millions of people to eternal hell fire! ? If there in fact was a ‘hell’?

Or, do the nerds who often pose as preachers today, with their favourite cliché….‘hell is real’…. perhaps know something that poor  Paul didn’t know?

What do you think?

Unknown and unseen and first revealed by Jesus the Christ.

The divine union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-exist in an eternal uninterrupted perfect harmonious communion and fellowship of mutual love and timeless dialogue.

From eternity the Father is saying “You are my beloved Son in Whom I’m well pleased!” !

The Son is saying “Abba Father, Abba Father’

The Holy Spirit says ‘Beloved’!

It is within this unique union and communion that Paul said “we live, move and have our being”

When we pray ‘”in Jesus Name” and say “Our Father” we enter this divine dialogue….

It is when we personally ‘believe’ ‘into Jesus’ that this eternal divine ‘reality’ becomes our personal ‘actuality’ and our experience…

“….. that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” 1John 1:3-4

Breaking the mould of the traditional Christian religious mentality and the barriers to our spiritual thinking is a scary and tough thing to do!

In my opinion this can only come to pass when the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal a ‘Truth’ to the mind of a seeking Believer, hungry for spiritual reality!

The ‘Salvation of all men ‘ through Jesus Christ is such a truth!

My own experience felt like that of a jet plane, attempting to break through the sound barrier!
Everything in the human frame resisted to the point of shuddering!
It literally felt as if everything I thought knew and believed was under such immense pressure to the point of wanting to shatter and break apart. My religious comfort zone and sense of security was being threatened to point where I was nearly sick to my stomach!

And then suddenly..’eureka!’…the light bulb went on and I saw the truth in the scriptures through the eye of the Spirit!

And then…. total Peace! Followed by a flood of Faith, and Hope and a Love! An indescribable Love, appreciation, admiration, respect, wonder, amazement, and glorification for the magnificence and magnitude of Jesus the Christ!

A new enlarged vision of the Love and Grace of God the Father for all His creatures!

But beware!

This revelation of the Good News is usually followed, in the Holy Spirit’s agenda, with the next major ‘choking point’ on our journey of discovery!

Namely…….is there really such a thing as ‘eternal punishment’ in ‘hell’ as we were traditionally taught to believe?
This ‘understanding’ is another tough ‘Rubicon’ to cross in our adventurous spiritual journey of ‘unlearning religion’ and ‘learning the Mystery of God; Christ!

Once when He said to Zacchaeus “This day is salvation come to this house”. Luke 19.9

“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”

And then a second time when addressing the Samaritan woman regarding the ignorance of her people in the matter of  worship…” for salvation is of the Jews.” John 4.22

Yet, Jesus had something very profound and far reaching to reveal about Himself in declaring His own personal Mission Statement;

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. Luke 19:10

Notice, contrary to popular Christian fundamentalist doctrine, Jesus did not say He was merely going to ‘potentially save’ or ‘make it possible’ for some to ‘get saved’!

Jesus never laid down a ‘doctrine of salvation’, placing ‘salvation’ out of reach and attainable only through religious observance.

He was unwaveringly confident in Who He was, and knew Himself personally to be the exclusive and universal portal of entry into the Fathers favour , the unique source and sole mediator, able to procure within Himself, mankind’s salvation.

In announcing the Incarnation of the Son of God the heralding Angel declared;

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Declaring the end of hostility and the introduction of reconciliation between Divinity and humanity, also said;

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2.11 and 14.

Speaking by the Holy Spirit the just and devout prophet Simeon confirmed “For mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation!  Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. Luke 2.30-32

“The true Light, which enlightens every man that cometh into the world.” had arrived, and the expectation was that  “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” John 1.9 and Luke 3:6.

It indeed amazes me that many Christians today have  more confidence in the man made  ’doctrine of salvation’ of their denomination, and the efficacy of their own ‘faith’ as a means to ‘get saved’  than in the successful  execution and  accomplishment of stated mission of Jesus Christ to indeed ‘seek and save’ those who are lost!

Yet, ironically the despised Samaritan outcasts, accepted His own personal testimony and believed in what Jesus said He came to do!

”And said unto the woman, now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” John 4:42

Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the entire world…this is an idea which time has come!

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:28–32)

I sometimes need and enjoy a ‘band aid’ myself, and I also love getting my feelings warmed, but that’s not really the focus of my ministry. There are many whom the Lord uses wonderfully in that way.

On the contrary, the angle of my ministry approach is grown over the years to rather be transformational, shedding light on traditional religious blind spots in our thinking, and challenging those redundant paradigms in our Christian mindset that we have inherited from tradition and simply follow blindly.

"....I have the Spirit of Truth!"

The central axis of my thinking is the truth of Who Jesus Christ really is, and what the Trinity has accomplished in and through Him on behalf of mankind through the process from His Incarnation as the Son of God leading up to His Glorification as the Son of Man.

My opinions are sometimes controversial although always intended to be Christ-centred and glorifying, emphasizing the Love and the Grace of God the Father.

These views draw a variety of comments ranging from one religious extreme of the Christian spectrum to the other.

Many gracefully appreciative, some inquisitive, some confused, many constructive, and then some really very angry, critical, judgemental and condemning.

Some of these religiously offended folk even make reference to certain scriptures alluding to ‘hell fire and brimstone’ ‘mill stones around the neck’ and ‘eternal chains’!

