Love and Hate!

We read and hear always that “God is love,” which is absolutely true. However, the over-stress on the point of God’s love is relayed to us so much that His “hate” is virtually ignored. Paul, in Hebrews 1:9 in speaking about Christ’s earthly life says, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Therefore, God anointed Christ because He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Iniquity put simply is sin; and sin, by definition is the breaking of God’s Law (John 3:4). Christ is our example to follow in all His humanity. So, to follow Christ fully, the stress on love as a great Christian virtue is correct in every sense; but there is just as great a necessity to develop the hate Christ had to round out the Christian character. We may resist sin or turn our backs to sin without actually hating it; and in actuality, by this, pat ourselves on our backs in commendation for resisting sin, but all of this is not safe. We are only safe in Christ when we actually learn to hate sin. Following Christ’s leading example, we also, must learn to not only love righteousness but hate sin. Study more at www.AncientBibleStudy.com

Enlarge Your Perception of God

There is an endless number of worlds traversing the universe in circuits around the throne of God showing to us the grand magnitude of the creation of God. Christ, as the second person of the God-head, is the agent of the God-head who created the universe and all in it. Paul informs us of this in Hebrews 1:2 where he says that God “by His Son, … made the worlds;” also in Colossians 1:16-17 “all things were created by Him and for Him: … and by Him all things consist.” These are quite the statements. Note that Paul says “worlds,” plural; and according to the dictionary “world” denotes intelligent inhabitation. So, the universal creation has more than a mere physical form, but also takes in intellectual and spiritual form. Christ is the Creator of the universe, creating it for Himself, and by Him all systems within it “consist” [make, strengthen – Strong’s Concordance] or are sustained by Him. Further in Colossians 1:16 regarding the creation, it says “whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers;” thus showing universal dynamics to all the laws and purposes of God, not just our world, but for all worlds. God made all the laws for the worlds of the universe, be it natural, physical or spiritual. M.R. Vincent, in his “Word Studies” vol. 4, p. 381 stated “all the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government of the universe reside in Him, the Eternal Word, as their meeting point.” Now, in awe, we can say with David “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” [Psalm 8:4]. Study more at www.AncientBibleStudy.com

Heir or Inheritor

Paul in Hebrews 1:2 speaks of Christ as the “appointed heir of all things.” We commonly think of when an heir takes over a position that the person relinquishing has died or resigned to a secondary place. This is a common misconception here. This situation can never be with God; because in reading 1 Corinthians 15:27-28 Paul states that God “put all things under his [Christ’s] feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him [Christ], it is manifest that he [God] is excepted… the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” God the Father is always “all in all,” He is never secondary. The inheritance here spoken of is the dominion of earth which was first given to Adam, and which he disgracefully lost to Satan. Christ, as the second Adam, is the Redeemer who filled all the requirements as a man to fully reunite God to man again. So, when it is said that Christ is “the appointed heir of all things,” it means simply that as a man, God has accepted Christ as the second Adam having regained the dominion from Satan and taking his place at the head of the human race to lead man in righteousness to God. By having done this, mankind, in following Christ’s human example, fully becomes joint-heirs with Him, as stated in Galatians 4:7 we become “heir of God through Christ” working in and through us. In Matthew 5:5 Christ said “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” And again in Matthew 25:34 “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” “From the foundation of the world,” before sin, God had a back-up plan in place to cover Adam and all mankind. Praise God for His foresight. Study more at www.AncientBibleStudy.com

A Needful Warning

What is needed now is a warning for all Christendom against false teachers in regard to the unpardonable sin. That of denying the Holy Spirit and His power; denying the power of the Holy Spirit’s effect in mankind, the fullness of His sanctifying work within us for our salvation. God is able to save us from sinning. Paul wrote in Romans 8:3-4 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled [filled-full] in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is – Christ in you [dwelling in you] the [only] hope of glory. For this perfecting, here and now, we need the Spirit of Christ dwelling within our being to achieve complete recovery from Satan’s power. For any person to teach a denial of the Holy Spirit’s power to produce such perfection in human character touches on committing the unpardonable sin. Jesus saves to the uttermost everyone who comes to God through His intercession [Hebrews 7:25]; “How shall we escape [this world and hell], if we neglect [in denying God’s power] so great salvation” Hebrews 2:3. Read also Jude 24-25 “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling [into sin],” is Jude praying wrongly? This kind of denial is like telling God that the redemption provided through Christ is insufficient to correct the sin problem here on earth. This denial also says to God that He misnamed His Son when God said to Joseph, in Matthew 1:21 “thou shall call his name Jesus [Saviour]: for he shall save his people from their sins [not in their sins].” Let us be wary and discerning in what we read and hear. God grant you wisdom. Study on at www.AncientBibleStudy.com

