Abnormal Psychology: The Biblical Perspective

KOINONIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY FOUNDATION, Inc. #459 Interior Gen. Luna Street, Davao City, Philippines ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Student: Artaxerxes Miguel Garcia Degree: Master of Divinity

Instructor: Marie Joyce Victolero Date Submitted: November 5, 2016

CONCEPT PAPER:The Biblical Perspective of the Origin, Dynamics, and Treatment of Abnormality.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….........…….3 I. Origin of human Abnormalities (from the perspective of Genesis 3; and the Scriptures)……….....…….3-21 (Diagram 1.1)The Parallel Between Lucifer and Human Beings in the Origin of Sin…........................6 (Diagram 1.2)The Parallel Between Lucifer and Human Beings in the Depravity that had Resulted from the Choice to Commit Sin:…………………………………………..........…....9 The Enmity Between Satan and Humanity: God’s Holy Spirit Constantly at Work……….....……10-13 The Aftermath of Abnormality……………………………………………………………….........…..14 (Diagram 1.3) The Significance of Genesis 3.15 for our Supposed Depravity……………….........…14 Realization/Application: The Uselessness of the Dogma called “Total Depravity” Or “Universal Sinfulness”……….……………………………………………..……………...…...15-21 II. Dynamics of human Abnormalities (from the perspective of Romans 1 -for the Gentiles, and Romans 2 for the Jews; and from the whole Scriptures)……………………………………....22-72 Importance of God’s Law: The Standpoint for identifying Abnormalities……………………...…28-29 (Diagram 2.1) The Dynamics of Correct Righteousness (Lawkeeping), -The Opposite of the Dynamics of Sin (Lawbreaking)……………………………………………………………...........30 (Diagram 2.2) Yahweh-Appreciation Patterns in Human History……………………………….........33 Importance of the Sabbath –Rest from Abnormalities, let God be God…………………………....34-36 The Sabbath (REST) and the Ideal Food…………………………………………………………...37-42 (Diagram 2.3) From Normal to Abnormalities: Genesis chapters 1 to 11 & Romans 1:20-32)............42 The Sabbath (REST) and the Ideal Occupation and for man –Farming/ Country-Living and the Evils of City-Life….……………………………………………….…….43-47 What is True Greatness in God’s Estimation?...................................................................................47-52 The Difference Between Jews and Gentiles before God’s Righteous Standard, the Law, and Our Abnormalities Before It..……………..…………………………………………….……..52-54 Christ and His Sabbath versus Rome and Its Invented Sabbath: Salvation by Grace Through Faithfulness versus Salvation by Works Through Unfaithfulness..………………………54-69 (Diagram 2.4) From Normal to Abnormalities: During the Messiah’s day and the Renewed Testament Times.…………………………………………………………......……..70 III. Treatment of human Abnormalities (in the light of Romans 3:20 to Romans 8)……...........................73-161 What About Original Sin, is it Real? Sin, -Yes; but Guilt, -No, Definitely No…………………...73-76 That the Righteousness of the Law Might Have Been Fulfilled in US………………………....……77 Jesus' Agape in Mary Magdalene's Faith-response is the Gospel (Mk. 14.9)..................................77-84 (Diagram 3.1) Yahweh-Mary Prodigality Parallel: Wasteful Acts of Agape……………………........80 (Diagram 3.2) Yahweh’s Agape Response to Mary and Mary’s Agape Response to Yahweh….........84 The Law and Its Claim On Us...........................................................................................................84-89 The Complete Moral Restoration Now Attained in This Present Sinful Existence…...…………....89-92 Predestination doctrine: A Hindrance to Perfecting Christian Character…………………………..92-94 Page 1 of 174

Sunday Observance: The Major Hindrance to Attaining Restoration from Abnormalities Among Christians…………………………………………………………………………………..94-96 (Diagram 3.3) Diagram About the Restored and the Degraded: Divine Ideal versus Satanic Ideal Just Before Yahweh’s Second Coming, Final Result of Grace………………….......…..97 The Stumbling Blocks to Treating Sin Abnormalities Plus the Papal-Evangelical Confusions….98-133 The Reality of Man’s Free Will and its Importance to Salvation..................................................115-118 Dog–Faithfulness Versus Martin-unfaithfulness.………………………………………………..127-129 (Diagram 3.4) The Two Perfect Moral Conditions: Before Adam’s Sin and Just Before the Yahweh’s Second Coming: The Papal Churches’ Erroneous Doctrines are the Major Stumbling Blocks to God’s Purpose of Perfectly Restoring Humankind to His Perfect Image.…………………………………………………………………………………..134 Thesis and Antithesis of Salvation Mechanics: the Jewish Truth versus Papal-Evangelical Perversions, (Diagram 3.5A) Thesis: The Jewish Ideal of Redemption……………………………………….….136 (Diagram 3.5B) Antithesis: Papal-Evangelical Perversions or Confusions………………………....137 How to Treat Sin Abnormalities……………………………………………………………...….138-154 Man’s Part in God’s Salvation: There Should Be Agape In The Heart.........................................141-154 Jesus’ Teachings on Overcoming and Perfectly Obeying God’s Commandments…...………....155-160 Wrong Repentance………………………………………………………………………………160-161 Ignoble Excuses………………………………………………………………………………………161 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................162-165 References.………………………………………………………………………………………….……166-174

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Introduction: This paper does not limit itself to the understanding of Paul on humanity’s fallen condition because doing so cannot provide a comprehensive view of what had happened to our race. It necessitates the whole Scriptures, the very Writings Paul had been educated to. He didn’t get his ideas elsewhere but from within the bounds of the Jewish literature, specifically from the person of the Messiah. Therefore, we transcend Romans in our study of human abnormality, its origin, dynamics, and treatment, although we use it as our base from which we build the standpoint considering this paper requirement.

Statements from Ellen G. White are used as much as I see fit. In fact it is used most often and almost in every argument presented. My goal is that whoever reads this work will be enabled to see the beauty of God’s righteousness as perfectly revealed even in that fallen sinful humanity of Christ, and how we may best become like Him even while we have this sinful flesh and undesirable environment, just as Christ was subjected to, and yet triumphed notwithstanding the seemingly insurmountable odds. It does not matter if my style may violate writing protocols of linguistic conservatives because this paper is not a dissertation or thesis but a concept paper. What is important is that the essence of the paper that the ideas become clear to a person’s mind.

“Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” –Daniel 12.10 “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” – Jesus (John 7.17, 18) “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God..” -1John 3.3 I. Origin of human Abnormalities (from the perspective of Genesis 3; and the Scriptures) The origin of our abnormalities can be traced from the wrong exercise of choice by the first beings who were created perfect and holy: Lucifer and Adam and Eve (Ezek. 28.12-18; Isa. 14.12-14; Rev. 12.7-9; Genesis 3).

Lucifer’s rebellion from heaven was brought to this planet, and the first couple must choose which side they are in the cosmos. The fight is actually between Christ and Satan, but humankind must choose which side they belong to. Yet victory is assured that good will triumph in the end. The only thing is, we must believe it, and when believing, it should transform us, and we should let it transform us.

The disorder had started from Lucifer in heaven first;1 he then brought it down to this planet to Adam and Eve in the garden. This abnormality is mysterious in origin. Its root is sin which is love in a wrong direction,2 it is 1

In a short description by Ellen G. White, this is how Lucifer dealt with the sin of which he himself originated, and how it became full-blown resulting to rebellion in heaven: “There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures... Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation. The Scripture says, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness." Ezekiel 28:17. "Thou hast said in thine heart, . . . I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will be like the Most High." Isaiah 14:13, 14. Though all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself. Not content with his position, though honoured above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the Creator… Lucifer allowed his jealousy of Christ to prevail, and became the more determined. To dispute the supremacy of the Son of God, thus impeaching the wisdom and love of the Creator, had become the purpose of this prince of angels… The spirit of discontent and disaffection had never before been known in heaven. It was a new element, strange, mysterious, unaccountable. Lucifer himself had not at first been acquainted with the real nature of his feelings; for a time he had feared to express the workings and imaginings of his mind; yet he did not dismiss them. He did not see whither he was drifting. But such efforts as infinite love and wisdom only could

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a wrong principle which had resulted from a wrong choice,3 the choice at the given moment of tests. And sin with its guilt is not a state of being in a person as something inherited wholesale, but a choice, That choice at

devise, were made to convince him of his error. His disaffection was proved to be without cause, and he was made to see what would be the result of persisting in revolt. Lucifer was convinced that he was in the wrong. He saw that "the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:17); that the divine statutes are just, and that he ought to acknowledge them as such before all heaven. Had he done this, he might have saved himself and many angels. He had not at that time fully cast off his allegiance to God. Though he had left his position as covering cherub, yet if he had been willing to return to God, acknowledging the Creator's wisdom, and satisfied to fill the place appointed him in God's great plan, he would have been reinstated in his office. The time had come for a final decision; he must fully yield to the divine sovereignty or place himself in open rebellion. He nearly reached the decision to return, but pride forbade him. It was too great a sacrifice for one who had been so highly honoured to confess that he had been in error, that his imaginings were false, and to yield to the authority which he had been working to prove unjust. (emphasis mine) (White, Ellen G., The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets, [1890], p.

35-39.) Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp1.html. The underlined words within the quotation show that Satan’s sin was a choice, and not a state of being. He was accountable for that choice, just as Adam and Eve were accountable with theirs.

2

Knight, George R., Pharissees’ Guide to Perfect Holiness, Pacific Press Publishing Association, USA (1992), 20.

3

Knight's argument is that before Adam and Eve took of the forbidden fruit, they had already sinned because of that love which is focused on a wrong object. Knight makes it appear that sin precedes choice. That is, one's ruling principle is the cause of sin, and out of which, wrong choices spring. Therefore choice arrived as a mere result of character or nature. The problem with this view is that Adam and Eve was already created defective from the start because their wrong choosing were just mere results of a principle that already governed in their nature, and as such, they are sinful from the start. My argument is that sin is a choice, and choice precedes character or nature formation. Adam and Eve sinned because at a given test-circumstance, they in their holy and undefiled minds chose to yield to temptation. Even if they were holy and sinless, they forced their hearts to love what is sin. They transgressed the law, stepping beyond lawful boundaries. And that choice resulted into the formation of a ruling principle, and a love, and not vice versa. The correct part of Knight's sin definition is that it is an inclination, a love for a wrong object. The only difference between mine and Knight is that Knight defines sin as nature that causes the choice; mine is that the choice at a given test-moment results to nature. And my definition is correct. Knight's definition is wrong. Why? Knight would make it appear that sin is nature, and not the act of choosing which forms the nature or character. If sin is nature, then it would be natural for Adam and Eve to disobey because that's their "ruling principle" even before they took of the fruit, and even before they actually disobey the command in their minds. It would be easy to sin because it was natural for them to do so, and for Christ supposedly being born sinless, it would be natural for Him to remain sinless because righteousness is natural for Him, and not a choice. To struggle against the clamours of the sinful flesh, to struggle against selfishness, and to put self to death daily would be irrelevant because everything goes as nature goes. But that's not what Scripture encourages us to do. We are obliged to overcome nature, and do what is against natural impossibilities, and that takes faith, -the belief that the impossible will happen against nature. See how civil engineers construct bridges, damns, and highways. See how electricians arranged the natural electric forces for our use. And see how scientist and aeronautics invent airplanes. That is a human reality of a human mind that overcomes nature. Man is simply playing the forces of nature and is above it. God commanded Adam that in the garden of Eden, he is "to till it and look after it" (Gen. 2.15). From the start, and that before the entrance of sin, Adam is to overcome nature. "It was the happy labor of Adam and Eve to form beautiful bowers from the branches of the vine and train them, forming dwellings of nature's beautiful, living trees and foliage, laden with fragrant fruit." (White, Conflict and Courage, p. 12., Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=CC&lang=en&pagenumber=12. Also in White, "The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 47, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=47&m=1 . Why should God require Adam and Eve to work in Eden if everything is already in place and perfectly arranged? There is nothing wrong in labour because it was pleasure, just as God did. From the earliest time of history, humankind it taught to overcome nature and not that nature overcomes them. The natural is always there, but what matters are the minds that direct nature, and alter and manage it. If overcoming a sinful nature is undesirable for some Christians, in that respect, scientists and philosophers has the better attitude because they always find ways to make our living better and easier. The mind that goes beyond nature, the kind of thinking that makes all things possible is a mind full of faith. Napoleon Bounaparte once said "The word 'Impossible' does not exist in my vocabulary." In other places, he said " 'Impossible' is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." To a true Christian who has the faith of Abraham, which is the faith of all saints and the faith of the Messiah, all things are possible.

And that godliness can be revealed even in the sinful flesh. Despite sinful nature, we can live sinlessly, perfectly sinless, and that takes faith in the power of God to act within us, and on our part to fight the battles of faith, in faith, and through faith, by

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the given moment of a specific trigger or test will result into the forming of a ruling principle, character, and nature, and not vice versa. At a given circumstance, tests, pressures, stresses, and triggers, one can choose not to yield to sin, and to dominate and master selfishness and choose to deny the self at all times. There is no excuse for sinning at any circumstances, even if one is born with a sinful disposition. Sin is a decision, a ruling principle, a resolve act on one’s feeling, and the preference or love of something wrong from the light of God’s righteousness as expresses in His Law. Sin is wrong intention, the casting off of God’s Law, the pursuing of something beyond God’s moral restraints. Therefore it is very important to have that moral compass so we can comprehend what is sin. Without God’s Commandments, we are at loss about our sin definitions, and our view of what is normal is confused. We will be doing what we individually want, and that will result to disorder.

A diagram in the next page shows us the origin of sin as a mystery. We gather as much Scripture as we can for elucidation of its inception to God’s perfect creation. And just as scripture mentions that iniquity is mysterious, we can define it from its opposite standpoint, “the mystery of godliness” (God revealed in the SARX = corrupt flesh touched by sin) (1Tim. 3:16). The implications of both mysteries reside not in the nature but in the choice, and choice was never determined by any predisposing factors because it rules free from organic elements. It just springs by itself to rule self, actions, and feeling. The question is, how was sin conceived in a holy being? On the reverse, how could an unholy flesh (SARX) reveal godliness? Is it possible for a holy being to commit sin? Or it is possible for a sinful being to commit holiness and conceive righteousness? Can a righteous person do evil? Or, can an evil nature perform righteousness? Can the leopard change its spots and the Nubian change its skin? (Jer. 13.33). “Then who can be saved”? (Mtt. 19.25) “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For men this is impossible; but everything is possible for God’” (Mtt. 19.26). How? By choice; by being steadfast. “The righteous will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2:4; Ezek. 33.14-16; Mtt. 24.13; Rev. 3.21; Rev. 2.10; Rev. 14.12; Rev. 22.14 –King James Version). It is our own human, God-enabled steadfastness / faithfulness that the Lord proves us whether or not we can be trusted with eternal riches (Lk. 16.10-12; Mtt. 25.21-23).

acting upon God's Commands, inasmuch as His Commandments are also His enablings. Those who fall into sin do so by their own choice because sin is a choice, and not nature.

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(Diagram 1.1)The Parallel Between Lucifer and Human beings in the ORIGIN of Sin: SIN: The Mystery of Iniquity LUCIFER: Free will

Adam & Eve: Free will

Isa. 14.12-14; Ezek. 28.12-15; 1Jn.3.4 Sin is a mystery, and the opposite of sin (righteousness) is also a mystery.

The opposite of sin is “the mystery of Godliness: God revealed in the SARX” -1Tim. 3.16 (SARX= corrupt flesh touched by sin) Both Lucifer and Adam & Eve sinned in the same manner: by Choice even if their natures were created absolutely perfect and holy. Therefore their sinning is unaccountable and mysterious. They must force their holy natures into something beyond their holy natural tendencies: they have to choose to commit sin in order to sin. And that's mysterious and unthinkable for such holy beings, and yet it happened. The opposite of godliness is also a mystery, for how can a SARX reveal God? And yet it happened. Sinful flesh was not an excuse. One must choose beyond nature and overcome it, and defeat the sinful and corrupt human flesh by forcing the will and the sinful flesh to obey God's will, and to execute and crucify it if it will not. Therefore a person who does this will die in that sinful flesh, while in the mind testifies that he/she is not subject to the natural desires but is living only for God's will, and not his natural sinful inclinations. And that is the mystery of godliness, that God is revealed even in the SARX. SIN: A difficult forcing of the will into something not your nature; wander purposely beyond the bounds, or “lawlessness” -1Jn.3.4; the “transgression” “of the law/covenant” and “against God” (Isa. 24.5; Hos. 6.7; 8.1; Isa. 59.13; Jer. 3.13; Dan. 9.11; Matt. 15.3; 2Kgs. 18.12; Neh. 13.27; 1Chron. 5.25; 2Pet.2.15); for Jesus, it is the “committing” (Greek = poieo, “performing”) -Jn.8.34; (See Prov. 5.22 & James 1.14-15); In Gen. 8.21, the root is in the Yetser – evil “imagination”, “conception”.

LAWBREAKING We cannot just charge the origin of sin on Adam, because it originated with Lucifer. Even so, we cannot excuse ourselves of sin charging everything to both Adam and Lucifer, because even if they would never have fallen into sin, we ourselves are capable of creating and initiating sin in our lives. Given the condition that Lucifer, Adam and Eve had never fallen into sin, the question is, would that guarantee our existence to be freed from the possibility of falling into sin? No, just as Lucifer’s and Adam’s perfection do not guarantee their non-sinning. Therefore sinning is a choice, and not nature, because there is no difference: both Adam and Eve and Lucifer were created holy and sinless. And if they would have never fallen into sin being perfect and holy, we, being born holy and sinless from them would not protect us from falling into sin by a wrong cultivation of desire. We could sin any time even if Adam and Eve have not fallen into sin at the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are not responsible for the present sins we commit.

The diagram shows us that sin is the forcing of one’s nature into one is not, and that’s difficult. To sin as Lucifer, and Adam and Eve had done, is to do the impossible and difficult. And that involves a choice and forcing of nature. And yet it happened, and became possible. Therefore equally difficult is one born with sinful tendencies to do and choose righteousness. And yet it happened, and became possible by faithfulness / steadfastness. Sin is an acting choosing, and not a state of being. One has to commit it so that it becomes committed in the thought. Sin is more than external acts. It is the carrying out of the intention even in the thoughts. This is possible only by choice. A holy being such as an angel can commit sin in his thoughts by Page 6 of 174

consenting to wrong thoughts. Now what about human beings who were “born sinners” or “depraved.” This is a myth. We are not born sinners. Sin is not nature. We are sinners only if we commit sin. If we do not commit it, we are not sinners, we are righteous. And that’s reality. David and Jeremiah’s thoughts refer to people who are “accustomed/schooled” to do evil, and who are born “in sin” (Ps. 51.5; Jer. 13.33), but only those who are schooled to do evil are the ones who find it impossible to do righteousness, unless they choose not to. Being born “in sin” does not erase the fact that David is inexcusable for his guilt. He could have chosen not to sin.

His sinfulness is from his birth by his own choice even from the womb. He could have chosen otherwise and live perfectly sinless like Enoch and Joseph, but he failed. Nevertheless, in the end he died steadfast and perfect.

That “sin is love” appears alarming to our moral sensibilities. This is the root of our disorders. “Sin is love focused on a wrong object.”4 In the Genesis 3 account, Adam & Eve chose to divert their love from the Creator to self-esteem. They were created holy, perfect both in form and character resembling their Maker.

The question is how could perfect beings become imperfect? How the sinless and holy ones could organically change their minds into what they are not before? How could a clean produce unclean? This is the “mystery of iniquity.” The manner it operates is the same with the “mystery of godliness” which I shall present in the next paragraphs. For the moment, let us deal with the process of degradation. Adam and Eve were not created with original sin, but were perfect and holy both in thought and motives. There was no any sin in their nature. But because they allowed their minds to wander and to entertain and cherish the conceited ideas of the serpent (Satan), disloyalty and disobedience against God was then mysteriously cultivated, until all their noble qualities dragged down. Their ruling principle became instantly depraved and evil. They felt an estrangement from God, and in consequence, toward each other, even if both came from the same flesh and bones. The blaming game begun. Division sets in. Their peace and happiness was gone. And they become anxious – a feeling they have not known before, irritated towards the other and self-protective. “It is the love of self that destroys our peace. While self is all alive, we stand ready continually to guard it from mortification and insult; 4

Knight, George R., Pharisees’ Guide to Perfect Holiness: A Study of Sin and Salvation, Pacific Press Publishing Association, USA (1992), 20. By knight’s definition, I take sin not as a state of being as principal root of the choice that sprang from it, but the resultant nature formed by that wrong choosing. Still, the correct definition of sin is that it is “lawbreaking” and not just the state of absence of law. Several Bible verses described sin in many words: “hamartema” –disobedient act to God’s Law (Mk. 3.28, 29); lawbreaking (1Jn. 3.4); all unrighteousness (1Jn. 5.17); not doing what we know as right (James 4.17); the result of enticement (James 1.15); rebelling against God (Deut. 9.7; Josh. 1.18); works of darkness (Eph. 5.11); any transgressing of any of God’s Law (James 2.10-11). Some teach that sin is separation from God. Therefore if one is accepts Jesus that separation ends. No need to think about sin. Actually the intent of this teaching is to avoid obeying the Law of God. Others taught that sin is originally inherent and therefore cannot be avoided because it is nature; all we need is grace at baptism and grace all the time. But the motive of this teaching is that one wants to be saved IN HIS/HER SINS, and NOT from sin. It is to excuse sinning that original guilt is made a doctrine. This is one of the reasons why the Roman church is the primary root of worldwide immorality in that it tolerates sin as nature, and therefore inevitable. The opposite is that Mary and Jesus were born sinless (Immaculate Conception –continued by Evangelicals); resulting to a thinking that we cannot be like Christ because His nature is not the same like ours, and that He is not our Example because he never shared the same feelings of inward undertow of sinful inclinations like what we all do. The belief that sin is just a separation from God and that all one has to do is to accept Jesus and sin is not a problem leads to an attitude of defiance against God (Isa. 5.18-19). They feel that sin is ordinary in their lives and that they live with it (Isa. 3.9). When they commit sin they felt as if nothing serious really happened (Ps. 50.21; 94.7). They do not make amends of it (Prov. 14.9). They assume that sin is God’s plan to have in their lives (Gen. 3.12; Jer. 7.10). Then they seduce others to commit sin (Gen. 3.6; 1Kgs. 16.2), and is happy when others continue sinning (Rom. 1.32).

It is wrong to suppose that all we need is faith. The forsaking of sin is inseparably imperative. We are warned not to be deceived (Mtt. 24.4; 1Cor. 6.9; 1Cor. 15.33; Gal. 6.7; Eph. 5.6; 2Thess. 2.3; 1Jn. 3.7). But many choose to be deceived (Gen. 3.5; Josh. 7.21; Prov. 9.17; Prov. 14.12; James 1.14; 2Pet. 2.18). Those who commit sin are enslaved to it (Jn. 8.34; Rom. 6.16; Prov. 5.22). Therefore if sin is lawbreaking, righteousness is law-doing or law-obeying. Some makes “righteousness by faith” appear mysterious, but there ain’t any mystery about it. That’s their excuse in order to avoid obeying the Law. Righteousness by faith means simply right-doing by faithfulness, and not right-doing by unfaithfulness. The word “faith” is an inadequate word to translate PISTIS (faithfulness) and EMUNAH (steadiness, persistence, faithfulness, trustworthiness, steadfastness, truthfulness, firmness) used in Habakkuk 2:4 –“the righteous will live by his steadfastness.”

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but when we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, we shall not take neglects or slights to heart. We shall be deaf to reproach and blind to scorn and insult.”5 Only a few are truly dead to self, and the love of self with its restlessness apart from Christ is the root of all psychiatric abnormality. Selfishness is in common to all humanity especially those who yield to disposition. Depravity is inherent to humanity and no humans who succumb to it are truly good in God’s sight. Jesus was not exempt. The Son of God identified Himself with the sinful race who are not good and among whom, “no one is good” (Mk. 10.18) and that includes Christ who was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa. 53.12; Mk. 15.28). The only difference is, He never yielded to inherent sinful desires, but chose not to be selfish or commit sin at every step of His life.

In Genesis account we can see how the pair covered themselves with aprons – a defence mechanism. They would not accept their mistake and count it only as mere mistakes (In Hebrew it is Chat ta, “to miss the mark” [just a mistake]; and not Pesha –“to revolt, rebel” [deliberate and planned]). But to God, by such mere eating of the tree, Chat ta (Sin) is as serious as rebellion, even if they have no intention to do so. Sin is sin, no matter how less in degree. God can accept only perfect obedience, not imperfect obedience; and 100% obedience, not 99% obedience. Our first parents could obey God perfectly because they were created perfect. But then the y choose something different. They do what was not natural for them. To obey perfectly is something that is natural for them because they were naturally perfect and holy. But this time they choose what was the most difficult, - to disobey and commit sin. That is utterly unimaginable and unnatural for them, all the more for such holy beings to do something they have no previous disposition about is obviously difficult. They actually forced their holy natures to do the difficult one: commit sin. And that’s hard. “The way of transgression is hard” (Prov. 13.15).6 Solomon calls it “vanity” or “a chasing of the wind”, utter futility and “a vexation of spirit,” hence his conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12. The hard payment for sin is death (Rom. 6.23); not life. Jesus said to the restless Saul “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9.5). “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 57.21; See Prov. 28.9), but “Great peace have they which love Thy 5

White, Ellen G., Mind, Character, and Personality Vol.2 (1927), 607, 608. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=2MCP&pagenumber=631.

6

The curses written in Deut. 28.15-68 are still affecting humankind today in the lives of those who violate God’s Torah whatever the race, and in all moments of human history. The Law (Torah) revealed at Mt. Sinai to Moses with its agricultural, ethical, spiritual, health, dietary, civil, military, and judiciary components is still God’s ideal for sin-fallen humanity, and not just to Israel. It is complete and perfect. It is the only Law ideal for humanity and still viable so long as sinful humanity is existing. It contains God’s eternal principles whereby humanity will become acquainted with the Creator, and be partakers of the divine nature. It was God’s means of rehabilitating our fallen nature so that it will conform to His perfect image and be completely restored even in this lifetime. . The Law bring us to the true goal and Source of its righteousness, God in Christ.

And when Christ is received in the heart by steadfastness / faithfulness, the law is perfectly kept. But Christ did not replace that Law because that Law is His very life and righteousness expressed in letters. The only thing is, it should be written in the heart and engraved in our principles, not that it is kept legally, devoid of heart willingness. Christ did not abolish it, but enforced it fully and magnified its full extent and true implications. Paul expounded how it ought to be kept, which is by faithfulness, as ‘the just shall live by his steadfastness / faithfulness.” (Habakkuk 2:4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10. 38, 39), a faithfulness prompted by AGAPE, -the love of Christ contrains us (2Cor. 5.12). There was nothing wrong with that perfect Law with all its dietary, military, civil, agricultural, and moral requirements because God had intended it just for fallen humanity’s upliftment, Jews and gentiles alike. God Himself, the prophets, the Messiah, and the apostles affirm its validity (Mal. 4.4; Jn. 5.45-47; Lk. 16.29-31; Mtt. 7.12; Mtt. 22.40; Acts. 7.53; Acts. 15.21; Acts 24.12-16; Acts 26.6,7, 22, 23; Acts 28.17). Just as their Messiah is ours, so their God who originated both grace and the law is also our God, and their grace and laws are also ours to enjoy for our rehabilitation and moral and physical restoration. “The laws which God gave His ancient people were wiser, better, and more humane than those of the most civilized nations of the earth. The laws of the nations bear marks of the infirmities and passions of the unrenewed heart; but God's law bears the stamp of the divine.” (White, Ellen G., The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets, [1890], 465.1. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=465). “The Lord has given His holy commandments to be a wall of protection around His created beings, and those who will keep themselves from the defilement of appetite and passion may become partakers of the divine nature.” (White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p.

1105, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1BC&pagenumber=1105).

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law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Ps. 119.165).7 Contrary to the popular sentiment that righteousness is hard, it is transgression of the Law that is hard for its service under Satan is utter slavery and ruin, until taking out all the moisture of life, it results in death, for the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6.23). The way of sin is never easy. It is twisting, curling, deceitful, crawling like a serpent which cannot walk straight and eats dust.

Picture the lost coin, lost sheep, and lost son parables in Luke 15. The state of the ones wallowing in transgression is never easy. Why do the wicked find it hard to live in the life of peace, free from the stresses brought about by wrong-doing, when the righteous finds righteousness easy? “Deep in sin, they weary themselves going astray” (Jer. 9.5). “They are strangers to the path of peace, no justice guides their steps; all the ways they choose are crooked; no one who walks in them feels safe” (Isa. 59.8). Such people know nothing about God, but they are “clever only in wrongdoing, but of doing right they know nothing.” (Jer. 4.22). God had indeed planted in the human heart even right at its deprivation, in Gen. 3.15, the impulse and a feeling that to sin is hard, and to be holy is easy. It was never ever vice versa.

In the Diagram below we will see the parallel of depravity between Lucifer and his angels and Adam and Eve and our race: (Diagram 1.2) The Parallel Between Lucifer and Human beings in the DEPRAVITY that had resulted from the choice to commit sin:

LAWLESSNESS (attitude, choice)

Unrepentant (no enmity (hostility) against sin; they chose not to repent)

Lucifer & his angels: DEPRAVED (Lk. 8.3233; Jude 6; Mk. 3.10) Adam & Eve: DEPRAVED (Gen. 3.10-13; Gen. 5.5; Rom. 8.22;

Gen. 3.15 “enmity between”

REPENTANT persons (with enmity (hostility) against sin) UNREPENTANT persons (with & w/o enmity (hostility) against sin)

Both evil angels and the human race become depraved after they committed sin. The question is: What are the differences between Satan (and his angels) who were ethereal beings and Adam & Eve who were made of dust? After all it was the same God who created fire and earth, and the material elements including the invisible powers and principalities (Col. 1.13-17). If both angels and humans commit sin, is the human race more miserably depraved than evil angels because they are made of dust? Is the dust the cause of depravity, or the sin in that dust-made body? Is being born in that flesh an excuse to commit sin? What about Satan and his angels? Are they better with their spiritual bodies? In fact, during the days of Christ’s ministry, evil angels were shown to be more degraded than humankind because they were labelled as “unclean spirits”. In fact, a Christian who has Christ is more powerful than all evil hosts put together. If both evil angels and human race stand equally guilty, the genetic material does not matter: it’s the choice that matters. Sin is not dependent on 7

God’s intent for humanity is peace and prosperity if they keep all His commandments: “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.” (Isa. 48.17-19). David exclaims: “HalleluYah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who finds deep delight in obeying His commandments. His descendants will be powerful in the land: the generation of the upright shall be blessed” (Ps. 112.1, 2). In Jeremiah 29.11 He says “I alone know My purpose for you, says Yahweh: wellbeing and not misfortune, and a long line of descendants after you.”

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depravity. In the strength of the Holy Spirit, one must choose righteousness, and put his/her will on the side of Jesus, sick or not sick, dying or not dying, with evil tendencies or without evil tendencies, whether the circumstances is favourable or not (Jer. 42.6).

What if both will repent? God’s law can only condemn to death but it cannot forgive. It is God who grants repentance and forgives (Lk. 5.32; Acts 5.31; 11.18; Rom. 2.4; 2Pet. 3.9; Ezek. 33.11). And by nature, He always forgives because justice and mercy is the foundation of His throne (Ps. 89.14). If Satan and his angels had repented, they could have been brought back to God’s favour again, but nothing can alter the fact that there are consequences in their sins; they must die if they remain unrepentant. And if they repent, God will have assumed a form of an angel like themselves and will have died in their stead just as He did to our race.

But they did not and would not repent. On the other hand, humanity was granted the chance of repentance just as God to Lucifer. 8 Now the same are on equal footing before God, both angels and humanity were guilty.

The only difference is that man is deceived; God needs to reveal Himself to man personally by becoming man in man’s fallen, sinful flesh, -identical, derivative, and exactly like us, and live as man while choosing not to sin. But to angels He was fully revealed to them and granted them a chance, 9 yet they choose to commit sin and have not repented. Therefore the difference between human beings and angels when both commit sin is that they were granted repentance, and they can choose to repent if they do so. None are so depraved that they cannot choose. To the Calvinist argument that not all were granted the ability for faith, Romans 12.3 clears up the problem: “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” But we are accountable how we treat those gifts from God which was so freely given, and nothing was withheld.

“THE ENMITY” BETWEEN SATAN AND HUMANITY: GOD’S SPIRIT CONSTANTLY AT WORK: Our first parents felt the sting of guilty conscience, and the effect is immediate. They committed sin, and once committed, their holiness descends at once into vileness. They cannot appreciate God’s glory but would hide from it. The thing they hate they now love. There was in their hearts familiarity to sin and they now felt in harmony with it and at union with Satan. They become selfish and evil, and would rather love hell and death had not God interposed. But Oh, – wonderful love. God put an enmity between the serpent and our race (Gen. 3:15). Without this enmity, human beings remain in harmony, and not at enmity, to Satan. But because of that enmity, a hostility between, there is now the struggle of two natures within us: the good and the evil. God

8

When man sinned, it was not in the same situation as Lucifer did. “Lucifer in heaven had sinned in the light of God's glory.

To him as to no other created being was given a revelation of God's love. Understanding the character of God, knowing His goodness, Satan chose to follow his own selfish, independent will. This choice was final. There was no more that God could do to save him. But man was deceived; his mind was darkened by Satan's sophistry. The height and depth of the love of God he did not know. For him there was hope in a knowledge of God's love. By beholding His character he might be drawn back to God” (White, Ellen G., The Desire of Ages, Pacific Press Publishing Association, USA (1940), 762). Lucifer and his angels were not allowed to remain in heaven because ““the seeds of rebellion were still within him. He had, in his rebellion, no occasion for his course, and he had not only hopelessly ruined himself, but the host of angels also, who would then have been happy in Heaven had he remained steadfast.” (White, Ellen G., The Spirit of Prophecy, Vol 1. (1870), pp. 29, 30. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/141.99).