I always find these legalistic ‘hell fire and brimstone’ pundits so amusing in the way they express their religious offences towards someone who according to Scripture ‘died with Christ’ and whose ‘life is hidden with Christ in God’!

It somehow confirms my theory that many of our fellow Christians know just enough about the Bible to make them devilish in their ignorance!

An interesting reoccurring feature that I’ve noticed about many of these hyper legalistic judges, is that when they are confronted, they often justify themselves by claiming that they have ‘The Spirit of Truth’!

Maybe is just me, but somehow, when someone has to actually ‘tell’ me that they only, as opposed to those who think differently, like myself,  have the Spirit of Truth, it just doesn’t seem to ring true with me.

Usually when someone is flowing in the Spirit of Truth, in fact the Spirit that testifies to the ‘Reality’ of Who Jesus Christ really is, and what the Trinity has done through Him for mankind, what they share produces faith, hope and love, and witnesses of Christ in an irresistible way!

I’ve noticed that there is indeed also a ‘religious spirit’ people sometimes speak from, and although they also quote the Bible, the tone of their speech is usually proud, angry, intolerant, and the message condemning and judgemental and bears no testimony of the grace of Jesus Christ nor the Love of the Father!

It seems like the ‘religious spirit’ is the inter-mingling of the human fleshly nature mixed with mere intellectual head knowledge of Bible Scripture’s and Christian doctrine, yet devoid of spiritual revelation and insight from the Holy Spirit!

The letter indeed kills and the Spirit produces life!

Every human being, including Christians and unbelievers alike, are to a greater or lesser degree unconsciously trapped a ‘personal mythology’ regarding God and themselves!

Myths are imaginary and unproved collective ideas, beliefs and fictitious stories, based on legends and tradition. These mostly untested concepts are invented to justify ourselves, and designed to explain and give meaning to the mysterious dimensions of life.

Most our ‘personal mythology’ consists of a mixed ‘fruit salad’ consisting of a intermingling and blending together into one mass of various ingredients.

Who am I?

These consists of fear filled superstitions, fables, erroneous beliefs, personal subjective experience, cultural influence, denominational conjecture and religious dogma based on the Bible and the opinions of men etc. etc.

For instance, for most of us our inherited opinion is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to come Adam’s world, into the mess Adam made, and attempt to build a faith bridge back to God!  A bridge we have to somehow find during our lifetime and successfully cross, or alternatively God will dump us into ‘hell’, to be tormented eternally!

The eternal fact is that Adam came into Christ’s world!

The eternal fact is that we were saved in Christ even before we fell in Adam!

Untwisting and unravelling our familiar and deeply held, and cherished misconceptions, in order to dig through to the bedrock of ‘truth’ or ‘reality’, that actually came through Jesus Christ is not easy and often most painful.

Yet, not unlike a Tiger caught in a fatal trap, we sometimes have to chew off our own leg, in order to rescue our very existence from life’s traps!

A good place to commence in exposing our ‘personal mythology’ is to get a clear perspective on and to begin to recognise the distinction between ‘Objective’ and ‘Subjective’ spiritual realities.

The following audio teaching’s could prove helpful.

‘The Objective and Subjective Spiritually Reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!’

http://www2.uhaveaudio.com/1291244607_32/mp3/g0/ql

Then to ask the question; “Who is Jesus Christ”, and what did the Triune God accomplished through Jesus for and on behalf mankind, and therefore of you personally”

‘Jesus Christ, the Master Key to unlocking the Mystery of the Bible.’

http://www2.uhaveaudio.com/1291234889_32/mp3/g0/ql

http://www2.uhaveaudio.com/1291927708_32/mp3/g0/ql

http://www2.uhaveaudio.com/1291931261_32/mp3/g0/ql

To ask and answer the vital question, “Who is God?”

‘The Mythology of God in the Mind of the Believer – Re-discovering the Heart of the Father’

http://www2.uhaveaudio.com/1291858093_32/mp3/g0/ql

The Divine Godhead’s original thoughts and intentions about us as humanity did not arise in a vacuum of boredom or loneliness, or even the need to demonstrate His power in creation.

Every though existing in God has to be, in the very nature of the case a uniquely Trinitarian thought.

God’s every dream has to be an Trinitarian dream, spawned by and arising as an expression of the perfect and beautiful  harmonious union and communion of selfless love  and relationship that exists between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

We as mankind are the product of such a divine Trinitarian dream and vision!

Indeed a Divine vision of every man, woman and child included by grace and co-sharing within the Son in His perfect face to face relationship as the Beloved of the Father.

This is why ‘Grace ‘is not merely the latest ’fad’ or a mere ‘message’!

Grace is in fact the power whereby the Trinitarian love dream is realized, despite mankind’s fatal flaw.

Grace is the uniquely Divine Trinitarian genius and ability, now being demonstrated and put on display for the universe to appreciate and applaud for all eternity to come.

God’s Divine Grace, and not His Divine power, which was clearly and undeniably demonstrated and displayed in bringing about the original Creation, will indeed be the very reason why the entire cosmos will applaud the absolute genius of Godhead for all eternity!

Paul the Apostle wrote more than 2000 years ago

“For my concern is that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged) as they are knit together in love, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, which is Christ the Anointed One.

