Please read this as it may challenge you to rethink what you may believe

Matthew 3:15 And answering Jesus said to him, Allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he allowed Him. (MKJV)

Have you ever asked the question which righteous act was Jesus fulfilling?

Please allow me to explain the act righteousness Jesus was fulfilling. To gain righteousness in the Old Testament you would have had to live according to the Law of Moses. John’s baptism was under the Old Testament covenant as Jesus had not established the new covenant through His blood.

The Mosaic Law requires for a priest to be washed before entering into the Holy place, and the Holy of Holies to minister to God (Exodus 29:1-4, 29:18-21, 30:18-20, 30:30, 40:12-13, 40:30-32, Leviticus 8:6, 16:24, Numbers 8:5-7, 8:15, 8:21, 19:7, 2Chronicles 4:6, Nehemiah 13:29-30).

Rivkah Slanim states: “On Yom Kippur, the holiest of all days, the High Priest was allowed entrance into the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the Temple, into which no other mortal could enter. This was the zenith of a day that involved an ascending order of services, each of which was preceded by immersion in the mikvah.”

The evidence here is the act of water immersion (tevilah-cum-mikvah) was for the purpose of service to God on behalf of the people.

It was also a public demonstration by Jesus to show whom He belonged to and whom He served. He was declaring to all that He was about to embark on His duty to minister as a Royal Priest on this earth.

Jesus is holy, therefore He did not go through water baptism to fulfil the act of righteousness for the cleansing of sin. He was showing the purpose of His calling into His earthly ministry; thus our baptism is for the same purpose, as we were made righteous at the cross by the cleansing of Jesus’ blood in our act of salvation.

Water baptism is essential for the Christian as a sign and identification of whom we belong to and that we have started our ministry (every believer ministry; not every believer as a pastor).

1Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; (MKJV)

In the Old Testament and now in the New Testament, tevilah-cum-mikvah/water baptism is not required for salvation, thus we are not contradicting hermeneutic rules of investigation. We have found that it is Jesus’ blood that washes us clean of sin, as water does not have that power. Water baptism is a public demonstration showing to whom we belong and inaugurates our earthly ministry. We are left to conclude that the healthy, righteous Jesus was embarking upon His earthly ministry. Up to this point He had been subject to His earthly parents, but after this He started His ministry. If Jesus had refused to get water baptised, then He could not have fulfilled the ‘all righteousness’ that He had spoken about, because He would not have been obedient to the Mosaic Law’s requirements of a priest.

The Kingdom of God has always been here whether you believed or not.

You may not like the above heading as it suggests that our believing is not the important issue here. It’s not about us; it’s about God, because if it were about us, our salvation would be based on works WE approve of. It is more about the acceptance of the eternal state of God’s Kingdom. Our God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Immutable, Infinite and He is the supreme God. How could anyone say that the Kingdom starts or

finishes on a certain date or at a certain time?  You are a part of it even if you are not a believer. But people remove themselves from the awareness of it. The Kingdom is in us (Luke 17:20-21) in varying levels from a small spark of awareness in some, to a powerful burning awareness in others. It should be evident like unending lightening storm burning as bright as the sun if we are believers in Jesus, and have repented. Our spiritual eyes are opened to the understanding the workings of God. At salvation the light starts to burn more brightly until it consumes our life. 

John 1: 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (MKJV)

Unending Lightning Storm

A young man called Frank Wilczek at Princeton University in 1973 presented a theory about the proton and the glue that holds everything together.

In layman’s terms, down in size from the atom to the nucleus to the proton and then finally down to a much smaller level he said, there are Quarks, which are infinitesimal to the size of the proton. BUT it is the GLUONS that hold this all together.

The gluon is moving at near light speed inside the proton imprisoned in flickering clouds. Thus we have an unending lightering storm taking place that hold everything together. He said that the gluon is mass-less and temporarily the force that binds the quarks together, but they carry most of the proton’s energy.

These flickering clouds of unending lightning storm do not disappear as they fuse into a continuous sheet feather-light which is impervious from other forces and hold everything together.

Wilczek said, “If you really study the equations, it gets almost mystical.”[1]

Simply the Unending Lightning Storm produces a force that holds everything together.

We as Christian know that God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), in Him all that is visible and the invisible, were created (Colossians 1:16-17). If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1John 1:7). We also know that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12) and that we the sons of light and the sons of the day too. We are not of the night, or of darkness (1Thessalonians 5:4-5) and that we have been sent to the world as a light to share about salvation (Acts 13:47) found in Jesus.

All mankind is made in His Image and after His likeness. In a pure state before the fall of Adam, we were triune and after the fall we are still triune albeit in a corrupted condition with a sin virus at work in our members.