9

“God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer. He was not immediately degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of discontent, nor even when he began to present his false claims before the loyal angels. Long was he retained in heaven. Again and again he was offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission. Such efforts as only infinite love and wisdom could devise were made to convince him of his error.” (White, Ellen G., The Great Controversy, (1911), 496, 497) Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc29.html.

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implanted in man an enmity (a hatred) against sin and a struggle against it. 10 God had promised that the Seed (Christ in us) should bruise sin and ultimately overcome evil (Gal. 3.16; Rev. 12.17; Gen. 3.15; Col. 1.27; Rom. 16.20). Right there at the moment when sin begun to deprave us God provided the solution and interrupted Satan’s endeavour to totally deprave our natures. God placed that enmity so that there will be a fight of good and evil within man’s heart, and that the good must triumph because “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”. (1Jn. 4.4). Even after man’s fall into sin, God works. When Cain was about to murder his brother, the Lord encouraged Cain that he should overcome sin. “If you do good, won’t there be special privilege? And if you do not good, sin waits at the door. It lusts after you, but you can dominate it” (Gen. 4.7). Therefore, there is no excuse to commit any single sin even after our natures were fallen, because God’s Spirit lives in our hearts. The forces for good are always greater. In that enmity within our hearts we are tested if we obey or not. And we always have the option to choose good and reject evil (Isa. 7.15; 1Pet. 3.10, 11; Job. 1.8; Rom.12.21; Deut. 30.19; Mtt. 7.13). “In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.”11 This is grace right at the start. “Without the grace of Christ, the sinner is in a hopeless condition; nothing can be done for him; but through divine grace, supernatural power is imparted to the man, and works in mind and heart and character. It is through the impartation of the grace of Christ that sin is discerned in its hateful nature, and finally driven from the soul temple. It is through grace that we are brought into fellowship with Christ, to be associated with Him in the word of salvation. Faith is the condition upon which God has seen fit to promise pardon to sinners; not that there is any virtue in faith whereby salvation is merited, but because faith can lay hold of the merits of Christ, the remedy provided for sin.”12 God’s grace is always there since at the start of sin, prompting us to do right, and to strive to overcome sin. Jesus fights for us and is in advance in the battle against sin so that in Him we can conquer. Like a hen on its guard at the onslaught against predators, Jesus is always giving us His grace in a form of law for our protection, defence, and power against sin. The problem is we, like Jerusalem, would not let Him do it. Said Jesus, “How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings; but you would not let me.” (Mtt. 23.37).

Putting it together, we in Adam fell into sin because we ourselves commit sins of which Adam was the primary influence. But his sin had not automatically made us sinners by choice. In nature we were totally depraved in that one instance of disobedience. Our natures can no longer appreciate God’s presence, and like Adam, would hide from its glory and blessedness. We do not want perfection of character; we want imperfection, sin and degradation. But thanks be to God, right at the start and root of all our discomforts God pronounced the good news. For even before He pronounced the curse, He pronounced blessing and 10

One insight makes sense: “Christ is the source of every right impulse. He is the only One that can implant in the heart enmity against sin. Every desire for truth and purity, every conviction of our own sinfulness, is an evidence that His Spirit is moving upon our hearts.” (White, Ellen G., Steps to Christ, Harvestime Books, TN: USA (2000), 17.).

11

“Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power. He is not his own. He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery. He is not allowed to see the beauty of truth, for his mind is under the control of Satan. While he flatters himself that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness. Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” sets us “free from the law of sin and death.’ Romans 8:2. In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.” (White, The Desire of Ages, (1898), 466. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=466.

12

White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p, 366, quoted in Magdadaro, Ronnie C., What Did They Say About The Faith of Jesus: E.G. White, E. J. Waggoner, A.T. Jones, Unity in Present Truth Personal Ministries (2012) by Ronnie C. Magdadaro, p. 100.

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solution: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3.15). In Adam also we are included in that blessing and solution.13 This would forever interrupt Satan’s intent of continually depraving our race. Without this enmity (hatred) or antagonism against sin, our human race will be at one with sin and its evils. But because of that enmity, we are empowered to overcome sin even in this sinful lifetime, so that sinful nature should never be an excuse for not perfectly doing the will of God and live sinlessly in this life. God’s commands in Lev. 19.2; Mtt. 5.48; Gen. 17.1; Deut. 18.13; Mtt. 24.13; and Rev. 3.21 can be done perfectly even in this sinful lifetime, or else He would not have commanded it. Depravity is as good as dead and impotent, it cannot harm us, nor gives us any excuse for disobeying any of God’s Laws. Since God had provided the enmity and the promise, there can be no excuse to commit sin under any circumstances and pressures. Jesus, with all the saints of the ages would have to die first than commit a sin. Such is the mentality of those who have God’s Law written in their beings; it hates sin as exactly as God hates it, and it lives righteousness as God does. Realizing that we are now treated as though we have never fallen, conscious that there is no such thing as “depravity” after Gen. 3.15, we are fully accountable to our choice as Cain was in Gen.4.7 when God spoke to him “sin…lusts after you, but you can dominate it.” It is the physical nature that is depraved, including the heart tendencies and desires. But the moral power, the freedom to choose the good and refuse evil is then restored during Gen. 3.15. It remains untarnished and undepraved. And God will hold us fully accountable for that choice as if we have never fallen. Even the gentiles who do not have the written Law before their eyes has a conscience that “gives supporting witness, since their own thought argue the case, sometimes against them, sometimes ever for them” (Rom. 2.15). This is the evidence that the moral power in Gen. 3.15 is alive and active within the sinful human flesh and is as effective as before we have never fallen.

Therefore even after the fall of Adam, since Gen. 3.15 was pronounced, we are no longer depraved. Rather, we are still accountable of our own sinful choices. And there is no excuse by saying “I’m totally depraved, 13

TOTAL DEPRAVITY VERSUS “PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE” : IS SIN NATURE? DIVINITY IS ALSO NATURE. BUT WHAT MATTERS IS THE CHOOSING, EITHER TO OBEY OR TO DISOBEY IN WHATEVER NATURE A CREATURE IS IN. In Adam as well as those who submit to God’s power this reality of enmity is truly realized. The enmity is when Christ covenanted to assume our fallen sinful nature and in that nature bruise the serpent’s head. The actual validation of this enmity fighting against evil is when Jesus came physically into our world in the fallen sinful human flesh. But it does not mean that Christ had not taken our liabilities before His existence in this planet, because He was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13.8). Hence, just as He took our place and died before the foundation of the world, He in essence had fully partaken our sinful nature and absorbed it completely, so that what remains is the exchange of our vile nature – He imparted right there, right at the fall in Gen. 3.15 His divine nature so that we will be partakers of His divine nature right there where the fall begun. Now this is an argument against those who hold that our natures were totally depraved. No, it is not, because His divine nature was imparted right at once when the problem of sin intruded into our planet. The evidence is that in Rom. 2. 14, 15 there is the light of conscience striving against sin even among those who do not know the God who created the heavens and the earth and who rested on the Sabbath day. If we are depraved in nature, we are not depraved in nature right at the start. Only our flesh is decaying as the result of sinning against God’s Laws –all laws including physical, natural laws which are inseparably part of the moral Law. But we are partakers of that nature especially those both Jews and Sabbathless pagans who yielded completely to that divine influence. And if one argues that sin is nature, I say that righteousness is also nature because right from the start Jesus granted us the privilege to be partakers of the divine nature just as in the opposite He partook our sinfulness and was made sin for us. That’s glorious exchange. Nevertheless, even in that divine nature that we already had, that nature had to be tested by obedience. Whether fallen or no, it does not give any excuse. Adam and Lucifer had sinned even when they were created originally holy and perfect, and that by their deliberate choice. So to those who have fallen nature, although it appears natural for them to commit sin because to them sin is nature, they ought to do the opposite, - obey God’s will, forcing that sinful nature to obey the Commandments of God no matter the great inconvenience, no matter the severe sacrifice. Just as Adam, Eve, and Lucifer forced their holy and perfect natures to do the difficult one, -disobey God’s Commandments, so we must also do the difficult one, -obey God’s Commandments despite natural inclination. The mystery of iniquity is to force something what is against the holy nature to do; and therefore the mystery of godliness (1Tim. 3.16) is also the same, -that God is revealed in the SARX (corrupt flesh touched by sin), that is, to force the rebellious sinful flesh to render such perfect obedience to God’s Commandments, and condemn sin in the sinful flesh giving it no excuse. Can we? Yes we can, and we must. God has been continually giving His enabling grace moment by moment, constantly operating through our choice to do right, therefore we must choose and fight manfully the battle of faithfulness and steadfastness till we thoroughly bruise the head of the serpent with our feet through the strength of Yahweh as we are expected to do especially in this sinful side of existence.

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therefore I cannot (will not) choose what is good”, because God Himself coached Cain what to do (Gen. 4.7) and He constantly does within the hearts of every person. The majesty of human choosing as restored by God in Gen. 3.15 stands undepraved and uncorrupted. The freedom to choose remains intact and undepraved in the light of Gen. 3.15. We are encouraged to fight against our own evil tendencies and overcome then thoroughly and completely by that grace, that enmity, that hostility against sin which God had given in our hearts as gift in this lifetime. Now who will dare to say that he/she cannot live a perfect sinless life in this sinful side of existence? God had promised that the good (Christ in us) will always bruise the head of Satan, so that Satan should remain defeated forever even in this sinful life. How shall we do this? By letting Christ live in our hearts, then His holiness will be our holiness too, His hatred against sin will be our hatred too. We are partakers of His divine nature here and now even in this sinful side of life. Now, what’s the big deal about a depraved nature? We are commanded to crucify it and put it to death daily, moment by moment. Our choice, which is no longer depraved since Gen.3.15 must execute that depraved nature in us, and never stop executing it until we become hater of sin and ungodliness as fully as God is.

Actually we are treated as though we have never been fallen, because the depravity was lifted up, and we can now fully choose good and reject evil as though no fall had happened. It was Adam and Eve who sinned, and not all have sinned after the similitude of Adam (Rom. 5.14). So why God should count us guilty and why should we die? Because we come from the same material body of Adam, we partook his death. But with regards to our morality, we will not die except if we commit wilfully sin and neglect “so great a salvation,” when we “made light of it” and scorned it “(Heb. 2.3; Mtt. 22.5). The soul who sins shall die (Ezek. 18.4; Ex. 32.33). And if the righteous ceases from existing being physically dead he/she already has that eternal life.

He/she just sleeps for a while, only to be awakened by Christ’s voice. But he/she is not dead. To the believer, death is but a sleep. In a twinkling of an eye, our bodies will rise incorruptible (1Cor. 15.52-58). But our characters remain the same as when we were still alive. Death brings dissolution to the body but it does not bring any change in the character. Christ’s coming will not change our characters, but it only fixes them forever beyond all change. He will come to give rewards, not to change characters. The wicked will remain wicked, and the holy will remain holy during the time Christ ceases His work in the Sanctuary (Rev. 8.3-5; Rev. 22.11), and the Spirit of God being finally withdrawn from the wicked and impenitent. It is during that time when God will see the saints whether or not they wear the wedding garment, righteousness of Christ (Mtt. 22.11-13). Today is the time of probation that we ought to have the mind of Christ in this life, before God can entrust us with eternal riches (Lk. 16.10-12).

In addition, death passed over all men in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5.12), that is, those specifically who sinned. But not all have sinned, only those “in them”, “in whom” (in Greek, EPI HO –in whom, over [specifically those], the short cut of EPI TOUTO HOTI –“for the reason that specifically those”) all [who] have committed sin. After Gen. 3.15 as in before it, sin is always consciously committed by choice. There can be no such thing as depravity of the mind or depravity of choice that one cannot choose between good and evil. Under the Holy Spirit, human beings are free to choose God or Satan. “While we realize our weakness, let us rely upon His strength, and overcome by the grace which He imparts.” 14 We are not to be hindered uselessly by the thought of weakness. Sufficient grace is always there, and we must avail of ourselves of it and fight in the strength of the Lord.

14

White, Our High Calling, p. 362, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/ro/book/81.2553#2558.

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THE AFTERMATH OF ABNORMALITY: As what we have seen, the root of sin is the love of self and a disdain of God and His supremacy. It has its origin in Satan who wishes also to create own satanic image in man making us unlike our heavenly Father.15 Because of this, even if there is a struggle against evil on our part, we cannot deny the evolution of rebellion in the history of man as the chart describes below. The good news is, we are responsible to overcome it, and we are responsible in not overcoming it. Depraved or undepraved, God holds us fully accountable for our salvation as if we had never fallen. He demands the same absolute perfection and perfect obedience from His creatures even if they were “depraved.” He knew that we can defeat sin and remain to live perfectly sinless even while having the sinful flesh, because He provided all possibilities that we should be fully partakers of the divine nature here and now.

Let us see the diagram below about the power in Gen. 3.15, how it interrupts and forever defeated depravity: (Diagram 1.3) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENESIS 3.15 FOR OUR SUPPOSED DEPRAVITY LUCIFER & HIS ANGELS: Not physical: no descendants to pass on depravity, no “enmity” against sin: hence, uninterrupted depravity in them. No free will, cannot and will not appreciate holiness.

ADAM & EVE: with descendants to pass on depravity “all (who) have sinned come short of God’s glory.” Total depravity from Gen. 3.8-12 until Gen. 3.15.No freewill, cannot and will not appreciate holiness until Gen. 3.15.

Gen. 3.15: The“enmity”interrupts total depravity, so that depravity is not an excuse to commit any sin; one must choose not to sin (Gen.4.7), and to thoroughly dominate sin.

Interrupted (not total) depravity since Gen. 3.15onwards: Freewill again under the Holy Spirit who placed the “enmity”/ hostility in us, against the serpent! We can now choose not to sin, and fight against evil, with brand new moral powers (Gen. 4.7; Deut. 30.19; Josh. 24.15; Rom. 2.14, 15; James 4.7-8). Divine nature had been imparted, we partake it by choice, by yielding to Divine influence, and by not living in sin anymore (Gen. 4.7; Rom. 2.13-15; Rom. 8.14-17; Rom. 5.17, 20, 21; Rom. 6.1, 2; 2Pet. 1.3-11; Jn. 1.9, 12-13; Jn. 3.21; Mtt. 23.37)

Many do not yield to that Divine influence, and choose darkness than light (Mtt. 23.37; Jn. 3.1920). Some have not fully appreciated the Light because Jesus was not lifted up by those who profess to be His followers (Jn. 12.32)

15

“Satan is continually seeking to influence human minds by his subtle arts. His is a mastermind, given of God, but prostituted with all its noble capabilities to oppose and to make of no effect the counsels of the Most High. [ST, Sept. 18, 1893]. “For thousands of years Satan has been experimenting upon the properties of the human mind, and he has learned to know it well.

By his subtle workings in these last days he is linking the human mind with his own, imbuing it with his thoughts; and he is doing this work in so deceptive a manner that those who accept his guidance know not that they are being led by him at his will. The great deceiver hopes so to confuse the minds of men and women that none but his voice will be heard.” [Lt 244, 1907]; cited in White, Ellen G., Mind, Character, and Personality Vol. 1., 18. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1MCP&lang=en&pagenumber=18.

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REALIZATION/APPLICATION: THE USELESSNESS OF THE DOGMA CALLED “TOTAL DEPRAVITY” OR “UNIVERSAL SINFULNESS” The theories that say that man is naturally selfish are partly true. We have inherited many genetic evil predispositions from our parents. That our nature is depraved and fallen cannot be denied. Nevertheless, since right at the start Christ had implanted the enmity against evil, we always sense the impulse that fight against the sin in our nature and the movings of the desire to do good. Therefore that depravity is forever interrupted and lies impotent to deprave us, except we choose to live wilfully in depravity. God’s Spirit is always at work in the human impulse; -impulse that discerns what is right and wrong. That is the evidence that Christ Himself had placed that enmity between us and the devil, totally separating us from its depraving power and putting the distance in between us and sin, thereby creating our moral powers totally brand new as if we have never fallen into sin. Even the gentiles who do not know the law experiences this arguing within their conscience (Rom.2.15), that is, they have that inherent moral discernment about right and wrong. Their definitions for the right may not be as clear as the Jews who have known the law, yet they nevertheless “do by nature the things contained in the law” (v.14), and therefore, they are still reckoned as doers of the law, and only the doers of the law shall be justified, “and not the hearers” (Rom. 2.13; James 1.22-25; Mtt. 7.26, 27).

Although psychologists16 assert that man is born selfish and egocentric, not all are born with those dispositions. There are children who had inherited sunny, unselfish disposition from parents who were godly and cheerful. There are those who were born with innate goodness, “filled with the Holy Spirit” even from the womb, like John the Baptist, Samson, and Jesus. But we ought to acknowledge the fact that no goodness can exist apart from the Messiah. And if ever such goodness or good trait exists natural to a person, it is because Christ is the one who had implanted that goodness in the soul. And true, there are some goodness within man, but Christ is the Source of it. There will always be enmity, hatred, separation, or antagonism between sin and righteousness within ever person’s heart. Christ was the one who placed it in us. Or else without it, we would all be wicked, and the whole human race cannot hate sin, but will be one with (and not at enmity against) Satan. But thank God for that promise of enmity, that the good must triumph always and to the end, that there should be no excuse in our sinful nature using it as a cause not to overcome sin. Right at the start of our deprivation, God worked for our upliftment by implanting that enmity between our race and Satan. None have fallen so low; none are so depraved except they choose to, and remain in that condition. Everyone has the privilege to submit to the power of the Holy Spirit and to be partakers of the divine nature here and now, fully and completely (Rom. 8.14; 2Pet. 1.3-11). There is no such thing as depravity now in the moral powers of man because it was forever interrupted since Gen. 3.15. All can choose to be on the side of Christ as if we have never fallen. Christ had freed us at the very time we are enslaved by Satan. We are granted the chance to live righteously in the same equal standing as God gave the option to Adam before his fall in Gen.2.16, 17.

Depravity is no longer an excuse because it is good as null and its effect void as it was forever interrupted at Gen.3.15. It is the choice that God holds us accountable. Depravity cannot drag us down because God uplifts us always by implanting that enmity in us in order for us to hate evil and love the good. It is now wholly by choice that we are sinners, and not by nature. And though fallen God still expects perfect obedience from us just as what He requires of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Job, Jesus, and all His saints.

Therefore we do not adhere to Calvin’s total depravity theory because it is a hindrance for one’s obedience, perfection, and holiness in our probationary existence. Viewed from the light of Gen.2.15, it is no longer total depravity but a totally interrupted depravity, a depravity forever interrupted by God’s Spirit, so that the human race is no longer depraved since Gen. 3.15, and everyone is as fully accountable to their choices as though they have never fallen to sin, Jew or non-Jew alike. God had granted the lost race the abundant help right there where sin occurred, that right at the fall of sin man should have privilege to be partakers of the Divine nature. That nature should be used to overcome our inherited bad traits; Divine nature versus sinful nature. But the sinful nature is on the side of disadvantage. Satan had written no book how to commit sin, God 16

For example, Jean Piaget, David Elkind, Sigmund Freud

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moved upon the prophets, and He Himself walked among men physically and in various ways, not willing that any should be left in darkness. So overwhelming are the advantages on the side of right that there is no really excuse for any sin to exist or any specie of imperfection except by one’s own deliberate choice. Only a few yielded and continue to yield to that divine influence, and remain sensitive to providences calculated to lead for their transformation of nature. Most yield to self and indulge in the evil predisposition instead of conquering them. God had already justified all man right after the fall, and even before sin, in His benevolent Predestination. But God’s justification involves more than legal declaration. He hoped that this reality of our justified status will create in man the change within, and that man should yield to the initial promptings of the Spirit until man will in this lifetime fully reflect once more the perfect image of his Creator by his own constant yielding to that divine influence. Further, if Jews and gentiles are both condemned and then justified, both of them also are lifted from depravity during Gen.3.15 and are held responsible for their own sins and choices. Their sins and their own wrong choices are by their own making because God had forever eradicated depravity at Genesis 3.15, and He accuses man’s sin not as the result of their nature but by their own purposeful imaginations (Gen. 6.5; 8.21), their choosing. By implanting divine nature against sinful nature, He removes the cause of our excuses, the excuse to attribute sin as nature. God would make it sure, implanting that enmity, that even after the fall our only excuse to commit sin is that it is by our own choice, because He removed the reason by which we seek to justify it using sinful nature as excuse. In justification, He treats us as though we have not fallen, as though we are righteous. Therefore we ought to be righteous and shake off our besetting sins because we are no longer naturally sinners as God sees us. Sinful nature should be overcome by partaking of the divine nature which is the privilege of all. And the act of partaking divine nature is a choice; we ought to take actions of it ourselves because God provided the way. We are already bought with the price and by legal pronouncement we belong to Him, and to be His, and to be saved, and there is no reason to remain unsaved. Therefore we need not live in sin, or love the services of the enemy. Yet some choose to remain in sin, not knowing the good news that they need not under sin’s domain. What more could God do?

Some Christians would still cling to their favourite doctrine about Total depravity even if it is now useless and proven impotent to harm our faith. We now dismiss Augustine-Calvin’s theorizing as complete nonsense and reject their theory as stumbling block to our faith and practice.

Just as God is not a respecter of person whether Jew or gentile, so He does not excuse sinning whether fallen man or fallen angels. Depravity is in a person’s intending and choosing, and that has something to do with desires and inclinations which one has acquired by choosing to educate one’s heart in sin and in constant familiarity with the evil sphere and associations (1Cor. 15.33). It takes divinity to eradicate and quarantine those sinful inclinations that had already strengthened in practice. But Jew or not, God demands no less than a perfect character. Just as He will not respect a person who is a Jew and yet who sins (Mtt.3.8-10), but grants favour to believing non-Jews (Lk. 4.25-28), so the issue of depravity does not matter in the spectrum of salvation but only one’s steadfast choosing, unswerving obedience, and the Godlike disposition of justice and mercy regardless of creeds, race, and fallenness (Mic. 6.8). For why do millions of Muslims and Hassidic Jews behave, think, and act with such holiness even if they were not exposed to the concepts of our deranged and depraved systematic theologies? They did not stoop down to think whether they can obey or not, and they do not live mediocre as if they cannot obey or cannot be holy. They were holy in thought and in conversations as in 1Pet. 1.15, 16. They obey the Commandments of God as far as their consent and willingness is concerned, and they were not disobedient but sincere. They were not legalists but earnest and wholehearted in their devotion to God. They were righteous. They obeyed God’s law. Yes, they do, and they depend on God for strength, and not on their own efforts. They recognize the frailty of human righteousness and loathe their own sins. And yet they earnestly pursues the course of faith, -the faith that works by love, and they died holy and perfect in contrast to their former ways of life. On the other hand, there are many professed Christians who claim to be able to do anything through Christ strengthening them, and yet they made such feeble attempts at overcoming bad traits and sin. Their efforts were unsteadfast and intermittent. They cannot be trusted. God cannot trust them. They are content to remain in their low condition of spirituality, and have made no improvement in their spiritual experience. They remain spiritual dwarfs and mediocre Christians whose disposition is expressed in the words “I will not be perfect and I cannot overcome here and now, because Page 16 of 174

nobody’s perfect. What God and Jesus had commanded in Mtt. 5.48; Rev. 3.21; Deut. 18.13; Gen. 17.1; Lev. 19.2; Heb. 12.14 were nothing but idle tales. God and Christ do not mean what they said. No one can do that.

Therefore God is a liar. He gives commands that we cannot do in this lifetime.” –This is the sentiment of a dark soul who had never seen the light of truth. Therefore the attitude that says “I’m only human, nobody’s perfect, and no one can be perfect” is not valid. Throughout the First Testament and the Renewed Testament not one word favouring imperfection can be found. True, no one had not sinned (Ps.143.2; 14.3; 1Kgs. 8.46; Prov.20.9; Eccl. 7.20; Rom. 3.23; 1Jn. 1.8), but that does not mean that we remain sinners (wicked, disobedient, imperfect) until our last breath. On the other hand we are exhorted to be perfect (Deut. 18.13.

Gen. 17.1; 1Kgs.8.61; Mtt.5.48; Phil. 3.15; James 3.2; Rev. 3.2), to overcome and to struggle as Jesus our Example did (Rev. 3.21; 1Pet. 4.1,2; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Heb. 12.1-4; Lk. 9.23; Mtt. 24.41-45; Mtt. 24.13; 1Pet. 5.9), to go on to perfection (Heb. 6.1; 1Pet. 1.3-11; Rev. 22.14 - King James Version) and to die faithful/steadfast and with a perfect heart just as what the Bible heroes did (Rev. 2.10; 1Kgs. 15.14; 1Kgs. 11.4; 1Tim. 4.7). We are not commanded to remain mediocre and imperfect. God and Christ had never said “Be ye therefore IMPERFECT, as your Father in heaven is PERFECT”. Neither the author of the book of Hebrews wrote: “Let us go on to IMPERFECTION” (See Heb. 6.1).

The problem here are the recent theologians 17 who keep on saying that no one had ever lived a perfect life except Christ and we cannot do it (despite the fact that Christ implies we certainly can and should do and live as He did (Rev. 3.21; 1Pet. 4.1,2; Jn. 13.13-17; Heb.12.1-4; Lk. 9.23; 1Jn. 2.3-6).18 They forgot Enoch, Joseph, Daniel, Job, King Asa, King Josiah, Zacharias and Elizabeth who never did sin all their lives. They denied God’s statement about Abraham, Moses, the Rechabites, Jehu, and David that these patriarchs had obeyed the Commandments of Yahweh and kept His statutes, and were faithful unto death (Gen. 18.19-KJV; Gen. 22.18; Gen. 26.5; Ex. 39.42, 43; Num. 12.7; Heb. 3.5; Josh. 11.15; 1Kgs. 11.34, 38; 1Kgs. 15.14; See Jer. 35.1-11; 2Kgs. 10.30). The good news is, God will not reckon our past misdeeds when we have truly repented 17

For example, a statement by an Evangelical apologist Dr. Walter R. Martin (1928-1989), a self-proclaimed cult watchdog who said “Do we invalidate the truth of the law by faith? No, we establish the truth of the law. The only horrible part about it is, you can’t keep it” (Meeting Between Walter Martin, Ken Samples, and the Faculty of the School of Religion, Loma Linda University [Loma Linda and La Sierra Campuses] at Linda Hall of the Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church on Thursday, January 26, 1989, from 1 to 3 PM –Transcript Two – a 56-page type-written transcript of the dialogue of the second of two meetings on the same date) cited in Dave Fiedler, Hindsight Seventh-day Adventist History in Essays and Extracts, by Dave Fiedler 10/12 ZaptCaligraphic (1996) printed by Review and Herald Graphics; p. 257.

In his statement above Dr. Martin should have added “in our own strength.” But that’s the sad part of those who cling to Calvinistic beliefs who deny to God His power that keeps the believer from falling. They believe that it is also God who damns the unsaved, and they still has the errors akin to and in one substance of the Roman church’s Immaculate Conception, -the view that the Son of God was not born with sinful flesh, but with sinless flesh, unlike us. In that latter view, it will not surprise us if Dr. Martin and the Evangelicals will say, and keep on saying “nobody can keep God’s law, only Jesus could.” And why, we ask? Their answer is ready, “we are born depraved with sinful flesh, while Jesus was born in the UNLIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH. Therefore He can and we can’t.” But carefully read Rom.8.3 and we can see fact before our eyes, that it is indeed the Spirit of the Antichrist that denies the Son of God is come “in the SARX” (1Jn.4.2,3). The word “flesh” used to describe Christ’s human nature have always been SARX in Greek, -the corrupt, filthy flesh touched by sin, common to all of us.

Therefore there is no excuse to commit sin even in this flesh because Christ was also made with the same genetic material. The only difference is, He never chose to commit sin, nor yield to His sinful SARX. Rather, He “condemned sin in the SARX” (Rom.8.3).

18

Now who will dare say “No, Lord, we won’t do what You did or live as You have lived because we can’t”? Who can dare offer God such slothful excuse when He gave all incentives and the divine energy to live perfectly as exactly as He did?

(Mtt.25.26). We are to be partakers of His divine nature here and now, in this sinful side of existence, not that at His coming He will change our characters. It is in this life that we are tested for eternity (Lk.16.10-12). It is in this lifetime that we are to perfect a character that fits heaven, a character that measures with the life of God, and such character that God can trust.

Therefore such a character should have the same permanent and eternal righteousness and steadfastness equally as God’s moral qualities. Short of that enduring righteousness cannot be trusted by God. The unfaithful and the untrustworthy deserves punishment (Mtt. 25.24-31; Mtt. 24.48-51), including those who are unclean and unholy (Rev. 21.27; Isa. 66.17; Heb. 12.14).

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(changed of heart and attitude, fully turned away from sin, and fully reconciled to His Law or righteousness) and remain steadfast (Ezek. 33.14-16; Isa. 43.25; Isa. 1.18-20). What He counts perfect are those who live in His sight at the present tense, not the past nor the future. Their past sins that are repented and abandoned of do not count in His sight so long as they remain faithful/steadfast to their last breath, and there is no tendency left that deviates from the right path. The fixity of the character is such that God can trust. It is the present that God counts in His relationships with beings endowed with the power of choice.

The perfection of Jesus lies in the fact that at every present step of His life, even from the womb, He yield not to sin and chose not to sin even in thoughts and intentions. And who can say that John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb (Lk. 1.15) has not done the same? And of Samuel, Daniel, Job, and Enoch? God had reckoned Noah, Abraham, David, Moses, as faithful, and having obeyed His Commandments statues and Laws, and that is in their present relationship, and at their death, in contrast to the wicked world where “no one is righteous, no not one”, and “everyone’s heart is continually evil.” But the righteous saints were not wicked. Obviously they are NOT wicked as the majority of sinners around them. They may have some inadvertent mistakes, but their past misconduct are not counted in that reckoning of perfection because it is the present repentance (change of heart and attitude and one is reconciled to God’s Law and righteousness) that matters; and their constant unremitting repenting, and that remain faithful, firm, and steadfast to the end.

There were times when we slip and fall again and again after we have repented. The good news is that God always grants chances for change, and He keeps on forgiving until His Law and righteousness will be steadily fixed in our hearts and principles so that we do not want to sin anymore. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should repent (change of heart, reconciled to His righteousness as revealed in His law) (2Pet.3.9; Ezek.33.11). The only terrible part is when we allow our hearts to harden by resisting His Holy Spirit so that we become like the man when the unclean spirit returns (Mtt.12.43-45; See Mk. 4.19; Mtt.24.4851; Heb.12.14-17; 2Pet.3.1-18), like a “reject silver” that can no longer be purified (Jer.6. 29, 30; 2.30; 8.4-6), like a dog that returns to its own vomit (2Pet. 2.20-22; Prov.26.11; See Prov. 5.22; Jn. 8.34). God will leave us to our own choices. His Spirit will not always argue with us (Gen.6.3). He will say something He uttered to Israel who persisted in their perversity: “Ephraim is joined to idols: LET HIM ALONE” (Hos. 4.17), and in Rev. 22.11: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” He will be doing the thing He does not want to do, His “strange work” (Isa. 28.21).Indeed, to God who is merciful and gracious, the work of pronouncing the condemnation to the finally unrepentant and impenitent is a “strange work.” But it’s the sinners who sealed their doom. God is always stretching His arms toward the human race even to the disobedient and defiant people (Rom.10.20-21; Isa.65.1,2), but the wicked remains obdurate, and some righteous fall from their righteousness and commit sin (Ezek. 33.12, 13). The problem is not with God because it was always His intention for all humanity to be restored to moral perfection even in their sinful lifetime. His salvation is so complete that it can renew to perfection all who would submit to His spirit, and be partakers of the Divine nature here and now. The problem is the human creatures themselves who were granted freewill, in that they do not “watch and pray” and maintain that steadfast vigilance unremittingly to the end (Hence, the Commands and caution in Mtt.24.42-51; 2Pet.3.17,18; Lk.21.36; Mtt.24.13; Heb.3.6, 14; 1Cor. 10.12; Rom. 11.22; Col. 1.21-23;Rev.2.10; 1Pet.5.8, 9).19 They allow their minds to wander aimlessly at random, and to run it in impure channels of thinking. They allow their thoughts to run loose, instead of to “gird up the loins of your mind” as what the Spirit had said through apostle Peter (1Pet. 3.13-16, 22). They have that attitude that it is just okay to remain imperfect in character with many spots and blemishes, and therefore they 19

The only acceptable repentance and steadfastness for sinners is when they prove their repentance by works, and “walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity” –Ezek. 33.15. To retrograde in the process is not allowed. One should “go on to perfection” –Heb.6.1. It is not just an ordinary steadfastness after repentance that a converted sinner can be saved. One must follow the rules that ensure life “without committing iniquity” (Ezek. 33.15). To such a person, God can trust. Jesus wants to make sure that the believers who are to be in heaven are those who on earth can be perfectly trusted in little things (Mtt. 25.2123; Lk. 16.10-12; See also 2Pet. 1.10; Phil. 2.12, 13) who are holy, pure, and who “do His Commandments” (Mtt. 5.8; Heb. 12.14; Ps. 24.3-5; Jn. 5.29; Rev. 22.14; Rev. 14.12).

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will do nothing about it. Their attitude on earth will be the same when they will be in heaven, that is, lovers of the imperfect and immoral, and justifying sin, impurity, and an imperfect obedience to God’s Commandments.