In Him (Jesus Christ) all the treasures of divine wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and all the riches of spiritual knowledge and enlightenment arestored up and lie hidden.” Colossians 2 v 2-3

Firstly Paul makes the point specifically that there is a

‘’ mystic”secret of God!

A ‘secret’ speaks of something known or shared only by one or a privileged few. Of something that exists and operates in a concealed, hidden or confidential manner and is kept hidden from general knowledge or view.

The term ‘mystic’ speaks of otherworldly knowledge, or something that remains beyond ordinary understanding or explanation, having an import not apparent to the senses, nor obvious to the intelligence.

The word ‘treasure’ has since ancient times had a specific legal meaning. It refers to a concentration of riches, concealed in the earth or other private place, lying hidden for so long that its owner is unknown.

A store of prized possession of highly valuable and desirable content, which is considered lost or forgotten, until being rediscovered.

The second point Paul makes, is that this mystery of God is exclusively found in the revelation of who Jesus Christ is!

That the totality of divine wisdom and knowledge of the Trinity, if its ever to be discovered and known by man, will only be found in an understanding of Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, that this aforementioned secret treasure was deliberately stored up, implying that it was saved, or put away for future use, but hidden, and thus imperceptible to the casual observer.

Fourthly, that that you and I may become progressively and more intimately acquainted with, and may know, more definitely and accurately, and thoroughly, this very mystic secret of God, which is indeed Christ, the Anointed One.

This obscure shrub stands as one of nature’s most wonderful symbol of hope and endurance.

Growing where few other plants would survive, the Myrothamnus flabellifolius is known by its common Afrikaans name as the ‘bergboegoe’ or ‘the Resurrection Plant’.

It was part of ancient folklore, that when person had suffered significant losses, like for instance, the death of a loved one, or a devastating setback or failure in life, and is in deep despair. When life’s darkest hour has struck, and all hope is gone, and life had lost its meaning.
It is said, that an object lesson taken form this seemingly insignificant member of the plant kingdom, could somehow be used as catalyst to bring a person back to life again. To ‘jump start’ and restore belief in themselves, and to recover hope for the future.

The recommendation for the downcast and discouraged soul then, is  to take a completely dried out, totally lifeless and finished, ready for the compost heap, twig of ‘bergboegoe’, and place it in a glass of water in their windowsill for a day.

Amazingly the dead ‘bergboegoe’ twig will have transformed itself into a flourishing fully alive green bough by the next day.

This plant has the uncanny ability to dry out completely, to the point where for all practical appearances it seems to be completely dead, but yet, with the slightest encouragement, in the form of water and sunlight, it revives, and makes a comeback to life. Within hours it has once again become a vibrant green plant.

The ‘Resurrection Plant’ is evidence that no matter how bleak or desperate a situation might seem, there is always hope!

For this is the very meaning and power of ‘Resurrection’ and indeed the very Nature of God!

The Apostle Paul was certainly no stranger to life’s cycle of the experience of dying and being revived again. He was familiar with contradiction and  knew all about disappointment .

“For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in the province of Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself.

Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the very sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:8 (Amplified Bible)

And why does his opinion matter?

Why does his personal estimate of Who Jesus is in relation to all of mankind, and what the scope and cicumference of the saving Grace of God towards mankind really is, impress you?

For the record William Barclay was a biblical scholar, a world-renowned New Testament interpreter, and minister of the Church of Scotland.

He served as Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at Glasgow University, Scotland. Professor Barclay was also the Examiner in New Testament at the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, St. Andrews and Leeds.

He held the Bruce Lectureship (1936 – The Use of the New Testament in the Early Fathers), The Kerr Lectureship (1954-1957 – Educational Ideals in the Ancient World), and the Croall Lectureship (1954-1957 – The Ethical Vocabulary of Saint Paul).

Other academic positions held by Professor Barclay were membership f the Society for New Testament Studies and of the International Conference on Patristic Studies.

He was also a director of the National Bible Society of Scotland, a member of the Translating Committee of the New English Bible, and translator on the Apocryphal Panel.

In the New Year Honours List of 1969 he was made a Commander of the British Empire. Professor Barclay died in his sleep in the early hours of Tuesday 24 January 1978.

Certainly William Barclay was no ‘man of straw’ when it came to Theology! He certainly was no half-informed, wild-eyed, Bible totting, prancing and pulpit thumping  preacher. Professor Barclay was ‘old school’, Scottish conservative and also a highly educated academic.

Indeed a rare and  and exeptional man of God!

This is what William had to say:

“I am a convinced universalist.

I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.

In the early days Origen was the great name connected with universalism. I would believe with Origen that universalism is no easy thing. Origen believed that after death there were many who would need prolonged instruction, the sternest discipline, even the severest punishment before they were fit for the presence of God. Origen did not eliminate hell; he believed that some people would have to go to heaven via hell.

Origen

He believed that even at the end of the day there would be some on whom the scars remained. He did not believe in eternal punishment, but he did see the possibility of eternal penalty. And so the choice is whether we accept God’s offer and invitation willingly, or take the long and terrible way round through ages of purification.

Gregory of Nyssa offered three reasons why he believed in universalism.

Gregory of Nyssa

First, he believed in it because of the character of God. “Being good, God entertains pity for fallen man; being wise, he is not ignorant of the means for his recovery.”