Christ and the Holy Spirit - Mutually Interchangable

We should not lightly regard the mutual interchangeableness of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We need to understand this relationship because before the end comes we are to reflect Christ’s image fully. This is as Paul stated in Philippians 3:14-15 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.” [Also 5:5]. Our minds are sealed by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. [Ephesians 4:30]. This same mystery is told in Colossians 1:27 “Christ in you the hope of glory.” This mutual interchangeableness between Christ and the Holy Spirit is almost like an alter-ego relationship. Looking way back to the beginning in the first chapter of Genesis we read “the Spirit of God moved” as the active agent in creation; yet in Ephesians 3:9 Paul said “God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” [Also John 1:3 and Colossians 1:14-17]. Now, regarding the formation of God’s Word, Peter stated that prophets spoke “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” [2 Peter 1:21]; yet Peter said earlier that the prophets were motivated by the “Spirit of Christ which was in them” [1 Peter 1:11]. The relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit is so close, closer than we can imagine. Note this interchangeableness in the Upper–room dialogue of Christ in John 14:16-18 where He speaks of “the Comforter …even the Spirit …dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.…I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” We see an interchangeable alter-ego, The Holy Spirit - His Spirit. The imparting of the Holy Spirit to us is the imparting of the life of Christ in us – “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Study more at www.AncientBibleStudy.com

Ra Ra Ra!

When Moses cried to Pharaoh to let his people go and worship their God. Pharaoh replied “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” Exodus 5:1-2. And then in Exodus 5:5 he said to Moses “ye make them rest [Hebrew – sabbatize] from their burdens.” The point of controversy was worship of the true God or the highest of all pagan deities, the sun god. Pharaoh’s official title was “Son of Ra.” A noted authority on Sun worship, Franz Cumont, in his book Mysteries of Mithra pp. 91-92 [also quoted in Sunday in Roman Paganism p. 233], wrote “Not only did the royal race derive its origin from the Sun god Ra, but the soul of each sovereign was a double detach from the Sun god Horus.… They were not only representatives of divinities, but living gods worshipped on the same footing with those who traversed the skies, and their insignia resembled those of this divinity.” This same controversy between the God of Heaven and the “Sun God” of earth [Ra; Baal; Baal-shemim; Ashtoreth; Mithra] was what Israel constantly compromised with throughout the Old Testament; and what is the constant compromise of Christians today. Deliverance from Egypt was more than physical; it was a spiritual deliverance from the power of Satan. The sign or mark of the authority of the God of heaven, His Sabbath, becomes more meaningful as we view the signs, authoritative mark [the day of the sun – Sunday] and symbols of this contest here with Satan’s agent, the son of the sun god – Ra. Study more at http://www.ancientbiblestudy.com/

Patience of the Saints

Revelation 14:12, as part of the Third Angel’s message, it states “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they [the living saints of God] that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” We know and understand what it is to obey the commands of God. But, “the faith of Jesus,” how is it to be kept and what is it? The “faith of Jesus” must be received and exercise by any person who would be considered to be a saint protected by God. It is the faith that Christ exercised as a human being for our example to follow, - total reliance on God for His indwelling power by His Spirit. As a human, Christ witnessed of Himself, “I can of Mine own self do nothing” [John 5:30]. Yet again, as a man like us, Jesus also said that, with and through God in Him, “I can do all things.” A man with faith and belief in God’s indwelling presence can do all things. For Christ said about faith, in Mark 9:23 “If thou believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Then again He says about those who are without possession of the indwelling presence of God – “Without Me [in you by the Spirit] ye can do nothing.” So it is with all of us, just as it was with Christ in humanity, that without faith or trust in God for His power, we are all among the lost. This is the “faith of Jesus,” the type of faith we are required to have, the faith in God’s indwelling power; the same power by which Christ exercised to overcome sin and the devil’s onslaughts; thus keeping Him free from sin and temptation. This is “the patience of the saints,” and “the faith of Jesus.” We have a faithful High Priest in heaven, Christ Himself, who was “in points like unto His brethren,” and “hath suffered, being tempted [like any man], He is able to succor them that are tempted.” [Hebrews 2:17-18] God be with you in your studies at www.AncientBibleStudy.com