But no unclean person can ever enter heaven. When everything on earth will be consumed by fire, only righteousness can remain. Character defects, spots, and blemishes should be overcome thoroughly in this lifetime. Only the pure in hearts shall see God (Mtt. 5.8; 2Pet. 3.11-14; Heb. 12.14).Those who have impurities and imperfections will perish with the wicked. In their imperfections it is evident that God cannot trust them. Their hearts are not perfect with Him. They were here on earth for a probation, in order to be tested for eternity, but they failed of making the righteousness of Christ their own. Their sinful nature, and the trials and temptations were the very means of testing and proving them whether they remain obedient even at the most difficult circumstance, even to the point of death. And if they cannot be trusted with such severe tests, God cannot entrust to them His eternal riches. His heavenly home is never to be jeopardized or marred by the presence of people who cannot be trusted, whose characters has spots or some darkness. The blood of Christ will not cover the sinfulness of a person who remains unrepentant and unsteadfast, who continue to cherish hidden sins in his/her life. The life of one who professes to be a Christian must be fully surrendered to the Master (Rom. 6.15-23). He/she must have the mind of the Messiah, “the faith of Jesus” that overcomes and dominates sin in the sinful flesh (1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Phil. 2.5-8; Mtt. 18.2, 3; Rev. 3.21; Heb.12.1-4; Rev. 14.12-King James Version).

This mindset that condones imperfection is shown in the popular attitude that we can hear almost everywhere by many people who keeps on saying: “I’m human. Nobody’s perfect, and nobody can be perfect.” This mediocrity is the result of the Roman church’s Immaculate Conception dogma which was also to some degree, expanded and revised by the Evangelicals: The belief that Mary or Christ was exempt from original sin, and therefore cannot sin. This thought will be dealt with later in many parts of this concept paper and in the footnotes. This is the reason why many Christians, both Roman Christians and Evangelicals find it hard to follow Christ as our Example in trials, obedience, and perfection of character. They would gladly look at Him as the Mighty Saviour, but would have none of Him as their Example. They would not deny self, take up the cross, and follow Him in perfect obedience even in the sinful flesh. They go on in life and die as if it is acceptable to retain their imperfect character and rotten selves, as if Christ’s grace will cloak the hideousness of their sins. But Scripture would not tolerate this view (1Pet. 2.16; Gal. 5.13; Tit. 1.16; Ex. 32.33; Ex. 23.7; Ex. 34.7; Num.14.18; Ex. 20.7; 2Tim. 2.19; 2Thess.2.12). The Messiah is our Example in this sinful life. We are to obey and be like Him as He was when He was “in the days of His flesh” (Heb.5.7-9), that is, uncompromisingly obedient to God in every step of life. And as His followers, we ought to have the mind of the Messiah, and the faith, the true and steadfast faith of the Messiah (1Jn. 2.3-6; Lk. 4.16; Jn. 13.13-17; 1Pet. 4.1, 2; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Phil. 2.5-8; Heb. 12.1-4; Lk. 9.23; Rev. 2.17; Rev. 14.4-5, 12-King James Version). To tolerate imperfection of character in this sinful lifetime is to declare that God’s grace is not sufficient in man’s weakness, contrary to 2Cor. 12.9. To accept a holy God who says “Be holy, be perfect” (Gen. 17.1; Deut. 18.13; Mtt. 5.48), and yet content to remain to live imperfectly without overcoming sin in the strength of Christ is incongruent to a Christian.

God will not save those whose hearts are not perfect towards Him. Perfection is found in the heart that is undivided, whole, and entire, without any lacking or any spots or blemishes, in short “steadfast” or “faithfulness” as Scripture says, “the righteous will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2.4).

Sometimes for a Christian it is a sobering thought to ponder “Am I rotten, or holy? If with this disposition and character I should instantly be transported to heaven and witness the high state of purity and perfection that exist in that place, will my mediocre and cheap character finds joy there, or will I only be a discordant tone in that land of bliss where the inhabitants are holy and blameless, and there is not one trait in their character that is disharmonious to God’s Law and order? God will no longer tolerate the abnormality of sin in the heavens and earth made new. But what we are here when we die or when Christ comes will be the same in heaven. If we cannot be trusted with God’s Law while living in this sinful life, there is no reason for God to trust us in heaven. We are tested in the place full of sin so that it should be proven that we can stand against sin, and God can vindicate His Law in our lives and showcase us to the universe and against Satan that the humankind can Page 19 of 174

indeed keep His Laws even in their sinful flesh. There is no excuse for this. God had given every provision for us to be fully partakers of His divine nature while in this lifetime. Jesus became man so that we will become familiar with the very character of God that is holy and merciful. And we ought to be Godlike in this sinful lifetime, -to be Christians in the fullest sense of the word, that is, the followers of Christ who has the mind of the Jesus, “the faith of Jesus,” and the character of Jesus.

There is beauty and power in Gen. 3.15. It assures us that the serpent’s head should be completely destroyed, even if the heels of a Christian are bitten by the inconvenience of the Serpent’s teeth. Since Adam and Eve and the whole human race had that evils or interrupted depravity in their natures, our lives should always be in constant destroying and completely destroying of the serpent no matter how we are pained along the process.

“He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt strike its heel” –said the Lord. And if we who are of the seed of Christ are to bruise the head of Satan and sin, it renders the power of the evil impotent because the energy and mind of the serpent is in its head. It is the same as terminating and annihilating the existence of sin in our lives in this lifetime, making us like perfectly sinless, even if we are inconvenienced on every side. The reality of the wounded heel is that in our process of overcoming sin in the sinful flesh, there is a sacrifice. One has to deny self and personal appetites, and force one’s sinful nature to do the will of God even if it is painful, materially hard, and seemingly unnatural for a selfish human nature to do. We will always live in material pain in this world cursed with sin in our firm resolve to do God’s will and keep His Commandments. People will mock at us, persecute and kill us in the process. But in the end, with Christ in our hearts, we overcome sin, defeat Satan, bruise his head, and die to bring death to Satan and sin, just as Christ had done. And such death is the death of a conqueror, like Jesus our Example. We better die than commit any single sin. We give no place for the devil, nor allow him to triumph. We uphold perfection of character no matter how difficult our situation and stations in life had been. And that’s pain along the process, yet we rejoice that even in our sinful flesh, God’s glory and character is perfectly revealed in us. We have sinful, inherently depraved (interrupted depravity) nature due to the bad predispositions we naturally got from our parents, and yet in the strength of the Messiah we live sinlessly perfect by choice. Jesus shared the same bad traits because He came from the line of ordinary men who had those propensities: from an incestuous relationship (Mtt. 1.3; Lk. 2.33 See Gen. 38), a harlot (Mtt. 1.5); an adulterer and murderer (Mtt. 1.16; Lk. 3.31; 2Sam. 12), a prophet-murdering monarch (Mtt. 1.10). He was a sharer of everything from all sorts of humanity, and yet He did not choose what natural predisposition dictates, but chose beyond the demand of nature, and against nature, into what is naturally impossible, just as what the saints and great spirits of all ages had always done.

In the future, evil will ultimately be destroyed completely. Sin is finite and limited. It has a beginning, and it has an end. The only thing that will exist for eternity is God’s righteousness and the steady faithfulness, justice, and love of God. If therefore sin and evil are limited and has an end, and that only God’s divine qualities will endure eternally, we ought to have His very life and character now, even in this sinful flesh, and live God’s permanent righteousness and allow His Laws to be permanently written in our hearts so we will live with Him eternally. Or else, if we cling to our sins we will be swept away with the wicked like a chaff in the wind, and be no more.

The dogma called “Total Depravity” or “Universal Sinfulness” is a useless belief, and makes a person incompetent, mediocre, immature, and careless in both spiritual and social domain. It stifles other Christian endeavours and attempts at perfection and steadfastness, and gives an excuse for intellectual and spiritual incompetence. A person who believes in this dogma will think that he is deranged mentally, and wholistically, or a psychotic at that, no better than a vegetable. How can we consider people inside church as normal persons who believe that they are totally depraved? That’s equivalent to saying that they are stupid and mad men and women. But Gen. 3.15 alone shatters this dogma. Gen. 4.7 would not allow total depravity. There is something to be guarded about the theologians’ conclusions, for even if these people are sincere, honest, and devout, no one truly knows that neurosis they have been through, and what we see are only their writings and books, without understanding the men behind them, nor the upbringing or hormones that ignites their thoughts. The safest thing is to look to Jesus alone, our supreme example of fighting and overcoming. Let us shake off this Page 20 of 174

weak “total depravity” dogma, and entirely forget it. Since Gen. 3.15, Christ had always been strengthening the moral powers of man to “argue within themselves” in favour of the good (Rom. 2.15), so that even the gentiles who are without law are inexcusable. All have ample light what to do, morally. None are depraved, none are degraded that one cannot choose what is right. The idea of Total Depravity is a myth, a novelty invented by Augustine and Calvin, and supported by people who are afflicted with paranoid personality disorder. They have not known the overwhelming godlike powers God had invested in man to permanently dominate and conquer sin in this lifetime. So abundant are the provisions given by the Almighty so that man can overcome on his own account and defeat sin. God who is on our side with all the powers of heaven makes it possible that we are more than a match against sin. The Spirit through John says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1Jn. 4.4).

Yet in view of these external and internal strength provided, many Christians are still whining and complaining saying “Oh, I am weak. I cannot obey the Commandments of God. I can’t be righteous.” And the supreme cause of this is Augustine and Calvin’s undesirable teachings that man is born stupid and incompetent. I have read every utterance of God and have never encountered His own statement telling mortals that they cannot obey, or that their nature is so sinful preventing them from permanently obeying God’s Commandments. Surprisingly, I read many passages about successful Bible heroes whose perfect obedience and fidelity to the Covenant no less than the person of God Himself had acknowledged, such as Jehu, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Job, Noah, and that despite their mistakes; and by the Spirit, Elijah, Joseph, King Josiah, King Asa, King Jehoshaphat, Zacharias & Elisabeth, and the 144,000 saints in the future (Rev. 14.4, 5, 12; Rev. 12.17; Rev. 19.10). As far as God’s own words are concerned, God had never pronounced that human beings are depraved, too depraved to choose right after the fall. The fact is, right after the fall, He removed depravity and made man once more morally capable, perfectly capable to be perfect and steadfast. Why were Enoch, Daniel, Job, Zacharias & Elisabeth more successful than Adam and Eve when those saints were born after the fall, with the inherited tendencies to evil with them? And why were Adam and Eve who were created perfect and holy fell into sin despite the strength of their moral powers? This clearly illustrates the efficiency of God’s strength given to man making the case of those who excuse themselves by using sin as nature a hopeless excuse. Finding nowhere in Scripture a statement from God Himself that man is totally depraved after sin, the whole concept of universal sinfulness or total depravity must be dismissed as mere speculation and assumption.

With divine nature always imparted, and the Holy Spirit striving unless deliberately resisted, there can be no more reason to commit sin except by one’s wilful choice. What’s the reason why the rich Aquino clan stole ignobly from the Marcoses’ legally-gotten wealth? What’s the reason why the affluent Roxas filch from Yolanda funds? The reason is not poverty nor any economic deprivation because these families are not in material want. The only reason is their wicked choice fanned by “the man of sin” the Papal church. For which but this church provides their level of moral discipline? Therefore whatever moral decisions they make cannot rise no higher than the moral level of the system they adhered unto. If they look to Jesus as Example, they would have far better moral powers. Alas, they have only their pope and filthy clergymen as spiritual guides, and their definition of honesty and justice have been thoroughly polluted by their church’s definitions, and not them alone, but the Roman-catholic politicians. The Roman-catholic bad morality produces politicians of bad morals, and politicians with bad morals will make a country with bad morals. The root is traceable to Romancatholicism.

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II. Dynamics of human Abnormalities (from the perspective of Romans 1 -for the Gentiles, and Romans 2 for the Jews; and from the whole Scriptures) We have identified from the previous chapter that sin abnormality (depravity) is a choice, and not nature. The gradual process of abnormality (depraved inclinations) happened as the result of series of wrong choices or even a single sinful choice, until it becomes nature. The ramifications of that choice are seen in physical abnormalities such as birth defects, bad temperaments, and undesirable traits. But the root is the choice. People having depraved hereditary traits are guilty only when they allow those characteristic become their ruling principle, viz., if they choose to become as their nature is, and choose to indulge their evil hereditary tendencies. Therefore the levelling truth for all humanity whether Jews or gentiles is the choice, not nature.

And just as depravity is a choice, so being a Jew is also a choice. In Rom. 2.28, 29, the apostle Paul was emphatic that an authentic Jew is one who is spiritual or internal, not the physical lineage. John the Baptist also rebuked this Jewish conceit in Lk. 3.8 and Mtt. 3.9, a thought echoed by the Messiah in Lk. 19.40. But the Lord Himself was more severe in His chastisement of this Hebraic hubris that it roused the people to fury and excited their national pride and worst prejudices against non-Jews to the extent of hurling Him on a cliff (Lk. 4.24-29). Jesus validates the faith of Naaman and the Shunnamite woman of Sarepta who were gentiles. 20 This proves that what matters in the eyes of the Lord when it comes to morality is not the nature, but the choice. Paul would not countenance Jewish pride because it is the internal qualities that validate what a real Jew is. Nature does not possess morality; it is the choice. Therefore, just as natural-born Jew has no value except if internal moral worth is evident, so being a gentile do not place a person at a disadvantage if his/her heart is truly Jewish. 21 Any gentile who worships God and observes the Sabbath is acceptable to Yahweh (Isa. 56.2-8) because “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mk. 2.27), and not just for the Jews, just as the Creator is for all humankind, and not just for Israel (Rom. 3.29-31; Ex. 31.17; Ex. 20.11; Rev. 14.7; Mk.2.27).

In short, we are Jews by choice, not by nature, because the natural descent does not matter in God’s eyes.

Similarly, we are depraved by choice and sinners by choice, not by nature, because the natural sphere was 20

Further, Jesus commends, accepts, and recognized the faith of non-Jews: the Samaritans (Lk. 10.33, 34; Lk. 17.16-18; Jn. 4.8-42), a Canaanite woman (Mtt. 15.21-28), the Roman centurion (Mtt. 8.5-13), the Greeks (Jn. 12.20-33). Peter had Cornelius (Acts 10). And finally Paul’s extensive ministry among gentiles. These stories strengthens the argument that it is not the natural birth condition that commends a person to God as the Jews were, nor it is the depravity of the gentiles that places them at the disadvantage for now knowing the blessed light of God’s Torah graciously revealed at Sinai. Rather, it’s the choice for the right, the loyalty for the God of Israel no matter the race, the condition of life, and the inherited traits such the unclean gentile flesh. If one is in Christ, the uncleanness does not matter anymore, what matters is the life of Christ is revealed in that person whether he/she is a Jew or gentile. Therefore to be a real Jew, the Seed, which is Christ, must be manifested in the life of that disciple. One must have the same mind of the Messiah, and the same faith, “the faith of Jesus”. And one must be righteous entirely and without spot or blemish. It does not matter whether a person is a natural Jew or a depraved gentile. What matters is the choice to be a Jew, and the choice not to remain in depravity.

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A person who is Jewish at heart is one who worships the God who made the heavens and the earth in six literal days, and who rested on the Sabbath day. Such a person, although he/she may not have known all the details of the Torah, yet has those same Laws, same moral Standard written in his/her heart being faithful and not unfaithful, being righteous and not unrighteous.

He/she behaves like a Jew even if he is not circumcised. His/her definition of sin is attuned to the Law, and is not in disharmony to it. His/her conscience is active within the heart arguing itself (Rom. 2.14, 15). And being prompt to act on that conviction (Lk. 8.21; Mtt. 7.24-25), not being a forgetful hearer (James 1.22-25), he/she perfectly does exactly just what the law requires. Such a person and those who are like that are “doers of the word” who alone will be justified (Rom. 2.13).

Christianity is not “believe only”, but believe and do. (Lk. 10.28, 37). Jesus with the Renewed Testament writers stressed much on the doing, and He and the apostles disdain impractical hearers who are not doers as we can read in Lk. 6.46-49; Lk. 8.21; Mk. 3.35; Jn. 8.39-47; Mtt. 7.21, 24-27; Mtt. 23.3; Titus 1.16; Lk. 10.28, 37; Jn. 13.15, 17; Jn. 15.2, 14, 16; Eph. 2.10; Titus 3.8, 14; 1Tim. 6.17, 18; Heb. 10.24; 1Tim. 2.9, 10; 2Tim. 3.17; Titus 2.7, 14; Mtt. 5.16; 1Pet. 2.12; Rev. 2.5; Lk. 3.8, 9; Lk. 19.8; Lk. 13.6-9 (Deut. 20.20); Rom. 11.19-22; and James 2.18-26. “The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results” –James Dean (American actor, 1931-1955).

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already there, it decays, and it does not matter if the body dies. What matters if the moral power of the individual who overcomes his/her natural evil tendencies. It is the soil-made, decaying human being, but with a heavenly character that matters, -the life that is nothing but all light and love, despite the old age, physical deformities, and unfavourable occupation. Looking back at Gen. 3.15, there is no any excuse to commit sin because the supposed depravity brought about by sin was interrupted, and interrupted forever. What matters now is not the depraved nature nor the natural Jewish descent, but the choice, which is internal and moral, just as depravity is a choice, and being Jewish is a choice. The physical pride and confidence do not count in God’s estimation. It is the resolute and steadfast struggle for good, and not the complacent trust in natural descent nor in a resignation to predestination due to total depravity theory. 22 It is the doing that is important. The doers of the law shall be justified, whether one is a Jew or Gentile; because there are Jews who are disobedient, and there are gentile converts who were more scrupulously obedient and conscientious than the Jews who turned out worst in morals.

This portion of Paul’s writings gives us the picture of the dynamics of human abnormality (sin) in both Jews and gentiles. No one is exempt of this sinful nature. All, Jews and gentiles, are alike affected by this perversity of flesh, including Christ Himself (Rom. 8.3; Heb. 5.7-8; Heb. 12.1-4; 1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24). And because sin is a choice, and NOT nature, we ought to choose not to sin, just as the Messiah while He was still on earth.

The Holy Spirit was given so that it will be in us a power for good to dominate and overcome sin even while we have this sinful flesh, just as the Messiah did when He had the same sinful flesh like we all ordinarily have.23 As Scripture had said, “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1Jn. 4.4). All are 22

What I mean in the last clause is something related to the first clause of that statement. Whereas the conceited Jews during the Messiah’s day trusts in their natural lineage to Abraham, claiming that such a close relationship entitles them to the “elect” status of salvation, Calvinists succumbed to fate (predestination), fully resigned to God’s will whether they are consigned to hell for their utter depravity or redeemed to heaven despite of that depravity and while remaining in that depravity. And those who assume that they are saved would to anything without compunctions, confident that no amount of badness or rottenness on their part can forfeit their salvation because they are being predestined to be saved. This flesh-based confidence among Jews and the resigned attitude to predestination by the Calvinists are two extremes rebuked by Christ and Paul throughout the Scriptures. This complacency to both extremes reduces a human being into something inanimate and less than an animal. It degrades us and denies the power in Gen. 3.15. In the issue of predetermined salvation or predestination, the texts in Lk. 13.69; Deut. 20.20; and Rom. 11.19-22 shows that God was in a state of indefinite expectancy of who will bear fruit, whether the tree will bear fruit or not. He leaves the choice on the part of the tree, or the human agent, and no sentiment is ever mentioned whether the farmer knew the outcome. Although in Mtt. 7.13, 14 seems to presuppose that God knew how many would be in the strait gate and on the broad way, it never preclude the striving part of man which must act: “strive to enter”, said Jesus.

God is not willing that any should perish (2Pet. 3.9; Ezek. 33.11). Calvinists asserts the contrary. Using Rom. 8.28-30, they would not admit that no matter how God tries to pursue His goal in predestining us to be saved, justified, and glorified, the chosen, the called out ones slip out of the way, and become crooked and base. They do not remain in the faith and got lost and become wicked. And that by their choice. The wedding banquet was prepared and ready, but the invited guests never come.

God called in the undesirables by His mysterious grace, but still there is one who has no wedding garment and this by his choice. Therefore when it comes to salvation, there is no such thing as natural descent or resignation to predestination. We are accountable of our own choices. God will not choose for us. And when we will be saved at last, still we do not get the credit (Lk. 17.7-10), we have just done our duty. And the duty is that we ought to be saved because God had done all He could so that we all should be saved, and that we are not of our own for we are bought with a price. Yet many refuse. They spurned, “scorned” and neglected “so great as salvation” (Heb. 2.3; Heb.12.16; Mtt. 22.5). And that by their own choice.

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The idea held by the Evangelicals that Jesus was born exempt from inherited human depravity is biblically untenable and wrong. On the contrary, the Renewed Testament writers when describing the human nature Christ had taken, they consistently used the word SARX for flesh, the Greek word which means “the corrupt flesh touched by sin”. When referring to Christ’s human nature, they never used PNEUMATIKOS or the spiritual nature. The word used was always SARX throughout the Renewed Testament. For example, “and the word (Logos) was made flesh (SARX)” in Jn. 1.14; See also Rom.8.3, 4; 1Jn.4.3.In Phil. 2.6-8 and Heb.2.16-18. All words used were always and consistently “SARX” –the sinful flesh like what we possess. And why so? The mind of the Spirit as expressed in the Renewed Testament writers would like to emphasize without any doubt that Christ was indeed not just human like us, but that His flesh was as degraded as our flesh and even below our degradation, suffering our physical and internal moral depravity, and yet in that sinless mindset, He chose not to sin. We can clearly see that Jesus went lower in the scale of existence, that He being God in the highest essence, humbled Himself so much

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to the extent that He never took the nature of the angels, “but He took on him the seed [SPERMA] of Abraham”, thus showing us His concrete human substance as the same sinful as we ordinarily were, and was never exempt from the sinfulness of our race. He inherited and absorbed without any exception all our human sinful disposition in His humanity. And in such a humanity, His nature is as fallen as ours. In fact, He took so low a position, lower than all of us. He died as the guilty criminal, so far, as the worst of all wicked criminals as He was placed at the centre of the three of them. God made Christ to be “sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Cor. 5.21; Isa. 53.6-11). Otherwise, if His humanity was exempt and unfallen, His flesh is an imaginary flesh, or something like an imitation or a phantom kind. He would not have felt death, hunger, pain, and physical fatigue like the perfect Adam before the fall. And if there was no sin in His human nature, He could not die. If He could not sin, there was no sense of saying He overcome. And in that exempt human nature, He has some advantages over us. And in that way, He is lying to us when He became human being but not truly one like us in our depraved sinful condition in the flesh. On the contrary Christ was naturally born with original depravity (interrupted depravity), but He did not condone, participate, or choose the sinful attitude, preferences, and propensities in that sinful SARX, but rather “condemned sin in the SARX” (Rom. 8.3). He felt selfishness and the undertow of sin as we can see in His prayer “Let this cup pass from Me” (Mtt.26.39, 42), yet He would not condone selfishness in that SARX but forced that rebellious SARX to render such perfect obedience to the will of God by adding “not My will but Yours be done.” Jesus struggled with sin too, just as we all do, to the point of agony so as to shed drops of blood in the struggle against sin (Heb. 12.3, 4; Heb. 5. 7, 8). An angel even appeared to strengthen Him (Lk. 22.43). He needed God’s grace and strength, too, like us. And without heaven’s strengthening, He would have died in utter gloom. All elements of darkness was arrayed against Him in order to as far as possible force Him to sin in the weakness of that fallen nature. But He would rather die than commit sin, just like the Hebrews in Dan. 2.13-18, and Joseph in Gen. 6.20, and the saints of all ages. In contrast to our Example, the writer of Hebrews observes that “In the struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb. 12.4).

That’s why we are exhorted to be followers of Christ and do what He does as our Example, and overcome as He exactly did, and to be like God perfectly in character, mind, and attitude even while in this sinful side of existence (Phil. 2.14, 15; 2Pet.3.14; Rev.3.21; 1Pet.4.1, 2; 1Pet.2.21-24; 1Jn.2.3-6; Rev.14.4; Eph.5.1-18; Matt.5.48; Eph.5.1; Deut.18.13; Gen. 17.1; 1Kgs.8.61; Mic.6.8; Jer.22.15, 16; Lk. 6.36). This is not salvation by faith plus works or works-righteousness as some suppose. This struggle is the most important element on the part of the saint himself/herself, or else God cannot trust him/her with eternal life being untrustworthy in the warfare against sin. Note: Those texts were not given for our overcoming when we will be in heaven, but here below, here and now, in our struggle with sin. There will be no more overcoming when Christ comes. We are exhorted be perfect now and to overcome every sin while we still breathe. Any character defect, any spot or blemish on our part forfeits us of everlasting life. We ought to overcome every sinful inclination successfully in this testing ground, in this sinful existence. And by God’s grace we can, we can perfectly and overwhelmingly defeat sin and Satan through Him who made us more than conquerors. But it is us who must conquer and overcome, through the strength of Christ (Gen. 4.7; 1Tim. 6.12; Eph. 6.11, 12; Lk. 10.17-20; 1Pet.5.8; James 4.7; Gen.3.15; Rom.8.36-39; Phil.4.13; 2Cor.12.9; Rev. 3.21). God will not do the persevering for us. He is testing us here below whether or not we can be trusted with eternal life (Lk. 16.10-12).

So what specifically made Christ sinless and “without sin”? It was His choice, not His nature, because His human nature had been as sinful and fallen like ours being born with evil, natural predispositions like his imperfect progenitors. But He was not guilty of sin because He did not consent to its desires. Guilt is when one is enticed to sin (James 1.13-15) and sin is “the transgression of the law”/ lawlessness (1Jn. 3.4). If a person loves righteousness and hates sin, then the law is not transgressed.

But if one’s ruling principle is ANOMIA (lawless), it means he/she hates the law, and loves sin. And that itself is sin because sin is an attitude which is the result of choice. It is true that Jesus was “separate from sinners” (Heb. 7.26), but Joseph was also the same (Gen. 49.26). Jesus was “undefiled” (Heb. 7.26), but so were the 144,000 saints in the climax of the world’s history (Rev. 14.4, 12). Our Lord was called “holy” (Heb.7.26), but so were the men of God who wrote the Scriptures (1Pet.1.21).

Christ was born “holy” (Lk. 1.35), but that did not make Him instantly righteous. He had to choose like us. He had to “refuse evil and choose the good” (Isa. 7.15, 16), and “learn obedience” (Heb. 5.8), like what we do, and those who believe Him as the Author of salvation “obey Him” (Heb. 5.9). The word “holy” used in Lk. 1.35 was the same in 1Pet. 1.21 about the holy men of the past. The perfect righteousness of Christ was the result of His choices even from the womb, just as John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even from the womb. Further, to exempt Christ by arguing that He was born different because He was born holy is to deny the fact that Isaac was also born similarly, and like Samuel from the barren Hannah (1Sam chapters 1 & 2), Samson by Manoah’s wife (Judges 13), the Shunammite woman (2Kgs. 4.8-17), and Sarah (Gen. 18.1-15).

That is, they are born holy since birth inasmuch as God operates through human impossibility and not through the physical impulses of husband and a wife, or if it is through their impulses, God himself authored the existence of their offspring because they cannot produce a child in their own efforts. So what’s the difference? The fact is, while it is true that the Holy Spirit was responsible for His conception in a virgin, it was also the same with the barren women of the Bible whose womb were good as dead. It is God who now operates through human impossibility. Attaining righteousness is just the same as that. It took faith – a belief in the impossible. We cannot be righteous in our own strength. It takes a belief in the impossible (Lk. 18.26, 27), a belief

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that God will make us righteous. We allow Him to make us righteous in His own way, not our own way. Just as Abraham believed in Yahweh and that belief of his was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15.6). God made great promises to Abraham, including land and descendants. Looking at it, one can sense only human impossibility. But the Lord’s promise also includes righteousness for only one who has righteousness can possess that vast land of infinite magnitude, therefore Abraham must also get that righteousness from God. Seeing he cannot own so great a land, and produce a child, Abraham cannot do anything except to believe in the impossible. And that’s righteousness. But he must constantly believe. And while in that state, God will perform His covenant to Abraham including His righteousness, so long as he will walk and remain perfect before God (Gen. 17.1).

Another fact is that Jesus took the “SPERMATOS” of Abraham (Heb.2.16), not the SPERMATOS of Adam before the fall, nor of the sinless SPERMATOS of Adam, but “OF ABRAHAM.” He was in the same genetic make-up like us, having a nature totally and perfectly identical to our own fallen sinful nature. Some suppose that His human nature had a greater advantage over ours because His was an unfallen nature (which is totally unbiblical, unexegetical, illogical, and mere novelty, that view about fantastic exemption from sin is unrealistic, and UNFAIR). “But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.” (White, Ellen G., The Desire of Ages, (1898), 49. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da4.html) Jesus Himself identifies with our not-good nature when He said “no one is good, except One that is God” (Mk. 10.18; Lk. 18.19). “Christ took upon himself human nature, a nature inferior to his heavenly nature. Nothing so shows the wonderful condescension of God as this. He “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” John presents this wonderful subject with such simplicity that all may grasp the ideas set forth, and be enlightened. Christ did not make believe take human nature; he did verily take it. He did in reality possess human nature. “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” He was the son of Mary; he was of the seed of David according to human descent….That God should thus be manifest in the flesh is indeed a mystery; and without the help of the Holy Spirit we cannot hope to comprehend this subject...By his obedience to all the commandments of God, Christ wrought out a redemption for man. This was not done by going out of himself to another, but by taking humanity into himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature that men might be one with him as he is one with the Father, that God may love man as he loves his only begotten Son, that men may be partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in him.” (White, Review and Herald, The Word Made Flesh, April 5, 1906, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1906&month=April&day=5 &m=1. “Had he not been fully human, Christ could not have been our substitute. He could not have worked out in humanity that perfection of character which it is the privilege of all to reach. He was the light and the life of the world. He came to this earth to work in behalf of men that they might no longer be under the control of Satanic agencies. But while bearing our human nature, He was dependent upon the Omnipotent for His life. In His humanity, He laid hold of the divinity of God; and this every member of the human family has the privilege of doing. Christ did nothing that human nature may not do if it partakes of the divine nature” (White, Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897, par. 8, quoted in Magdadaro, 35). Some suppose that Jesus’ nature was unique. This is confusion because we are not talking about Jesus as a person who is a God-man, but the human Jesus who is like us in all and every respect, and who is our Example. 1) His being a combined God-man nature is something we cannot be because He was from heaven who came down and became man. We cannot be like that because we are earthborn. What we concerned for is not His divine-human combination, but His full humanity which is as sinful as anybody else, and yet He chose not to fulfil those sinful desires inherent within any man. He resist sin in the flesh. 2) What is relevant to us about His divinity is that He is the Son of God and never ceases to be God, but He left the strength of that divinity on heaven, and fully assumed the weakness and sinfulness of human nature, and absorbed all our sins in His body, executing it on the cross, and not yielding to it. In that weakness, He said “I can of Myself do nothing” (Jn. 5.30-39; 6.38). It takes a heavenly angel to strengthen Him (Lk. 22.43). Of Himself Christ, like any of us, do not possess any moral strength apart from the strength of God. He had to live by faith and depend in the strength of God just like any other struggling saints throughout all ages. He Himself had to be a partaker of divine nature by living in faith. 3) If Jesus was God-man, having both divine and sinful human nature, He is fully the same like us in that respect, because by assuming our sinful nature it exchanges for us His divine nature so that we are fully called God’s sons and daughters. Everyone who believes in Jesus is given legal rights by God Himself as His sons and daughters in the fullest and highest sense, so that if Jesus is the Son of God, eternal, sinless, divine, powerful, omnipotent, Lord of life and death, we who are His sons and daughters who believe on Him and live His life are also eternal, sinless, divine, powerful, omnipotent, and are ourselves Lords of life and death. There is nothing Christ have that we cannot have, and He had no advantage over us, but that we are also in all respects the same like Him as offspring are fully and perfectly the same like their Father. Jesus can raise the dead, calm the sea, cast out demons. Those who are His sons and daughters do exactly the same, and even in greater scope (Jn. 14.12), even in the sinful flesh. And they will not die. If they physically die, they actually only fell asleep, only to rise again, and to shine forth as sun in the kingdom of their Father (Mtt.

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13.43). Everyone who believes in Jesus is privileged to be partakers of the divine nature here and now, in this sinful flesh. But how few take advantage of this reality. They cling to their favourite idea that man is totally depraved, and must remain so until the coming of Christ; and that sin is a natural condition, which cannot be avoided so long as we live in the sinful flesh. They forgot how Christ did with the same sinful flesh. Instead of excusing it, He executed it on the cross, never yielding to it even in a single thought. We are expected to do exactly the same in this lifetime (1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Heb. 12.1-4; Rev.3.21; 2Cor. 5.14-21). The requirement of perfect obedience had never changed even after the entrance of sin.