Second, he believed in it because of the nature of evil. Evil must in the end be moved out of existence, “so that the absolutely non-existent should cease to be at all.” Evil is essentially negative and doomed to non-existence.

Third, he believed in it because of the purpose of punishment. The purpose of punishment is always remedial. Its aim is “to get the good separated from the evil and to attract it into the communion of blessedness.” Punishment will hurt, but it is like the fire which separates the alloy from the gold; it is like the surgery which removes the diseased thing; it is like the cautery which burns out that which cannot be removed any other way.

But I want to set down not the arguments of others but the thoughts which have persuaded me personally of universal salvation.

First, there is the fact that there are things in the New Testament which more than justify this belief. Jesus said: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). Paul writes to the Romans: “God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy on all” (Rom. 11:32).

He writes to the Corinthians: “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22); and he looks to the final total triumph when God will be everything to everyone (1 Cor. 15:28).

In the First Letter to Timothy we read of God “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and of Christ Jesus “who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:4-6). The New Testament itself is not in the least afraid of the word all.

Second, one of the key passages is Matthew 25:46 where it is said that the rejected go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life. The Greek word for punishment is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment.

The word for eternal is aionios. It means more than everlasting, for Plato – who may have invented the word – plainly says that a thing may be everlasting and still not be aionios. The simplest way to out it is that aionios cannot be used properly of anyone but God; it is the word uniquely, as Plato saw it, of God. Eternal punishment is then literally that kind of remedial punishment which it befits God to give and which only God can give.

Third, I believe that it is impossible to set limits to the grace of God. I believe that not only in this world, but in any other world there may be, the grace of God is still effective, still operative, still at work. I do not believe that the operation of the grace of God is limited to this world. I believe that the grace of God is as wide as the universe.

Fourth, I believe implicitly in the ultimate and complete , the time when all things will be subject to him, and when God will be everything to everyone (1 Cor. 15:24-28).

For me this has certain consequences. If one man remains outside the love of God at the end of time, it means that that one man has defeated the love of God – and that is impossible. Further, there is only one way in which we can think of the triumph of God. If God was no more than a King or Judge, then it would be possible to speak of his triumph, if his enemies were agonizing in hell or were totally and completely obliterated and wiped out.

But God is not only King and Judge, God is Father – he is indeed Father more than anything else. No father could be happy while there were members of his family for ever in agony. No father would count it a triumph to obliterate the disobedient members of his family.

The only triumph a father can know is to have all his family back home. The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God.

[Quoted from William Barclay: A Spiritual Autobiography, pg 65-67, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, 1977.]

Under normal circumstances, carrying a heave object would not have presented a problem for the Son of Joseph, the Carpenter,  but not on that particular day. Circumstances had made it physically impossible.

On this day the load was just too heavy!

The burdensome walk up the Via Dolorosa through the jeering crowd was just to long and hard!

On any other day, He would have easily carried a cross, but on this day, Jesus was just too tired.

Jesus had not slept the night before.

He had been cruelly tortured and savagely beaten. The soldiers had brutally plucked out his beard with pliers. His body was painfully cut and lacerated. A crown of thorns had been thrust into his skull. He had lost a great deal of blood. Jesus was in excruciating physical and emotional pain. He was hyperventilating and utterly exhausted.

He was traumatized and emotionally and psychologically disoriented. He had been beaten to the point of death.

The shocking fact is, the Son of the Living God, Jesus the Christ, could not carry His own cross!

He collapsed and fell under the weight of the very cross that He was destined to be nailed to.

He lay powerless and broken, face down and defeated on a dirt road. The Daughters of Jerusalem wept!

He had somewhere important to go, but He could not get there by Himself.

His divine mission was to reach the top Golgotha’s Hill.

To be sacrificed as the Lamb that would take away the sins of the world…..but He could not!

He could not by himself fulfill his own destiny!

He just could not get from the place where he was, to where He needed to go!

The Roman soldiers had worn Him out. Judas had betrayed Him. His friends had deserted Him. His nation had abandoned Him. The crown of thorns blinded Him. His Mother stood by weeping. The minutes felt like hours. The end of the road had come.

Jesus had a dilemma!

He had come  into this world to be the Saviour of all Mankind!

He had come to bond divinity and humanity together in unity.

He knew, that unless He  be lifted up onto that cross, mankind would forever be under the power of deception and darkness.

Jesus knew that only through the cross, He would be able to “deliver us from the power of darkness and convey us into the kingdom of His love.” Col 1. 12

Jesus was in a quandary, because he knew that “for this purpose the son of God was made manifest, to destroy the works of the evil one.” John 3.8

Jesus understood that only by dying on that cross He could restore mankind’s innocence .

Jesus knew that only on the cross He could forever” wipe out the handwriting of requirements that was against us and was contrary to us and nail it to his cross in his own body” Col 2;14

He knew that without the cross He could not remove mankind’s condemnation, guilt and inferiority.

Jesus was aware that unless He personally cancelled out the animosity towards his Maker poisoning man’s hostile and darkened mind, that separation and distance between man and God would forever prevail in mankind’s mentality… for it was through Him that we would have access to the Father . EPH 2; 18   (Par)

His conversation with Nicodemus flashed through His feverish mind;

‘ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness , even so must the son of God be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.16 for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son  that whosoever  believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. John 3.14,16

He was in deep trouble!

