Tag: gospel

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 11

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST VS THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST (Last of 18 Parts)

I counted the number of times the word “gospel/s” appears in my favorite KJV Bible. It’s mentioned 103 times, first in Matt. 4:23 and last in Rev. 14: 6., and is specifically identified as “the everlasting gospel,” all in the New Testament only.

This by no means says that the gospel of the Bible is confined only to the New Testament dispensation or Christian Era (C. E.). No, never! For we read Paul’s epistle to the young church in Galatia (emphasis mine):
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, are the children of Abraham [i.e.,spiritual, not physical, genealogical, or genetic descent or pedigree]. And the scripture [of the Old Testament], forseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, PREACHED BEFORE THE GOSPEL UNTO ABRAHAM, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Gal. 3: 7, 8.

Q. Of whom was the gospel of the Bible that was preached unto Abraham pointing him and all his spiritual seed to? Was it to Mary or any of the dead apostles and saints that have been “canonized” (and more are still being canonized) as and mediators of their votaries—-not by Christ or His commandment-keeping remnant church of the last days (Rev. 14:12: 12:17; 19: 10) but by the Church of Rome?

In perfect accord with all the faithful and holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and special messengers for specific dispensations, apostle Paul answers: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made He saith not unto seeds [plural], as of many, but as of ONE, and to thy SEED which is CHRIST.” Gal. 3:16.

This one and only SEED, promised in the one and only gospel, first preached by Jehovah Creator, the yet-unincarnated Jesus, God in the flesh, to Adam and Eve in Eden immediately after they yielded to Satan’s (disguised as a beautiful, talking serpent, the prototypical spiritualistic medium) temptation, sinned, became fallen, sinful mortals as the the automatic consequence, condemned to the first and second deaths by the divine immutable law they transgressed.

Without controversy indeed that “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.” Rom. 6:23.

Mark! It is only in and through JESUS CHRIST, the promised SEED of Eve (see Gen. 3: 15; cf. Gal.4: 4,5), who declared for all eternity in the New Testament, Christian era, thusly to the Christian church, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Fathers (in heaven] but BY ME.” John 14: 6.

JESUS CHRIST, “Immanuel,” God “manifest in the flesh” (Matt. 1: 21, 24; 1 Tim. 3: 16) alone is THE, not “a” or “any” (“straight and narrow”) WAY that leads to the Father and eternal life. He, not “she.” is THE, not “a” or “one among many other sources” of eternal truth.” He alone is THE, not “a” or “one among other sources” of both temporal and eternal life, physical and spiritual life, as the Source, Giver, and Sustainer of the eternal mystery called LIFE. In Him eternally resides life “original, unborrowed, and underived.”

He who “was” and “is the Word from the beginning who made all things that were made” an then “in the fullness of time” “was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1: 1-3, 14), is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13: 8). “Neither is there salvation IN ANY OTHER: for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, whereby we must be saved,” (Acts 4:12).

We close out this short series with these present testing truths regarding the the role of Christ’s gospel to His closing work of judgment as merciful High Priest yet righteous judge of all the earth prior to His second advent, which is “at the door.” Take heed!

“For the time is come that JUDGMENT MUST BEGIN WITH THE HOUSE GOD [the Church and professed followers of Christ], and if it first begin at US, what shall the END be of them that OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL? And if the righteous SCARCELY be saved, where shall the ungodly and [willful, presumptuous] SINNER appear?” 1 Pet. 4: 17, 18, KJV.

Today, if you hear His voice talking to your conscience, harden not your hearts. The sun may never rise again for some. Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 10

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST VS THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 17)

To fellow believers of the Christian mainstream who deny that the Papacy is the Antichrist, prayerfully think this through and sink the shaft of investigation deeper into the rich mines of Bible prophecy. Now this:

“The Romanists themselves SHAME YOU [emphasis mine] in their clear-sighted comprehension of the issues of this question. Cardinal Manning says, ‘THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS EITHER THE MASTERPIECE OF SATAN OR THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF GOD.’ [emphasis in the original in itals].

Cardinal Newman says, ‘A SACERDOTAL ORDER is historically the ESSENCE of the Church of Rome; IF NOT DIVINELY APPOINTED, IT IS DOCTRINALLY THE ESSENCE OF ANTICHRIST.’

“In both these statements the issue is clear, and it is the same. Rome herself admits, openly admits, that IF SHE IS NOT THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST, SHE IS THAT OF ANTICHRIST. Rome declares SHE IS ONE OR THE OTHER. She herself propounds and it urges this solemn alternative. You shrink from it, don’t you? I accept it.