Finally the Spirit that denies that the Son of God is come in the SARX is of the “Antichristos” (=Christ-substitute, Christ-vicar or Christ-opposite) – 1Jn. 4.3. (The Greek word “Anti” means “substitute”, “in replacement to”, and “opposite”, “against”. The Latin equivalent of “ANTI” is “VICAR” (substitute). THEREFORE, THE WORD “ANTICHRISTOS” IS LITERALLY TRANSLATED IN LATIN AS VICARIUS CHRISTI “THE VICAR OF CHRIST”. But today you cannot find “antichrist” from our modern translations. Instead, we see “enemy of Christ” because Rome was aware about the implications of the original Greek word that it shatters their very institution of the Papacy which they call “the vicar of Christ.” It is not a wonder that the Roman church had their (1)Immaculate Conception, making Mary sinless, and the Evangelicals their teaching and emphasis about the (2) sinless human nature of Christ. Both of these are from the spirit of the “Antichristos.” It denies that Jesus took the SARX = the corrupt flesh touched by sin. E. J. Waggoner observed: “The doctrine of the immaculate conception is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born sinless. Why? – Ostensibly to magnify Jesus; really the work of the devil to put a wide gulf between Jesus as the Saviour of men, and the men whom He came to save, so that the one could not pass over to the other. That is all. We need to settle every one of us, whether we are out of the church of Rome or not… Do you not see that the idea that the flesh of Jesus was not like ours (because we know ours is sinful) necessarily involves of the virgin Mary?... Mary being born sinless, then, of course, her mother had sinless flesh. But you cannot stop there. You must go back to her mother and her parents, and so go back until you come back to Adam; and the result? Adam never sinned, and thus you see, by that tracing of it, we find the essential identity of Roman Catholicism and spiritualism and all other false doctrines… The words of the Bible concerning Christ…’Christ suffered in the flesh for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God’ [1Pet. 3.18]. How many thing that the suffering of Christ was only for the few moments that He hung upon the cross? …’Christ also hath once suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.’ –what flesh?.... He was tempted in the flesh, He suffered in the flesh, but He had a mind which never consented to sin,‘Let [therefore] this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ Arm yourselves with the same mind, the mind of God, and let that mind have control over the body, and you will experience in yourselves that mystery, the power that Jesus Christ has over all flesh… He established the will of God in the flesh, established the fact that God’s will may be done in any human sinful flesh” (E. J. Waggoner, General Conference Bulletin, 1901 p., 405, quoted in Magdadaro, p. 39; also in public domain: http://centrowhite.org.br/files/ebooks/apl/all/Jones/The%20immaculate%20Conception%20of%20the%20Blessed%20Virgin% 20Mary.pdf.) (emphasis mine). If we view Jesus’ human nature or human flesh as perfect and sinless, the effect is, we simply admire Him as our Saviour, but that admiration will only lead to discouragement and self-contempt knowing that in our sinful flesh we cannot be like Him because He was not the same like us, despite the fact that Scripture explicitly says that He was born “in the likeness [NOT UNLIKENESS] of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8.3). This view nullifies our God-enabled attempts to overcome sin as He overcame it “in the days of His SARX” (Rev.3.21; 1Pet.4.1; Rom.8.3; Heb.5.7-8) and to daily follow Him as our Example (1Pet.2.21-24; Lk.9.23). That is what Satan wants to hide from us, the glorious fact that we can overcome even in this sinful lifetime. Satan has no problem with our theology that exalts Jesus as the mighty Saviour, perfect, and incomparable, but he trembles at the idea that we can overcome as Christ did in His human flesh, and do what He did in the real combat against sin. This is why “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the SARX is not of God: this is the Spirit of the antichrist”, it denies that the Son of God has come in the SARX” and “condemned sin in the SARX” (1Jn.4.3; Rom. 8.3). Both the Roman church’s and the Evangelicals’ view, when it comes to this particular teaching concerning the exemption of the Messiah from our race’s depravity and sinfulness is from the Spirit of the Antichristos, the Papal church which had its well defined dogma for that matter called “Immaculate Conception.” They say one thing: Christ’s humanity is not like our humanity. He was exempt from original sin and depravity by nature. They want to view Christ as Saviour, but not as perfect Example to be perfectly followed by His followers in this sinful side of existence. The result of this teaching (Immaculate Conception and the Evangelicals’ view that Christ was exempt from original sin, -sin as nature) is the most common language we hear: “I’m human; nobody’s perfect. Only Mary and Christ. We are not and cannot be like them because they are made not like us. We are wholly depraved and remain depraved and sinning till we die. We cannot be perfect as Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, and we cannot overcome as what He encouraged in Revelation 3:21. Those were idle words.

Furthermore, we cannot live sinlessly like Enoch, Job, Daniel, Joseph, Moses, King Asa, King Josiah, and be blameless walking “in ALL the Commandments of the Lord” like Zacharias and Elisabeth (Lk. 1.6) and 100% obedient like Noah and the Israelites (Gen. 6.22; Ex. 39.42, 43).” Such is the lame excuse of the law-breakers who had not God’s Laws written in their hearts; they keep on sinning and loves darkness rather than light and righteousness. But in reality, the intent of their heart is “I will not be perfect because I cannot be perfect. I will not perfectly obey the Law because I cannot perfectly obey the Law. I

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will not perfectly overcome because I cannot perfectly overcome. I will not be 100% righteous and holy because I cannot be 100% righteous and holy, because I can’t, and the Lord made me this way –imperfect and cannot be perfect.” But a truly righteous individual does not intentionally and habitually sin (1Jn. 2.29; 1Jn.3.6, 7, 9).However, our theologians would have none of it, and keeps on preaching mediocrity and imperfection, as if imperfection is desirable, and lawlessness is good. The righteousness by faith is taken to mean as unrighteousness by faith. The faith which works by love was interpreted as a faith that works by disobeying God’s Laws, because the love of God means obedience to the Law (1Jn. 5.2, 3). Faith is taken to mean that imperfection of character and imperfect obedience to the Law is okay so long as one believes in Jesus. Therefore we have this mediocre attitude as if imperfection of character is all right, as if it is okay if we obey God’s Law 99% or obey it imperfectly. But the good news is, the one who truly appreciate what God in Christ did at the cross will lead him/her to perfectly obey all the Laws of God, because Christ came down from heaven to die for us, and realizing that love and allowing that love to sink into our heart, the Laws of God is being written in the heart by faithfulness / steadfastness, so that a person loves God and hates sin. He/she will not dare to sin again but will struggle against it. He will love perfection, and not imperfection, lawfulness and not lawlessness. Mediocrity is incompatible and irreconcilable to Christianity as darkness is to light. We shall know the doctrine by its results, and the results of such beliefs are not good, but evil. It tends to pull the heart downward, and not heavenward. The root of this lawlessness and worldwide immorality comes from the Antichrist system of that “man of sin/lawlessness” in 2Thess. 2.3-12 who dared attempt to change God’s Times and Laws (Daniel 7.25), and exalts itself above God (2Thess.2.3-4; Dan. 8.25; Dan. 11.36). And yet the Evangelicals adopt many of the doctrines, practices, and traditions of the Papacy such as the view that Christ’s human nature was sinless, Sunday observance, Predestination/Eternal election, soul immortality (But God alone is immortal [1Tim.6.16]; the soul that sins shall die [Ezek.

18.4,20; Gen. 2.17, 18]; our immortality is conditional when Christ comes [Gen.3.22-24; Jn.5.28.29; 1Cor.15-51-58]), eternal torment (Sinners will be burned only for a duration of time (but NOT eternal as what most versions wrongly translated. The Greek word "Aionos" does not only mean "eternal" or "forever", but also "ages,", “age-long, "duration", “eternity” (NOT eternal per se, but depending on the context), and "generation." Aionos is not confined to "eternal" as what translators would have us think into Rev. 20.10 and other passages that fits their favourite idea of eternal torment. It also means, "eternity" or a "duration of time"). The unclean wicked will be consumed [Isa. 66.17] and reduced to ashes [Mal.4.1-3] until “they shall be as though they have not been” [Obad.1.16]. Affliction will “not rise up the second time” [Nah. 1.9]. In God’s new heavens and new earth, “the former things was passed away” no more “crying” [Rev. 21.1-4; Isa. 65.17]. So what’s the sense of an eternally burning hell when those things in Rev. 20.12-15 are “passed away” in Rev. 21.1-4? Further, the words “Olethros” – destruction with finality and “Apollumi” – perish, kill (in Jn.3.16; Jn.10.10) is in contrast to "everlasting life” in John 3:15. Are the Roman-catholics and Evangelicals saying that the contrast to everlasting life is also everlasting life in torment? That’s crazy and logically incoherent. The opposite of life is not separation from God’s presence but cessation, complete death, and not life.

Although the wicked will be tormented day and night, in the end they will be wiped out entirely from existence and completely annihilated. Man returns to dust (Gen. 3.19); the wicked will be reduced to ashes leaving no root and branch (Mal. 4.1-3), Satan the root, his followers the branch. This will be how God ends the problem of sin, in order to recreate a new order of things. God destroys no one. It is the sinners who destroyed themselves by their own wickedness, in that they will not endure the light of God’s presence and the eternal life where only righteousness dwells. They would rather seek death. And this God facilitates. Sin and wickedness has definite beginning, and has its ultimate termination. The only thing that will not be burned is our spotlessness and blamelessness because in heaven only righteousness can dwell (2Pet. 3.10-14; See Mtt.5.8; Heb.12.14).

“The just shall live by his faithfulness/steadfastness” (Habakkuk 2:4; Heb. 10.38, 39; Rom. 1.17). Therefore only the spotless and blameless will be able to stand the test and will be received into everlasting habitations. If we are identified with our impurities, or we cling to our cherished sins and unovercome traits, fire from God must consume us too. Now is the time we have to separate sin from us, and overcome through the grace He has abundantly given. Those who received the Son of God are in consequence legally pronounced as God’s children, too. If so, they must be partakers of His divine nature (2Pet. 1.3-11). In Gen. 3.15, the evil of sin was assured that it will finally be defeated and totally annihilated inasmuch as a serpent with a bruised head is good as nothing but dead and impotent. The opposite of eternal life in Jn. 3.16 is “perish” (Apollumi), and to perish is NOT to live eternally but to die and be totally annihilated. The Evangelicals’ belief in eternal torment only confuses the understanding of how Jesus died. When He died at the cross, did He died the second eternal death of the sinners or did He still live and burn in hell as substitute for the sinners in their future punishment? If the former view is true, then only Christ had died the actual death of the sinners, and no one must be there except He alone. We all ought to be saved; we need not go into that direction. But if the second view is true, that His death is not death but an eternal torment, then He must until now remain in torments, and eternally be in torment until now. There will be no end for that torment because that is what He is supposed to die for, if we take the second view as correct. Then the sinners who will be punished at last will also be in the same condition as that of Christ. But alas, Christ died only for three days and three nights! He rise from the grave free from the sting of death.

So is the sinners’ punishment much greater than the torments Christ endured at the cross, granting that the second view is correct? The doctrine of Eternal torment falls to the ground if we view the death Christ died at the cross as real death, termination of life. Moreover, the Evangelicals’ belief in eternal torment results to a wrong motivation for salvation = receive grace and assume that you are saved, in order to escape the hell that burns with everlasting fire! Their reason for salvation is

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depraved (interruptedly depraved), but not all are sharers of the guilt, except if one chooses sin. Sin is a choice. We are not guilty for something we have never done. In Adam we all die, and death [not sin, not guilt] passed to all (Rom.5.12-14; 1Cor. 15.22). The phrase “all have sinned” is a rough generalization if taken at face value. And if that is true, this text contradicts 1Pet.2.22 that Christ “did no sin,” and also Job. 1.1.8; Jn. 1.47; Rev. 14.5; Lk. 1.5, 6.

In Romans 1:20-32 we can see how gentiles behave. They are self-conceited, licentious, lawless, and full of hate, facts that we can see in clients who are not renewed by the grace of Christ. The contrast of these two attitudes is found in Galatians 5:19-26. But the Jews (not all) are equally disobedient, because even if they are aware of that law and are blessed with God’s revelation to humanity, they did not cherish it, or lived in its principles, but turned away from it and are worse than the gentiles whom they abhor. Now what matters is really the choice, not the natural decent. Righteousness is not dependent by natural righteousness or depraved flesh, but by choice alone. God grants that freedom since the start, and although interrupted by sin, God interrupts sin in Gen. 3.15 making us free to choose once again.

IMPORTANCE OF GOD’S LAW –The Standpoint for Identifying Abnormalities.

Before reading this section, please review my footnote number 4 in the first chapter. The dynamics of human abnormality and the process of its degradation cannot be understood if there is now Law or ideal norm. God has a Law which is His very life, essence, principle, and the foundation of His personality and authority. At creation everything was in the ideal setting. Even at the creation of heavenly hosts. All was perfect. The nature was in complete harmony with the Creator’s righteousness and Law. The mystery of sin was brought about by the cherishing of evil thoughts and the intending of wrong imaginations. It was the intent of the mind, the purposing of the imaginations leading it to wrong directions that made Lucifer and Adam and Eve to fall. They transgressed the Law from their minds. They cherished and entertained evil thoughts and dwelt in it, and desired it. Sin begun in unlawfully coveting something, and in irreverent curiosity. It is not nature but a choice, -the wrong purposing and intending of an idea that floats in the mind, and the refusal to dismiss it, but to dwell in those forbidden imaginings. But before all the angels and created beings, was God’s righteousness and sinhating character. They need no written Laws because in their hearts they knew it. With the existence of humanity, written laws were irrelevant because there was no any lapse of memory or imperfect intelligence and cognizance. The Written Laws of God came in later, and in comprehensive form at Sinai. That Law is God’s gift for humanity to restrain us from evil desires and the results of sin. It is a protection. But it should be written in the heart by steadfastness / faithfulness. No one can keep it unless one is made a Law-keeper in the heart. And no one can perform holy acts without being first made holy. No one can keep any of God’s Laws unless one is liberated from the slavery of sin. Therefore, being set free from sin in Christ, the Israelites can keep the Ten Commandments, conscious of the fact that they are liberated from the slavery of Egypt. What happened in their redemption gives them power to obey the Commandments. “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery [if you realize this great love] You will have no other gods before Me.. you will Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.. etc.” Therefore the pivot for keeping God’s egocentric fear, and not AGAPE which is eternal. And because there is no AGAPE response in that kind of outlook, the kind righteousness produced is presumption, assumption, limited, finite, and legalistic. There is no heart-constraint, a feeling of concern towards Christ their husband, as the bride must feel for her bridegroom, by making herself ready. Everything is selfish receiving of salvific benefits, and egocentric concern to avoid hell and gain heaven. This fear factor from the silly belief of eternal torment as a wrong motive in our service to God. Such unbiblical fear about unbiblical eternal torments draws upon it the ridicule of decent society and philosophers who think that Christians are stupid. Fear, and not AGAPE is the motive, and that’s selfish, producing egocentric Christians. Perfect love banishes fear and gives us boldness on the day of judgement (1Jn. 4.17-18). That’s the evidence that God’s AGAPE is in us. Those who fear shows that they don’t have this AGAPE in them (1Jn. 4.18). There is no response of AGAPE towards God in such a fearful heart. A true Christian loves God because He first loves us. Indeed, he responds with equal eternal AGAPE towards God that will cause God’s heart to rejoice with the satisfaction He expects from the creatures to whom He exerted so much efforts of straining love and sacrifice (1Jn. 4.19; 2Cor. 5.14; Jn. 6. 56-581 Pet. 2.24; Lk. 15; Isa. 53.11).

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commandments is the realization of what He did for us. And such a fact will mysteriously transform the heart, causing it to hate sin and love righteousness and perfection, that is, to be in perfect harmony to God’s Law. Without the Law, there will be no moral compass, no distinction between good and evil, no criterion for pronouncing what is normal and what is abnormal. “To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.” 24 God’s written Laws at Sinai (footnote 4) is perfect, complete, and far more superior to any human laws. Here we can see that God had created everything perfect in six literal days, and rested on the Sabbath day. The diet was originally vegan.

There was no need to kill animals and take away their lives in order to eat. The marriage was monogamous.

The occupation was the most ideal –farming. God’s Laws were written in every sphere of His creation, and everything is in perfect harmony and delight. Under the reign of sin, everything was distorted, Sabbath was forgotten and pagans and atheists multiplied, until Sun-worship was dominated among the heathen. Man killed animals and ate blood. Marriage was polygamous. Occupation was less agricultural and urban prestige was pursued. God’s Laws in nature was not discerned, and health laws were violated along with other natural laws, sickness and premature death flooded everywhere. Righteousness by faith became unrighteousness by licence.

Yet God wants to be recognized as the Creator and in the fallen and sad condition of man invites him to call His holy Sabbath day a day of delight (Isa. 58. 3, 14) and invited the gentiles also to keep the Sabbath (Isa. 56.2-8). He gave manna to wean them from flesh-eating (Num. 11) –but the Israelites rebelled. Daniel was such an example of health reform (Daniel 1.8-16). God endeavour to restore marital condition through His various Laws in Leviticus, Mal. 2.13-16, Ezra 9, 10, and in several writings of the prophets. Farming and health was forgotten. Righteousness by faithfulness was replaced by unrighteousness by legal performance, pledge, creeds, human traditions, ecclesiastical enactments and legislative sanctions. A kingdom is dependent on force, and the obedience is legal, not by love. Everything in humanity is distorted. The ideal was unnoticed.

Pride of prestige covered natural simplicity. Scholastic learning stultified the mind so that freedom of thought is a target of persecution by teachers and professors who are tyrants when it comes to learning. And so what we see are certifications, licences, creeds, accreditations, paper works even if the persons are incompetent and cannot perfectly substantiate the claims in papers. Everything is legal and an empty show of excellence, even if the real spirit and real ability is absence. Righteousness is defined in papers and church manuals. Sectarian and denominational spirit abound resulting to numerous sects and churches. God’s infinite righteousness which encompasses all races and ages is not discerned. Human inventions are limited in their sphere, and so is their righteousness and man-made Laws. It will be destroyed at last because they are not built on God’s eternal ideals.

There are pastors, preachers and theologians who hate the idea that God’s Ten Commandments are still binding today. They break the law and influence others to do the same (Mtt. 5.19), and yet they claim that they are living a holy life in Christ. “A profession of holiness, while the law of Heaven is derided and transgressed, shows that a false standard of righteousness has taken the place of the holy precepts of God. Many who profess so great attainments in the Christian life, grow impatient and angry when the claims of God are presented, and they refuse to hear the word of truth. Says the word of God, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”[Prov. 28.9].25 "It is time for Thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void Thy law." (Ps. 119.126)

24

White, Education, p., 100. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=Ed&lang=en&pagenumber=100.

25 White, Signs of the Times, April 13, 1888. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/820.8768#8776

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(DIAGRAM 2.1) THE DYNAMICS OF CORRECT RIGHTEOUSNESS (LAWKEEPING), -THE OPPOSITE TO THE DYNAMICS OF SIN (LAWBREAKING)

“The righteous will live by his steadfastness” Said Yahweh (Habakkuk 2.4) GOD: Predestination (Creator and Redeemer) NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH Rev. 13.8; 2Tim. 1.9; Eph. 1.4, 5, 11; Eph. 2.10

DIVINE REQUIREMENT (during CREATION): PERFECT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. HOW? BY “STEADFASTNESS” or PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS because the creatures appreciate, treasure, and love YHWH as their Creator and Ruler.

CREATION I am your Creator.

YHWH is Redeemer in case creatures will fall into sin.

I AM THE WAY OUT. NO ONE NEEDS BE LOST

I created you to live happily and increase.

But you will die if you disobey (Gen. 2.16, 17), and live if you obey.

RESULT: True lawkeeping is always realizing that YHWH is our creator.

Creatures obey His Commandments because they realize that He is their Creator and Ruler. A failure to appreciate His Creatorship will result to legalism (forced obedience), or wrong obedience Obeying His Commandments when He Commands is by choice.

BEFORE CREATION

DURING CREATION

Nature is not the issue because it poses no problems as yet.

THE HUMAN NATURE IS SINLESS, YET SINLESS CREATURES MUST CHOOSE RIGHT, AND NOT EVIL, EVEN IF THEIR NATURE IS SINLESS HOW COULD A SINLESS NATURE CHOOSE SIN? THERE IS NO REASON TO DO SO EXCEPT TO CHOOSE TO FORCE ONE’S SELF AGAINST NATURE. “THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY”

DIVINE REQUIREMENT (during ABRAHAM AND AT SINAI): PERFECT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. HOW? BY “STEADFASTNESS” PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS because the creatures appreciate, treasure, and love YHWH as their Creator and Liberator from physical and spiritual bondage.

DIVINE REQUIREMENT (during AFTER the FALL): PERFECT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. HOW? BY “STEADFASTNESS” or PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS because the creatures appreciate, treasure, and love YHWH as their Redeemer from lawbreaking.

GEN. 3.15 Predestination materializes GEN. 3.1-14 SIN INTERCEPTED

No one should be lost DURING THE FALL

God gave overwhelming solutions including Gen. 4.7 I am your Enabler “you can dominate sin, and you must!”

RESULT: True lawkeeping is always realizing His promise to extricate us from sin and evil, and once fallen creatures realizes this, they obey the Commandmen ts because they appreciate, treasure, keep what YHWH had done in liberating them from sin.

Without this realization, no true obedience will happen; the lawkeeping is forced, legal, and not obedience at all.

I am YHWH Almighty, your God, your Shield and Rewarder (Gen.12.1,2, ; 13.14-17; 15.1; 17.1, 2,; 18.13,14), your Creator (Ex. 20.11; Ezek. 20.20) and Liberator (Ex. 20.2; 31.12-17; Deut. 5.1215)

AT SINAI

WITH ABRAHAM

RESULT: True lawkeeping is when one is always realizing the significance of God as his/her Creator and Liberator.

Appreciating this makes it easier to obey than disobey. A failure to realize, appreciate, or treasure that fact will lead to disobedience , forced obedience (legalism), which is no obedience at all

DIVINE REQUIREMENT (from JESUS’ DEATH to our time): PERFECT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. HOW? BY “STEADFASTNESS” or PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS because the creatures appreciate, treasure, and love YHWH as their Saviour. They now hate the sins that murdered Him.

I am YHWH your God, your Creator who died for your sins, and in the Messiah reconciles you to Myself (2Cor. 5.19) . I bear your curses, sins, and death (Isa. 53; Gal. 3.13).

You need not sin or die If you are faithful (rev. 2.10).

“The Son makes you free” (Jn. 8.36) “Sin no more” (Jn. 8.11; Jn. 5.14) “Repent, or else you will perish” (Mtt. 3.2; Mk. 1.15; Lk. 13.1-9) “Why will you die, O Israel?”

(Ezek.

33.11; Ezek.

18.31-32)

RESULT: True lawkeeping is when one is always realizing the significance that our sins had murdered Jesus our Creator and Saviour FROM SIN (Not in sin).

We do not want to murder Him again by living in sin (Heb. 6.6-8) .Appreciating this makes it easier to obey than disobey, and to live because of the Messiah (Jn. 6.56-58; 1Pet. 2.24; Jn. 14.15,21; 1Jn. 5.2,3; 1Jn. 2.3; Rom. 6.1, 2; 2Cor. 5.14-21). A failure to realize, appreciate, or treasure that fact will lead to disobedience, forced obedience (legalism), which is no obedience at all

AT THE CROSS (THE RENEWED TESTAMENT ERA, -TO OUR TIME) THE HUMAN NATURE IS NOW SINFUL. BUT GOD MAKES US PARTAKERS OF HIS DIVINE NATURE RIGHT THERE WHERE SIN OCCURRED. THE PARTAKING OF DIVINE NATURE IS BY CHOICE. MANY DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE LED BY THE PROMPTINGS OF THE SPIRIT. BUT MANY ARE ALSO “DOERS OF THE LAW” EVEN IF THEY WERE BY NATURE “SINNERS OF THE GENTILES” (ROM. 2.13-15; GAL. 2.15-16). ONE MUST STILL CHOOSE RIGHT, AND NOT EVIL, EVEN IF THE NATURE IS SINFUL. THERE IS NOW NO EXCUSE BECAUSE DIVINE NATURE IS FREELY OFFERED TO ALL HUMANKIND. ADAM, ENOCH, JOB, ABRAHAM, JOSEPH, MOSES, ELIJAH, DANIEL, AND JESUS, Page AND 30 ALLof THE 174 STEADFAST SAINTS OF ALL AGES WERE PARTAKERS OF THAT NATURE EVEN IF THEY ARE IN THE SINFUL FLESH. BUT HOW COULD A SINFUL NATURE CHOOSE RIGHTEOUSNESS? THERE IS NO REASON TO DO SO EXCEPT TO CHOOSE TO FORCE ONE’S SELF AGAINST NATURE AND OVERCOME NATURE; ”THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS” IS TO REVEAL GOD IN THE SINFUL FLESH (1TIM. 3.16)

Explanation of the Arrows that point to the Result: If there is no permanent obedience, it is because the recipient of grace is not always realizing, cherishing, treasuring, appreciating what God did for him/her. God’s efforts for redemption were not valued every moment. One merely receives grace selfishly and does not care about the Giver what happened to Him, no concern for the sufferings of the Giver. This type of recipient is wicked and a chronic sinner who had no plans to repent or separate himself/herself from his/her sins, but keeps on living in it, and abuse the blood of Christ, thinking that it always spill on the cross for his/her sins, and saves him/her in sins. This is the attitude of the false Christians who do not know why they were Christians. They love to receive God’s love, but they do not want to give back love to God. They realized what happened at the cross, but they do not want to see the importance that such death must do something within their hearts: change their principles from bad to good, that is, from sinning (lawbreaking) to righteousness (permanent obeying of God’s Commandments, all Ten Commandment principles including the Command to keep the Sabbath day holy).

There was no any change of condition and requirement of God to His Commandments from Creation to Abraham, down to Sinai and the cross. It remains the same: Steadfast or permanent obedience to the Law no matter the circumstances. But one must first realize what God did, and the result of such realization is appreciation and gratitude that leads a steadfast love towards God and a concern for His sacrifices and labours for us. The death of Jesus does not replace our own part of obedience, in fact His death only enables and strengthens us to be more firm in our commitment to live for Him –to sin no more and remain a law-abiding Christian. His death only gives us the power we need to perfectly obey His law and overcome like Him, and do exactly what He did against sin: execute that sin in our sinful, rebellious flesh, and do God’s will despite the sinful flesh and undesirable circumstances, giving the devil no excuse to commit any single sin. This is the only perfection that God can accept. And the saints of all ages had done it perfectly, and died firm to the end, testifying that sin can be overcome, and that it is easy to overcome sin when you hate it the way God hates it.

How? By allowing Him to write His Laws in our hearts. This is how obedience becomes permanent and perfect, just as the righteous had done before. Says Yahweh: “The righteous will live by his steadfastness” (Habakkuk. 2.4).

Predestination –Before the entrance of sin God had already a way prepared. The Father and His Son had covenanted that in case man will fall, the Son will be slain (Rev. 13.8). It is “the counsel between Them Both” (Zech. 6.13). God foresaw that sin will occur, not because He ordained it, but that He foresaw because it will happen. And therefore He had made ready His own provision that if this happens, as it really had, He will not let it triumph, but will do everything He can at the sacrifice of Himself so that no one should perish.

Overwhelming provision had been provided that those who fall into sin should be partakers of His divine nature, and overcome sin in the strength He always provided. But when God revealed Himself physically in the form of man, the full glory of the Godhead was displayed before the eyes of mortals in such an appearance that they can endure to see and live. That was a human Being who took the same sinful flesh like ours and has no any difference from us at all, yet in that humanity, revealed God. In other words, forces itself to do what is beyond what sinful flesh can do –perfectly obeying God’s will, thus revealed God even in the sinful flesh (1Tim. 3.16). What Jesus did, His saints and His followers ought to do likewise, or else they are not God’s sons and daughters. When Jesus lived among men, humanity saw the purpose of God that He wants to save not only the Jews but all the world including Gentiles (Eph. 3.1-13). He wants the gentiles to be sharers with the inheritance of the saints in light (Col. 1.9-12; Eph. 2.11-22). He does not want any should be lost, and is not willing that ANY should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Pet. 3.9). Notice this, that He came down at Sinai to make sure that the Israelites will become familiar with His very personality, (Ex. 25.8) and in that way become partakers of the divine nature. The heathen knows how this God physically revealed Himself, but that unlike their gods, Yahweh is a God of pity, that’s how they summarily view the essence of His character. Not content to remain far, He became flesh (SINFUL FLESH) and dwelt among us (Jn. 1.14). In Jesus we see the same strict sin-hating Yahweh of the Old Testament who does not tolerate any imperfection, and would punish sin in whatever its manifestations are (Mtt. 13.20, 42; Mtt. 7.21-23; Mtt. 5.29, 30; Mtt. 18.

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8-9; Lk. 13.1-5; Mtt. 25; Rev. 2.23) who demands us to be perfect, and be faithful in little things (Mtt. 5.48; Lk. 16.10-12; Mtt. 23.23; Mtt. 25.21-23), but His character had not changed. He is the same Yahweh who in the past was abundant in mercy, slow to anger, swift to pardon. “Neither do I condemn thee, Go and sin no more” (Jn. 8.11). “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezek. 18.31-32) “God “delighteth in mercy.” “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Micah 7:18; Ezekiel 33:11. To Him the work of destruction and the denunciation of judgment is a “strange work.” Isaiah 28:21.

But it is in mercy and love that He lifts the veil from the future, and reveals to men the results of a course of sin.”26 This is always and will always be the character of God, not willing that ANY should be lost.

Predestination helps us understand that even before we fell into sin, His thought for us are for our well-being, and not for our harm. This plan of redemption was revealed when the creatures fell into sin. Here we saw God in action. Never in history was He seen more active than when something of His created beings went wrong, never was He more concerned like a parent to a wayward child, like a Shepherd to a lost sheep, and like a lady to an inanimate coin. Yahweh came down to investigate what Adam and Eve did, and provided a hope right there. He talked with Noah (Gen. 6.13), appeared physically, personally to Abraham (Gen. 17.1), and in a grand manifestation revealed Himself to Moses (Ex. 33.18-23; Ex.34.1-8). He revealed Himself to the Israelites (Ex. 24.9-11), and as a gift gave them the Principles that governs the life of the universe, His perfect Laws for humanity for their protection and exaltation from sin. “God is constantly seeking to draw men close under His protection, that Satan may not practice his cruel, deceptive power upon them. He has condescended to speak to them with His own.” 27 Considering this fact about God’s action for His creatures, there is no room for us to believe that God from eternity divided some to be saved, and others to be lost. There is no arbitrary part on God Himself to intend such wicked devise as the Calvinists asserted. They use the term Predestination to give an interpretation which is not there. The predestination in the Bible is that He wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8.29). But there was nothing written there that He purposed some to be lost and not to be conformed to His Son’s images. All references for predestination is always for our salvation. The logic of Calvinism is something not found in Biblical passages. What makes them think that way is the thesis-antithesis thinking that because there are those God foreknow whom He also predestines, there must be some whom He also foreknew and predestined for destruction. Then they quote Isa. 45.7 and Prov. 16.4, and the hardening of Pharaoh without referring to the original words used in contexts, and in comparing with other passages so as to provide an understanding of His character on the whole context of Scriptures. Augustine’s determinism had influenced Calvin to conclude this way, and Augustine’s determinism had its original roots from Gnosticism. It is never safe to read the works of theologians who had some traces of unJewish way of thinking.

So here we are, instead of Predestination as doctrine that gives comfort and blessing, knowing the fact that God cares for us and provided an escape for us even before we fell into sin, it degenerates into a curse in the hands of the Calvinists giving us either despair and uncertainty, or presumption in remaining in sin. There lies a deep and intricate connection of errors in the Calvinists’ strand theology concerning Predestination. With it connects the errors of Completed Atonement at the Cross, Once saved always saved, Total Depravity, Sinless human nature of Christ, plus the doctrine about Immortality of soul and Eternal torment which are nothing else but additional confusion of how Christ died. We will see more of this later towards the end of this work.

26

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 582. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&pagenumber=582&m=1&paragraphRef erences=1.

27

White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 503, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=503.

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(DIAGRAM 2.2) YAHWEH-APPRECIATION PATTERNS IN HUMAN HISTORY: To choose to sin is “kicking against the pricks” (Acts 9.5; 26.14); “the way of transgressors is hard” (Prov. 13.15); “everyone who commits sin is a slave” (Jn. 8.34); “He who is wicked is caught in his own iniquities, held fast in the toils of his own sin, for want of discipline he will perish, wrapped in the shroud of his boundless folly” (Prov. 5.22); “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6.23).

God’s dying on the cross makes it easier for us to be righteous than to be sinners.

Cause: “You know who I Am (Creator, Master), And what I have done unto you (Saviour)” – Yahweh the Saviour (Jn. 12. 12, 13; Mtt. 1.21)

C R E A T I O N

RESULT (FOR THE RIGHTEOUS): GRACE LEADES TO COMPLETE OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW, PERMANENT APPRECIATION TO GOD’S AGAPE = STEADFAST/PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO ALL GOD’S COMMANDMENTS. If you realize who I am and what I did for you, you will be grateful, repentant, and loathe your sins and need not die. You will not dare disobey. You know how I have suffered for your disobedience, borne your grief (Isa. 53), carried you on eagle’s wings (ex. 19.4), and liberated you from sin and slavery (ex. 20.2). If you APPRECIATE Ex. 20.2, you will not want to N not kill, commit sin anymore, forever, for all time.. You will have no other gods before Me, you will E as your steal murder covet; you will remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy acknowledging Me W Creator and Redeemer, and will honour your father and your mother, now and throughout eternity.

Gen. 3.15

Gen. 4.7

A B R A H A M

M T. S I N A I

Death of Yahweh the Saviour

Salvation for gentiles (34 C.E Acts. 13.46) From Yahweh’s time to our time.

