Conforming to YOUR Image of Godby Gary Amirault
Is your god one who planned to save all mankind but couldn't? Then you will become like him--a fool who planned and couldn't finish! (Arminianism, most of Christianity)
Is your god one who planned from the foundation of the world to torture most of mankind with tortures even the cruelest of humans couldn't inflict upon another human being? (Calvinism)
Then you might find yourself one day looking and acting like a horrible monster!Is your god one who will simply annihilate those who don't like him and refuse him? (Conditional Mortality groups)
Then become a Nazi! Your god is nothing more than a glorified Hitler!Is your God all-powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, merciful, just, whose nature is love-- a love which NEVER fails--a love for Whom nothing is impossible--a Love Who gave His life that He might draw all mankind unto Himself through His Son? (John 12:32)
Then rejoice for you are being conformed into the very image of Jesus Christ, Savior of the world!!
As we gain more understanding of the ancient original languages of the Bible, more Christians are coming to the realization that the Jesus they have been taught is a false Christ, a false Messiah. Their Christian "tradition," they have discovered, was not true to the character, plans, and purposes of the One who walked the streets of Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago. And the image of Jesus they have been taught to believe in, was not even true to the Bible written in its original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They have discovered that they have been deceived just as badly as the Jews of His day. Jesus told them, "You have made the Word of God of no effect by your tradition…in vain do you worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Mat. 15:6-9 Just as the first "chosen people" were led astray by false shepherds, so too, the modern "chosen people," Christians have followed in the footsteps of the ancient Jews.Jesus and His apostles warned that after their departure, the church would be flooded with wolves in sheep's clothing, false shepherds, false gospels, anti-Christs, and false Jesus's. There are over thirty thousand denominations of christendom to attest to their words. A kingdom divided against itself, Jesus said, cannot stand. Surely God's kingdom is different from the sectarianism we find in the church-at-large.
How can we discern whether we are following the correct message? We do not have time to go through all these various denominations to see which one is correct. How can we know if we are conforming ourselves to the right pattern, the right image of God? The answer is simple.
The True Jesus is NOT a sinner.
You say, MY denomination or movement does not call Jesus a sinner. But the fact of the matter is almost ALL denominations of Christianity have made Jesus a sinner. As a matter of fact, they have made Jesus to be perhaps the world's GREATEST sinner. How so you ask? Well, let us see what the Greek and Hebrew behind our English word "sinner" means:
TO SIN—STRONG’S CONCORDANCE NUMBER 264—GREEK-HAMARTANO-“TO MISS THE MARK (AND SO NOT SHARE IN THE PRIZE), TO ERR.” HEBREW-STRONG’S NUMBER 2398-FROM THE ROOT, “CHATA—TO MISS.”
What was the purpose of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection?
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17)
Who comes down from heaven and gives Life to the world. (John 6:33)
The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. (Luke 9:56)
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. (John 12:32)
As you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. (John 17:2)
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.
(John 3:35)
God, Who at various times and in various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, Whom He has appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds. (Hebrews 1:1,2)His purpose is very clear: to reconcile all things back to His Father.
(Col. 1:16-20)According to Scripture, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, created all things, reconciles all things, is Heir of all things, has authority of all things, will have all men to be saved, His grace comes to all men, He takes away the sin of the world, He gives His flesh for the life of the world, He is the propitiation for the sins of the world, whose gifts are irrevocable of which life is one of the gifts, He manifested to put away sin, He preached to the spirits in prison and holds the keys to death and hell, who changes not, He is Lord of both the living and the dead, he will destroy all enemies of God the last one being death, Who made all things alive, Who completes the work the Father gave Him to do, Who restores all things, gave Himself a ransom for all, He takes away the curse and said He came to do the will and work of the Father who wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth so that God, the Father may be all in all! I could lengthen this paragraph considerably, but I think the point has been made.
Jesus said He finished the work and accomplished His purpose which was also the Father's purpose…to be the Savior of the whole world…to reconcile everyone back to His Father and our Father!
According to many Christians, billions of people are going to a place called Hell to be tormented by God for all eternity. Please hear this very carefully. If Jesus loses just one soul, he will become the world’s biggest sinner. How so, you say? Because He will have missed His mark…that is , to reconcile all things back to His Father. If He loses one single soul, he cannot be the true Messiah of Israel. And so the hope of billions of people will come to nothing. Jesus had to fulfill ALL the Scriptures perfectly in order to be the true Messiah.