CONSCIENCE constrains me. HISTORY compels me. THE PAST, the sinful past, passed before me. I see THE GREAT APOSTASY, I see the desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins, I see the reign of monsters, I see these VICE-GODS, that Gregory VII, that Innocent III, that Boniface VIII, that Alexander VI, that Gregory XIII, that Pius IX: I see their long succession, I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their abominable lives; I see them worshipped by BLINDED generations, bestowing hollow [not hallowed] benedictions, bartering lying indulgences, creating a PAGANIZED CHRISTIANITY; I see their liveried slaves, their shaven priests, their celibate confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the ruined women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish Armada, those I unspeakable dragonnades, that endless trek of wars, that dreadful multitude of massacres.

I SEE IT ALL, AND IN THE NAME OF THE RUIN IT HAS WROUGHT IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD, in the name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints of ages, I DENOUNCE IT AS THE MASTERPIECE OF SATAN, AS THE BODY AND SOUL AND ESSENCE OF ANTICHRIST.’ – ‘Romanism and the Reformation,’ H. Grattan Guinness, pp. 138, 139. London: 1891.’—‘Facts of Faith,’ Christian Edwardson, Revised, pp. 210, 211, Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville 8 TN: 1943.

(To be continued) Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 9

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST VS THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 16)

Webster’s Dictionary, Student Edition, 1976, defines Papacy as:
“1. The position or authority of the Pope

2. The period during which the Pope rules
3. The line or succession of popes
4. The government of the Roman Catholic Church headed by the pope.”

Edwardson says: “But Catholics deny that the Papacy is the Antichrist, for say they, Antichrist is to come in the last days.

To this we answer: It is true that both Paul and John speak of the activity of the Antichrist at the time of Christ’s second coming, but they [both apostles] ALSO speak of its already having BEGUN IN THEIR DAY (1 John 2:18; 2 Thess. 2: 7).

“There is a BEAUTIFUL HARMONY in this when we look at it in the light of Rev. 13: 3, 5, 10 and 17: 8, where it is stated that this power will ‘continue forty-two’ prophetic months or 1, 260 literal years [a day in prophetic time is a year of 360 days, Num. 14: 34; Eze. 4: 6; Gen. 7, 8], after which it is ‘wounded to death’ and lies dormant for a time till its ‘deadly wound is healed,’ and all the ‘world will follow it ‘in wonder and admiration,’ and finally will be destroyed at Christ’s second coming. [See Rev.. 19: 19,20; 20: 10. 11; the ‘beast’ of prophecy is another symbol of the Antichrist, as well as ‘Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the abominations of the earth, the Woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.’ See Revelation 17, etc. ].

“So the Antichrist of the LAST DAYS is simply the Papacy RESTORED to power. See ‘Romanism and the Reformation,’ by H. Grattan Guinness, F.R.G.S., and ‘The Papacy,’ by Dr. J. A. Wylie.’ – Christian Edwardson, ‘Facts of Faith.’ Revised, pp. 209-10, Southern Publishing Asso. TN: 1943.

(To be continued). Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 6

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST VS THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 15)

“Pastor Charles Chiniquy, a former Catholic priest says: ‘No words can give any idea of the pleasure I USED to feel when alone, prostrated before THE CHRIST THAT I HAD MADE AT THE MORNING MASS [emphasis mine] I poured out my heart at His feet [the wafer is shaped like a round wafer]….I may say with truth, that the happiest hours I ever had, during the long years of darkness into which the Church of Rome had plunged me, were the hours passed adoring THE CHRIST WHOM I HAD MADE WITH MY OWN LIPS [when the priest pronounces these words in the moment of the consecration of the sacrifice of the Catholic mass: ‘Hoc est Corpus Meum’]. . . . ‘

Chiniquy further says:
“In fact the Roman Catholics have NO OTHER SAVIOR whom they can betake to themselves THAN THE ONE MADE by the consecration of the WAFER. He is the only Savior who is NOT ANGRY with them, and who does NOT REQUIRE THE MEDIATION of virgins and saints to APPEASE His wrath.’—-‘Fifty Years in the Church of Rome,’ chapter 17, pars. 29, 31.

“In the thirty-sixth chapter of his book Pastor Chiniquy tells how he was led to question seriously THIS WORSHIP of Rome’s WAFER-GOD, the ‘HOST.’ ‘In the spring of 1840….Father Daule [an old blind priest, was residing with him at Beauport, Quebec.]. In the morning when the old priest was at the altar, saying his mass, [and had just changed the wafer into the real Christ, and was reaching for it, and it was gone.

