"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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