C R E A T I O N

RESULT (FOR THE WICKED): WRONG TREATMENT OF GRACE LEADS TO DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW. THEY ACTULLAY REJECT HIS GRACE BY TREATING IT WITH ABUSE. THEY DO NOT TREASURE THE FACT THAT GOD IS THEIR CREATOR, REDEEMER, AND SANCTIFIER. THEY CHOOSE NOT TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR THINKING (ROM. 1.28). THEREFORE THEIR OBEDIENCE IS FLEETING, IMPERMANENT, TEMPORARY. THEY FALL INTO SIN AGAIN AND AGAIN, WITHOUT STEADFASTNESS OR FIRM MORAL PRINCIPLE BECAUSE THEY DO NOT LIVE

BY CONSTANT FAITHFULNESS BEING ALWAYS APPRECIATIVE OF WHAT GOD DID FOR THEM. THEY ARE UNSTEADY, AND GOD CANNOT ENTRUST THEM WITH ETERNAL RICHES (LK.16.1012). THEIR CHARACTERS DOES NOT PLEASE GOD. THEY MADE THEMSELVES FIT FOR Page 33 ofPERISH, 174 DESTRUCTION AND EXTINCTION. AND YET GOD IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD EVEN IF THEY CHOOSE TO PERISH BY THEIR OWN CHOICE.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH –Rest from Abnormalities, let God be God Once a person truly sees the unsearchable riches of Christ, having Jesus in his/her heart, one has everything – God’s Law and God’s very righteousness given free. Then one does not like to commit any sin. His/her desires are transformed. Everything in him/her is aligned to God’s eternal principles and ideal. Jesus reigns supreme within, and he or she has attained that blessed rest from human abnormalities. The 612 Laws listed in the Torah are automatically obeyed without murmur because one understood that the Torah is God’s ideal Law for humanity, the Law that needs no revision because it is “holy, just, and good,” “the perfect law of liberty” (Rom. 7.12; James 1.25; James 2.12). This person’s delight is not in sin or in transgression any longer, but in righteousness, that is, in perfect harmony and conformity to God’s Ten Commandments. Now what hinders us from keeping the Sabbath? “The fourth commandment reads: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."[Ex.20.8-11].28 Let every soul who reads this commandment 28

Keeping the Sabbath holy means no “any” work inside the house should be done by anyone in the house including strangers and non-believers who are inside our dwelling (Exodus 20:8-11); no any kind of cooking or food preparations on the Sabbath; all cooking whether baking and boiling should be done on the preparation day (Exodus 16:23); No roaming around (Exodus 16:29); the ox and ass, domestic helpers, and visitors are to observe rest on this day (Exodus 23:12,13); no harvesting, even if it is harvest season (Exodus 34: 21); no igniting of fire, therefore all electrical appliances should not be turned on during the Sabbath hours, traveling is igniting an engine, and should be avoided as well(Exodus 35:1-3); no selling or buying, no carrying loads or merchandising, no any business trade, or any secular transactions (Neh. 13: 15-22); desecrating it and doing evil is not allowed (Isa. 56:2); journey on Sabbath is prohibited, doing own ways, finding own pleasure and engaging in inappropriate talks is not allowed (Isa 58:13’ Mtt. 24.20); Calling Sabbath as a day of delight, “the holy of the LORD,” “honourable” is commendable (Isa 58:13); to do good such as healing the sick and worshiping not in buildings or spending the Sabbath outdoors is no unlawful (Mtt. 12.1-12; Lk. 13.10-16; Rom. 16.13). None of the Commandments of God in as stated in the Torah lost any of its binding force so long as humankind remain creatures, and Yahweh remains the Creator. Even in the New Testament and to our time, Sabbath Commandment ought to be kept as exactly as stated by God. No human being has any right to alter it, neither the Messiah, nor His apostles, neither Paul, nor any gentile theologian. The list of commands such as to call the Sabbath a delight, “holy to Yahweh”, to prepare all foods and do all the cooking on the day before the Sabbath, and not to ignite fire on the Sabbath; the command not to do any business transaction on the Sabbath, not to buy or sell, travel or harvest crops, are plain commandments that does not come from any human being, theologian, or prophet, but from God Himself. And it should be obeyed as explicitly instructed by both Jew and gentile alike, both to the spirit and to the very letter.

Why should keeping the Sabbath day holy, and resting on that day be called “works of Law” when in fact Sabbath means rest?

Sabbath is grace right at the start of Creation. It is the only Time-Law that makes known God as our Creator (Ex. 20.11; Ex.31.

12-17; Ezek. 20.20). And after sin Sabbath is the sign that He is our Creator (Ex. 20.11; Revelation 14.7; Ex.31.12-17; Ezek.

20.20), Redeemer (Deut. 5.15) and Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12). True keeping of the Sabbath means to rest from sin and unbelief as well as to stop working on that day (Heb. 4.3-11; Mk. 2.27), and such keeping can be done only when a person’s heart is in harmony with God, otherwise the keeping of the Sabbath degenerates into legal actions which are equally abhorrent in God’s eyes. Obedience should be from the heart. On the other hand, if we dismiss these tasks as legalism, are we prepared to accuse God by saying that He is a legalist or the Author of legalistic rules? Therefore the fault is not in the Sabbath Commandment and its specific stipulations. The fault lies in the disobedient who do not obey, and who wrongly interprets the Commandment.

The fault is with the legalists who keep the Law because they suppose that in doing it they will be legally just before God, even if they do not do it heartily. They obey the Law wrongly with a heavy heart. BUT TRUE OBEDIENCE IS NOT LEGALISM. When a person obeys the Law because it was natural for him as a realization of God’s love, such obedience IS NOT LEGALISM BUT TRUE AND CORRECT OBEDIENCE. On the other hand, it is not enough to profess that we love God from the heart while we contradict His written Commandments. Therefore, in the keeping of the Law, both the spirit and the letter should go together. We love God (spirit) and that love is the fulfilment of the Law if it agrees with what the letter of the Law says. To claim that one loves God, and yet worships idols, uses His name in vain, and not keeping the Sabbath day holy is a fake claim. How can one say that he or she loves God if one breaks any of His Commandments? “For this is love of God, the we keep His Commandments, and His Commandments are not grievous” (1Jn. 5.3) “If ye love me, keep My Commandments.” (Jn. 14.15) “He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (Jn. 14. 21) “If ye keep my Commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's Commandments, and abide in his love.” (Jn. 15.10). Note, Jesus and the Father has no different Commandments. Both have the same Law of love because Both share the

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understand that it is to be observed exactly as it is written. It is not to be misapplied or wrested from its true meaning.”29 Sunday observance is never aligned at all to God’s purpose of grace and His covenant of salvation, nor ever could be. This worship on Sunday, this replacing of the Biblical Sabbath into a fake sabbath is the one major Romish error by that “man of sin” 30 –the Papacy that had led the protestants in their same Godhead, authority, and principle. Both have the same Sabbath. The Father’s Sabbath is the seventh day Sabbath, and the Son is the Lord of that Sabbath being Creator one with the Father. Sunday is a Roman invention. It does not exist in the mind of the Godhead to alter any of His Sabbath Commandment. Therefore, those who profess that they know God the Creator ought to keep the Sabbath day holy exactly as Commanded. But keeping the Sabbath means more than resting on that day. It is resting from all sins. One cannot keep the Sabbath holy unless he is first made holy. No one can keep the Law unless one had the realization that Yahweh is our Creator and Redeemer. Realizing that He is and what He did for us, keeping His law becomes a delight, and its fulfilment is perfect and correct. This is righteousness by steadiness (faithfulness), the result when one realizes what God had done for him/her. Without this realization all lawkeeping is legalistic, false, and wrong 29

White, “Harmony with Apostate Powers A Sign of Enmity to God” Signs of the Times, July 11, 1894, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/820.12239.

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THE PAPAL INSTITUTION: 2Thess. 2.3-10. the “man of sin/lawlessness” which exalts itself above God is the Papacy.

This was repeatedly referred to in Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7.25; Daniel 8.23-25; Daniel 11.36. Starting from Babylon as the first empire mentioned in Daniel chapter 2, this prophetic vision was expounded in chapters 7 & 8. After Babylon came the Medo-Persian domination. Some scholars would refer to Medes as the second, and the third is the Persian, but this is not tenable because the Medes did not exist as separate sovereignty apart from Persia, and that they have only one law. And besides, the Medes was always mentioned with the connecting word “and”, and not without it. It was always “Medes and Persia.” Furthermore, a careful look at chapter 8 leads us to see just as it was written in the chapter itself about the empire of Greece. This logically brings us down to Rome and its religio-political rampage against Israel and against its Messiah in His heavenly priesthood. The interesting part of that empire is the religious part, in that it attempted to “think to change times and laws and afflicts the saints of the Most High” (Dan. 7.25). This scenery was repeated in Revelation chapters 12, 13, and 17.

The blasphemous “little horn” power cannot refer to Antiochus IV Epiphanes because he never stood up “against the Prince of princes,” Christ. His exploits was of a limited scope of place and time, and does not fit with the description about “time and times, and the dividing of time” (time is equivalent to a year = 360 days in Jewish reckoning, times are two years =720 days, the dividing of time = 180 days; totalling to 1260 days. As prophetic event a day is counted as year [Num. 14.34; Ezek. 4.5] (1260 days/ 42 months/ 3 ½ years =1260 years), the time frame this blasphemous power is to be at its height. It is not Antiochus IV Epiphanes as Josephus in his antiquities have asserted, because not all Jews’ interpretation for this is correct, and neither did the Evangelical Biblical scholars for that matter. This power, far from having happened in the past, before Christ came, is actually after it. This is proven by no less than two authentic Jews: 1) Jesus who in Mtt. 24.15, 16 and Lk. 21.20, 21 quoted Dan. 9.27; 11.31; 12.11 but with rather a progressive element in it, in that this blasphemous “abomination that makes desolate” extends to our time. During Christ’s time it was the first phase of the blasphemous Roman power. 2) Another Jew was Paul who reasoned three Sabbath days in Thessalonica about the Second coming of Christ, that this event will not take place unless there is the climax of display of human wickedness led by “the man of lawlessness” which in spirit had already existed during his day (2Thess. 2.7; see verses 2-10). There is a striking parallel between Paul’s expressions in 2Thess. 2:3, 4 and Daniel’s in Daniel 7.25; 8:11-13, 24-25, Dan. 11.36; with regards to its power, acts, attitude to God, spiritual usurpations, and annihilation by God Himself. This religio-political power is Rome, both in its pagan and papal state. But in the Renewed Testament what is important is the spiritual power of this system. Papal Rome is the continuation of imperial Rome as what Pope Leo the Great (440-461 C.E.) had claimed. When imperial Rome perished fifteen years afterwards, what survived as the Papacy who firmly held its place in Rome. The logic of history points to no other institution as the blasphemous antichrist than the Papal system of the Roman church. From 538 C.E. when Papacy was totally unhindered by barbaric invasion to 1798 C.E. when pope Pius VI was taken captive by France’s General Berthier, Papal Rome had reached its climax of 1260 years of moral darkness upon Christendom, altering God’s times and the Law, afflicting God’s saints in the name of religion, and stultifying scientific, economic, and political progress of Europe. But after its temporary demise in 1798, it was to rise again from its “mortal wound” that was healed (Rev. 13.3, 4). From 1929 when in the Lateran Treaty Benito Mussolini granted the Holy See independence, the Papacy once again enjoyed its dual sovereignty as head of both church and state. Today it gets the attention of both Roman-catholics and Protestants alike. (Actually, since the 1960s up to this time they invest in media by paying these industries to get publicity). The reality is that Protestants seems to be the ones who initiated the union with Rome, and the religious world of today seems geared towards that union called “Ecumenism” as if it is fine unite with the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth which murdered God’s saints in the past. But “it is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy” (Ellen G. White). Papal Rome had not changed. She was still the same old Papacy when the reformers had stood for the truth at the cost of their lives, and had sealed their testimony with their blood. If there ever was any change, it is not the Papacy, but the apostate Protestants, in that they love what the world loves, and the spirit of

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grace theory to invalidate the Ten Commandments altogether. Ignoring, forgetting, and invalidating the Sabbath Commandment removes us from His original intent for humanity, rest from the abnormalities of sin.

The reason why most of Christendom had become false churches is because they break this Sabbath Commandment by a mistaken and unexegetical interpretation of some apostles’ activities and writings in Acts 20.7; Col. 2.16, 17; 1Cor.16.2; Rev. 1.10. Having broken that Law, it gives them the disposition to ignore, invalidate, and make no effect the rest of the Commandments causing lawlessness, perversion of morals, and more abnormalities and sickness in our race. “God longs to breathe into prostrate humanity the breath of life.”31 He wants to uplift our low level of morality to the same perfect character which was in Him, and which was originally in man before the fall. And now Jesus came down in order to ransom us from sin and degradation so that even in this sinful lifetime it would be possible for us to have the heavenly character. He came to implant since Gen.3.15 that divine nature that struggles against sin. He redeemed humanity, again and again, "that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments."

Psalms 78:7. But what do most pastors say? “The Ten Commandments was abolished at the cross. We are now under grace, and not of the law.” These religious leaders do not realize the wickedness of their teachings in misleading and influencing their members to become more evil. That do not see and refuse to see that grace is power, and it empowers Christians to obey the law and that grace is the means that the laws should be heartwritten, and not abolished. It is the sin that is abolished, and not the law. The message of Christ in Rev.2.9 is very important. “Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. Its members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan's work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil.

Christ would have a church that labors to separate the evil from the good, whose members will not willingly tolerate wrong-doing, but will expel it from the heart and life.” 32 primitive godliness seems vanished from their churches. They become as dead and formal like their invented creeds, and compromising in their beliefs through ecumenism with the Roman-catholic church. On the other hand, the ability of this Papal church is astonishing. It adapts to its environment like a chameleon. It can support any politician’s agenda while at the same time be against it. It can be pro- separation of church and state as President Duterte had affirmed, but at the same time they can go against it. The Papal Rome does not listen to the laws of the land of any government except that those laws turn in her favour. She only listens to herself. It is her perpetual claim until today that she should be “the ultimate arbiter of what is morally good and morally bad in human actions.” (Malachi Martin, The Keys of This Blood [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990], 157).Through Jesuitism, the Papacy controls much of every sector of human affairs, Protestant churches are not exempt. A pastor inside a church may appear to be sincere and dedicated, but few would suspect that that wolf is working under that sinister society of Ignatius Loyola to uproot Protestantism, and to revive the spirit of Popery throughout the world.

This is the reason why Jesuits exist.

31

White, “Hope for the Heathen,” The Review and Herald, June 24, 1915, public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&collection=2&section=all&QUER Y=faith&resultId=4153&year=1915&month=June&day=24&m=1.

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White, The Review and Herald, Dec. 4, 1900, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1900&month=December&d ay=4. “"Satan has a large confederacy, his church. Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan because the members are the children of sin. The members of Satan's church have been constantly working to cast off the divine law, and confuse the distinction between good and evil. Satan is working with great power in and through the children of disobedience, to exalt treason and apostasy as truth and loyalty. And at this time the power of his satanic inspiration is moving the living agencies to carry out the great rebellion against God that commenced in heaven.” (White, General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 27, 1893 par. 7). Our Lord was emphatic about this attitude as we can read in Mtt.5.19 “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Religious leaders in Christendom who teach and influence others that the law is now abolished are not to be trusted, for these are blind guides and are agents of Satan. Most of these are professors of theology in many theological seminaries. They do not see and refuse to see that God is jealous of His Law, and under no dispensation was this Law changed or abolished. It stands forever, and it ought to be kept, and it had been kept by the faithful of all ages. These false teachers will receive greater punishment in misleading their church members. But the members themselves who refuse knowledge are not excusable. It is not safe to trust in pastors, bishops, priest, or professors of theology when it comes to spiritual matters. We look unto Jesus alone, and to search the Scriptures for ourselves and in our

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The Sabbath (REST) and the Ideal Food In this dynamics of sin abnormality we view Jews and gentiles as both distorted (interrupted distortion) 33 and unclean before God due to the same sin-abnormality that affects all races. It is helpful to find the psychicprocess that results to this kind of degradation: The perfect creation moving to distortion, both in Jews and Gentiles alike. We see the divine ideal to human inventions, a religion of grace from Eden to a religion of works initiated by law-breakers,34 the perfect morality where created beings obeyed the Creator to imperfect, own eyes to learn our duty to God and humanity. Creeds are never a safe guide. Most churches are misled by their own creeds.

“But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority--not one nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept, we should demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord" in its support.” (White, The Great Controversy (1911) 595) public domain.

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Interrupted at Genesis 3:15, this distortion is good as no distortion at all. From that time one, one is as fully accountable for his own act of sinning as what Genesis 4:7 says, as though we do not have fallen sinful nature at all. Man’s power to choose good is not fallen at all in the light of these two texts. Because of Genesis 3.15 we are powerful again to slay the serpent in the strength God had freely given.

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It should be noted, however, that even under Sinai, the ceremonial system initiated by God was still a religion by grace. He Himself initiated the ceremonial laws in order for the disobedient to look in faith upon the lamb of sacrifice which prefigured the One who alone can take away their sins. God had never taught a religion based on human works and human confidence, and that was never His intention, and ought not to be. He came down with terror at Sinai to ratify what disobedient people promised in their self-assured words in Ex.19.8, “All that Yahweh had spoken we will do”, without adding the words, “by His grace” or “in His strength”. And so God was to write the Laws on tablets of stones to knock their self-righteousness down, and overwhelm them with their own unholiness, to the end that the same laws should be written in the tablets of their hearts by faithfulness/steadfastness, as “the righteous will live by his steadfastness/faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2.4; Rom. 1.17; Heb.10.38, 39). It should not give us an impression that that ministry under Moses was invalid during that time because it was God who initiated that salvation by grace. Both Jews and gentiles can be saved during the Old Testament by no other means except through Christ’s grace alone by means of the ceremonial ministry. It was Christ Himself who spoke to Moses and instituted those ordinances so that Israel will understand what grace is, and understanding it, they will become appreciative of His love and obedient to all His Laws, the laws of love. “As they departed from God, the Jews in a great degree lost sight of the teaching of the ritual service. That service had been instituted by Christ Himself. In every part it was a symbol of Him; and it had been full of vitality and spiritual beauty. But the Jews lost the spiritual life from their ceremonies, and clung to the dead forms. They trusted to the sacrifices and ordinances themselves, instead of resting upon Him to whom they pointed. In order to supply the place of that which they had lost, the priests and rabbis multiplied requirements of their own; and the more rigid they grew, the less of the love of God was manifested. They measured their holiness by the multitude of their ceremonies, while their hearts were filled with pride and hypocrisy. With all their minute and burdensome injunctions, it was an impossibility to keep the law.

Those who desired to serve God, and who tried to observe the rabbinical precepts, toiled under a heavy burden. They could find no rest from the accusings of a troubled conscience. Thus Satan worked to discourage the people, to lower their conception of the character of God, and to bring the faith of Israel into contempt. He hoped to establish the claim put forth when he rebelled in heaven,--that the requirements of God were unjust, and could not be obeyed. Even Israel, he declared, did not keep the law.” (White, Ellen G., The Desire of Ages, 29, Public domain: http://www.thedesireofages.com/The_Desire_of_Ages_text/DA.pdf) The question is, Why Christ should die died? Because the Law was not kept by those who sinned. But those who had kept it cannot actually die. When a Hebrew kills the lamb victim, the animal before him speaks as though saying, “I die because instead of you who should be killed, it’s me.” But this kind of ceremonies of sacrifice and the punishing of an animal victim is not needed if one is obedient. The faithful in the Renewed Covenant were obedient saints, and therefore cannot die. Jesus said, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (Jn. 11.26). The word “believeth” is literally translated “is faithing” –the constant act of always believing, and never stop believing in the impossible in the context of what God can do with our human impossibility at righteousness. In Greek, it is PISTOS “faithfulness” – the human element, the human response to God’s grace. This human response which is God-enabled is steady, steadfast, and not unsteady or unfaithful. Therefore one who lives faithful in Christ cannot actually die but is eternal.

When he/she dies, he/she is actually sleeping in the grave, totally unconscious (Eccl. 9.5). It is the body, the depraved body that ceased to exist (that body was destroyed), but to the believer, he is just asleep in Jesus. The unsteady or unsteadfast who cannot be trusted in this life with the tests that God gave him/her cannot be trusted in heaven, either. God will not excuse us for sinning even if we have this depraved bodies, remember, man’s morality has that power for good, the power given to him/her from Christ right at sin’s depravation. God interrupted the depravity in Gen.3.15 so that there is no longer such thing as

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law-breaking morality where created beings made gods out of themselves and reject the Sabbath commandment of the Creator to honour a day of their own making, Sunday, a fake sabbath of man. God blessed the Sabbath day, and human beings resting on that day are in the state of blessedness. Sabbath means “Rest”, that’s the intent of the Creator for us. But we invented our own Sabbaths; therefore we have from Sabbath to Sunday, from Rest to unrest. The righteousness of God to the unrighteousness of man; righteousness by grace through faithfulness into unrighteousness by works through unfaithfulness.

Connecting Romans to Genesis we see the human race originally as originally vegan as God intended them to be. He commanded Adam and Eve to be vegans (Gen.1.29), and so there was no sickness and disease; then as flesh was permitted due to the death of most of vegetation, God Himself selected the animal foods specifically what to be eaten and what not to be eaten. 35 But originally humans are vegans; they ingest no animal foods or products. But sin entered and interrupted. There is still God’s display of wondrous grace in His provision for man’s food. He did not allow them to eat just any animal food, but in His grace, He selects what is clean for them to eat, or else they would have eaten poisonous animals and die on the spot. Therefore even in our food, God showed care and concern. And that is grace we do not deserve. As Creator He knows what is best. Human efforts cannot match the rest that God would have us rest.36 depravity of morals, but that every one of us are fully accountable of his/her own choice just like Adam and Eve were before their fall.

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In Genesis 7.2,3 there is the distinction by God what is clean and unclean animals. Thus the law of this distinction did not begun in Lev. 11.1-47; Deut. 14.1-21, Acts 10.11-15; Lev.10.10, just as the prohibition of animal oil and blood were prohibited in Lev. 7.22-26 (also in Gen.9.4). God’s Ten Commandments as expressed in Sinai is but a summary of the law that had existed in His being and as what our first parents had known. Unclean animals, although not explicitly listed in Gen. 7.2,3 is nevertheless unclean as expressed in Lev. 11, and Deut. 14. The race before the flood does not depend on written materials for knowledge. They transmit their godly learning and knowledge to their succeeding generations with such accuracy unimpaired, compared to the race after the flood where humankind has shorter lifespan, decreased in intellect and in physical vitality, and depend on books and writings to recall something. “The antediluvians were without books, they had no written records; but with their great physical and mental vigour, they had strong memories, able to grasp and to retain that which was communicated to them, and in turn to transmit it unimpaired to their posterity. And for hundreds of years there were seven generations living upon the earth contemporaneously, having the opportunity of consulting together and profiting each by the knowledge and experience of all.” (White, Ellen G., The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets, (1890), 83. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp6.html.

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Some would react against these dietary restrictions using as their antithesis the texts, 1Tim. 4.1-3; Acts 10.15; Ti. 1.14; Rom. 14.14; 1Cor. 10.25-26. They argue that everything God had created is good and must be enjoyed, and therefore all can now be eaten because grace freed us from the protective restrictions of God’s Law. But God was specific about His Laws of love so we can enjoy our existence. And those were not legalistic dietary laws but authoritative commandments to be obeyed for our own well-being. Are these all-eaters prepared to argue before God and accuse Him of creating legalistic rules? His distinction between clean and unclean was for our own good, and not for our degradation or ruin. In His love and concern, He did not intend that unclean animals are to be used for our food. He did not say “they are unclean unto Me” but “they are unclean unto you.” The rationale is, “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth...This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten” (Lev. 11.44, 46-47). This law lost none of its validity and is imperative on those who possess the Scriptures, and who profess the faith of Israel, Jews or gentile converts alike. In the end He must annihilate those who ate unclean foods (Isa. 66.17). Christians who don’t like the dietary laws of God are biased. They select only the uncleanness of animals and do not care about other uncleanness laws. They also claimed that the Renewed Testament explicitly do away with those laws. But this is flatly wrong. Several reasons show that the dietary laws are valid until today, and must be obeyed by all Christians. 1) The reason for the unclean and clean distinction is that God calls us to be holy (Lev. 11.45; 1Pet. 1.15, 16).

Uncleanness in animals is in a different category. 2) The unclean animals’ uncleanness is permanent, hereditary, and non-cultic (Gen. 7.2, 3; Lev. 11.1-47; Lev. 20.25, 26; Deut. 14.3-21), whereas the uncleanness of those in other categories are acquired, ceremonial, transient, and not universal (Lev. 5.1-13; Lev. 11.24-40; Lev. 12.1-8; Lev. 13.1-46 Lev. 15.1-33; Lev. 16.26-26 among others ritual uncleanness laws. 3) The dirtiness of unclean animals is not communicable. They do not transfer uncleanness. None of these animals belong to the six causes of transmissible uncleanness such as skin diseases, mildew, sexual discharges, carcasses, corpses. 4) If a person touches an unclean animal, he/she cannot be excluded from social or cultic

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The setting after the flood was no longer ideal. Flesh foods were never ideal for the human race; it fits the sinful condition of man whose existence was reduced from eternity into 120 years lifespan (Gen.6.3), down to 70 years (Ps.90.10). According the Book of Enoch, a book quoted in Jude 14, the ulcerous giants before the flood were taught by fallen angels to eat flesh and blood, and to cook food.37 This is also attested by Ellen G. activities, like going to the sanctuary or worshiping there. 5) This law was not related to the sanctuary services, no penalty was enjoined for violating it, and it is among the sins that could not be atoned for. 6) There was no law that reverse its uncleanness, meaning, it is incurable unclean. Unlike the sanctuary services that points to the Messiah that it’s ritualistic prescriptions will have to be stopped at the Messiah’s death (Dan. 9.27; Eph. 2.15; Col. 2.16; Heb. 9.9-10); the law about unclean and clean has nothing to do with Jesus’ sacrifice that it needs to be abolished .(Before sin, there was no need of offering sacrifices, no distinction of clean or unclean animals, and no animals need to die because eating of flesh foods is unknown inasmuch is killing any life is not allowed. But after sin, everything had changed. Lambs were sacrificed or any clean animal, and there was that distinction of clean and unclean. If the cultic law is a shadow and must cease at Christ’s death, then both the clean and unclean animals as food and non-food should no longer be a consideration. A believer must get back to that sinless diet where no killing is necessary, i.e., the vegan diet which is God’s original intent for humanity) 7) The dietary Laws of God predates Moses’ time, and the services of the Sanctuary, and older than other laws about uncleanness. 8) Of all uncleanness laws, only the dietary Commandments are obligatory even to aliens or non-Israelites (Heb. ger) because the law on hunting is obligatory on Hebrews and strangers (Lev. 17.13; Gen. 9.4; Lev. 7.17, 18) 9) Dietary laws, idolatry, and immoral behaviour are all called abomination (Heb. to’ebah) in Lev. 18.22; Deut. 7.25; Ezra 9.1. The same moral issues exist in the New Testament (Acts 15.20; Ezek. 33.25, 26). We cannot do away with dietary laws because Mosaic Laws form a whole structure. No one would say that idolatry, prostitution, homosexual activities are right. Certainly Jesus main emphasis on love is taken from Lev. 19.18. 10) The apostolic decree in Acts 15. 20, 29 are in exact sequence in Lev. 17-18 all obligatory on non-Hebrews (Lev. 17.8, 10, 12, 13, 15; Lev. 18.26. For example food offered to idols (Lev. 17.3-9); blood (Lev. 17.15, 16, sexual immorality (Lev. 18.1-30).

Notice this. In Lev. 17.10-14 those mentioned in Acts have the same content in this context, but unclean and clean food distinctions are understood in Lev. 17.13, about the animals “that may be lawfully eaten.” 11) In Acts 10.14 Peter supposed that associating clean with unclean animals makes it unfit for food, but this is rabbinic and not Biblical. The Voice told Peter to stop calling clean animals koinos –defiled by association with the unclean, hence he had to stop thinking himself unclean by mingling with gentiles (Acts 10.28; Acts 11:12). 12) The context in 1 Cor. 10.25-26 was about meat offered to idols, and yet those animals were sheep, oxen, goats, and calves; NOT pigs, snakes, rabbits, or rhino. Even the gentiles’ animal sacrifices were kosher animals from the standpoint of Jewish dietary law (God’s own dietary law for humankind), therefore the context in 1Cor. 10 has nothing to do about distinction between clean and unclean, but about conscience, whether it was defiled by eating animals offered to idols (although those animals were clean in Jewish Kosher lists of meats, and NOT unclean). 13) The exact words in Rom. 14.14 and 1Cor 8.10 says that no food is defiled (koinos). Note that Paul does not use the word AKATHARTOS (unclean). Context demands that association of food with idols does not make the food defiled because an idol is nothing. The issue here is not about clean and unclean flesh foods, but the defilement of idolatry on the food. Paul is not saying that the food offered to idols is not AKATHARTOS, but that it is not KOINOS (defiled). 14) Now 1Tim. 4.1-3 does not permit eating of unclean animals, but that it was a warning against those who taught that matter (here food) is evil, including sex. And yet there was nothing here that proves that distinction of clean and unclean was abolished, or that unclean animals are not permitted. Everything that God created is good, but those “which God created to be enjoyed” does not include unclean animals, for in such argument He would be contradicting Himself. How could He command His people to be holy when He allows them to ingest unclean articles for food? 15) Furthermore, using Mk. 7.19 and Lk. 10.8 some may argue that Jesus permitted the eating of unclean animals. But Mark chapter 7 is not about flesh foods but the eating of unwashed hands which the Jews had thought to bring defilement. Jesus explain that it does not because after the food was being eaten, it does not enter the heart but goes right to the stomach and out to the drain, cleansing all food. Mistranslations say “By saying this He declared all foods clean”, -a very far out statement and translation in the light of its context. In Greek, there were only two words which in English is simply literally translated “purging all meat” or “cleansing all food.” The cleansing refers to the digestion process which eradicates all defilement, and the end of the process is the latrine. This passage in Mk has nothing to do with kosher issue, because context does not warrant it, and the audience is Jewish. 16) Another Jesus’ statement misunderstood is Lk. 10.8 which does not permit eating of unclean animals because the context is not gentile, but Jewish. It is unthinkable to suppose that unclean animals are being served in that setting. The intent of the passage is that one eats and lives as the target mission field ate and live. But that mission territory was Jewish as evidenced by the contrasted heathen land, Sodom (v.12), Tyre and Sidon (v. 13, 14) as more favourable than that of God’s favoured cities “Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum” (vv. 13, 15) who were blessed with the presence and the going back and forth of the Messiah who lived walking along its streets.

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Dioxide, Carmen “Fallen Angels Taught Humans to Eat Meat & Cook Food! And thereby Greatly Reduced Our Lifespan” Click on http://www.metatech.org/wp/fallen-angels/fallen-angels-taught-humans-eat-meat-cook-food/

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White in her book, “The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets.” The list of perversions went from idolatry and polygamy, to destruction of human and animal life. 38 The book of Enoch was more graphic in that it shows how these giants ate fellow humans with blood in the flesh, until the earth is reddened with dead bodies of both animals and men, a revolting sight that provokes God’s righteous anger. This lust for blood is unnatural.

When we eat chickens and beef freely to satisfy our luxury in appetite, we are not thinking about the violence we did to animals who has also the right to live, and who are suffering for the abuse humans did to them. In vengeance, diseases from animals fasten upon our system. In this aspect of the less ideal there is quarrelling, perversion (Rom. 1.26-27), and God did not intercept man’s sinful choices. They are held accountable for their choosing. And just in the ignoring and rejecting God’s Sabbath, man ignores God’s rulership by abusing fellow creatures and killing them. The root is not letting God to be God. The result is forgetting the Sabbath and murdering and destroying the creation. Acknowledging the Sabbath and keeping it holy means we honour Him as our Creator, and so we obey all His laws as our Creator and act as stewards of this domain below.

Therefore Sabbath, ideal diet, and health are inseparable if we should have clear perceptions of God’s restorative intent for humanity. Reject the Sabbath commandment, murder animals for food, ignore health laws, and one has a distorted view of God. There is no coercion in God’s salvation. Under the Holy Spirit, all are left free to choose God or sin. Still man persists to sin. In Israel’s liberation, He sought to bring His people back to that divine Ideal. He spoke audibly the Ten Commandments and wrote them in the tablets of stone to the end that they should be written in the tablets of our hearts by faithfulness/ steadfastness. He said “Remember the Sabbath day” because if they forgot this time-law, they might also forgot the significance of Yahweh as the Creator of heavens and the earth, and the grace and rest they would experience in obeying His commandments. But that Sabbath Commandment is not only for the Jews, but for all humankind because the means of salvation for the Jews is also the same means of salvation for all humanity during that time, and no other. If in the Old Testament times, humankind is saved only by faith in the atoning sacrifice that results to true obedience by steadfastness / faithfulness to the God’s everlasting covenant of grace, both the pagans and non-Jews are saved in that way, and nothing else, just as in the Renewed Testament both Jews and gentiles are saved only by having the faith of Jesus, and nothing else. So both the grace and law that saved the Jews is the only elements that can save both Jews and gentiles alike. And Under the Renewed Testament, no alteration was made in that Law. It remains the same, with the same Sabbath Commandment as before. God gave the grace in the Old Testament because His law was broken, and that grace leads the one who realize the magnitude of God’s love to obey.

One’s heart is soften at what was done to the lamb victim or to Christ, and the love (Agape) he/she experience will awaken within him/her to love (Agape) God and humankind. “For the love of Christ constraineth us…that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2Cor. 5.14-15; Jn. 6.57, 58; Lk. 9.23; 1Jn. 4.19). The twofold law of God: love to God and love to man is obeyed easily, including the Sabbath commandment.

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“Polygamy had been early introduced, contrary to the divine arrangement at the beginning. The Lord gave to Adam one wife, showing His order in that respect. But after the Fall, men chose to follow their own sinful desires; and as the result, crime and wretchedness rapidly increased. Neither the marriage relation nor the rights of property were respected. Whoever coveted the wives or the possessions of his neighbour, took them by force, and men exulted in their deeds of violence. They delighted in destroying the life of animals; and the use of flesh for food rendered them still more cruel and bloodthirsty, until they came to regard human life with astonishing indifference.” (White, Ellen G., The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets [1890], pp. 91 92, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=91, https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=92) “The inhabitants of the Old World were intemperate in eating and drinking. They would have flesh meats, although God had given them no permission to eat animal food. They ate and drank to excess, and their depraved appetites knew no bounds. They gave themselves up to abominable idolatry. They became violent and ferocious, and so corrupt that God could bear with them no longer. Their cup of iniquity was full, and God cleansed the earth of its moral pollution by a flood. As men multiplied upon the face of the earth after the flood, they forgot God, and corrupted their ways before Him. Intemperance in every form increased to a great extent.” (White, Ellen G., Counsels on Diets and Foods, written [1856], compiled [1938], pp.373-374. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/384.3093)

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Sunday observance is not part of that grace paradigm. It’s a perversion by “the man of sin” –the Papacy, who exalts itself above God by altering His Creatorship as expressed in His Time-Laws (2Thess. 2.3-10; Dan. 7.25; Dan. 8.25; Dan. 11.36). The evolution is slow and insidious. First, make the Creator irrelevant and forget His true Sabbath day, then one becomes a pagan who does not know what to worship (Jn. 4.22; Acts 17.23; Ezek.