Understanding Wilczek premise about the unending lightening storm holding everything together and that when we become repentant believers in Christ the lightening storm becomes more active or erupts. When we become followers of Jesus we become little lights to the lost world. It is like the spiritual sickness of sin has corrupted the pure unending lightning storm and it has become dim but not completely out or the person would fall apart literally. The worst sinner has some light in them that is holding them together. When the Greater light of Jesus comes along and a person takes their medicine and repents the Holy Spirit kick-start the flickering embers into lightening storm again and we burn brightly for Him in this world. Our countenance starts to shine as the unending lightning storm burns brighter in us. The glue that holds everything together is the glory of God.

God is the sum total of all things, both inside and outside of time and space, and He is Eternal. He is the power, force and Principle that regulates our physical and spiritual cosmos. To us, it is impossible to contain such a big God in our finite mind; nevertheless we endeavour to do so. Even after we have done this we have only seen in part His greatness, because our mind cannot begin to understand every facet of God.

The Word of God is a set of pictures or concepts in words and as we stay in it we will develop a Godly perspective. This is why we need to confirm any revelation by the only standard that is infallible, the Word of God, which is without error in its intention. When we become a Christian our new activated thinking pattern is subjected to the Word of God and the moving of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and we have been given the mind of Christ.

In Romans 14:17 Paul says, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus mentioned the Kingdom of God on many occasions. The problem we face is the waiting for a specific Kingdom to come, when actually it is already here spiritually; never-the-less when Jesus returns at the end of this age He will establish a literal Kingdom and then at the end of the Millennium, Christ will hand the Kingdom to the Father (Matthew 24:5-14, 21-27; Revelation 1:7).

“The Millennium” is a thousand-year period, and in this case it refers to the rule of Jesus and His Church, according to the interpretation of prophecies in the Book of Revelation. This will follow the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and all of this supported by a myriad of Scriptures from the Old and New Testaments. When Christ comes Satan will be bound, and stay bound during the Millennium (Revelation 20:1-3).

Matthew 24:31 it says, Jesus will bring His angels to gather together His elect in the first resurrection (Mark 13: 24 to 27). The first resurrection is only for the believers. The dead in Christ will be resurrected first (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16) along with the believers who are still alive at the time of Christ’s return. The spirits of the believers who have died are in heaven, but their bodies are still waiting to be resurrected. They will go through a change (1 Corinthians 15:51-53, 35-49) as our appearance will be like His (1 John 3:2). At Christ’s coming the bodily resurrection takes place and we will meet Him in the air or clouds, for the Marriage of the Lamb to take place (Revelation 19: 7-14). All of this will happen quickly and all will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and then return and rule with Him on earth as He takes possession of the Kingdom (Revelation 19:11).

 How do we enter the Kingdom of God?

For man the Kingdom can be taken away because of not fulfilling God’s requirements.

Matthew 21:43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (KJV)

God is seeking out open hearts who will bring His Kingdom up to the next revelation. God does not abandon anyone, but if we stop moving in Him, He will move onto and into a vessel that desires to follow His Word in Spirit and in Truth.

In the Millennium after Christ’s return the House of Jacob will come back together and fulfil the prophecy that the sticks of Judah and Joseph will be united as the house of Jacob (Ezekiel 37:15, Isaiah 11:1-13). Jesus and the Church, the full manifestation of the sons of God, will rule and reign for a thousand years and then Jesus will hand the Kingdom back to God (1 Corinthians 15:24). It is at this point that the literal and the legal Kingdom will be fully seen. The “Manifest sons of God” on earth right now is only a shadow of what we will shine like in the 1000 year rule of Christ and His Church in what has been termed as the Millennium, and then finally when we come face to face with God.

In synergism of God’s Kingdom the position of salvation involves cooperation between God’s divine grace and human freedom, thus in the reclamation of man there are two states happening instantaneously and progressively simultaneously.

The concepts of “instantaneously and progressively”, simultaneously when viewing Scripture brings freedom to people who are held under Law!

In the world and in the minds of man we have a problem with counterfeit systems as they work to take away freedom from man. A true Kingdom is like a $100.00 note which is backed by the gold in store behind it. But we will have a great problem with a counterfeit note. It appears to look the same but it is not supported by the gold in store. It can cause a lot of damage before it is found. The nation of Israel wanted a king to be like other nations, thus its mind-set was on a man (The counterfeit) and not on God (The real Gold).

John 3:1-5 And there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles which you do unless God is with him. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (MKJV)

The Kingdom of God is all about God giving to us freedom and we as humble servants are only doing what we can by the grace of God as His protected subjects.