He had he most important reason in the world to get to the top of the hill, yet he could not get from point A to point B!

Yet, Jesus knew that His Father could!

He knew that His Father knew where He needed to be!

That God would find a way to get Him from point A to point B!

That God knows how to make a way where there seems to be no way!

His Father knew how to get Jesus onto the Cross!

Grace would find a way to Redeem mankind from estrangement and sin. Love knows how to reconcile a fallen creation to Himself.

He knew that Love and Grace would find a way, even when it appears to be impossible!

The Father had called and prepared a man called Simon!

Simon had just journeyed in  from Cerene, and was standing at the just the right place at the right time. And Simon was strong enough to lift up that cross.

Jesus was in His deepest and darkest moment of defeat, failure and despair.

Yet through broken lips,  mouth filled with blood and dust Jesus trusted and called only on His Father, and His Father sent Simon.

When your personal hopes and dreams are dashed by life’s circumstances; When the midnight hour has struck, and you find yourself in your darkest hour of despair facing the impossible; When the tide has turned and drifted out, and you find yourself stranded high and dry, unable to get from where you are to where you need to be;

When trouble comes and friends are nowhere to be found; When your Bank account is empty and the grocery cupboard bare; When your life is no longer working and your destiny seems out of reach; When even your divine calling and heavenly mandate appears lost: When you cant seem to get from where you are, to where you need to be! Who do you call upon?

Nobody and nothing can fulfill your destiny but God.

The Father knows exactly where you are, and where you need to be! He knows how to bring you from here to there!From from wherever you are to wherever you need to be!

Failure and disappointment sometimes causes us to stop believing God in our hearts, while we still ‘believe’ Him with our mouth.

God knows how to get you out of your dilemma. Out of failure. Out of fear. Out of sin, temptation, and confusion. When Jesus was down, He did not cry out to Simon, He cried out to God, and God sent Simon.

Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

Psalm 50:15

"...but 'my way' is the only 'right' way!'

I was so taught and was attempting to ‘micro manage’ Bible truths and principles without considering the overall larger message of the Bible. The larger plan and macro framework!

It was very much like building a puzzle without the picture on he outside of the  box!

My current position however, when faced with sometimes difficult to ‘explain’ scriptures is to first ASK, and ANSWER this vital question;

‘Who is Jesus Christ,the Son, and what has God the Father done to humanity in and through Him?”

The ANSWER to this question is the macro plan and picture!The overarching paradigm of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation!

It is the picture on the outside of the box of a puzzle, without which you cannot successfully put together the pieces to form  the picture!

This has become for me the true interpretive key to unlocking what the entire Bible is all about, namely the Mystery: of both the Father and the Son and their intention to include mankind in the life, the love and the glory of the Trinity.

For myself, I know that I need to interpret every verse in the Bible in the light of this ANSWER, otherwise I am missing the point and  message of the Bible!

What is your ‘interpretive key’ when reading and attempting to make sense of the Bible?

Through concious discipline we should retrain ourselves by constant reminder that we are already infused and enveloped in this spiritual reality.

Christ promised to never leave or ever forsake us, and to abide by His Spirit within us as a perpetual, uninterrupted indwelling Presence of His Person and His Love.

Although we may not ‘feel’ it, it is there and it is real!

We always need to appropriate this reality by faith, but God, from His side, so to speak, needs no faith to make it a reality, He has already done it!

We simply need to retrain our consciousness in reference to an existing spiritual reality, taking concious possession of this gift of grace.

We should do this often enough, and long enough, never giving mind to the false perception of lack and absence, reprogramming our thinking processes and deliberately being ‘consciously conscious’ of the reality of His Indwelling Presence and Love.

Soon this awareness of an already existing spiritual reality, will become part of our nature, and our conciousness.

Soon we  until we become ‘unconsciously concious’ of His Presence and Love.

Similar to the  process of first learning how to drive a motorcar, we will commence with a  rather rough beginning, lacking confidence we will be off to  a hesitant stalling and going again, stop and start  ride.

However through paying attention and constant practice soon we will progress to the place of being able to shift gears without even thinking and successfully negotiating the road without concious effort.

Likewise, in our spiritual conciousness we will go form ‘crawling as being mere ‘babes in Christ’ to walking confidently like Jesus walked in the earth as the Son of God.Walking with the concious awareness that we are indeed also truly the children of the Living God!

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Joh 14:19-21

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will[e] believe in Me through their word;   that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:  I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26

We have to ask ourselves if, despite the sincere and grand efforts made by so many to preach ‘the gospel’, if the true essence of ‘the Gospel’ has not unknowingly  fallen through the floorboards of the contemporary Church?

If the essence of true message concerning Jesus Christ, has not become obscure in the muddy waters of religiosity, or trampled underfoot by ecclesiastical establishments, in their eager  quest for public approval and their own need for survival? 

Lets consider if everything being promoted as being ‘the Gospel’ today,even though it may be based on what is written in the Scriptures, referred to as the  ”The New Testament” , is necessarily “The Gospel” that we are supposed to proclaim to the world!

For most Christians the New Testament and the Gospel simply comprises the pages between Matthew and the Book of Revelation in their Bibles. In fact most Christians will fall of their pew in shock when told that this is not the New Testament, neither is it the Gospel per se.