He called to Chiniquy] with a shriek of distress. ‘The good God has disappeared from the altar. HE IS LOST!’ [emphasis mine]. [Chiniquy, remembering how often rats tried to get the wafer while he himself had officiated there, knew what had happened, and in his consternation replied:] ‘Some rats have dragged and eaten the good God!’ [The sorrow of the old priest knew no bounds, but Chiniquy declared:] ‘If I were God Almighty, and a miserable rat would come to eat me, I would surely strike him dead.’ ‘—-Ibid., chap. 36, pars. 7, 13, 24.” Quoted from “Facts of Faith,” Christian Edwardson, p. 209, (Revised), Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville 8 TN: 1943.

When my wife and I got married 45 years ago at a Roman Catholic Church, I partook of wafer-host at the Mass said for the wedding, not fully realizing what I was doing then!

Countless millions were and are still in the same deceived state as I once was! Only the pure gospel “truth as it is in Jesus”will set us free from the heavy chains of ignorance.

(To be continued). Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 5

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST VS THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 14)

After first learning from years of dedicated personal Bible study the meaning of the “gospel” or the “good news of salvation” and what necessitated it, starting with its first introduction to Adam and Eve immediately after they fell to Satan’s temptation in Eden, cradled in those immortal words of hope, light, and life as the “mother” of all promises and prophecies of the Bible recorded in Genesis 3:15 and culminating in the final ones in Revelation, the last of the 66 books of the Bible, I have learned the following:

1) the everlasting gospel of the everlasting covenant is the divine comprehensive plan of redemption and salvation of fallen mankind from the power of sin and Satan and is taught in great detail in the whole SANCTUARY DOCTRINE and its services that includes the systems of the priesthood and sacrifices, the sacred feasts and ordinances in both type and antitype, symbols and shadows of its substance. In the Old Testament the gospel was taught in symbol through the ceremonial system of the Mosaic (or Jewish) dispensation up until these types met their antitype in Christ in Christian dispensation.

2) This glorious truth was revealed to Moses as well as to David and all the holy men of God from generation to generation until the closing work of the day of atonement and cleansing of the sanctuary, both in type and antitype, as the last act and closing work of high priest in the most holy place of the sanctuary. It was in the course of this Bible discovery that I came upon two brief statements that encapsulate and summarize what and why God commanded Moses to command Israel:

“Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” Exo. 25: 8, 9; cf. 15:17. “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” Ps. 77: 13. God’s “way” of salvation, which He says, “walk ye in it” (see Ps. 86:11; cf. 27: 12, 4) is and through the sanctuary doctrine and message. Therein is revealed the wondrous mysteries of the plan and work of redemption!

Here they are:
“The Sanctuary was the heart of the typical system. There the Lord placed His name, manifested His glory, and held converse with the High Priest [Aaron and his sons only] relative to the welfare of Israel. While we inquire from the Scriptures what the Sanctuary is, let all educational prejudice be dismissed from the mind. For the Bible clearly defines, what the Sanctuary is, and answers every reasonable question you may ask concerning it.” O. R. L. Crosier, “The Sanctuary,” printed in the “Day Star Extra,” in 1846. This article was endorsed by E. G. White in “A Word to the ‘Little Flock,’ printed in 1847. Reprint 1987, Leaves-of-Autumn Books, Payson AZ. The other quote summarizes what the Gospel means and what it was designed to accomplish for fallen mankind:

“The gospel is a system of practical truths destined to work great changes in the human character. If it does not work the transformation in life, in habits, in practice, it is NO TRUTH [emphasis mine] to those who believe it. Man must be sanctified through THE TRUTH. And said Jesus, ‘Thy word is truth’ (John 17:17).

Unless the truth of God shall lift up man OUT OF his depravity [sinful, carnal nature], his intemperate and profligate habits, and make him REFLECT THE IMAGE OF JESUS, he is lost [in his sins].” E. G. White, Letter 14, March 13, 1885.
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 4

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST Vs THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 13)

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him [not “her”] that called you into the grace of Christ [not of any human being or church] unto ANOTHER GOSPEL: WHICH IS NOT ANOTHER; [there is only one gospel] but there be some that TROUBLE YOU AND WOULD PERVERT THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

But though WE [any of the true apostles] or an ANGEL from heaven, preach ANY OTHER GOSPEL unto you THAN that which we have preached unto you, let him be ACCURSED. As we said BEFORE, so say I now AGAIN, If ANY MAN [particularly the ‘man of sin’ and ‘son of perdition’ Paul warned the early church of in 2 Thess. 2: 1-12] preach any other gospel unto to you, than ye have received, let him be ACCURSED. . .

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Gal. 1: 9, 11, 12, KJV.

While yet Saul, the unconverted Paul, he boldly and clearly declared that it was, as his personal experience reveals, and still very much is the religion and traditions of man and their man-made, church-made “gospels,” that counterfeit the gospel of Christ and produces a deadly “zeal not based in knowledge” of God’s will and true plan of redemption!