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And he is before all things and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the ecclesia, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
(Colossians 1:16-20)Please understand that when the scriptures talk about “things” being reconciled back to God, He is not talking about rocks and trees. It was descendants of Adam who were cast out of the presence of God in the garden of Eden, remember? We need to be restored, reconciled, redeemed and the Scriptures make it abundantly clear that His purpose, goal, will and work was to reconcile all.
These Scriptures make it abundantly clear what the goal, the mark, the target which Jesus was aiming at when He went to the Tree of Crucifixion. The majority of the church says Jesus either will not (Calvinist) or cannot (Arminianist) save all mankind due to Satan and the power of “free-will.” The majority of the church says He will sin, that is, miss the mark. There has always been a minority in church history, (which used to be the majority before the dark ages) who believe the Scriptures that declare Jesus Christ the actual Savior of the whole world. This minority pays close attention to Scriptures and notices things like that fact that Paul, the apostle to the nations, never preached salvation as deliverance from our modern concept of Hell. As a matter of fact, he never used the word “Hell”! That should make one think. Go to a concordance and see for yourself.
As Bibles get closer to the original languages, Hell and “eternal” punishment passages in Bibles are disappearing. The King James Bible used the word “Hell,” 54 times. The best present-day Bibles such as the NIV, NASB, and NRSB, do not contain the word in the Old Testament at all, and only about a dozen times in the New Testament. Many translations do not contain the words “Hell” nor “eternal punishment.” When one looks at Bible translations such as Young’s Literal Translation by Robert Young, author of the famous Young’s Analytical Concordance, one will find Hell completely gone and the incorrect and very pagan “eternal punishment” replaced with “age-during punishment.” Other translations have “age-abiding correction,” “eonian chastening,” “punishment of the ages,” etc.
This article is much too short to get into the subject, but none of these Hell or “eternal punishment” type of phrases should ever have been brought into English translations. The Roman Catholic Church, with its “convert or die” policies, took almost all of the pagan and idolatrous practices of the countries it forced to convert and “christened” them, that is, incorporated them into the church. That is how thousands of pagan ideas and practices became “christianized.” When one seriously studies the Reformation, we realize that Protestants did not go all the way in cleaning up the “House of the Lord” from all the pagan practices and doctrines which were added to the simplicity found in Christ. They left many false doctrines in tact. One of these false doctrines which came from pagan countries is the idea of a place of eternal punishment called “Hell.” A quick look into an encyclopedia should tell a person this word in its religious form comes from Norse mythology, not from the Greek and Hebrew in the Bible. The whole concept of a place of eternal torment comes from a mistranslation of the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek words Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus all being translated into the Anglo-Saxon word “Hell.” The Reformation translators often translated from their traditions, rather than from knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. As Bible translations get closer to the original languages, our pagan concept of Hell will fade away.
Paul never preached a place of eternal torment to anyone! That is why he could say in 1 Timothy 4:9-11, “This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe.” He could also say and mean, “Love never fails!” (1 Cor. 13:8) John tells us that “God is Love.” (1 John 4:8) Therefore, God never fails! He never misses the mark! We, in our short-sightedness may have brought Him down to our image, that is, a sinner, but He will be vindicated. When He is, will you hang your head in shame? It is not too late to “study to show yourself approved” and see for yourself the glorious Truth that the salvation of the world does not depend upon a hypocritical, lazy, selfish church. No, the world, all of it, is in much better hands…Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, including you, whether you presently are aware of it or not.
“It is finished,” He cried from Calvary. Ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, Who will lead you into all Truth, to reveal to you the full meaning of those three words. They declare Jesus hit the mark at which He was aiming. It is important for you to do this. You, also, have a mark set for you. To give God full Glory. Don’t fall short by saying He will fall short in His Word, His promises, His work, His purposes, and His Love and Mercy which never fail nor end. If you do, you can be sure you are following an antichrist, a false shepherd, a wolf, a false gospel, an image of Jesus who is the world greatest sinner. Now stop being a slave to the traditions of men which make the word of God of no effect. Overcome your fear or worship of men and join yourself to the true body of Christ in whom is NO SIN!Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. It's time the world hears it. Join yourself to His body and walk away from those denominations and sects which dare ascribe sin to the body of Christ.
Original article found at: http://hellbusters.8m.com/tentmaker/conforming.htm