Monday, 17 March 2014

From father to son

"Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them to thy sons, and to thy sons’ sons" De.4:9. Fathers taught their children what they had received from God, and
what they had received from God is described in the following passage, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I commend thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou  shalt teach them diligently unto thy children ..." De. 6:5-7.
What is to be handed over to, or instilled in the posterity, from God, is: loving God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s strength. And the commandments of the Lord in the heart - not the head. In the passage in the introduction, we read that these commandments should not depart from the heart. Those who receive this inheritance confirm that they are the seed of the faith delivered to the saints once for all. Those who hand over anything other than this, evidence that they have not received from God what they teach their children. They are either children of the flesh or by presumption, but sooth to say, they are enemies.
This is revealed in a fierce debate between Christ and the "believers" of his time who purported to be sons of Abraham, sons of God - this is in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. Christ challenged them this affiliation for these reasons: the works of faith were not in them, they were hostile to the Truth up to trying to kill the man who brought it to them. Patriarch Abraham might not have inculcated this in them, much less God. Christ was finally forced to bluntly tell them the truth about their real father, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."v.44.
All we have has been taught us from our ancestry which is traced back either to God who is love and Father of Truth, or to the devil who is evil and father of lie. And the truth of God is the Word made flesh that he sent to his witnesses, the apostles. Then he told them, "And ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth" Ac. 1:8. According to the unchanging instruction of God since the Old Testament (we read that statement above), the apostles kept the Word in their heart, not their head, and have instilled it into their children, i.e. in us who believe in God through their word, "Neither pray I for them alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" Jn. 17:20. In verse 9, the Lord had already said that he had not prayed for the world. Thus, the Word of God came to the Apostles, they in turn proclaimed it and those who are of God received it.
The Lord only recognizes his apostles and those who believe in their word. Others, with their faith which they themselves alone know where it came from, the Lord does not recognize, but calls them 'the world'. It is the same gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ preached in Jerusalem, which must likewise be preached to all nations: "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Lc.24:47. That's what was handed over from father to son. What our fathers did not hand over to us, namely what they did not proclaim in Jerusalem, where the Lord decreed the genesis of our faith, the same cannot have room in our faith. Otherwise, our faith would have the likeness of another kind of seed than our fathers’, which is contrary to God's immutable principles of reproduction.
God has made every seed to bring forth after its kind, and it was so, and so will it be forever. "Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.”Ge. 5:3. The apostles, too, have begotten sons in their likeness, after their image; i.e. part of the same body and the same Spirit, sharing the same hope, in the same Lord, same faith, same baptism, same God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Today, the mother of churches, the Roman Catholic Church purports to be the successor of the original Apostolic Church, and her king (the Latinvs Rex Sacerdotos = King of the Latin Priesthood) calls himself the successor of Peter. Her daughters also, Orthodox, Protestant, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, revival and independent churches share the same claims, considering themselves to be the body of Christ. And we do not have the right to challenge them this. However, we note that the same responses of the Lord apply here:
If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham: If you were the successors of the Apostles, you could show the same Acts of the Apostles, you could have the same faith as the apostles, you could proclaim the same Gospel as the apostles, and apply the same baptism as the apostles. But you are hostile to the truth because it has no place in you. The apostles have told us what they have received from God the Father through Jesus Christ, and you, you teach people what you have learned in your universities, seminaries and Bible classes. This, the apostles did not do. You do the deeds of your father.
If God were your Father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God: the Word we preach, we do not invent, we draw from the Bible. And bible writings bind no man but God himself, "For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" 2Pe. 1:21. If God were your Father, you would love the Word made flesh and faithfully proclaimed by witnesses that he himself selected; the Word which was recorded in the Bible to the fastness of their testimony.
When Protestants withdrew from the Roman Catholic Church, they accused her of belief in non-biblical doctrines and dogmas. Appalling thing, the same Protestants have kept many of these unbiblical beliefs of which climax is the trinity, i.e. that there are three Gods in one God. The apostles handed over to us what they had learned from the Lord. The Lord never taught them such doctrines; they also did not instill in us such things because they have never heard of them. But the so-called successors of the Apostles, where did they find it, to instill it in their children? - The Lord has already given the answer: “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.” And in verse 44, their real father is identified, the devil.
Contrary to this demoniacal trinity, our fathers the apostles, have rather taught us that there is "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all (God the Father), and through all (Emmanuel, son of God), and in you all (Holy Spirit the Comforter).” Ep.4:5-6. Not three Gods in one, but one God revealed in three forms. If you are a child of God held hostage of doctrines that God has not entrusted to Christ, so that Christ assigned them to his witnesses, the apostles, and they proclaimed them to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem; the time of grace is still there for you to break their bonds and free yourself from their chains (Ps.2:3). and this is only possible through the Bible truth.
If you feel blessed, share and pour out the same blessings!

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