The New Covenant is indeed testified to in these pages of Scripture, so is the Gospel, the Good News!

The ‘New Covenant’ is in fact in its deeper implications an ‘us’ inclusive, living relationship between God the Father and God the Son! The Gospel is actually the good news that we, humanity have been reconciled, accepted and included, by the grace of God, into this, the only perfect relationship in the universe.

The wonderful news that Jesus not only brought divinity into humanity by His Incarnation, He has also lifted humanity into Divinity by His Ascension and Glorification.

In the light thereof, let us now examine some questions in reference to our present mode of understanding and proclaiming the Gospel. God’s plea through us, His ambassadors, towards mankind, the heart cry of a Loving Father to His wayward children! An invitation to ‘come home’ and be reconciled, based on the already accomplished Redemptive work of Christ.

Much of our theology and efforts at preaching, although sincere and dutifully based on Scripture, has in fact contributed in producing a mixed Gospel.

Much like making a fruit salad, we have sliced into one mixture everything that ‘sounds good’ from the Bible, everything that would make an impression and produce a decision to ‘believe the Gospel’ in the hearts and minds of the hearers

Many of the scriptures upon which we generally base our preaching of the ‘Gospel’, are historical records of pre-crucifixion events and narratives that took place within a particular past context.

About what transpired in the early period of the infantile Early Church, before the calling and commissioning of the Apostle Paul, who eventually wrote two thirds of the New Testament and was the first to shed true light on the full implications of Christ’s Redemptive act.

All these recorded events unfolded within the backdrop of the passing away of a deeply established judgemental and legalistic religious culture, in particular the Law of Moses and the Priestly order and system of sacrifices introduces through Moses.

This was a rigid and intolerant system based on a deliberate divine demand made on mankind’s self-effort at obedience and moral performance, and was , in the nature of the case never designed to enable or empower man to succeed, but to he contrary to cause him to utterly fail.

Thereby proving to man that his own weakness and inability, despite his best performance, despite legalistic  self-effort religiosity having reached its climax, to redeem him or to establish himself as righteousness before God, based on his own works.

This incapacity of man to pull himself up by his own religious bootstraps was meant in fact, to rub his nose in his ruin, so to speak, and to bring him face to face with his desperate need for a saviour.

The culmination of mans innate spiritual corruption necessitated the ushering in of a totally different, antithetical and counter productive to the old, totally grace based method of redemption.

A previously inconceivable and impossible deliverance from spiritual darkness and bondage based on a once off Divine unilateral intervention on man’s behalf. A divine operation far super ceding and going beyond the mere Divine ‘pardon of man’s sin’‘, but in fact culminating in a spiritual union between Divinity and humanity.

Much of the history of the early Church reflect a co-mingling of the Old and the New and the progressive clarifying of the confusing issues this raised in the lives of those whose mentality had been shaped by the Old and those who had no Law based frame of reference.

The most far reaching and important Divine intervention in the history mankind and the Cosmos was the Incarnation of the unique Son of God into the human body of Jesus of Nazareth as the representative Corporative Man.

Through His birth into humanity and subsequent vicarious Life, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Glorification Christ had created the context for interpreting the mystery regarding the nature of God and his relationship with man.

The revelation of this mystery, previously hidden from all previous ages and from all preceding generations has now has been revealed and is now no longer supposed to be a mystery to humanity!

First revealed directly by Jesus Christ and especially to the Apostle Paul, given him the ‘stewardship from God’ in order to fulfil the Word of God and the responsibility to make the revelation of the mystery known.

This by informing and completing man understands of the reason and the implications for the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Glorification of Jesus Christ, Himself simultaneously the Son of Man and the Son of God.

This revelation and understanding had been incomplete in the Early Church up to the launch by Christ Himself personally of Paul’s teaching ministry and only became a reality to Paul through his teachings.

Paul’s ministry introduced a revelation and an explanation of Gods eternal intention and Christ’s earthly intervention without which our interpretation of the ‘Good news from God about man’ what we indeed name ‘the Gospel ‘ would be incomplete.

For the sake of clarity we have to discern and admit that more than one interpretation of ‘the Gospel’ exists within the recorded history of the early Church. For this reason Paul go to great lengths to contrast and set ‘his’ gospel over against the ‘gospel’ others were preaching at the same time?

Paul distinguishes ‘his’ gospel message in this way;

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, ‘according to the revelation of the mystery’, which was kept secret since the world began.  But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith..” Romans 16: 24 – 26

Paul contrasting his ‘certified’ and ‘completed’ Gospel message of ‘reconciliation’ over against those who only understood ‘at that time’ a gospel message based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth with in the backdrop of a Jewish Law based religious dispensation.

Paul’s gospel was based on a revelation of…”Him that is of power to stablish you according to ‘my gospel,’ and the preaching of Jesus Christ, ‘according to the revelation of the mystery’, which was kept secret since the world began,  ’But now is made manifest,” Romans 16:26

The Resurrected Lord, whom Saul detested and whose influence Saul was intent on obliterating from the face of the earth, had arrested Saul with these significant words!

Jesus obviously asked him something that was extremely personal, possibly known only to God and inwardly by Saul himself.