8.14-16; Ezek. 22.8, 26). Until in full-blown rebellion, the race of Ham under Nimrod, built a system of works as concretely shown in their idolatrous monument in Gen.11.1-4. Ancient Sun-worship, the confessional system, and heathen auguries sprang from that system. God the Creator is deliberately forgotten His Sabbath day forgotten, trampled underfoot. The world became pagan, including to some extent God’s people who needs constant reminders. God’s grace alone had to do this reminding. Therefore the command of God “Remember the Sabbath day” is imperative to all creation, a grace that holds in check the ongoing process of unrest and degradation of humankind to their own ruin. “The Sabbath was made for humankind” (Mk. 2.27, 28) and not just for Israel. This shows God’s grace for humans who easily forget. God is definite about this most important Time-Law, in fact, the longest Commandment in the Decalogue, and the only Law that is at the same time a Time. But it demands ethical response: God is God; the rest are created beings. Sunday observance is not righteousness by faith, but unrighteousness by works or the unrighteousness of human invention. In observing a wrong day for worship, God’s grace and omnipotence as the Creator is being eclipsed by the Papal power and the man-made logic and opinions. This is nothing but plain idolatry, a human abnormality, and not of God’s order.

The importance of the Sabbath is that in this holy day we come to realize that God is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Understanding this gives us rest from abnormalities because we are conscious of the fact that God the Creator is in control. God’s Law written in the heart which is an implantation of hatred against sin is a principle, an attitude against sin. Sin as a state of being is the resultant nature of the sin committed. By partaking of the divine nature in this lifetime (God’s Laws heart-written), we have the perfect antidote against sin, making a person hate sin with extreme loathing. The result for that partaking of the divine nature is that one can only do good and perfectly keep the Law. But an externally-written law, a law not-written in the heart can only result to imperfectly keeping the Law, and the person who has that attitude is a perpetual Lawbreaker. To him/her, the law is like a checklist of dos and don’t listen in the Ten Commandments: In short, he/she does not want it. He/she never appreciated the principle that runs throughout its words which is the twofold Love principle: Supreme love to God and impartial love to man. Such a person needs constant reminders and reproofs because God’s Laws were not written in his/her principles. And if he/she remains in that condition, God has no reason to trust that person because he/she is unfaithful, unsteadfast, and therefore disobedient and wicked. Before one can enter heaven, he/she should be fully reconciled to God, and being reconciled to God, he/she must be fully reconciled to His Law and righteousness and be holy and perfect even in this lifetime as God is holy and perfect. That love principle in the law should be written in his/her heart as evidence that he/she is God’s son or daughter, fully partaker of God’s nature of holiness and perfection. And if he/she is now at one with God in heart and desires, in the love of purity and perfect hatred against sin, his/her soul is at rest. No guilt ever bothers him/her. The person has that law written in his/her heart. He understood God’s love and lives it out in life.

The next illustration shows a chart about the contrast between the Divine ideal and human perversion, from God’s true intent to man’s alteration of it. The Diagram is from Edenic ideal of God-centered simplicity to its perversion by the materialistic race of Cain who distinguished themselves in statesmancraft and prestige in this world cursed by sin. Paul in Romans chapter 1 must have seen the progress of this perversion as seen in the gentiles’ polluted ways of living. He never justified the gentiles as clean, but that they are unclean. Of the Jews he condemned the disobedient as guilty. The phrase “all have sinned” does not mean all individual Jews and all individual gentiles, because Biblical history was clear that there are individual Jews and individual gentiles who have perfectly kept the Law and have not sinned just as Enoch, Daniel, Cornelius, Daniel, and Jesus were.

Probably, Paul must have his own Bible, hence is phrase “Panta SARX” (all flesh) and not “PantaZon” (all Page 41 of 174

lives, all that lives) as in the Septuagint. Paul must have quoted 1Enoch 81:5, 6. Not all lives, however, had sinned in God’s sight, but only those whose lives had committed sin.

(Diagram 2.3)FROM NORMAL TOABNORMALITIES(Genesis chapters 1 to 11 and Romans 1:2032) The Divine ideal is on the upper boxes colored green, and the non-ideal is on black boxes below.

LOVE for God and humans

DIVINE IDEAL: The religion of grace and restfulness

EVIL HUMAN IDEAL: A false religion of works and restlessness HATRED/ ENSTRANGEMENT TOWARDS GOD AND WITH FELLOW HUMANS

GOD’S SABBATH DAY (Gen.2.1-3; Ex.20.11); we remain as God’s people (Ex.31.15-18; Ezek.20.20; Mark 2.27, 28; Rev.14.7, 12; Isa. 66.22,23) [TRUTH]

WORSHIP: God alone (Truth)

WORSHIP: creatures, self (Lie) Rom.1.20-26)

TRUTH OF GOD: (Rom.1.25), no perversion

FOOD: Vegan, plantbased; no animal products (Gen.1.29) –God’s ideal

FARMING/COUNTRY-LIVING: God’s ideal work for man (Gen.2.8, 15; 12.1; Gen. 47); humility & robust fertility (Gen.1.28; 9.7; Ex.1.7; Deut.

7.7-15)

FOOD: flesh foods but clean animals only (Gen. 9.3, 4; Gen. 7.1-3; Lev.11; Deut. 14) – still not ideal.

URBANE lifestyle: stress & weak physique (Gen.4.17-23; 13.11-13; Eccl. 1.18; 5.12; 12.12; 7.29). God’s ideal is farming; but Satan caused humanity to demean it and to look at it as the last and the least. Satan wants rank and prestige (Mk.10.4245; Mtt.4.8-10; Mtt.23.8-12; 18.1-4)

FORGET THE CREATOR’S SABBATH and become restless pagans, worship the Sun (change the Sabbath into Rome’s Sunday –Dan.7.25; 2Thess.2.3,4), a false religion of human works.

[LIE/ERROR]

HEALTHY Lifestyle (Ex.20.13; Rom.12.1; 1Cor. 6.19, 20; 1Cor.9.25-27; Ex.15.26;Deut. 7.7-15)

UNHEALTHY lifestyle (Rom.1.24; 3Jn.2; 1Cor.3.17); violation to the laws of health is still violation of God’s Law.

CHANGE TRUTH TO LIE: Rom.1.25; come perversions (v.26-32)

A simple view of how God redeemed and rehabilitated His people from Egyptian bondage is the event we see in the wilderness. Flesh foods are not included in His menu. Yahweh rained manna from heaven, and that food was complete. But the disobedient people especially the “mixed multitudes” craved for animal foods (Num. 11.4-13). It produced in them a spirit of rebellion and insubordination. God listened to their perversity and gave them just what their depraved appetites wanted. He rained quails. And the greedy readily guzzled in the flesh at the dusk. But it was followed by a wasting sickness. (Flesh foods, specifically quails have high in cholesterol, along with other meats or animal products).The rebellious Israelites ate the flesh raw (Num. 11.33), and so the blood is still in it, a clear violation to the command in Gen. 9.4; Lev. 7.22-27, and that clearly and unequivocally includes animal fat (Lev. 7.22-25) which is never fit for human consumption. This is the food aspect. Diet has a direct connection to the moral powers of man. Flesh foods affect disposition and attitudes. Flesh foods are never ideal diet for man. And today as God is seeking to rehabilitate our characters as we are entering the heavenly Canaan, can we expect Christians to have pure and perfect characters while they remain eating the flesh of dead animals? The history of the Exodus in Num.11 keeps on repeating. While God is restoring us to the original ideal, there are those who complain because they want the spiced flesh foods of Egypt (Num. 11.4-5). They want the stimulating foods of their sinful slavery, foods that made them stiffnecked and disobedient, foods that benumb the sensitive moral powers so that the spiritual things are not easily discerned.

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The Sabbath (REST) and the Ideal Occupation and for man –Farming/ Country-Living, and the Evils of City-Life.

Closely connected to the Sabbath at creation is God’s first action and occupation in this planet “And Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden away to the East, and in it He put the man He had formed” (Gen. 2.8, 15). After God rested, He planted. We can see here God as a Farmer. Indeed He is (Jn. 15.1), and that in the literal sense, because after all He is the One who cause all vegetation to grow. He had to soil His hands at Eden, and humankind is expected to do as He did. We attach grandeur and power to God who spoke during the creation week when things were created at His command. And we also have seen how special man was because He did not just spoke, but did something extra: He formed man from the dust and intimately breathed into Adam’s nostrils His own breath of life. Now here we see Yahweh who plants, -literally plants a garden. And that’s something special about agriculture. God did not sit in an office and write something using pen and paper to order His creation in this planet. Nor was He a CEO in prim attire in an executive room supervising using computers to superintendent His creation. He soiled His hands and planted. And just as He rested on the Sabbath day, setting an example for all the human race that “the Sabbath was made for man,” so He planted a garden setting an example and placing man upon it so that Adam will “till it and look after it” (Gen. 2.15).

There was no rhetoricians since there was no need for war; no grammarian since both understood each other; no lawyers since evidence are concrete and no papers are needed to legalize one’s true intent; no hospitals since sickness was unknown; no office deadlines since there was no need to. All is strength, vigour, humility, spirituality, the living realities of nature, and perfect freedom. There was no science invented for the hurt of man. Everything is natural intelligence, health, and uncontaminated spirituality. Man’s original work, farming, is closely tied to His day of rest, the Sabbath day. Just as Eden means “delight,” the Sabbath day is also called

by God as “My holy day of delight” (Isa. 58.13). He explicitly stated in connection of this holy day, -“and thou shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words” (Isa. 58.14). Honouring the Creator has something to do with how we treat His Sabbath day. Labour and rest go together. In farming one can experience this blessedness. There is the Sabbath rest, the only day blessed by the Creator, and farming is the career, God’s most wholesome occupation that gives soundness and strength to the body and mind, and humility of character.

The divine ideal when it comes to work is farming and the life is country-living (Gen. 2.7, 8; 12.1; Gen. 47; Gen. 1.28; 9.7; Ex. 1.7; Deut. 7.7-15). This is the ideal setting and occupation where the human race could live healthy morally and physically, and multiply undisturbed by city interruptions where people and crimes are congested, and where every specie of vice and stresses demoralize the moral powers and derange one’s health.

The simplicity, health and moral benefits of farming is unappreciated by the lovers of rank and distinction. But the agricultural life has been God’s ideal for the human family (Gen. 2.7, 8) where the body and mind is developed symmetrically, and disease is unknown. Yet Satan, the evil genius of our society cast contempt on farming. He excogitated the bane of science 39 and a love for prestige40 so that what God had deemed as the 39

Gen. 3.5; 4.17-24. This irreverent curiosity was instigated by that conceited creature, Satan, who self-exalted, seeks to imbue humanity with the same spirit that fires him to rebellion. It was carried down from Eve to her son, Cain, and from Cain to his descendants. This conceit was perpetuated by the race of Ham who was famed for their construction of empires and dominions. This love for statescraft is never God’s ideal where man holds dominion over another man. The divine ideal for the human race is country-living, the sweet, peaceful humble life tied up to agriculture or the soil, free from the hindrance of godbanishing civilization and the stresses of congestion. This science falsely so called destroys the innocence of instincts, and brings annoyance more than it brings satisfaction.

40

Gen. 11.4; Mtt. 4.8, 9; Isa. 14.12-14; Ezek. 28.17,18; Mk.10.42. Similar to science, the love of distinction is foreign to God and His people who delight in the simple and natural. Nature hates counterfeits and would never allow duplicity to spoil its happiness. Throughout the generation of God’s dealings with humankind, His people have been tied to the agricultural life than the urbane. They may be raised to the heights of worldly greatness like Joseph, Moses, David, and Daniel, but their origins have always been from the raw rural settings where the mind is developed, and the principles of right were steadily fixed, in contrast to those reared in the cities whose qualities are fleeting, untrustworthy, adulterous, sinful, and unstable.

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divine ideal for man’s occupation Satan makes it to appear as the last, least, undesirable, and disreputable.

This itself is perversion of our concept of work. Such self-conceited outlook of life is not of Divine origin. We are so far removed from the God’s ideal of simplicity and health, and would desire a life that is soft and sickly only to purchase prestige and worldly distinctions, all at the expense of health. But any violation to the laws of health is a violation to the moral law inasmuch as it is the same God who created the Law for our order. No one can claim that he/she can be saved while one is a violator of the laws of health. Health is gospel. Let us not forget that Jesus spends most of His time on earth healing than preaching, and after He healed a person, He would say “go and sin no more”, “behold, you are made whole, sin no more lest a worst thing come upon thee” (Jn. 5.14; Jn. 8.11). And to “sin no more” is to keep all God’s Commandments, 41 ALL –including the laws of health. It is displeasing to God for us to pray for healing and yet we continue violating the laws of health. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” (Prov. 28.9).

I wonder why should our teachers both in the rural districts and in the urban settings encourage their students to study hard in order to become successful professionals in the future, but not one educator would encourage their pupils to go back to the farm and live a healthy life free from stresses and diseases. In the rural areas where lands are wide, and where houses are far from neighbours, a husband and wife can have as much sex as they can enjoy, with privacy and free from the hindrance of congestion. They can shout and moan in their mutual joys with ease and freedom. They can produce many robust children free from the physical abnormalities that have plagued urban settlers. The rurals have so many children, but the city professionals despise this with disdain. They make it appear that life with a few numbers of children is the quality life. The city dwellers has lots of properties and have adequate income, and yet they can only produce two or three children at most as their feeble and weak physique can permit, and still they complain that life is hard despite their handsome salaries. Contrast this to happy farmers who had seventeen children or seven at the minimum, all healthy and strong. They have no adequate money, and yet they ate the veggies that grow around their backyard free from sprays. So what exactly are the big deal and the difference between them? Prestige? Rank?

Degrees of honour? Some call it responsibility, honour, and education. But God views it as stress (Eccl. 7.29; 12.12; 5.12; 1.18-20) and moral corruption as in the days before the flood, and at Sodom and Gomorrah. 42 In

41

Since sin is the transgression of the law (1Jn. 3.4), to go and sin no more is to keep the Law and be in perfect harmony with God’s Commandments. To commit sin is to transgress the law, therefore to commit righteousness is to keep the law. Sin is a choice; righteousness is a choice. Sin is a perverse willing to do something outside the law; righteousness is the right willing to do something beyond the slavery of sin. To sin is to fall under the death penalty of the law. But to be under grace is to live in righteousness, and to be no longer under the death penalty of the law, but is governed by that same law of liberty. But if one who lives under grace fall once more into sin, the same righteous Law will be as ready and alive as ever to put that person to death and execute him/her. And when frightened by the guilt of conscience, we are driven to the Saviour to free us from sins, Jesus grants us pardon, we are empowered to obey the Law and have it written in our hearts. We are no longer under its condemnation so long as we have Him, that is, the Law, the life of the Law-Giver being written in our hearts. And yet again if we remove this Law from our hearts and pursue an evil desire, the same Law will haunt after us to execute us. And the cycle happens again. We come to Jesus for pardon. And seeing Him who died for our sins, our consciences were quickened to hate sin exceedingly. And we hate it the way God hates it. Realizing what happened at the cross, and God’s deep love for us, we begun to love God’s righteousness and to hate sin. The Laws once again were being written in the hearts, making us obey from the heart.

42

“Men boast of the wonderful progress and enlightenment of the age in which we are now living; but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence. Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, that the Bible is not authentic; and as a result, a tide of evil, such as has not been seen since the days of Noah and of apostate Israel, is sweeping over the world.

Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety, are battered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things. The black record of crime committed for the sake of gain is enough to chill the blood and fill the soul with horror.” (White, Prophets and Kings, p. 275, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PK&lang=en&pagenumber=275) “The opinion prevails with many that all which appears like courtesy or refinement must, in some sense, pertain to Christ.

Never was there a greater mistake. These qualities should grace the character of every Christian, for they would exert a powerful influence in favour of true religion; but they must be consecrated to God, or they also are a power for evil. Many a man of cultured intellect and pleasant manners, who would not stoop to what is commonly regarded as an immoral act, is but a

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addition, we see lawyers and office-professionals as they retire. They would gladly purchase a farm lot in order to enjoy farming at the remnant of their strength. But most of these retired are sickly and destroyed in the cities before they ever had the chance for that rural bliss. They should have spent their lives on farm earlier and enjoyed farming till they die. But why? Because of the love for distinction, and the esteem which the world gave to these weak-eyed professionals they gladly left health, natural enjoyment, sincere friendships, the vigorous sex and spiritual vitality, for the sake of empty fame and a life without moisture, and they end up the same discontented and conceited about their titles and distinctions. For nothing really gives man happiness except when he returns to the soil-works and finds pleasure in the sweets of humility as God had originally ordained man to be. In the earth made new the occupation will be the same –farming, and nothing else (Isa. 65.21-22).

By the way, the urban lifestyle is not God’s ideal for His children to have. Notice the contrast between the wicked race of Cain and the godly race of Seth. Whereas Cain’s descendants distinguished themselves prosperous in a world cursed by sin, being skilled in arts and statecraft with its concomitant calloused indifference to human life (Gen. 4.17-24), Seth’s descendants concerned themselves only “to call themselves by the name of Yahweh” (Gen. 4.26). They want to name themselves “Yahweh’s” as their distinction. They are not concerned with honours and inventions as did the race of Cain, but only to worship God. Therefore everything in life had to be attuned to that direction, worship God, and not self and prestige. Nimrod, the descendants of Ham continued this appetite for earthly pride. Notice that the race of Ham was noted for their empires and civilizations (Gen. 10.6-20) as the words and names of cities named after them, while God’s righteous race through Japheth and Shem makes no mention about cities (Gen. 1.1-5; 21-31). We see only a place in Seth’s descendants, “And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east.” What a poor contrast to God’s people living in the mountains are the race of Ham known for their prestigious cities! They colonized among themselves for the sake of distinction in one place (Gen. 11.3, 4), contrary to the God’s mandate that human beings should “replenish the earth” (Gen. 1.28). And again, the contrast between Abraham who lived in the mountains, and Lot who chose “the cities of the plain..toward Sodom” (Gen. 13.11, 12) whose inhabitants were “wicked and sinners before Yahweh exceedingly” (v.13).Contrast the morality of the rural atmosphere were Abraham and his family dwelt peacefully and Lot with the crimes in that city (Gen. 13.13; Gen. 14). And notice the immorality that Lot’s daughters had imbibed in Sodom. They made their own father drunk and committed incest with him (Gen. 19.30-38). Lot was righteous but the choice he made in settling at “the cities of the plain” was unwise. His wife’s life was ruined forever for the love of the material, while his daughters learned only the immorality of the city. The Canaanites at Sodom and Gomorrah were noted for their notorious sexual laxity. The lingering, wandering, lawless spirit of the city had contaminated the family of Lot. He only produced two wicked descendants, the Moabites and the Ammonites. How different would be Lot’s heritage had he chosen to live not in “the cities of the plain.”

polished instrument in the hands of Satan. The insidious, deceptive character of his influence and example renders him a more dangerous enemy to the cause of Christ than are those who are ignorant and uncultured.” (White, The Great Controversy [1911], 509, Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc30.html) “To those who regard themselves as educated and refined, Satan addresses himself by exciting the imagination to lofty flights in forbidden fields, leading them to take so great pride in their superior wisdom that in their hearts they despise the Eternal One.” (White, The Spirit of Prophecy Volume Four [1884], p. 373, Public domain: http://www.lightministries.com/SDA/id632.htm). We cannot always trust educated people because when they fail to discern that prerequisite of wisdom is “the fear of Yahweh”, these people will trust in their reason and education, instead of the wisdom that the Scriptures is referring to, -the moral discernment, the ability to distinguish good and evil, and to choose the good. It is not the worldly wisdom that is being referred to in the book of Proverbs, but the godly wisdom. It may and may not promise wealth. Honesty is still the best policy. When a person is not honest, no matter who intelligent and smart, he/she cannot be trusted. He/she will only do more harm than good, and his/her education is not a blessing but curse. The same holds true with our pastors and professors of theology. If they do not call sin by its right name, and define it as God’s Law defines it, they cannot be trusted. They are blind guides and are polished instruments in the hands of Satan, influencing others to rebel against the Creator by declaring that His Law is void and abolished at the cross.

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Similarly, our children would have the shinning virtues of humility, patience, sincerity, and consistence spirituality should they have grown up in the mountains or the rural areas, compared to the conceited, egotistic and disdainful children who grew up godless in the cities, who do not know what down-to-earth humility and patience is all about, and whose spirits as unacquainted to the degrees of distinction and gradation of rank.

“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” –Jesus (Mtt. 18.3, 4). 43 The little children are unassuming. Titles and degrees are foreign to their simple and unaffected sincerity. This trait is also found in the rural districts where people would recoil from worldly distinctions and praises. But the city-dwellers or urbane settlers were so familiar with this evil outlook, “the pride of life” (1Jn. 2.16) and would naturally accept honours conferred to them. Like Herod, they are not conscious that only God deserves all the praises (Acts 12:21-23). I can also admire professional Christians in the city and godly businessmen who talk well in their churches. They are good at giving tips in handling business and spirituality. Their children are also successful grown-up professionals. But one sweet thing is missing in all their accomplishments: humility. For without this virtue, a Christian is poisoned with egotism and a lofty disdain and condescending attitude towards the lowly and rural occupations. Selfimportance is the ruling principle of one’s life, and not self-abnegation or self-denial. Without this down-toearth sincerity and humility one cannot be a genuine Christian. How hard it is to form this precious virtue while one is living in the cities! But out of this evil self-esteem, crimes are committed. Inasmuch as most crimes of the highest order are done by persons who have very high self-esteem, and not by those who have low. We may dismiss drinking and fornication among the list of crimes that are done by those low in selfesteem, but pride, or the absence of humility is the first among the list of sins God especially hates (Prov.21:4), because this kind of attitude feels no need for help, but would despise any help.

When His ministry commenced, Jesus was introduced by John to the people. They were impressed by the announcement of the Baptist. And they gazed on Him intently to see who He was and what He looked like.

Ellen G. White saw this event in vision and described it in this statement: “But as the people looked upon Him, they saw a face where divine compassion was blended with conscious power. Every glance of the eye, every feature of the countenance, was marked with humility, and expressive of unutterable love. He seemed to be surrounded by an atmosphere of spiritual influence. While His manners were gentle and unassuming, He impressed men with a sense of power that was hidden, yet could not be wholly concealed. Was this the One for whom Israel had so long waited? Jesus came in poverty and humiliation, that He might be our example as well as our Redeemer. If He had appeared with kingly pomp, how could He have taught humility? how could He have presented such cutting truths as in the Sermon on the Mount? Where would have been the hope of the lowly in life had Jesus come to dwell as a king among men?”44

43

Jesus wants to correct the wrong concept of greatness among His disciples. In His kingdom, prestige and rank weighs nothing. The spirit that pervades heaven is the spirit of humble and unselfish service, and not self-exaltation or pride. Very tenderly, yet with solemn emphasis, Jesus tried to correct the evil. He showed what is the principle that bears sway in the kingdom of heaven, and in what true greatness consists, as estimated by the standard of the courts above. Those who were actuated by pride and love of distinction were thinking of themselves, and of the rewards they were to have, rather than how they were to render back to God the gifts they had received. They would have no place in the kingdom of heaven, for they were identified with the ranks of Satan. Before honour is humility. To fill a high place before men, Heaven chooses the worker who, like John the Baptist, takes a lowly place before God. The most childlike disciple is the most efficient in labour for God. The heavenly intelligences can co-operate with him who is seeking, not to exalt self, but to save souls. He who feels most deeply his need of divine aid will plead for it; and the Holy Spirit will give unto him glimpses of Jesus that will strengthen and uplift the soul. From communion with Christ he will go forth to work for those who are perishing in their sins. He is anointed for his mission; and he succeeds where many of the learned and intellectually wise would fail. But when men exalt themselves, feeling that they are a necessity for the success of God's great plan, the Lord causes them to be set aside. It is made evident that the Lord is not dependent upon them. The work does not stop because of their removal from it, but goes forward with greater power. (White, The Desire of Ages, p., 436, public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da48.html) 44 White, The Desire of Ages, 137-138, Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da14.html.

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Jesus grew up in the rural districts as a carpenter. Contrast the humility of Christ to our urbane Christians. In Christ we see that “Every glance of the eye, every feature of the countenance, was marked with humility, and expressive of unutterable love.” Where can we find this humble quality in our Christians who grew up in the cities? The opposite is what we can observe among them: Every glance of the eye, every feature of their countenances is marked with utter arrogance, bereft of humility, and expressive of manifest selfishness and discontent. That’s what we get in children schooled in the vice of pride and self-esteem in the cities. It would be easy for them to despise the Badjao tribes, and praise their popular speakers than treat the lowly people with importance. Their definition of distinction is when one has a good career, and rank, and a name attached with titles. Without these, it is hard for them to be nothing in the eyes of the world. Consequently their view of what is Biblical truth is defined through the lenses of their pastors and theologians who were thoroughly schooled in seminaries, and who are distinguished by their specific degrees. In that outlook, it will be hard for them to appreciate a truth that sounds like the frank voice in the wilderness like John and Elijah who calls sin by its right name, and point out frankly what is wrong and what is right. All they hear from their pastors and theologians are soft messages that cry out “Peace, peace, do not be alarmed. Those people are fanatics and unlearned.” Then when you speak a straightforward message, those professors of theology will interrupt you, by saying “You are too earnest, you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to teach your message,”45 as if their inane and insipid interpretations should be the criteria and norm for you to follow, as if you must have to learn from their school of hermeneutics. The fact is that they preach easy and soft theology that avoids the hard part, the forsaking of sin, and the calling of sin in its right name. As far as possible they will do everything to silence preachers who have personal lived the truth in their lives, in pen and authority, they will do measures to cower the independent spirits of those preachers who do not recognize their conceit. They are like the rabbis during Christ’s day, and like the Roman-catholic clergymen at the time of the Dark Ages. The same attitude is being displayed by our professors of theology in many seminaries.

They are fond of mere theological discussions, but would discourage anyone pointing out what is right and wrong, what is righteousness and what is wrong. This is religious slavery and religious intolerance under the garb of intellectual interest. It refuses to uphold God’s Law that clearly defines what sin is, and that sin should be called by its right name as Nathan did to David, and as Elijah to King Ahab. But one cannot have that humility and power that brooks no other master except God alone if one is steeped in the prestigecontaminated morality of the city life, in a place where people receive honours from one another, and would not esteem the honour that comes from God alone (Jn. 5.44; Lk. 6.26). All God’s prophets and reformers were raised in the country side, and not in the cities.

WHAT IS TRUE GREATNESS IN GOD’S ESTIMATION? Closely connected to the divine ideal for human occupation which is farming comes the issue of man’s idea of what true greatness is. Satan and his worldly wise children prize prestige, distinction, fame, and popularity as measurement of greatness. If a person has no such thing as degrees, position, or rank, he or she will be looked upon as less important or of no account. A Christian who is a farmer is less esteemed that one who is a lawyer or a physician. Jesus says that the one who “is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” (Lk. 16.15). “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” (Lk. 6.26). It would be very hard for a true Christian who lives in urban context not to be tainted with this evil attitude of self-exaltation. “How often our service to Christ, our communion with one another, is marred by the secret desire to exalt self! How ready the thought of self-gratulation, and the longing for human approval!” 46 Daniel was also exposed to this 45

White, The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, Page 534. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1888&lang=en&pagenumber=534&m=1&paragraphR eferences=1.

46

White, The Desire of Ages, p,. 409, public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&collection=2&section=all&pagenumbe r=409&UIlang=fr&t=1&paragraphReferences=1.

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mistaken concept of greatness but remained uncorrupted. Ellen G. White noted that “During the early years of his captivity, Daniel was passing through an ordeal which was to familiarize him with courtly grandeur, with hypocrisy, and with paganism. A strange school indeed to fit him for a life of sobriety, industry, and faithfulness! And yet he lived uncorrupted by the atmosphere of evil with which he was surrounded.” 47 It takes spiritual vigilance to remain unspotted from this subtle evil of self-conceit and love of prestige. The question is, what really constitutes man’s greatness? We must see it in the life of the Messiah. White mentioned that Christ, during the obscurity of His Nazareth years “made no exhibition of His miraculous power. He sought no high position and assumed no titles. His quiet and simple life, and even the silence of the Scriptures concerning His early years, teach an important lesson. The more quiet and simple the life of the child,—the more free from artificial excitement, and the more in harmony with nature,—the more favorable is it to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.”48 Jesus “possessed a dignity and individuality wholly distinct from earthly pride and assumption; He did not strive for worldly greatness, and in even the lowliest position He was content.”49 In His public ministry, although Jesus was popular, yet He is not like our preachers of today who are applauded and praised for their business and spiritual accomplishments, and given distinctions at seminaries for their lectures in various seminars they conducted. When people wants to make Him king- the very apex of what humankind think as success in earthly domain, Jesus disappoints it. “Mere worldly success would interfere with His work. And the wonder of the careless crowd jarred upon His spirit.

In His life no self-assertion mingled. The homage which the world gives to position, or wealth, or talent, was foreign to the Son of man. None of the means that men employ to win allegiance or command homage did Jesus use.”50 But not only has the Messiah had that attitude of self-abnegation which He requires from all His followers,51 John the Baptist exhibits this greatness. In God’s sight John was great (Lk. 1.15). “In the estimation of Heaven, what is it that constitutes greatness? Not that which the world accounts greatness; not wealth, or rank, or noble descent, or intellectual gifts, in themselves considered. If intellectual greatness, apart from any higher consideration, is worthy of honor, then our homage is due to Satan, whose intellectual power no man has ever equaled. But when perverted to self-serving, the greater the gift, the greater curse it becomes. It is moral worth that God values. Love and purity are the attributes He prizes most.

John was great in the sight of the Lord, when, before the messengers from the Sanhedrin, before the people, and before his own disciples, he refrained from seeking honor for himself, but pointed all to Jesus as the Promised One. His unselfish joy in the ministry of Christ presents the highest type of nobility ever revealed in man. The witness borne of him after his death, by those who had heard his testimony to Jesus, was, "John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this Man were true." John 10:41. It was not given to John to call down fire from heaven, or to raise the dead, as Elijah did, nor to wield Moses' rod of power in the name of God. He was sent to herald the Saviour's advent, and to call upon the people to prepare for His coming. So faithfully did he fulfill his mission, that as the people recalled what he had taught them of Jesus, they could say, "All things that John spake of this Man were true." Such witness to Christ every disciple of the Master is called upon to bear.” 52

47

White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 23. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/de/book/14.57#99.

48

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 74., Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&pagenumber=74&paragraphReference s=0.

49

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 88. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da9.html.

50

White, The Desire of Ages, p., 260. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da26.html.

51

Mtt. 16.24; Lk. 9.23-26.

52

White, The Desire of Ages, p., 219. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da22.html.

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It is the humility of the child that Christ stressed when it comes to the greatness that God values. “The simplicity, the self-forgetfulness, and the confiding love of a little child are the attributes that Heaven values.

These are the characteristics of real greatness. Again Jesus explained to the disciples that His kingdom is not characterized by earthly dignity and display. At the feet of Jesus all these distinctions are forgotten. The rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, meet together, with no thought of caste or worldly preeminence.

All meet as blood-bought souls, alike dependent upon One who has redeemed them to God. The sincere, contrite soul is precious in the sight of God. He places His own signet upon men, not by their rank, not by their wealth, not by their intellectual greatness, but by their oneness with Christ. The Lord of glory is satisfied with those who are meek and lowly in heart. "Thou hast also given me," said David, "the shield of Thy salvation: . . . and Thy gentleness"--as an element in the human character--"hath made me great." Ps. 18:35.”53 We should remove the worldly excess when it comes to defining what greatness is. It does not consist in accumulation of wealth (Lk. 12.15). God looks for the purity of motives; the righteous principles lived by the person. “Not by their wealth, their education, or their position does God estimate men. He estimates them by their purity of motive and their beauty of character. He looks to see how much of His Spirit they possess and how much of His likeness their life reveals. To be great in God's kingdom is to be as a little child in humility, in simplicity of faith, and in purity of love.” 54 Urban lifestyle is not ideal for God’s people as Scripture informs us previously. “Life in the cities is false and artificial.”55 Ranging from moral aspect to health, city-life is nothing but congestion and contamination.56 City

53

White, The Desire of Ages, p.,437. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da48.html.

54

White, Ministry of Healing (1905), p. 477, 478, quoted in Mind, Character, and Personality, p, 348, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1MCP&lang=en&pagenumber=348.

55

White, The Ministry of Healing (1905), p. 364, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=MH&lang=en&pagenumber=364.

