Category: Roman Catholicism

The “Our Father” Prayer in HD #6

Saturday, November 23, 2013

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13 KJV).

Eliminating the static due to religious tradition, we present to you “the official prayer of Christendom” with unparalleled clarity….

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This fifth and final petition does not involve a daily temptation we all face. Remember, God does not force anyone to sin, and He does not lead anyone to sin: sin is the result of a bad thought in the mind of the one committing the sinful deed. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:13,14).

Actually, the “temptation” in this petition (today’s Scripture) refers to the seven-year Tribulation, when Israel’s believing remnant will be tested, tried—persecuted and greatly pressured into following Satan’s policy of evil. Specifically, Israel’s little flock of believers will be imprisoned and executed for refusing to follow the antichrist and his satanic religion (Psalm 10:1-18; Daniel 7:19-25; Revelation 13:15; et al.); this is the “evil” (world system) of today’s Scripture from which believing Israel wants to be delivered. The way these Jews “overcome” the antichrist and Satan is to die for Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:16-28; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 12:11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 20:4; et al.). See also Psalm 37:1-40.

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” Absent from the modern English perversions and their underlying corrupt Greek manuscripts, this doxology is found in the majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts and it belongs in the Bible text just as the King James translators’ inclusion affirms. God, in His great power, will deliver Israel’s believing remnant from the Tribulation’s horrors and deception, and He will resurrect them and bring them into His earthly kingdom (which Jesus Christ will establish at His Second Coming, after those seven years), thereby glorifying God forever (Revelation 11:15-17).

“Amen.” Hebrew for “so be it.”

Let us now summarize the “Our Father” Prayer….

The “Our Father” Prayer in HD #5

Friday, November 22, 2013

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12 KJV).

Eliminating the static due to religious tradition, we present to you “the official prayer of Christendom” with unparalleled clarity….

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Like the second petition of verse 10, this fourth petition also utilizes a comparison. Once Jesus Christ concludes the “Our Father” Prayer, in verses 14 and 15, He elaborates on this principle of forgiveness: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Notice how God instructed Israel to pray in her prophetic program. They were to ask God for forgiveness so they could be forgiven. In other words, their forgiveness from God depended on whether or not they forgave others. This principle is in perfect accordance with the Law, the operating system of Israel’s program. Israel’s incentive to forgive others is so that she can get forgiveness from God. This performance-based acceptance system of Law is delineated so clearly in Deuteronomy chapter 28. If Israel was to receive God’s blessings, she had to obey all of His commandments. If Israel disobeyed, she received curses and judgments. God accepted these Jews on the basis of what they did by faith (see James 2:14-26): faith was the foremost issue for Israel, but they also needed works (physical circumcision, water baptism, confession of sins, et cetera).

Contrast this with what the Apostle Paul wrote to us, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32) Colossians 2:13 supplements, “God… having forgiven you all trespasses.” In our Dispensation of Grace, God has already forgiven us because of Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice on Calvary, and it is on this basis of God’s grace to us in Christ that we forgive others. We are under grace, not law (Romans 6:14); we do not appeal to Israel’s legalistic doctrine, for it is not God’s will for us.

Let us conclude our dissection of the “Our Father” Prayer….

The “Our Father” Prayer in HD #3

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 KJV).

Eliminating the static due to religious tradition, we present to you “the official prayer of Christendom” with unparalleled clarity….

“Thy kingdom come.” In this first petition of the “Our Father” Prayer, Israel’s believing remnant is acknowledging that their nation’s fall into sin postponed God’s earthly kingdom, but they are now ready to receive it. The New (heavenly) Jerusalem will “come down from God out of heaven” and be established on earth (Revelation 21:1-4). This “heaven on earth” kingdom was Israel’s hope throughout the Old Testament (Psalm 45:6,7; Isaiah 9:6,7; Daniel 2:35,44; Zechariah 9:9,10; et al.) and Israel’s believing remnant during Christ’s earthly ministry anticipated it (Luke 1:67-79; Luke 2:25-38; Luke 24:21; et al.). Jesus and His disciples preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 10:7; Mark 1:15; et al.). Israel’s believing remnant, in the future, will pray for God’s earthly kingdom to come, and her Messiah Jesus will be returning (His Second Coming) to establish it (Revelation 5:10; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 20:4; et al.). Father God said of Jesus Christ: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6,7)

“Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Satan has polluted heaven and earth with sin (2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12). By the time Israel’s believing remnant is living during the (future) seven-year Tribulation, we the Church the Body of Christ will already be raptured into heaven, ruling and reigning for God’s glory there. Halfway through those seven years, Satan and his angels will be cast out of heaven (outer space) and confined to earth (Revelation 12:7-9); we will occupy their vacated offices of government in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6,7; Philippians 3:20,21). God will restore heaven to Himself first, He will glorify His Son Jesus in heaven first, and His purpose and plan will be accomplished in heaven first. Israel’s believing remnant, knowing this, will pray the second petition that God’s will on earth—His earthly kingdom—be accomplished AS His heavenly kingdom was established.

Let us continue dissecting the “Our Father” Prayer….

The “Our Father” Prayer in HD #1

Monday, November 18, 2013

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9 KJV).

Eliminating the static due to religious tradition, we present to you “the official prayer of Christendom” with unparalleled clarity….

Someone once claimed that the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” is the “official prayer of Christendom.” This is not an overstatement, for this prayer is one of the most uttered prayers in all of the professing Church’s history. Actually, a better title is, “The ‘Our Father’ Prayer,” since Jesus never prayed it (John chapter 17 is the true “Lord’s Prayer”).

Nevertheless, despite its constant and widespread recitation, there is almost no understanding as to what the phrases and petitions in the “Our Father” Prayer actually mean. In 1 Corinthians 14:15, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.” In Paul’s mind, prayer was an action in which one understood the words he or she was uttering. If we do not understand the meaning of the contents of the “Our Father” Prayer, how can we expect our recitation of it will glorify and honor the Lord Jesus Christ?

Unfortunately, prayer in much of Christendom is often repetitious utterances mindlessly spoken because of “religious duty.” The purpose of prayer in the Bible is thus overlooked. Due to Christendom’s persistent failure to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15), it has greatly erred doctrinally. Prayer in Christendom is usually worthless tradition or misapplied Scripture because dispensational Bible study has been either innocently or deliberately ignored. The dispensational changes evident in God’s Word are overlooked: verses that do not describe anything that God is doing today, are forced onto us as if they did apply to us today. Israel’s verses are taken and often applied to us, the Church the Body of Christ. No wonder people get confused regarding Scripture. No wonder people stumble over the so-called Bible “contradictions.”

In the next several studies, we will search the Scriptures to discover that the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” is a beautiful summary of Israel’s program, and that it actually has nothing to do with any Christian today….

Biblical Stigmata

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17 KJV).

The Apostle Paul wrote in today’s Scripture that no one could deny his apostleship was of Jesus Christ, for he bore “in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” What were these “marks?”

Interestingly, the Greek word here translated “marks” is stigmata, which in English means “signs of disgrace or shame.” Understand that these stigmata which Paul suffered were Scriptural, and they involved shame and hatred, not awe and pride like the “stigmata” of religious tradition (wounds on one’s hands and feet superstitiously believed to be Christ’s scars, which leads to nothing more than pagan idolatry).

Notice what an apostle endured in Bible times: “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).

How many of today’s (self-proclaimed) “apostles” could write what Paul did in the above verses? Today, Christendom uses the title “apostle,” not to refer to those who have been directly commissioned and sent by Jesus Christ to travel abroad preaching the Gospel (which is the Biblical definition), but to those who have deceived themselves into believing they have a special “anointing” of God. In Paul’s day, “apostle” was a term of scorn and hatred; today, it is one of great fame and wealth.

Read 2 Corinthians 11:22-30, and notice the beatings, stonings, imprisonments, 195 (!) lashes, and other pains Paul suffered for the Gospel’s sake. How many are willing to endure that stigmata for Christ?