Something to do with an obviously deep and painful inner conflict and a devastating turmoil going on in Saul’s soul and life! There is the school of thought that holds that the ‘goads’ that Saul was kicking against was not the Christian Church per se, the sect whom he personally despised and was viciously persecuting, but was in fact Saul’s own total disillusionment with his religion!

A judgemental religion based on the knowledge of good and evil, the doing of right and not wrong, and  on man’s own self efforts and religious performance within a system of rituals, sacrifices and law–keeping aimed at appeasing  a God  perceived as a Judge, vindictive and intolerant and of human weakness.

The nerve that Jesus touched inside the secret wound in his soul was that Saul secretly and inwardly realized and was acutely aware, that his fanatical pursuance of strict legalistic religious rules and rituals, and the upholding of outward observances, had produced in himself and only further deepened his feelings of spiritual impotence, futility and despair.

His best religious efforts had only served to further emphasize the sense of distance and his lack of intimacy and vital relationship with God.

Paul’s secret heart cry became…”O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ” Romans 7:24 This spiritual emptiness inside Saul produced a realization of the utter inadequacy and futility of his ‘works based’ religion. Saul, himself, by his own confession qualifying as  being righteous according to the Law, a Pharisee amongst Pharisee’s, epitomizing in his own person the ultimate human representation of this performance based religion, now had a severe predicament!

”O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Admitting this inner dilemma to himself or to his peers was impossible, it meant forfeiting all recognition and respect and losing all that during his lifetime had at least substituted  some meaning and purpose for the frustrating God-void in his life! This deep inner turmoil and dissatisfaction was ironically enough the very underbelly that motivated and guided his fanatical religious zeal in resisting, judging, condemning and his diabolical devotion to destroying ‘The Way’ that was based on Grace!

This ‘new and living’ ‘ Way’ of relating to God by faith alone, a method of worship and fellowship with God that was completely antithetical and counter productive to all that he understood.

Bring included into the favour of God based exclusively on the unmerited favour of a loving Heavenly Father plus nothing else but the Person of Jesus Christ!

Literally faith in Jesus Christ plus nothing else! In fact in a manner of speaking Grace plus Nothing!

Grace plus Nothing!

In Romans chapter seven Paul describes the wretchedness and misery in which Christ had found and rescued him on the Damascus road!

So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.

For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths.

But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God. Rom 7 4-6

Don’t you remember how it was?  I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it.

The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it.

The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong.

So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. Rom 7:8-11

I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. Rom 7:22-25

Let us be grateful to the Apostle Paul for allowing us to get a glimpse the inner sanctuary of his life, and for sharing with us the deepest secrets of the soul of a perfectly ‘religious’ man devotedly ‘working for God’.

Yet a desperate man, who, by all appearances was ‘righteous and blameless according to the Law’ yet inwardly depressed and trapped in frustration and futility.

Legalism with its inevitable view, that righteousness and the favour of a Judgemental God, is something that is only achieved and earned as a reward for man’s accumulated moral accomplishments, inevitably leads to the critical and mercenary attitude that had taken possession and manifested in Paul’s life!

When the Resurrected and Glorified Jewish Messiah apprehended the bloodthirsty Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus he had a licence to kill the Name of Jehovah God in the handwriting of the highest Religious Order and Institution, the High Priest of Isreal, clutched in his hand!

The central requirement of the true faith and ancient religion of his Hebrew forefathers, namely, of doing justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly before their God, had been replaced by an insidious self –righteous pride, a false religious burden and a critical, judgemental and bitter spirit!

It immediately identifies and assumes as its very own the nature, that of this particular species.
In other words, if the very first thing it sees is a human being, it will fixate upon and consider itself to be a human. It will completely disregard its own genesis of origin as a bird of prey and emotionally and mentally bond with, and even begin to imitate human behaviour patterns. It ignorantly denies and overrides its own original nature and becomes instantly a double product of captivity, not only as one born into captivity but also the victim of a mind imprisoned and held in bondage for a lifetime by the illusion of a false perception.

It appears that there is a parallel between this phenomena and the way many Christians manifest the same pattern in their spiritual life. The seeds of the destruction of their spiritual potential are often sown at its very inception.

Christians absorb and internalize very early in life a picture produced by the religious environment and spiritual ecology within which first open their eyes. Received either by tradition, heritage or subsequent spiritual experience this internalized construct immediately and unconsciously cements the picture of what a Christian is expected to be and sets the limitations end expectations in place for the future.

Not unlike the misguided baby Falcon, the Christian now begins to emulate a superficial and false man made external religious cultural identity. He lives mesmerized and in ignorance and denial of his/her divinely ordained design function as one who has been given the power to believe and live a son of God.

Hence, as people representing different denominations i.e.: Pentecostals, Methodists, Baptists, Charismatic’s, Word of Faith, Catholics, etc., we act out, and strive to excel in imitating this internalized construct of the religious system which first represented Christianity to us, with its peculiarities and unique trappings!
Most Christians live from the cradle to the grave without awakening from the trap of this hypnotic condition.

They never discover the truly liberating nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Divine Mystery of the unique union between humanity and Divinity it proclaims. They live with little or no awareness or experience of the true character of their own spiritual nature as being partakers of His Divine Nature.

Saul of Tarsus, a man divinely destined to become Paul the Apostle, to whom the mystery of God in Christ with its deeper and fuller implications for mankind was first revealed, was once himself besieged and driven by the perceived demands of a severe and uncompromising external religious system.