56

Ellen G. White further wrote: “There is not one family in a hundred who will be improved, physically, mentally, or spiritually, by residing in the city. Faith, hope, love, happiness, can far better be gained in retired places, where there are fields and hills and trees. Take your children away from the sights and sounds of the city, away from the rattle and din of streetcars and teams, and their minds will become more healthy. It will be found easier to bring home to their hearts the truth of the Word of God. (Country Living An Appeal to Parents, [compiled 1946], p. 13, Public domain: http://www.endtimesbibleprophecy.com/countryliving.pdf) “The physical surroundings in the cities are often a peril to health. The constant liability to contact with disease, the prevalence of foul air, impure water, impure food, the crowded, dark, unhealthful dwellings, are some of the many evils to be met. It was not God's purpose that people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements.” (Ministry of Healing (1905), p. 365, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=MH&lang=en&pagenumber=365) “Many parents remove from their country homes to the city, regarding it as a more desirable or profitable location. But by making this change, they expose their children to many and great temptations. The boys have no employment, and they obtain a street education and go on from one step in depravity to another, until they lose all interest in anything that is good and pure and holy. How much better had the parents remained with their families in the country, where the influences are most favorable for physical and mental strength. Let the youth be taught to labour in tilling the soil, and let them sleep the sweet sleep of weariness and innocence. Through the neglect of parents, the youth in our cities are corrupting their ways and polluting their souls before God. This will ever be the fruit of idleness. The almshouses, the prisons, and the gallows publish the sorrowful tale of the neglected duties of parents. Better sacrifice any and every worldly consideration than to imperil the precious souls committed to your care. They will be assailed by temptations and should be taught to meet them; but it is your duty to cut off every influence, to break up every habit, to sunder every tie, that keeps you from the most free, open, and hearty committal of yourselves and your family to God. Instead of the crowded city seek some retired situation where your children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and there train and educate them for usefulness.” (Adventist Home, [compiled 1952], pp.

137-138, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/128.584).

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is such a place where “New species of idolatry are continually being introduced into society.” 57 God’s prophets58 and reformers have always been reared in the rural settings, and the reformers of all ages who would stand as God’s representative, perfectly healthy in body and spirit are to prepare themselves in such a condition that will fit them to rebuke and correct the excesses of their times and to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. Their diet should be carefully chosen as this will influence health and behaviour. Their discernment of holy things must remain unimpaired. Their preparatory environment should be of such a quality that will ensure the best of health and character development. The city-life, far from providing immunity, destroys godly principle. For when a Christian living in the city may not be tempted in the lust of the flesh, in debauchery and other vile practices, they are easily and insidiously influenced by love of distinction, and in consequence the eradication of natural humility. Without become aware of it, they began to look down upon others who are not as professional as they. The professional Christian family will educate its children to become professionals, and they would disdain the idea of their children marrying nonprofessionals, and would look down on people who do not have degrees. In a similar way, it would be easier for them to praise people who had degrees and are well-respected, and they would find it difficult to address with honour and esteem a common farmer who is actually happier than the rest of these conceited and discontented city professionals. How can they sympathize with Jesus whose work is maverick (warik-warik) and the apostles and the protestant reformers such as the Waldensians and the Lollards when they themselves are inherently adverse to anything hard and rural, but are lovers of the soft and artificial? Therefore when hard and earnest truths from the Scriptures will rebuke their insincerity, effeminate arrogance, and sophistries, they will recoil and will charge the fearless preacher with fanaticism and extremism. Their softened senses are no longer sharp to distinguish what is true from the erroneous and artificial. They have been so educated in the cities to live a life that is artificial, effete, and unessential so that they can only appreciate the easy and sinful,

57

White, “City Work,” Review and Herald, January 25, 1912, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1912&month=January&day =25&paragraphReferences=1.

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This includes Elijah, Enoch, David, Joseph, all prophets, and Jesus our Lord. They grew up in the country. With the exception of Moses who was reared in the Egyptian palace, the place where “the refinement, the subtlety, and the mysticism of a false religion, the splendour of idolatrous worship, the solemn grandeur of architecture and sculpture--all had left deep impressions upon his developing mind and had molded, to some extent, his habits and character. It would require on the part of Moses himself a struggle as for life to renounce error and accept truth, but God would be his helper when the conflict should be too severe for human strength. In all who have been chosen to accomplish a work for God the human element is seen. Yet they have not been men of stereotyped habits and character, who were satisfied to remain in that condition. They earnestly desired to obtain wisdom from God and to learn to work for Him. Says the apostle, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James 1:5. But God will not impart to men divine light while they are content to remain in darkness. In order to receive God's help, man must realize his weakness and deficiency; he must apply his own mind to the great change to be wrought in himself; he must be aroused to earnest and persevering prayer and effort. Wrong habits and customs must be shaken off; and it is only by determined endeavor to correct these errors and to conform to right principles that the victory can be gained. Many never attain to the position that they might occupy, because they wait for God to do for them that which He has given them power to do for themselves. All who are fitted for usefulness must be trained by the severest mental and moral discipline, and God will assist them by uniting divine power with human effort.” (White, The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets, 248. [emphasis mind] Public domain). God had to educate Moses for forty years in obscurity in the wilderness, in order to prepare him to stand as a healthy and strong reformer. He had to remove Moses from the urbane Egypt and settle him to the mountainous area where he can be at home with nature and with God, and unlearn Egypt’s sophistications and effete lifestyle. Moses on his part should cooperate with God, and he did. We, too, should cooperate with God. Salvation is not of God alone. It is a God-man cooperation. God commands, we obey. God will not do the obeying for us. It is us who obey. His dying on the cross makes it only easier for us to live perfect and holy lives, and makes perfect obedience easier. It facilitates His laws to be written permanently in our hearts making us steadfast / faithful. God speaks the good news; we cherish it by our own human faithfulness to it. But we ought to maintain that faithfulness by unremitting vigilance on our part, and never grow lax and careless. God gave us His grace; and His grace empowers us to obey and live “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (1Cor. 7.1; See Heb. 6.1; Mtt. 5.48; Deut.

18.13; Rev. 3.21). Jesus says, “…My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor. 12.9).

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and not the durable, and sturdy. They will grow dizzy and wearied over the heights of truth so elevated because it requires sacrifice, self-denial, and self-crucifixion so undesirable to the lovers of self.

The question is, shall we leave our missionary work in the cities? "Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God's people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth." 59 In the Scripture, the saints had always reckoned themselves as pilgrims, and are never to settle down in this sin-cursed world with its perilous luxuries, entertainments and comforts. “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” (Heb. 13.14; 1Pet. 2.11; Heb. 11.13; Gen. 47.9; Ex. 6.4) Now let us go back on humanity in the issue of their moral purity and perversity. Generally all human beings were born with depraved moral appetites and tendencies after the fall, 60 but there is no guilt attached except if they choose to consent sin, instead of resisting it as what God said to Cain in Gen.4.7: “sin is crouching at the door. It desires you, but you can dominate it.” Jesus had those tendencies in common with all humanity, but not once even in a thought did He yield to sin. Rather, although He was “made in the likeness (NOT unlikeness) of sinful flesh”, He “condemned in in the flesh” (Rom. 8.5). Being made in the likeness of sinful flesh mean that He was now made what He was not before. Whereas the Son of God in heaven was a Being of 59

White, “Work the Cities from Outposts” Maranatha (compiled 1976), p, 184, Public domain: http://centrowhite.org.br/files/ebooks/egw-english/devotionals/Maranatha.pdf.) The missionary work for the cities is in view of this reality: “When iniquity abounds in a nation, there is always to be heard some voice giving warning and instruction, as the voice of Lot was heard in Sodom. Yet Lot could have preserved his family from many evils had he not made his home in this wicked, polluted city. All that Lot and his family did in Sodom could have been done by them, even if they had lived in a place some distance away from the city. Enoch walked with God, and yet he did not live in the midst of any city polluted with every kind of violence and wickedness, as did Lot in Sodom. He [Enoch] did not make his abode with the wicked. . . . He placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. Then at times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message. . . . After proclaiming his message, he always took back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning.” While we are not to leave the city to perish, we must work to it. But not to dwell in the city. “God does not mean that any of us should become hermits or monks and retire from the world in order to devote ourselves to acts of worship. The life must be like Christ's life--between the mountain and the multitude. He who does nothing but pray will soon cease to pray, or his prayers will become a formal routine. When men take themselves out of social life, away from the sphere of Christian duty and cross bearing; when they cease to work earnestly for the Master, who worked earnestly for them, they lose the subject matter of prayer and have no incentive to devotion. Their prayers become personal and selfish. They cannot pray in regard to the wants of humanity or the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom, pleading for strength wherewith to work. We sustain a loss when we neglect the privilege of associating together to strengthen and encourage one another in the service of God. The truths of His word lose their vividness and importance in our minds. Our hearts cease to be enlightened and aroused by their sanctifying influence, and we decline in spirituality. In our association as Christians we lose much by lack of sympathy with one another. He who shuts himself up to himself is not filling the position that God designed he should. The proper cultivation of the social elements in our nature brings us into sympathy with others and is a means of development and strength to us in the service of God.” (White, Steps to Christ, [1892, 1893], p. 101, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=SC&lang=en&pagenumber=101&paragraphReferenc es=1). Another of purpose of country-living is to keep family intact in harmony with God and nature, and to preserve spiritual vitality. The aim is ministry to the cities. A family should be well-regulated. God’s order and perfection should be seen in the household. “One well-ordered, well-disciplined family tells more in behalf of Christianity than all the sermons that can be preached.” (White, Adventist Home, p., 32., Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=AH&pagenumber=32.

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Generalization does not make it a rule that ALL human beings are depraved, since it was forever an interrupted depravity after Gen. 3.15. And besides, there have been men who were born with a holy disposition from their mother’s womb, such as John the Baptist, Samuel, Jesus, and many others. They were reared in Jewish background and did not share the rebellious tendencies of the general populace of their day. They were set apart. We can also rear our families to have such holy tendencies even from the womb, if the mother or parents are careful to meticulously obey all the instructions of Yahweh as what Manoah, Hannah, Mary, and Elisabeth and Zacharias did to their children. But this does not follow that the holiness of their nature make them instantly righteous. They have to be tested in order to choose and obey, and they have to obey the law even if they are holy. The acid test of righteousness is not nature, but perfect and complete obedience to the Law.

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infinite purity and holiness, when He assumed human nature, He assumed the kind of flesh which is both identical and derivative of our defective and depraved genes. He accepted the law of heredity of a race fallen for four thousand years. In contrast to that was Adam who was made in that perfect environment. None of the effects of sin were upon Adam. But not so with Jesus. He felt tired and the pangs of hunger, the temptations of sinful flesh, the selfishness of our race. And yet feeling such evil, He never yielded to them. It was most inconvenient for Him to do the will of God being encumbered with this kind of faulty, deteriorated genetic material, yet He overcame, just as Daniel, Joseph, Job, Moses, David, Abraham, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the rest of the perfect saints of the past did. And He expects the same from us: PERFECT OBEDIENCE, not IMPERFECT OBEDIENCE, and certainly not 99% partial obedience.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JEWS AND GENTILES BEFORE GOD’S RIGHTEOUS STANDARD: THE LAW, AND OUR ABNORMALITIES BEFORE IT. In Rom. 2.1-16, it appears as though the Jews presume to sit as moral arbiters over the gentiles. But the Jews special knowledge (the Jew first) held them accountable, and both Jews and gentiles are to be judged equally by their actions (v.12; Mt. 7.20-21; James 1.22-25) by the same standard: the Jews by the Law given by Yahweh to them through Moses, and the gentiles by the same Law as inscribed in their hearts (Rom. 2.14,15; Jer. 31.31-34). When Paul was writing about the gentiles who do not have the written Laws as revealed at Mt. Sinai, he was referring to those gentiles around the world who had no privilege to have any contact with Israel’s religion, and yet have been doers of the Law, -the same standard of righteousness as prescribed in their hearts. But he was not referring to the gentile converts, the proselytes who knew and have read the Torah, and who also desired to be circumcised as what the Law prescribes. Paul advised them that it’s not necessary because they were circumcised by the spirit which is actually the goal of flesh-circumcision. But Christians of today are of no excuse for transgressing God’s commandments as shown in the Hebrew Scriptures. We are not like the pagans who have those rules in their hearts written unclearly. We have them right before our eyes in our Bible readings. And because we do not obey those Laws, we are guilty. The gentiles are not condemned by the same Law because although they have not read Moses, yet they have been “doers of the word/law” (Rom. 2.13,14; James 1:22-25), they “do by nature the things contained in the Law” (Rom. 2.14). But the Christians of today have read that Law as they were written in their Bibles. We are not pagans who do not know the Creator, and yet we observe a wrong day of worship, Sunday. God will not hold us guiltless because we have the Law in our hands and it is written clear before our eyes, unlike the gentiles who do not have the law, who were not exposed to the religion of Israel. The problem with Evangelicals is that they, like the anti-Semitic church of Rome had distanced themselves from Judaism, and regards themselves as under Christ, as if the Messiah has a different Standard of righteousness from God’s Jewish religion, as if Christianity came from the gentiles. In their hands, they have the Hebrew Scriptures. They studied Hebrew stories since childhood. In rearing up children, Christians are truly like the Jews who tell Jewish stories to their family. And yet they do not keep the dietary laws, the Sabbath commandment, and other civil, ethical, agricultural laws written in the same book. They reckon themselves as gentiles and pretend not to have the Law God gave through Moses.

And so they pretend to be justified by faith apart from the law, claiming that they did not have the Mosaic Law even if they have read them before their eyes, unlike the gentiles who have not read them. Therefore they have no excuse. Their situation is the same like the Jews who knew the Scriptures. In the strict sense, they are not gentiles because they were exposed to the Hebrew faith, and have the Hebrew Bible to read in their homes.

They are like Elijah who is not a Jew, or Uriah the Hittite, and Luke the non-Jew who wrote the gospel account of our Lord. The fact is, God accept them as Jews, their being Jewish is spiritual which is the true one (Rom. 2.21). So why remain observing a wrong day of worship, Sunday? God, the Messiah, and His prophets and apostles, who built the church on prophets and apostles (Eph. 2.20) did not recognize this day as God’s holy day. And there was no any reason to change God’s holy Sabbath into Sunday. As what I have said, Christians of today cannot be qualified to be called “gentiles” as Paul had in mind about those who do not know the Law, because we have been exposed to the Law of God as taught in the Scriptures. Our religious orientation is the same such as those found in Biblical stories and teachings. We are no different from the Page 52 of 174

Jewish Christians during Paul’s day. Indeed, we are more fortunate because we have the scriptures in a more complete compilation that the Jews who had only some portions of books, and the Jewish Christians who do not have all the collections of Paul’s letters. Therefore we are more accountable than the Jews and Christians whose compilations were less complete. And so there is no excuse if we disobey the Law because it is really right before our eyes. We are condemned if we do not obey and do them. Just as the Jews will be condemned for their disobedience to the Torah, so Christians who possess the same Torah in their hands will be condemned because the righteousness of the Law which is the righteousness of God shines brightly before their eyes, and yet they ignore those laws as irrelevant to our times. No, they are not irrelevant. God’s instructions to Moses are as valid today as in times past, except the sacrificial aspect which should cease when the Messiah will be cut off (Daniel 9:27). If we claim as gentiles who do not read the written Laws of God as given through Moses, we would be less guilty as the gentiles who do not have the law. We would be like the gentiles who obeyed the same Law as inscribed in their hearts. But we have known the Law since we were young. We read them. We know them. We have memorized them. We are familiar with any Bible stories and the details of the Law in the Pentateuch, including the writings of the prophets. Our spiritual orientations are no different from the Jews. We have the full consciousness that we worship the same Creator God of Israel as revealed in the Messiah. Therefore we are as much guilty as were the Jews for violating any of these laws because we have known them, unlike the gentiles who have not known those Laws. Our practice of giving God the worship in a wrong day, Sunday, can never be excused nor counted guiltless. God is emphatic and very specific about all His commandments. He gives clear instructions how it will be obeyed. Therefore man is guilty for disobeying it, for manoeuvring many confusing interpretation as if God did not mean what He said. This attitude is undermining the authority of His Commandments (Matthew 5:19).

Having proved that the same moral Standard is to be used to judge both Jews and gentiles, let us proceed to view the human abnormalities between Jews and gentiles.

All who have sinned are equally unrighteous before the law, therefore if God justifies the condemned race, no Jew can boast of his status. It is all God’s act apart from any law-keeping. And once the sinner realizes the magnitude of how much He owe to God’s sacrifice, his/her heart is won, and he/she responds by obedience wholeheartedly. “We love because He loved us first” (1Jn. 4.19). And true obedience is not legalism.

Legalism is when one does what is legal even if the heart is not with it. It is a forced obedience. God takes no delight in it. He wants the heart that loves Him because He is worthy of our love, and not that we want heaven in order to avoid hell, therefore we obey. No. Salvation by grace is not salvation by egocentric fear or trust in Him. But a heart response, an appreciation to what He has done for us. Just as Christ came down in His selfless concern for us, and in that love died for Him, so we ought to show our selfless concern for God, and in that love, we are willing to die for Him. We are not only recipients of love; we also give back love to God. God has done and have been doing everything for us. But in the judgement, He will not preach of His love anymore. He will demand what we have done for Him in the person of the needy ones (Mtt. 25.31-46), of our own faithfulness (Mtt. 25.21-23; Lk. 16.10-12), and of our own steadfast love for Him (Rev. chapters 2 & 3).

We tend to view psychotics and criminals in prison with discriminatory eyes. We are not aware that a churchgoer who keeps the Law, and the gentile who does not keep the law can only be equally justified by faith/faithfulness (Gal. 2.15, 16). All must zero down to faith/faithfulness, both righteous and the wicked alike.

Both are granted grace and salvation, whether we are saints or sinners, Jews or gentiles. It does not matter if we are naturally righteous Jews or naturally depraved gentiles. One must have faithfulness. Faithfulness to what? To God’s Covenant as expressed in the Ten Commandments.

The only difference is this: the righteous ones respond to that love, being touched by grace, they repent and put their faith in Jesus in order to have “the faith of Jesus” –the true and steadfast faith. Realizing that Agape, (self-sacrificing love), they forsake all sin. And sin becomes hateful to them. Naturally, they respond with Agape (self-sacrificing love) towards God by forsaking everything, willing to die as martyrs, and are obedient to all God’s Commandments. God has been faithful to them, now they respond with equal faithfulness to Page 53 of 174

God’s faithfulness, Agape with equal Agape. While the wicked do not appreciate that love, but spurns it away and ignores it. They remain wicked and unrepentant, and can do nothing except to break all His Laws.

CHRIST AND HIS SABBATH VERSUS ROME AND ITS INVENTED SABBATH: Salvation by Grace Through Faithfulness versus Salvation by Works Through Unfaithfulness Before looking into Paul’s motif of salvation by works, it would be worthwhile to see the Sabbath Jesus kept, and its validity to our spiritual lives, whereas Jesus the Messiah and Paul cannot and would not contradict each other on the issue of the Sabbath. Further, the importance of the Sabbath when it comes to salvation by faith is being overlooked by most Christendom. Christians who are no less that disciples and followers of the Messiah ought to follow Him in His obedience to God’s Law in every particular, 61 particularly when it comes to their attitude of submission to Christ’s authority. 62 Now Christ and His Father have only one seat of authority. And if the Father is the Creator and Saviour 63 of all things and the Son is the One through whom all things came to be,64 therefore Christ is our Creator and Redeemer. And because He is the Creator one with the Father, the Sabbath should be given importance when it comes to salvation by faith, because it was the only Time-Law that defines correctly who God is as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12, 20). Jesus fully exhibited on the Sabbath His character as our Redeemer, that’s why He had special healing on the Sabbath that irritates the religious leaders of His day. Both in the Old and Renewed Testament the Lord would like to emphasize that the Sabbath signifies a day of redemption (Deut. 5:15; Mtt. 12.12; Lk. 13.10-16).

The Sabbath Jesus kept is the same Sabbath He wants all humanity to have (Mk. 2.27), and that’s the seventh day of the week, not Sunday. He had no commandment how Sunday should be treated. Rather, it’s the same Sabbath He enforced both in the Old and Renewed Testaments. As was the custom of our Lord, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, took part in its services and taught whatever synagogue He was in (Mk. 1.21; Mk. 3.1-4; Lk. 4.16-27; Lk. 13.10). Added to spiritual services is the social dimension of the Sabbath; He also fellowshipped with others (Mk. 1.29-31; Lk. 14.1). His keeping of the Sabbath wasn’t limited within the walls of the synagogue. He spent it in the open (Mk. 2.23). But most especially there were more miracle incidents during the Sabbath day than in any other days in the four gospels. He taught the people on other days, but it is surprising that on the Sabbath day He would stoop down to heal. But the healing would cause reaction among religious leaders. (See Mk. 1.21-31; Mk. 3.1-5; Lk. 13.10-17; Lk. 14.2-4; Jn. 5.1-15; Jn. 9.1-14). When confronted of these Sabbath healings, the Lord would reply “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Mtt. 12.12). But more than that, this day should be kept even during the most difficult persecution times (Mtt. 24.20). That day is to be treated holy, and its holiness remains down to our time. Christ’s redemptive work during the Sabbath day shows us that salvation is by God’s grace given to mortals who are suffering and struggling. He gives rest and wholeness. And the Sabbath day, far from being burdensome as what the rabbis and Pharisees would have it, should always be God’s “holy day of delight” as He intended it to be. (Isa. 58.13). Sabbath is salvation to those suffering under Satan’s oppression (Lk. 13.16). But more than that, Sabbath is the sign that Jesus is our Creator (Ezek. 20.20; Ex. 20.11; Ex. 31.17; Rev. 14.7), Redeemer (Deut.

5.15; Lk. 13.16; Jn. 19.30), and Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12; Ex. 31.13).

The faith of Jesus does not stop with Him, but extends to His followers. Let us see Paul during the Sabbath day. Take for example Acts 17.2 “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” It was not Paul’s manner to have this on Sundays, but “as his manner was,” it was always on the Sabbath. The account in Acts 20.7 was an extension on what was on the 61

1Jn. 2.3-6; Heb. 12.1-4; Eph. 5.1; Mtt. 5.48; Lev. 19.2; Deut. 18.13; 1Pet. 1.21-24; Col. 2.6; Phil. 3.12-17; Heb. 5.9.

62

Lk. 6.46; 1Cor. 9.21; Gal. 6.2; 1Jn. 5.2, 3.

63

Isa. 43.11-25; Isa. 45.21-22; Lk. 2.11; Acts. 3.23; 2Pet. 1.1; Titus 1.4; 2Pet. 3.18; Titus 2.13;

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Prov. 8.22-31; Jn. 1.1-3, 10; Col. 1.15-17; Heb. 1.2

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Sabbath day. It extends towards the night, midnight, and until dawn because Paul “intends” to leave the following day. Furthermore, many other texts reveals that the believers both Jews and gentile converts always gather on the Sabbath day (Acts 13.14-15; Acts 13.27; Acts 13. 42-43; Acts 13.44-49; Acts 16. 13; Acts 17.14; Acts 18.1-4).

It is the Sabbath commandment that distinguishes God’s people from pagans. This time-Law is very important if one should obey all God’s commandments and be reconciled to Him completely. Christ Himself enforced the Sabbath Commandment (Mk. 2.27; Mtt. 12.12; Mtt. 24.20; Lk. 13.16), and had never abolished it in any way. The Sabbath of the Israelites is the Sabbath for all humanity, and for those who claim Yahweh as their God. In fact, the Sabbath is not only for the Israelites, but for the gentiles as well (Isa. 56.2-8). Both Jewish Christians and gentile converts are inside the synagogue during that day. The Sabbath day was never an issue to them because they knew Who they worship. The issue is how it was to be kept, and not what day to keep, because they have only the Sabbath day as their worship day. Sunday observance was unthinkable for such a Jewish milieu. That practice is unheard of in the Biblical context.

The theological divide DURING Apostolic time between the Jews and unconverted gentiles is the issue about circumcision. Gentile converts gladly adopt circumcision, and are willing to perform this ritual in order to be authentic Jew, but Paul does not want that. Circumcision should be in the heart. Just as God’s Laws should be written in the hearts by steadfastness and faithfulness, - the same Laws of the Ten Commandments.

But the theological divide between Jews and gentiles Christians AFTER apostolic era was the Sabbath.

During Paul’s time, Sabbath was not a problem because both Jews and gentile believers always gather on that day to worship the Creator. And today circumcision is not an issue because the society would in fact frown on those who are uncircumcised. The real theological divide with Christianity today is the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath Commandment of God; this distinguishes the true believer from the false (Ezek. 20.20; Mk. 2.27, 28). Sabbathless pagans do not know God, neither those who observe a wrong day, Sunday, do not know who they are worshiping (Jn. 4.22; Rev. 14.7). Sabbath issue was the greatest boast of Papal Rome because by changing God’s “most glorious day” and time-law, it proves that the church has power to alter and dispense with His Laws. Especially in the Roman church Sabbath is a real issue. Union with Christ is not the issue among Christians because we all know Him and accepted Him as our Saviour. But not all have accepted Him as their Lord and Master because they do not do what He commands. They want a Saviour that saves them in their sins, and while they remain sinning. But they would not endure a Saviour that rebukes their sins and preach “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Lk. 13.3, 5). They want to hear only soft things that soothe their sins, and want to spill the blood of Christ instead of perfectly obeying His commandments, statutes, and Laws. And one thing, the Sabbath was ignored and treated as irrelevant by those who claim they are worshipers of the God of Israel. Worshiping on Sunday is as though Jesus was not the same as the God who spoke to Moses. It is as though Yahweh=Sabbath, and Jesus=Sunday. But this is confusion. And there is no confusion within the Godhead. It was Christ who spoke the Father’s Law to Moses in the hearing of the Israelites. It was He who was enshrouded by the pillar of cloud and of fire guiding the Hebrews. It was He named “the Angel of Yahweh,” whose name was also Yahweh. Christ and the Father have only one seat of authority, one Name, and only one Law. Both of Them had one way of salvation, and that is grace, not unaided human striving or unaided human works. When the Messiah came into this world, the faith He exercised is the only correct faith which was also exhibited by the saints of all ages = the faithfulness that is steady, firm, and trustworthy, with such dependability and absolute perfection as God Himself can trust. This is the mindset that exists in the mind of God (sin-hating, and right-loving). In short, He can be trusted because He is steadfast and faithful, and true. The same mind exists in the minds of God’s people throughout all ages of those who are fully partakers of the divine nature, even while having the sinful flesh. It was the mind of Christ, “the faith of Jesus” –the faith that does not tolerate any sin and unrighteousness under any circumstances, the faith that does not excuse sinful desires, wrong attitudes, wrong doing, wrong dispositions, and any kinds of sin, but condemns sin in the sinful flesh. It is the faith that overcomes the world, sin, and devil, and would rather die first that commit a single sin even in thoughts. But how can we properly define Page 55 of 174

what faith, repentance, and sin is if we are without that definite moral compass – the Ten Commandments?

And how could we claim we worship the same God of Israel and of the heirs of Abraham by our faith towards the Messiah when we do not share the same Israelite roots especially in matters of faith? Now the Sabbath is the major issue in Christianity today. No Christian can rightfully claim he/she is a worshiper of God unless one keeps the Sabbath holy just as exactly as it was stated clearly in the fourth Commandment.

In Romans chapter 2, the apostle stressed that the real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew (2.28,29), and that “the doers of the law shall be justified” (2.13). This clause is alluding to the fact that even if the gentiles did not have the privilege of keeping the utterances of God in a form of scriptures, yet there were among them many who lived out the love principle. And to us Christians who knew that Law, we have no excuse of breaking it, or changing any of it, for example, the Sabbath commandment. There are two major things that distinguish a person as a worshiper of the Creator of heavens and the earth (or a Jew): the Sabbath and circumcision. For Paul, true circumcision is internal because without this heart-circumcision, the cutting is mere mutilation as Paul sarcastically used the word “katatome” (butchers, mutilators) in Phil.3.2, and not “peritome” (circumcision). One ought to be circumcised in the heart first, with the external symbol on the outside to be an authentic Jew. But if it’s only a routing circumcision without the heart, the profession to be Jewish is not valid. Furthermore, we have the grossly misinterpreted Sabbath commandment to mean Sunday.

Among many Christians the view is prevalent that under the New Covenant, circumcision is in the heart, and that the Sabbath is now Jesus. But the problem with this view is, if Jesus is our rest, why rest on the wrong day, Sunday? Jesus (our Rest) equals = Sunday? Why not Jesus (our Rest) equals= the true Sabbath day? He was “the Lord of the Sabbath” (Mk. 2.28), so why go to church on Sunday? There was the same moral law in the Old and Renewed Covenant, with the same Sabbath Commandment in that Law. Therefore, under the Old Covenant, we find the Sabbath Commandment, and under the Renewed Covenant, it is still the same Sabbath Commandment, nothing was changed nor could ever change. The old Covenant Sabbath was Saturday, and the New/Renewed Covenant Sabbath was the same Saturday, not Sunday. And why should Sunday be called the New Covenant Sabbath? Some call it “the Christian Sabbath”. Sunday observance was never “Christian” in any sense, and Sunday was never a Sabbath at all. Rather, it’s a fake, man-made sabbath invented by the system called “the man of lawlessness” –the Papacy (2Thessalonians 2.3-12) which attempted to have changed times and laws (Daniel 7.25); while the Protestants unwittingly adopted this tradition which had no higher authority than the opinions of the church fathers, and not the plain words of the Messiah and His Jewish Apostles. God, Jesus, and the Apostles had never endorsed a new sabbath to replace the Creation Sabbath.

And why? What’s wrong with the Sabbath that it should be changed into Sunday? It signifies that Jesus is our Creator and Redeemer. The parallel is on Creation and Calvary. Jesus ended His work in six literal days and rested on the Sabbath day; likewise He ended His redemptive work at Calvary and rested at the tomb during the Sabbath day. Therefore the Sabbath is the sign that Jesus is our Creator (Mk. 2.27; Ezek. 20.20; Ex. 20.11; Rev.14.7), Redeemer (Deut. 5.15; Lk. 13.16; Mtt. 12.12), and Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12). And if one removes this longest Commandment in the Decalogue, replacing it with Sunday, there will be no more significance of Jesus as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier because this special holy day is inseparably bound to Christ as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. In addition, there are several misquotes (proof texts) from Evangelicals and Roman-catholics proving the validity of their Sunday observance: Acts 20.7; Col. 2.16; Rom. 14.5; 1Cor. 16.2; Rev. 1.10. By honest exegesis, none of these texts endorsed another weekly day for worship gathering.

Both Roman-catholics and Sunday-keeping Protestants deduce that Acts 20.7 was a regular gathering when you cannot prove that from Scriptures. The breaking of bread happens in many Christian homes as a common Christian practice, but it was not on Sunday, but on any other days they wanted including Sunday (but not especially on Sunday). It was only an ordinary meal, love-feast or party, and not a Mass (or communion) celebration which must include both bread and wine. And besides, Sunday was not observed as a day celebrating the Messiah’s resurrecting for no such celebration was instituted or commanded by the Lord and the apostles intending to replace the Sabbath of the Lord. Our fellow Christians have been misled for a long span of dark centuries by a religio-political system who, in its contempt for the great Lawgiver have exalted itself above God and dared to alter His time-Law and persecutes the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7.25; 2Thess. 2.3-10; Rev. 13.5-8; Dan. 8.11-14,25; Dan. 11.36). It is no wonder why the Evangelical would quote Page 56 of 174

the writings of Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Eusebius, pope Sylvestre 1, and other non-apostolic writings such as Epistle of Barnabas and the Didache in their support for Sunday observance which they cannot have the direct command from the Son of God Himself, and from the explicit mandate of God and the apostles. Their conclusion was mere inferences and supposition, and not the direct “Thus saith the LORD”, “what is written in the Law” (Lk. 10.25, 26), “to the Law and to the Testimony” (Isa. 8.20). They have for a teaching, “the commandments of men” (Mtt. 15.9; Mk. 7.6, 7; Isa. 29.13). Such teachings cannot stand because it is human tradition and not God’s plain command. “Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Mtt. 5.13, 14). Most Christians failed to see that the apostles and converts to Christianity both Jews and Greeks always gather for worship on the Sabbath day, and not on Sunday (Acts 13.14-15; Acts 13.27; Acts 13.42-43; Acts 13.44-49; Acts 16.13; Acts 17.1-4; Acts 18.1-4).The texts mentioned above are beyond question that the Sabbath day as the worship day was not an issue because they know only the true God of the Israel – the Creator God who made the heavens and the earth in six literal days.

They were Jews, and not pagans. The gentiles who became believers are called “proselytes” or converts (Acts 2.10, 11; Acts 14.1). Converts to what? To the pagan religion of the ancient Sunday observing Mithraism?