Mark 1:15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God draws near. Repent, and believe the gospel. (MKJV)

To get into the Kingdom of God we need forgiveness from God, which is free to all, but the individual need to repent to activate the free gift and entry. Later in this book we will study the eight Kingdom parables.

---

[1] Robert Kunzig,  JULY 2000,  The Glue That Holds the World Together,

   http://discovermagazine.com/2000/jul/featgluons/

Do not be badgered by warm fussy feeling people who say we should not judge the actions of others” because the Bible says we need judge who we are to have followership with. They also say God looks at the heart, which is true but if a person is sinning the heart is defiled and judgement falls, but if we can turn a person from sin then that is a good thing.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may DISCERN what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Discern is to distinguish, discriminate, differentiate, determine, recognize all of which you should make a judgment, hopefully we will use the Bible to help us understand God’s will.

How many judgmental statements are in the New Testament? Many, here are just a few

When we are called, ‘a judgemental person’ because we have pointed out the possibility of a person being in sin. They then go onto say, ‘we should be like Christ and not judge peoples actions’.

This is a conflict. Why?

Jesus, judge the moneychangers and turned over their tables. Pointing out that people were sinning in the house of God.

Jesus made seven judgemental statements when He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He was pointing out that these men that were deceitful, dangerous, and wicked hypocrites. You cannot say what Jesus said without making a judgment that the actions of these people were sinful.

John the Baptist called the Pharisees a brood of vipers too.

Paul says, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”  Paul has made a judgment that this was sinful and that we should run away from them.

In Timothy it says, “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” You cannot judge what you think is OK when the Bible says its not OK.

Jesus said to the women at the well “go and sin no more” after revealing her sin. Without this judgement, the sin could not be revealed to her to help her with the remainder of her life.

James 4:4 ESV You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Based on the Word of we are to make judgment on situation to know what is friendship with the world and enmity with God.

1 John 3:8 ESV Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

The Bible deal with these Judgements

1 A Personal Judgment

2 A Judgment of our Relationships

3 A Judgment of our Conversation

4 A Judgment of our Faithfulness

5 A Judgment of our Inner Motives

6 A Judgment of our Spiritual Condition

7 A Judgment of our Works

8 A Judgment of the Shepherds

God has already set in place His judgments and these cannot be changed. The only thing that can be changed is our standing, whether we want to stay in sin or not.  Whether we want to adjust our thinking to bring it into line with God’s word, knowing God’s judgments are final. Our judgments with Godly leading can avert a final destruction or lose under God’s judgments.

God does not want to judge any of us. He wants us to assess our own condition. Of course He has given us His guidelines to follow.

He wants us to build a life that will not be burnt up in the fire but come out as pure gold. A life built with reflection on the judgments of God, is the life that will receive the crowns mentioned in the Bible

When I say to a person did his or her action take place before they became a Christian or was it after is so I could best advised them of the action to take or not take

When a Christian sins the only safe place is under the Blood of Jesus. You can only get back under Jesus’ Blood by the act of repentance confessing the error admitting remorsefulness.

If the Word of God needs your approval to be settled, then you are not a believer but an idolater of self.

The Bible is settled; whether we understand it or even believe it.

The Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God and inerrant in its intention.

Letters or books that never made it into the canonization of Scripture were regarded by many scholars over 300 years for the NT and another 1600 years for the OT as not being inspired by God.   Not 73 and not 80 but 66 books in one cannon.

Why should we follow the Bible?

The Christian’s life once saved in the ACT of salvation is an ongoing work of sanctification through the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in a PROCESS of salvation as we are being saved each day.

God is well pleased in our obedience to His Word.

Many are talking about persecution upon the Church.

What I read in the Word of God I see two forms of persecution.

First is persecution for righteousness sake. The main example of this was Jesus who did nothing wrong but went to the cross to pay for our sins. It also falls on some because they are doing the right thing.

The second persecution looks like it is for righteousness, but if you study each situation deeper you may find sin in the persons standing for righteousness.

I have seen people who say they are Christians with body piercing, tattoos, living with a person outside of marriage, speaking unwholesome words, lose talking, wearing provocative clothes, and some Christians using bad language to speck about another. They say they are standing for righteousness, but like Job they have left a door open for the Devil to have a way in to persecute them.

If a believes it is called or chosen by God and it is not spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, no longer doing that job, then they begin to live carelessly and persecution will follow them.

It is a choice to say no to sin and stand for righteousness.

Faith is to trust and believe what God has to say.

Psalm 37:25 (KJV) I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.