This has ever been the driver of religious intolerance and persecutions from ages past, the present, and in the culmination of the great controversy between truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, spiritual purity and spiritualistic imposture. Paul continues:

“For ye have heard of my conversation in time past [former life] in the JEWS’ RELIGION [Judaism], how that BEYOND MEASURE I PERSECUTED THE CHURCH OF GOD, and wasted it. And profited in the JEWS’ RELIGION ABOVE many equals in mine own nation [the Jewish nation], being more exceedingly zealous in the TRADITIONS of my fathers.

But when it pleases God, who separated me from my mother’s womb [cf. Jer. 1: 4-9, etc.] and called me to his GRACE. [for what purpose is this grace?]. To reveal His Son in [not merely to] me, that I may preach Him to the heathen [‘Gentiles’]; immediately I conferred NOT with flesh and blood [not any mortal]:

Neither went I to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before [ahead] of me [he did not go even to the headquarters of their religion and faith to seek counsel or further instructions]; but I went to Arabia [the deserts], and returned again to Damascus [in Syria].” Gal. 1: 13-17, read verses 18-23; 2: 1-7).

There is only one gospel, even as “there is only one body, and one (Holy) Spirit, even as ye are called to one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is ABOVE ALL, and through all, and in you all. But unto everyone of us is given GRACE ACCORDING TO THE MEASURE OF CHRIST.” Eph. 4: 4-7.

It is Christ—God Creator incarnated into our flesh and blood human nature without ceasing to be the “Word from the beginning” (John 1:1-3) who alone determines the amount of divine empowering grace to impart daily, hourly, from moment to moment to the penitent sinner’s importunate petition to overcome his personal and individual sins, weaknesses, and struggles.

Christ, the Son of man, is every sinner’s personal and personalized Savior and “Friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Who will have all men to be SAVED, and to come unto the KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH [of the one and only true gospel of Christ].

For there is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the MAN [not any woman] CHRISTJESUS; who gave Himself a RANSOM for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the TRUTH in Christ, and LIE NOT;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.” 1 Tim. 2: 3-7, KJV.

Hence, ultimate and eternal salvation is individual, not corporate. As Jesus clearly declared to the world in language even a child can understand: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the Father, BUT BY ME.” John 14: 6, KJV.

Any other “way,” “truth,” “gospel,” or “mediator or mediatrix,” whether introduced by any of the true apostles or even an angel descended from heaven, is ACCURSED according to the Holy Scriptures.

I am pretty sure no rational mind would prefer a curse over a blessing or to be cursed instead of blessed by Jesus Christ the Creator, Savior, and only Mediator between God and man!

(To be continued) Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE GOSPEL OF CHRISTIANITY’S CHRIST vs THE ‘GOSPEL’ OF ROME’S ANTICHRIST – (Part 12)

But wait! Isn’t this plain idolatry that even a child raised in a Bible-based Christian home can quickly see? Indeed! But “In the following quotation the Catholic Church explains why she believes this worship of the wafer (or ‘host’) is not idolatry.

‘Now turn for a moment to the Catholic altar. The holy Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered up. The bell has given the signal that the MOST SOLEMN AND AWFUL MOMENT of consecration is at hand. As yet there is only bread in the hand of the priest, and [fermented] wine in the chalice before him. To worship these lifeless elements would be the GROSSEST IDOLATRY.

But SUDDENLY, amid the silence of the breathless multitude, the PRIEST UTTERS THE DIVINE LIFE-GIVING WORDS of consecration, and that which was bread and wine, is bread and wine NO LONGER, but the TRUE Body and Blood of our Lord Himself. It is the SAME BODY that was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that DIED FOR US on the cross, that was RAISED AGAIN TO LIFE, and that even NOW sits at the right hand of the Father…….

‘Now is this MYSTERY the power of the CREATION appears as much as in the MYSTERY of the INCARNATION.’ – ‘The Holy Mass: The Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead,’ M. Muller, pp. 174, 175. New York: 1876.” – ‘Facts of Faith,’ C. Edwardson, p. 208. Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville 8 TN: 1943

I hope and pray at this junction that whatever form of Christianity you profess, whether Baptist, Church of Christ, Evangelical, Jehovah’s Witness, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reformed, Seventh-day Adventist, Seventh-day Baptist, non denominational, born-again Catholic, etc.,— who all believe in sola scriptura, “the Bible and the Bible only,” to closely examine your understanding of two mysteries spoken of in Bible: the “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16) and the “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess. 2: 7, 3-12).

These two opposite mysteries lie at the very core of the final stage of the great controversy “which is to test the whole world.”

(To be continued). Bless all, NMF