When Paul encountered the Resurrected and Glorified Christ on the road to Damascus, his first vision and attachment was not to a religious system or body of doctrine, but the presence and power of His Divine Personage in human form.

This crucial vision and decisive and dramatic internalization of the first impression of the resurrected heavenly Christ Jesus as the Head of His earthly Divine Body at once became the uncompromising foundation and intrinsic essence of Paul’s Christian life, experience and teachings.

The divine revelation of the super-natural impartation of a new internal spiritual reality, namely, Christ in us, the Hope of Glory! , transformed Paul, and henceforth became his outward expression of life.

This new revelation given to Paul by the Cosmic Christ Himself is the very antithesis of all other failed external religious systems required to be internalized by human striving and self-effort.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:20, 21

He was praying that we should have no uncertain knowledge of this union, and all the benefits and blessings of our Divine indwelling.

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one” John 17:22

The very central theme of Christ’s prayer, expressing the uttermost longing of His heart and the supreme desire of His mind that is that of our inclusion in the highest form of union conceivable; Humanity’s inclusion in and infusion by Divinity!

“I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:23

This Divine Union and is the paramount and greatest of all blessings and the very foundation from which our life now proceeds

This inclusion and infusion into God is not our ultimate spiritual destiny, but in fact our point of departure and the only source of our life and living.

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one…….” John 17:23

The very origin of this practical life-sustaining spiritual and experiential union we have in the Beloved in our present space and time existence was conceived and established by God in eternity past, even before the foundation of the world.

This occurred within an Eternal Covenant when the Father gave Christ to us and us to Christ in the mystical union and everlasting marriage between the Mediator Son and His elect.

This Divine joining together is even more intimate than between husband and wife who in human terms are indeed ‘one flesh’. We are indeed ‘one body’ and ‘one spirit’ with the Lord, He is ‘in us’ and we are ‘in Him’

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” 1Cor 6:17

Your indissoluble oneness and absolute identification with Christ is so intimate and real that God will never ever view or regard you apart from Christ.

In consequence of our union He says to you His beloved:

“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In loving-kindness and mercy;

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the LORD.” Hosea 2:19, 20

“For your Maker is your husband…” Isa 54

And we in deep appreciation exclaim:
“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Song of Solomon 2:16

Preface

Often men identify with the priesthood of Christ and women with the bride of Christ. But in reality, neither the priest nor the bride has anything to do with our own gender. Our heavenly Father is looking only for His Son in us.

He is looking to see if we exhibit the holiness and righteousness that was to be displayed in the lives of His biblical priests. He is looking to see if we exhibit that single-eyed devotion so apparent in a loving bride—the one who wishes nothing more than to live in perfect union with her husband—even as Christ lives in perfect union with His Father.
Since only perfect union will satisfy our Father, He created us so that only perfect union will satisfy His children. The ancient betrothal process in the Bible is a spiritual road map for the believers’ “rite of passage” into this consuming intimacy with God in Christ.

When we are born again, we are joined to Christ in spirit, translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love, seated with Him in heavenly places and made coheirs with Christ Jesus of God the Father. We begin as high as we can get, but not as deep. Depth is a journey.

If in this journey we seek the Lord for His sake alone, if we long to know Him as He knows us, then He will draw near to us in startling reality. He will ratify the betrothal covenant into which we entered (arranged by our heavenly Father) at the time of our new birth.

Passionately He will draw us after Him and usher us into that stage of our Christian growth that the Bible describes as “the time of love” (Ezek. 16:8, KJV). The New International Version says this: “I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love” (Ezek. 16:8), describing this stage as courtship.

For the betrothed, this is a time of intense joy and severe testing. An acute longing begins to grow within such believers. They realize that nothing will satisfy this hunger except a deeper union with Christ Himself.

If we will persevere, seeking consolation for our hearts in Christ alone, the Lord will draw us into a spiritual oneness. Once we have been brought into a more complete melding, we “know” him—oh, not as we will know Him later, nor as we will know Him when we have full salvation by receiving our resurrected bodies. But we know Him as the One who will say to us, as He said to Abraham, “I know him” (Gen. 18:19, KJV, emphasis added). The Hebrew meaning of the word can be translated: “I am intimate with him” (emphasis added).

There are three distinct stages within the bridal process. The individual experiences two of these, and one is corporate.

This book is an actual account of such a journey—a journey (open to all believers) into a consuming intimacy with Christ. I am sharing my love letters with you because the One who gave them asked me to share them.

His visitation to me on Earth, as well as these particular visions and revelations experienced in heaven, occurred between July 5, 1995, and July 5, 1996 (with two related visions given later). They were recorded word for word in journals. They chronicle a relentless, passionate drawing by the Lord unto Himself, culminating in a glorious, spiritual union.

It is my great hope that these will be an encouragement to all who wish to live in God as deeply as possible while on Earth—and to know Him above all others and above all else both on Earth and in heaven.

For you, Christ has love letters of your own awaiting.

The chart on the next page shows each stage, the work accomplished and what is received in each stage.

Many of us have some grasp of the first and third stages of this process. But some of us have not comprehended the depth of the impassioned commitment on the part of Christ toward His chosen ones, nor the poignant intimacy with Hun that is possible during this lifetime within the second stage.

The Priestly Bride

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