Who Is a Saint? #5

Friday, August 30, 2013

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” (1 Corinthians 1:30 KJV).

Behold, the identity that we Christians have in the Lord Jesus Christ!

In religion, “saints” are nothing more than intercessors who influence God to grant us favors. In Scripture, they are something else entirely. God—yea, God alone—creates saints through Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork (today’s Scripture). Saints are not for our selfish desires: they are for God to use to glorify His Son Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever.

Among other things, Jesus Christ is our “sanctification” (today’s Scripture). The writer of the book of Hebrews, when describing Israel’s salvation, used the same terminology the Apostle Paul utilized to refer to us, the Church the Body of Christ. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10,14; cf. Hebrews 13:12; 1 Peter 1:2; Jude 1).

Just as God will separate (sanctify) these believing Jews from the unsaved descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (like He separated Aaron and his sons from the common Israeli bloodline for service in the Levitical priesthood), so He has separated us from the ordinary human race. Just as He will redeem Israel from her sins and Satanic bondage using Jesus Christ’s shed blood (via the New Covenant; Hebrews 8:8-13), so He has bought us out of that slave market of sin and death (redemption; today’s Scripture).

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In Christ, we have a new nature: we are a new type of mankind, the Church the Body of Christ, the “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). All saints are equal in Jesus Christ—all Christians are in one body.

When God saved us, He not only delivered us from His wrath in everlasting hellfire, but He made us “saints” in Jesus Christ (today’s Scripture) to use us for His glory forever….

Who Is a Saint? #1

Monday, August 26, 2013

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” (1 Corinthians 1:30 KJV).

Behold, the identity that we Christians have in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Just as religion confuses us regarding the definition of “sinner,” it genders uncertainty as to what is a “saint.” Did you know that denominations disagree as to what a “saint” actually is? Must one die to be deemed a “saint?” Is it necessary to have two confirmed posthumous miracles demonstrating one’s intercessory work to God, before one can be recognized as a “saint?” Must one lead a sinless life to be a “saint?” Must one be “canonized” by a church hierarchy to become a “saint?” Should certain “saints” be revered more than others? These are important questions, and the Bible already declared their answers long before any church councils or church fathers offered fallible opinions.

The Lord Jesus Christ so clearly affirmed: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).

As always, remember that the authority is not in church councils, denominational boards, creeds, assumptions, patristic writings, or preconceived notions. According to the Lord Jesus Himself, the Bible alone is the standard by which all will be judged one day. In the King James Bible, we English-speaking people have every word that the Almighty God of creation wants us to hear from Him. Jesus Christ will use that same text to judge our beliefs one day, so we had better learn what His Word says rather than appealing to the traditions of men!

Firstly, let it be understood that our English word “saint” is derived from the Old French saintifier (influenced later by sanctifier), from ecclesiastical Latin sanctificare, from Latin sanctus ‘holy.’ “Saint” in our New Testament is the Greek word hagios, meaning “holy” or “set apart.” In today’s Scripture, the Bible says that we who are in Jesus Christ are “sanctified,” set apart, holy, and are therefore “saints.”

Let us delve deeper into this doctrine….

Who Is a Sinner? #4

Monday, August 19, 2013

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV).

Behold, God’s standard of righteousness, of which we all fall short!

Earlier, we briefly mentioned the three types of religious people we meet on a daily basis: (1) those who are too self-righteous to admit that they are sinners, (2) those who are attempting to obey a set of rules to keep God happy and hopefully merit His favor to get them into heaven, and (3) those who believe that their imperfections and transgressions will be dealt with in purgatorial flames. The Bible believer simply cannot hold to any of these viewpoints:

  1. “I AM GOOD ENOUGH ALREADY” — This viewpoint (self-righteousness) is flawed. When compared to some, we appear good, but when compared to others, we appear bad. Determining our “goodness” by focusing on someone else’s sins is unwise, for others also use our sins to establish their “goodness.” Using this system, one can never definitively conclude who is good and who is not! The standard is not you, I, or any other sinful creature—the standard of righteousness is God (today’s Scripture).
  2. “I AM TRYING TO BE GOOD ENOUGH” — This viewpoint (self-reformation) is also defective. No matter what set of rules we attempt to keep, we never can keep them perfectly. Although we can keep from committing certain types of sins and we can stop certain sins, we still have plenty of other sins that complicate our lives. How can God be pleased with our “good” deeds when He is too offended by our sins?
  3. “I WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH AFTER PURGATORY” — This viewpoint (self-suffering) is faulty, too. Can a person suffering in flames of fire really burn away his or her wicked nature and all its resultant sins? Nay, the only flames in the afterlife of which the Bible warns are hell and the lake of fire, where people are never reformed or purified, only preserved and punished!

Dear readers, I warn you in love that these three viewpoints can be summarized as self-delusion. They ignore the very reason why Jesus Christ came to this planet in the first place…!

Who Is a Sinner? #2

Saturday, August 17, 2013

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV).

Behold, God’s standard of righteousness, of which we all fall short!

I once posed this simple, straightforward inquiry to a priest: “Where would your soul go if you died right now?” He answered, “Heaven, after I am cleansed in purgatory.” I explained to him God’s Word declared we could be “made the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21) by simply trusting in Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins. When I thus questioned him regarding the purpose of purgatorial cleansing, he (blasphemously) replied, “Yeah, but now we are not talking about what Jesus did. We are talking about what I am going to do!”

Beloved, billions have allowed religion to burden them which such a weight that they, sinful people, will have to please a holy God before they can get into heaven. They are basing the salvation of their eternal soul on the presumption that they can do what Jesus Christ—God manifest in human flesh—could not do! Exactly what can we weak, mortal men do to measure up to Almighty God? How can we even think about proposing a more perfect sacrifice than what Jesus Christ offered on Calvary’s cross nearly 20 centuries ago? What utter foolishness!

God the Father said to Jesus Christ, “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). Jesus declared, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Can God say that about us sinners? Is He really “well pleased” with us all the time? Can you honestly say with Jesus, “I do always those things that please [God the Father]?” Nay! That is what sin is!

We would do well to swallow our pride and confess that we will never measure up to God’s standard of holiness “doing the best we can.” Our character, our sinful nature, produces sinful behavior, only bringing shame to our Creator, Jesus Christ, and gendering nothing but His wrath….

Judge Not? #1

Saturday, August 3, 2013

“Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1 KJV).

Today’s Scripture, often used against the Bible believer who exposes sin for what it is, is not teaching what it is often assumed to assert.

The world’s most prominent religious leader recently commented about homosexual clergy within his church. Pope Francis stated, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalize [prevent from having attention or power] people for this. They must be integrated into society.” Such apathetic, pathetic words from someone who claims to be “the vicar of Jesus Christ” (which Jesus Christ?; 2 Corinthians 11:3,4).

Our Lord Jesus declared in today’s Scripture, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” What did He mean? Was He defending the pope’s view, as many other lukewarm (professing) “Christians?” Many often assume Jesus taught that we should be totally silent about the world’s sins. It is usually haughtily said to the Bible-believing Christian, “This is the way God made me, so stop judging me. Jesus said not to judge.” Such a response is nothing more than a misunderstanding of today’s Scripture.

Naturally, when God’s Holy Word pricks the conscience, the desperate sinner will then “take cover” behind any available “fig leaf” (his or her parents did it back in Genesis 3:7-11). Perhaps nothing is more absurd than when the unholy sinner uses God’s Holy Word to justify his or her sin—completely disregarding the Bible’s purpose (which is to expose sin so man can see his need for the Saviour Jesus Christ!).

Rather than being held accountable to God Almighty for wresting (twisting) His Word to make it say something so as to bolster our sin, why not leave it alone and believe it, setting aside our pride and admitting our fault, our unrighteousness, our sin, like the Bible so clearly proves? Rather than idly speculating what type of “judging” to which Jesus referred in today’s Scripture, it would spare us much heartache and shame if we would—who would have guessed it?—simply read the context!

Let us do just that….