Certainly no! But to the God of Israel and to “the faith of Jesus” (Rom. 3.22, 23-King James Version; Rev. 14.12-King James Version). And the faith of Jesus, the true faith that had spread from Israel to the gentiles (Lk. 2.30-32; Isa. 52.10; Isa. 42.6; Isa. 49.6; Jn.4.22; Rom.1.16; Rom. 2.8-14; Acts 11.18) leads the human race to obedience to all God’s laws, and not disobedience to it; to all God’s Laws (James 2.10) including the Sabbath Commandment (Mtt. 12.12; Matt. 5.19; Mtt. 24.20; Mk. 2.27, 28; Rev. 14.7; Ex. 20.11) which is the longest Commandment in the Decalogue and the only Time-Law that defines who we are and who the Creator is, and the most important Time-law called by God Himself as “My holy day of delight” (Isa. 58.13, 14). The gentiles who will keep the Sabbath holy will be accepted by God (Isa. 56.2-8), because “the Sabbath [not Sunday] was made for humanity” (Mk. 2.27) and not just for the Jews, just as the Messiah is the Saviour of all humankind (1Tim.4.10), and not just for the Jews. The Ten Commandments, too, is for all humankind, and not just for the Jews, as well as the salvation for the human race instituted at Eden (Gen.3.15) down to the Jewish race is for the benefit of all the human race, and not just for the Jews. Therefore, God’s intended salvation for all the people comes through Israel to the entire world. His Ten Commandments given to the Israelites are for the entire human race. His grace given to Adam – Seth – Abraham and the Israelites are for all the world to enjoy. Except that the pagans do not know the Creator God, and why? Because they forget the Commandment that starts with the word “Remember”, viz., Remember the Sabbath day, because in observing it you acknowledge that I am Yahweh your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Pagans do not know Him, hence their ignorance of this greatest time-Law. But the gentiles who were converted to the faith of the Messiah naturally worship God the Creator, the God who made the heavens and the earth in six literal days and who rested on the seventh day Sabbath. And therefore the Sabbath Commandment is not an issue. Rather, it’s an issue with the anti-Jewish version of Christianity that arose at Rome and Alexandria who exalt a fake sabbath to replace God’s true Sabbath day. They would use a grace-logic defining Sabbath-keeping as a religion of works. How can Sabbath-keeping be works when it is in fact a rest? (Heb. 4.4-11) This day signifies that Jesus is our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and that we wholly lean on His righteousness and not on our own works and efforts. What better day could represent those spiritual benefits of rest and sanctification by God except the Sabbath day? God’s religion had always been the religion of grace since the beginning of time. He never taught that it should be by human effort, this is why He instituted the sacrificial services to teach His people to depend on His righteousness alone in order for them to keep His Commandments. And Christ had never said “if you love Me, CHANGE My Commandments” but “if you love Me, KEEP My Commandments” (Jn. 14.15). Not one dot or a crossing of the “t” can be altered from that Law (Mtt. 5.18; Lk.16.17), and the Law Jesus was talking about was the Ten Commandments. He did not come to change or abolish “the Law, or the prophets”, but to enforce them fully (v.17) and abolish sin (Heb. 9.26), so that by dying at the cross, men will be empowered to perfectly obey them even in this sinful side of existence, just as Jesus did with His sinful human nature (Rom. 8.3, 4; Heb. 5.7-9; 1Pet. 4.1, 2; 1Pet. 2.21-24; 1Jn. 2.3-6; 2Cor.5.15). “God requires at this time just what he required of the holy pair in Eden, perfect obedience to His requirements. His law remains the same in all ages. The great standard of righteousness presented in the Old Testament is not Page 57 of 174

lowered in the New. It is not the work of the gospel to weaken the claims of God's holy law, but to bring men up where they can keep its precepts. The faith in Christ which saves the soul is not what it is represented to be by many. "Believe, believe," is their cry; "only believe in Christ, and you will be saved. It is all you have to do." While true faith trusts wholly in Christ for salvation, it will lead to perfect conformity to the law of God. Faith is manifested by works. And the apostle John declares, "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1Jn.2.4)" 65 Now, let us deal one by one, passage by passage about the texts mentioned by our fellow Christians (Papal Christians) proving their Sunday observance thesis: 1) Acts 20.7 – the Saturday night gathering. Roman-catholics and Sunday-keeping Protestants argue from this verse something that proves the viability of Sunday observance. But we cannot find it there. It’s a mere “breaking of bread”, an ordinary meal nothing sacred, but a feast or a party. All the more for Paul who was about to leave the next day. The highlight of this verse is the Greek word “Mellon” – intending, to be ready, to be about to. Paul stayed for a week in Troas, and at the end of the week, the Sabbath, his speech extends to Saturday evening up to midnight because he was “intending” to leave the next day. And so the speech continued till dawn, along with the meals. It was like a farewell party for Paul who was “intending” to leave the next day. Was he “intending” for worship, or breaking of break with thanksgiving in the sense of Roman eucharist? No. It was an ordinary meal, a farewell party, and not worship. There was no liturgy, no Moses readings, no passage from Isaiah. The format was never synagogal nor church-like as in Lk. 4.16-21; Acts chapters 13, 17, 18. Paul’s speech was not recorded as saying something of a religious character. Probably it’s social conversations, or mixed with religious concerns, but certainly NOT a worship service. And the gathering as a mere meeting or DIALEGETO (dialogue) with Paul. To use this verse in reference to Sunday observance is insufficient because the intention (MELLON) of Paul was to leave the next day. It was not a regular Sunday gathering because the Jewish Christians and their gentile converts always gather to hear God’s words and worship on God’s Sabbath day as what the Scripture shows us (Acts 13.14-15; Acts 13.27; Acts 13.

42-43; Acts 13.44-49; Acts 16. 13; Acts 17.1-4; Acts 18.1-4). That day the believers regularly gather for worship purpose, NOT on Sunday. The Sabbath, and NOT Sunday is the day the original Christianity always gather. The succeeding versions of Christianity were perversions. May God help bring us back to Biblical Christianity. The efforts of Protestant reformers are geared towards that goal. The sad part is, many are stuck to the creeds of their denominations, and would refuse to see beyond what their reformers have saw, despite the fact that God’s truth always unfolds. Had the reformers been alive today, they would rejoice to see that we have shaken the papal errors that had fasten upon us through many centuries, and have returned the way from Babylon to Jerusalem. And by the way, what's in Sunday that papal Christians have to gather on this day when there was no any divine sanction for such a practice? Why not do worship the right way as God Commanded?

Why not rest and keep the Sabbath day holy as God requires from all His creatures? If we are to worship God correctly, then why not do it the correct way? Sunday is an incorrect worship day.

2) 1 Corinthians 16.2 –First day, a worship gathering? The Greek word is Logia- collecting, gathering in the commercial sense. This verse tells about the contribution for the poor at Jerusalem. Look at verse one and you will find the word “collection” (Greek, Logia). The word is the same in verse 2, Logia. Paul is instructing them that the set sum of each believer should be ready so that there will be no undue collection when he comes. This does not talk about Sunday observance or worship, but collecting of funds for the poor. Obviously the Jews would not collect money during the Sabbath day. This had to be done on the week days. They brought their temple contributions not on the Sabbath day. This is not the right verse to prove Sunday observance. Sunday was never a worship gathering for Jews and gentile converts to the Messiah’s faith. It is a

65

White, Ellen G., Review and Herald, October 5, 1886 par. p., 19, 20, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/821.7617.

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bad logic and incompetent exegesis to suppose that God’s Sabbath was changed and replaced by Sunday using this verse and Acts 20.7.

3) Colossians 2.16 –“Let no one judge you by …Sabbaths.” Wait a minute. Paul would not want us be judged by “Sabbaths” as criterion in our Christian lives. If we view this text closely, we cannot find that there is Sunday observance, either. This text does not imply that the believers in Colossians were Sunday observers because that is not a practice for the Judeo-Christian church during Apostolic times. What Sunday-advocates apologists would want it to say is that “Let no Sabbath-keeper judges you about your observance of Sunday, or the sabbath you choose.” But Paul did not write the way they wanted it to appear. Sabbath day as day of rest and worship was never an issue during Paul’s day, because the converts were Jews, and the gentile converts were converts to the faith of the Messiah which was still an Israelite faith or Judaism, and nothing more than that. The issue during the time of Christ is not whether the Sabbath day is still relevant, but that how to keep it holy. The Jews made many restrictions making the Sabbath a day of burden instead of a day of delight as what God intended it to be (Isa. 58.13, 14; Mk. 2.27; Lk. 13.16; Lk. 12.11-13). And why call Sunday “Christian Sabbath” whereas Sunday was never a “Christian day” nor a “Sabbath” in the Renewed Testament? They knew no other sabbath but the true Sabbath. It was always on the Sabbath day that the believers of the Messiah gather for worship. Sunday was never a Christian institution. The gentiles after the apostolic Christianity created their own fake sabbath, Sunday, and quotes Acts 20.7; Rev.1.10; Col.2.16, and the post resurrection appearances of Christ as support for their perverse logic. This was invented at Rome and Alexandria by Jew-hating Christians in their attempt to distinguish themselves from the Jews. But going back to the text, Paul never used Sabbaths against Sabbath-keepers, or against Sunday-keepers who did not exist during that time. So what’s the point of using Sabbath-keeping against Sabbath-keeping, and where is Sunday observance in this verse? One cannot find it there. Paul did not endorse Sunday, either. And no Sunday or “first day” as worship day is mentioned in this text. It talks nothing but “Sabbaths.” Yet it should be noted that the word in Greek in in the plural “Sabbaton” –Sabbaths, and not the specific singular “the Sabbath” which is God’s Creation Sabbath that is to continue throughout eternity as long as He remains the Creator (Isa. 66:22, 23; Mtt. 5.18; Rev. 14.7; Ex. 20.11). What is no longer applicable are the Sabbaths or the annual sabbath feasts that sometimes fall at the weekly Sabbath, as well as it overlaps on the other week days which are still counted as a sabbath (Jn. 19.31) 66 as in Hebrew peshach (Passover) which may fall not on the weekly days but sometimes on other days. These kind of festivals are shadows including the “meats and drinks” (Col. 66

On 30 C.E. the Passover week starts on Wednesday night at 6:00PM the day Jesus was killed. The following day was Thursday, a “high day” or an annual Sabbath marking the first day of the Passover week (Lev. 23.6-8). In the end of the Sabbath, towards dusk, and still within the Sabbath timeframe, Christ arose from the tomb, fully fulfilling the three days and three nights within the earth, literally 72 hours of death in the tomb, and NOT on Sunday. The following day was Sunday when He showed Himself to His disciples. And on Wednesday the Passover week was at its end (Lev. 23.6-8), and this Wednesday is considered also an annual Sabbath. Since the real Passover Lamb was slain, the true Substance, we are no longer obliged to stay in the “shadows” (Col. 2.16, 17), with its Sabbaths –the annual Sabbath festivals having sacrificial connotations, because Christ had already come. It should be noted that the Passover week sometimes overlap with other days of the weeks. Victor I of Rome (193 C.E.) excommunicated other bishops who do not agree with him on celebrating Passover on Sunday. The Roman bishop wants it to be always on Sunday, contrary to the majority opinion of the bishops that the Passover week does not always start on Sunday, but falls on other week days. This intolerant Roman spirit that has a fetish for Sunday is evident in Victor’s attitude. Why Sunday when the Passover week during Jesus’ time was on Wednesday, and the Passover week does not always start on Sundays, but in any other days of the week based on the lunar reckoning of months? The celebration of Sunday as Christ’s resurrection day did not come from the Apostles. Remember, Paul in 1Cor. 11.26 and 1Cor. 15 had made no mention about Sunday, nor about celebrating Christ’s resurrection, but only the remembering of His death, not the day of His resurrection. It mentioned about the hope of resurrection, but no significance was ever attached to Sunday. That day was never mentioned as the resurrection day, because it is not significant to celebrate His resurrection because it was not on a Sunday morning, but on the Sabbath. Jesus arose on “in the end of the Sabbath” (Mtt. 28.1), and not early Sunday morning. But Rome wants it on Sunday, and that’s historical lie armed with ecclesiastical sanctions. Roman Christianity wants equality with Mithraism, whose god Mithra was thought to rise from the dead early Sunday morning. Mithraism is sun-worship, the most popular religion of Rome and the rest of Mediterranean world. Yahshua, however, did not rise on early Sunday morning, but “in the end of the Sabbath.” On Sunday morning, He was already resurrected since Sabbath late afternoon.

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2.16, 17; Heb. 9.9, 10)67 that no longer applies to the believer in Christ because the Substance – Christ has now come. He is to abolish the system ceremonial sacrifices (Daniel 9.27) and in effect abolished (not the Law) but “sin” (Heb. 9.26).

But the Creation Sabbath was not one of the “shadow” of the things to come because the Sabbath was there before there was any sin in the human race. Before there was the institution of sacrifices and sanctuary services, the Sabbath was there, a memorial of God’s Creation. The Sabbaths that are of the “shadow” are the ones that must be done away with, - the annual Sabbaths, the sabbath feasts, the shemmita Sabbaths, because it was ceremonial in objectives. But the Sabbath which is called by God as “My holy day of delight” (Isaiah 58.13, 14), and whom the Lord refers to as “made for humanity” of which He is “the Lord” (Mk. 2.27, 28), cannot be done away with. It points to Him as our Creator (Ex. 20.11; Ex. 31.14-17; Rev. 14.7; Mk. 2.27).

(Otherwise if we do not know Him as Creator, we are pagans who are ignorant about the Sabbath). But more than that, since man fell into sin and into slavery of Egypt, the Sabbath becomes the symbol of God’s redemptive power (Deut. 5.15), but it was also the sign that He we know Him that He is our God (Ezek. 20.20) and our Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12). And Sabbath will continue even in the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 66:22-24).

Let’s deal for a while about the “Sabbath” terminology. In the Bible, of all 180 of this term, there are always consistent specific linguistic indicators that mark it as the weekly Sabbath or annual Sabbaths to assist readers about the kind of Sabbath mentioned to. About 85% of the 180 sabbath terminology is about weekly Sabbath, the other percentage is about ceremonial Sabbaths. Linguistic markers is important to define what Sabbath was meant in Col. 2.16. Evangelical scholars identify that the “feast, new moon, sabbath” was quoted by Paul from 1Chron. 23.29-31; 2Chron.2.4; 2Chron. 8.12; 2Chron. 31.3; Neh. 10.33; and Ezek. 45.13-17 as though the term Shabbat refers to the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath. But all six references have four parts, NOT three as we can see in Col. 2.16. And besides, the intent of the passages is about sacrifices, and not the cultic days themselves. The emphasis in Col. 2.16 is about Christ’s sacrifice as sufficient, and that those three should no longer apply. All of the Old Testament quotes contains daily offering.

This is not found in Col. 2.16. Let’s see another text. In Hosea 2:11 we see the same three elements “her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath” – the same sequence and contents in Col. 2.16. Notice the parallel of festivals (annual) and Sabbaths (annual), and new moons (monthly) in between, the three are about feasts, celebrations, and rest times in those pilgrim feasts. There was no redundancy in Paul using those three terms.

The emphasis is about days, and not ritual offerings. But there were no linguistic connections for identifying its “Sabbath” as the seventh day. From v. 12, the “shadow” in v. 17 is about the content in vv. 14, 16. And since ritual matters are being dealt with here, the sabbaths “rest times” here are the ceremonial sabbaths and pilgrim feasts that are now fulfilled in Christ, the real substance. Rituals typifies Christ, and points toward Him, but the seventh day Sabbath is not a type; it points back to God’s Creative work as the Creator. Therefore the weekly seventh day should still be kept holy as ever.

To change the Sabbath is to create another god. Rome did in that its god is the papacy because it rejects the Sabbath commandment and replaced it with Sunday without God’s mandate. It had been the eternal boast of Rome that she changed God’s most honoured time-law. That has been the claim of the Roman church ever and consistently as what we can read in their literatures.68 And yet the Evangelicals and Sunday-keeping 67

This refers to the drink and meal offerings in Numbers chapter 29; Lev. 23.37; Ezek. 45.17; 2Kgs.16.14,16, -all ceremonial.

68

Roman-catholic Ten Commandments, see in http://www.the-ten-commandments.org/romancatholictencommandments.html; Take notice of a PDF file (public domain):http://pdf.amazingdiscoveries.org/Section%20PDFs/Changing%20the%20Sabbath.pdf; How The Sabbath was changed, click in http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath-history/how-the-sabbath-was-changed; Catholic Church Admits they Made the Change, key in http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/articlelibrary/id/916/catholic-church-admits-they-made-the-change; Boasts of the Roman church about Sunday, refer to http://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-Sabbath_Sunday_Catholic_Church;

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Protestants are following Rome with blind obedience without Divine approval. They would not see the Sabbath Commandment. They are comfortable with Sunday which is unscriptural. But giving God worship in a wrong day is equivalent to idolatry. God had never changed His Sabbath into Sunday. And the Command stands as ever: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you will labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is THE Sabbath of Yahweh your God. In it you will not do ANY work…” (Ex. 20.8-11).

But a close view on this verse, one cannot fine Paul saying or instructing Christians to go to church (synagogue) and observe Sunday. He is not saying “Let no one Judge you of your Sunday”. That’s out of place. Sunday observance in unknown in a religion who acknowledge the God who created the heavens and the earth in six literal days. Both Jews and their gentile converts were worshipers of Yahweh, and Sunday does not make sense here. Rather, Paul says, “Let no one judge you…of the Sabbaths” (notice that Sunday is not mentioned here). Paul is talking and always talks within the realm of the Jewish faith, and not outside it (Acts 24.12-16; Acts 26.4-7, 22, 23; Acts 28.17). He never introduced another brand of faith, God, or way of salvation. But that he, like Christ, would like to correct how the Jewish faith should be as it always ought to be – by grace working through human faithfulness / steadfastness, and not in hypocrisy, legalism, and disobedience. But it was always the same faith, everlasting covenant, and the same Ten Commandments with the same Sabbath intact.

Observe, too, that Sunday observance was never endorsed in this verse –Col. 2.16. Dr. Walter R. Martin’s arguments against the viability of the Sabbath using Col. 2.16 collapses. He cannot substantiate by honest exegesis that Sunday is the Lord’s day in Rev. 1.10, or that Sunday was ever endorsed in Col. 2.16. If he attacks Sabbath observance by using Col. 2.16, why observe the first day of the week when there is no Divine reason to do so from this very passage in this Paul's letter to the Colossians? Is Col. 2.16 saying that we should not allow anyone judge us in our worship on Sunday? Or that we must not permit any Sabbath consideration judge us in matter of faith, -and so we are not supposed to keep the Sabbath because Col. 2.16 endorsed Sunday? And if other Protestant or Evangelical scholars would dismiss Sabbath-keeping, telling us that we can keep any day for rest because Christ is our rest (using Rom. 14.5 and Mtt. 11.28), why met regularly on Sunday? Why this regularity on Sunday if other days are viable? Their only weak and unbiblical reason is that Christ arose on the first day of the week, - a reason not of divine origin but from the “mystery of iniquity” which had already begun since the days of the apostles (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Christ did not arose on Sunday, but “in the end of the Sabbath.” (Mtt. 28.1). During Sunday, He was already risen long ago from the dead, hours before Sunday early morning, and not on Sunday dawn. Martin accuses Sabbath advocates as practicing eisegesis in their Sabbath defence of Col. 2.16, but it was Martin who grossly practices eisegesis here, because there was no argument in defence for Sunday using Col. 2.16, and there was no argument that erodes the weekly Sabbath day as day of worship in the Creator. But where can we find a defence for Sunday observance from the texts Col. 2.16; Rom. 14.5; Rev. 1.10; Acts 20.7, and 1Cor. 16.2? It’s not to be found there, nor in any parts of the Scriptures. All arguments defending Sunday observance depends on nothing else than human opinion and mere suppositions and inferences which our wise Evangelical theologians had been so fond of doing, making void of God’s Sabbath Commandment. Sunday is not a Christian institution. It ain't in the Scriptures. There is no Divine mandate for Sunday observance. It is nothing but human righteousness, human invention, and human logic, a religion of human works against the religion of God which gives rest for human restlessness. Sunday observance is an obstruction and confusion to that blessed rest of God for humankind.

Sunday observance is a works-religion, the very antithesis to God's grace religion where we ought to rest from our own righteousness.

The context in Acts 20.7 and 1Cor.16 is not Sunday observance, but (1) Paul’s farewell speech (Acts 20) and (2) collecting of funds (1Cor. 16). You cannot find Sunday as a Divine mandate there. God has no reason to alter the Sabbath commandment. And why change it? What’s wrong with the Sabbath, when in fact it reminds us of Jesus our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier? What really is the valid reason for change? If there is none as there really is no reason for change, then both Roman-catholics and Evangelicals erred in this specific point, and if it becomes clear to them that they are not authorized to trample, alter, and ignore this Time-law, and yet Page 61 of 174

they persist in disregarding the Sabbath by gathering to worship the Creator on a wrong day, such practice is manifest rebellion against God’s express Command. It is giving Him a worship He cannot accept, for right is more pleasing to Him than wrong, and He requires no less than complete obedience and not partial. He will not justify Christians who are disobedient. He says “I will not justify the wicked” (Ex. 23.7). God’s graces is only for the repentant Christians who turn away from sin and transgressing, but that grace will not cloak our cherished sins, nor give us liberty to break any of the Ten Commandments, His twofold law of love. Therefore Christians of today are guilty for breaking and ignoring this Time-Law, the Sabbath Commandment. They may treat the Sabbath lightly and unimportant, but not so with God, Christ, His Apostles, and the Jews and gentile converts. So when and why do we have this Sunday? It is due to the deliberate apostasy of that gigantic system of satanic masterpiece called “the man of sin” – the institution of the Papacy, the Roman church that had attempted to think to change God’s times and laws (Dan. 7.25; 2Thess. 2.3-10; Rev. 13 & 17), and yet this Mother of harlots had harlot daughters – the Protestants who shared the mother’s erroneous teachings, for example Sunday observance and immortality of soul. The former (Sunday observance) leads them to pay homage to the authority of Rome despite themselves, instead of to the Creator, while the other (Soul Immortality) leads them to accept and feel one with Spiritism and spiritualism, New Age, and eastern mysticism, mixed with the idea of Lucifer’s first deceit “you will not surely die, you will become like the gods”.

4) Romans 14.5 –some esteem this day, others this day. This verse is taken by relativists that we choose whatever rest day we wanted. The verse does not talk about the Sabbath day. The word “esteem” (Greek, krino = decide, judge, determine) is not the same as “keep holy” (Qadosh = sanctify) in the way God’s weekly Creation Sabbath is treated. But careless theologians and interpreters give it a meaning that to esteem this or that day means to keep this or that day holy. Remember, the word in Greek is “Krino” from whence we got “criminology”, “crisis”, “criticize”, “critique”, and “criteria”. Context shows that Sabbath rest is not the issue but forbearance towards fellow members who have different preferences. Some prefer this day above the other. While others that day. But Sabbath is not the issue here. Those gentile converts to “the faith of the Messiah” are proselytes to the Jewish faith in the God who created everything. There is no such thing as replacing Sabbath with Sunday here because in that cultural milieu, Sabbath is their day of worship as it had always been. And it would be unthinkable for a Jew and the gentile converts to change that day into what it was not, to introduce Sunday with the logic that Christ arose on that day – a logic not existing in the Renewed Testament writings. What Paul is telling here is merely a “preference” or the “esteem” one has on a favourite day. But Paul was not talking about the holy Sabbath day which was blessed by God and remains blessed forever, the day He calls “My holy day” (Isa. 58.13). That day no one has the right to set aside by saying “Well, it depends on me what rest day to choose. No one has the right for that, it depends on the person.

Romans 14.5 says so.” But man is not free to select which day he/she wants as rest day. “The Sabbath was made for humanity” (Mk. 2.27). God had commanded it to be kept, and it is not left with us to just squander that Command by inventing our own rest days. No one, no apostle, and no any human being is allowed to undo the Sabbath Commandment. No apostle has the right to alter, change, or invalidate that day. Paul is not referring to the Sabbath when he talks about days in Rom.14. That conclusion is the irreverent and disobedient excuse from many Christians who wants to do away with the Sabbath commandment. I don’t know why they hate the Sabbath when God so commanded them to Remember it in order to keep it holy. God, Christ, and the Apostles had never “unblessed” the Sabbath.

It was not Paul who said that we are to select our own rest day. That interpretation is from theologians who would like to make Paul speak what their perverse and disobedient hearts would devise. It is their wrong interpretation about the apostle just as in the case of their views on dietary laws, supposing that God now allowed us to eat dirty animals, and again ignoring Isa. 66.17 and 65.4 and doing an improper and incorrect exegesis on Mk. 19.7; Rom. 14; Acts. 10; 1Tim. 4.3, 4; Rom. 14.17; 1Cor. 10.25, 27; Lk. 10.8. They argue that those unclean animals were now clean as what they made Acts 10 to appear before us, ignoring Acts 10.17, 28. The fact is, human beings like the gentile centurion Cornelius was reckoned by God as clean by His grace. The character of human beings is changeable, but UNCLEAN ANIMALS REMAIN UNCLEAN. NO Page 62 of 174

PRONOUNCEMENT CAN MAKE THEM CLEAN. God’s pronouncements on these creatures remain as long as sin and physical pollution resides in this planet. God would want to protect His children by identifying what animals can be eaten, although ideally flesh foods are not God’s intent for the human family. Yet because of the scarcity of vegetation after the flood, flesh foods were permitted, but only of the clean animals. While other animals were reckoned as unfit for food. And no Jew or even a Paul could alter that pronouncement.

There was no specific statement from Paul that made light of this distinction of clean and the unclean, nor was there any specific statement from him that allowed the eating of unclean animals. Acts 15.28-29 tells us about what extent Torah should be followed by gentile converts. But these texts were taken from the context of Lev. 7.22-26; Lev. Chapter 11; and Lev. Chapter 19. Therefore all physical uncleanness and ethical holiness precepts in those passage ought to be binding on gentiles as well who are to present their physical bodies a living sacrifice for God. But why should dietary laws be viable on gentiles? Because the context where the decision in Acts 15.20, 28, 29 is in verse 21, that “Moses after all, has never lacked spokesmen in every town for generations past; he is read in the synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath.” These proselytes during the Apostolic times do not find it hard to follow every instructions specified in the Torah, unlike the anti-Jewish Christians at Rome and Alexandria who came in later after the death of the apostles. Therefore the Roman-catholics ’and Evangelical’s interpretations of those texts are the ones that are wrong and unexegetical, wholly anti-Jewish.

Moreover, flesh foods are not God’s intent for humanity. The divine ideal is the vegan diet. Our bodies do not need flesh foods at all. The science that tells us that we need that stuff such as the animal protein is nothing but politically and commercially motivated. And yet these pernicious lies are taught in schools and have well sunk in the consciousness of the masses. So we have the rise of Pharmacies and Pharma-dependent physicians who cannot treat diseases except when there is vast revenue of income from synthetic ingredients. They would not teach the use of natural herbs, exercise, adequate rest, plant-based nutrition, temperance, sunlight, fresh air, water, and trust in divine power, total avoidance of animal flesh -these inexpensive natural treatments.

Nutrition is almost unknown in their medicine subject because they are flatly ignorant about herbs and the plant-based medicines. All they care about is the money they can get from something they synthesize, and must not allow their patients to self-medicate using the natural way because in the natural, they can hardly get profit. Not all physicians are honest in paying taxes. Actors and actresses are better than them in this respect.

So why trust so much in licensed professions when what is licensed in the laws of the land usually go against God's natural Laws? The Divine ideal for treating diseases is the plant-based diet and natural treatment which includes sunshine, regular exercise, rest, fresh air, proper nutrition, water, temperance in all things, and trust in Divine power. These means are wholly ignored by physicians puffed-up in their knowledge of the artificial poisons. They despise the natural methods. They declare their profession legal, and denounce the natural way as illegal, unlicensed, mere "alternatives," and invalid, as if they alone are the arbiters in the field of healing and treatment. They cannot tolerate the natural and inexpensive way. Man in his pride invents the artificial, fooling the minds of society into something imaginary and unreal. Akin to this greed is the appetite for distinction and prestige. Man is not willing to be a nobody. “So deeply is human nature sunk in the evil of its own conceit and self-confidence that everyone wants to be looked up to, and not be the least, no matter how insignificant he may be” (Martin Luther). Take for example a city-dweller. The parents would inculcate to their children as inestimable value the love for profession. After the children were grown up, they are pleased to have their photographs with toga and academic distinctions displayed in their house. They themselves cannot print their names simply and artlessly but that they must attach titles to them such as “Dr., Ph. D., Prof.” as if the humble and less educated are obliged to pay respect and homage to them because they have achieved so high an academic accomplishment, and have reached the highest intellectual acumen which is no acumen at all but mere schooled stupidity or indecisive erudite objectivity. And so they cannot harmonize Christ “who made Himself of no reputation” (Phil. 2.5-8), who commanded His followers to humble themselves and be converted as a child 69 or else they cannot see the kingdom of heaven (Mtt. 18.1-4), and 69

“The tender age of little children is distinguished by simplicity to such an extent, that they are unacquainted with the degrees of honor, and with all the incentives to pride; so that they are properly and justly held out by Christ as an example.” (John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible: Matthew 18, Public domain: http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/matthew18.html. Calvin correctly grasp the emphasis of Christ that children do not have the appetite for distinctions and reputation-

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who strictly prohibited the use of rank-appellations (Mtt. 23.8-10), and who obliged all His followers to renounce self and take up the cross and follow Him (Mtt. 16.24). During Creation, the next thing God did to our planet is to “plant” a Garden. And so God is a farmer/gardener, indeed He is (Gen. 2.8; Jn. 15.1). He created Adam and Eve to be farmers (Gen. 2.15), the most peaceful, healthy, and blessed occupation. But what God ordained as the highest and most healthy, Satan caused to appear as the least and lowest of all professions. He seduced the world to regard as low what God esteems best for man. And so we have this urban mentality educating our young children to grow up in order to be talented, prestigious, and successful in the society. But none encouraged their children to be farmers and enjoy such lasting peace and healthy bodies.

Like the race of Cain in Genesis 4.21, 22, they loved to establish their status in a world cursed by sin, with its calloused arrogance (Gen. 4.23, 24), and like Nimrod and the corrupt race (Gen. 10.8-12), they want to be attuned to the spirit of statescraft and earthly distinctions (Gen. 11.4) until empires and conceited philosophies were born. But this love of dominion and distinction Christ would not tolerate (Mk. 10.42-45; Mtt. 23.8-10; Jn. 5.43, 44).

And if Paul invalidates the Sabbath in Rom.14.5, why should we replace it with Sunday? Why Sunday is the logical day in replacement for the Sabbath?

The reason they provide is that CHRIST AROSE ON SUNDAY THEREFORE WE CELEBRATE HIS RESURRECTION AS SIGN OF VICTORY; as if the Sabbath was not the sign anymore of Christ’s redemptive power: He made the world in six days and rested on the Sabbath day; He died on the sixth day, and rested the tomb at the Sabbath day. The parallel of this day tells us that Jesus is our Creator and Redeemer.

Sunday just don’t make sense. The Apostles had never gathered on Sunday with the mind of celebrating the Lords resurrection, but for fear of the Jews (Jn. 20.19, 26). If they gathered for worship, why should the doors be shut? But even after the resurrection, when the followers of the Messiah multiplied, Sunday was never known as the celebration day of Christ’s resurrection. Throughout the book of Acts, such logic and practice is not to be found. If we are to find text that supports the resurrection, that’s 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul talks a great deal about the resurrection. BUT HE WAS SILENT ABOUT SUNDAY HERE, OR THE RESURRECTION DAY, SUNDAY.70 He did not even mention Sunday as the day Christ arose from the dead. He simply said that Christ was risen and so we have hope. But no Sunday was ever mentioned, nor the “first day of the week.” In fact, Christ did not instruct us to celebrate His resurrection but His death (1 Corinthians 11:24-26).

5) Hebrews 4.4-11 and Matt. 11.28 –meant as Christ our ultimate rest. This is the argument of many Christians saying that we don’t need the Sabbath because Jesus is our rest. Yes, of course, He is, and will always be, as it had ever been. But the question is, why gather on Sunday? Where is the Divine mandate for that? Where does it say in the Scriptures that our rest is in Christ therefore it’s now Sunday? We cannot find any except the manmade interpretation of Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, and the host of anti-Semitic papal writers at Rome making Christ as gentile as they were. But Christ was and is and will remain a Jew, that is- a worshiper of the consciousness common to most adults who do not know how to esteem themselves as mere "nothings." Our Lord commands us clearly that we must renounce self if we should be His followers (Lk. 9.23). In all our accomplishments, self must not appear.

We are to crucify this love of self and love of honour, and banish it from our hearts, and let the glory of God alone appear.

70

That our Lord arose early at the first day of the week is uncertain and without Scriptural basis at all.. The event of the resurrection took place “in the end of the Sabbath” (Mtt.28.1 - KJV), other translations read “towards the end of the Sabbath.”

Many Jewish scholars who were converted to Christianity do not believe in the Sunday-as-resurrection-day theory since the Scripture does not strictly indicate the time except what we can find in Mtt.28.1. If we follow the three days three nights “in the belly of the fish/earth” (Mtt.12.40), then the Jewish reckoning of time is correct. The Passover during 31 C.E. occurred in Wednesday in Gregorian (solar calendar), and Jesus died in Wednesday 3:00 PM. The following day was a High day (Jn. 19.31), which is also the Passover Sabbath. And now after exact three 24 hours, a total of three days and three nights, “in the end of the Sabbath” (Mtt.28.1) towards dusk, Christ arose from the grave. That day is NOT Sunday as what the unthinking Christians had supposed for many centuries.

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true God, Yahweh, who Himself is that Yahweh (Jn. 8.58) in the sinful human flesh. Why not look for the words of God, Christ and the apostles for valid reasons, and not from non-apostles? In Romans 10.4 the apostle explains that Christ is the end of the law to everyone who is faithful. Indeed, Christ is the end of the law, terminating law-keeping as means of righteousness. Salvation is having Jesus and realizing His love, and so law-keeping will naturally follow. Without this realization, law-keeping is legalism, acted without love and heart-appreciation. One must look back what happened to Calvary –God liberating us from sin and from the penalty of the law. With this realization, one is led to repentance and one will delight in God and accept the Messiah who was the Lamb sacrifice. And once a person accepts Jesus, he/she also accepts His Law and His righteousness, His perfect character, His intense hatred against sin, and His constant, steady law-keeping spirit which is eternally vigilant against sin and would not fall into sin.

In Hebrews 4, the author instructs us about true Sabbath keeping. The true Sabbath-keeper must first have this rest in God’s finished work, and therefore, to rest from sin and human works. If a person attempts to keep the Sabbath holy without being first holy and restful in God, He failed to see the spirituality of the Sabbath Commandment. Sabbath-keeping is more than physical non-cooking (Ex. 16.22, 23), and non-working on that day (Ex. 20.8-11). It is rest from sin, and rest in Christ, of which the Sabbath day is a sign that God is our Creator and Sanctifier (Ezek. 20.12, 20; Ex. 20.8-11; Ex. 31.12-13, 16-17; Rev. 14.7; Ex. 20.11). No one can truthfully keep the Sabbath without himself being made holy and be able to rest from sin. And no one can truly keep all the laws unless one must first be justified and made holy, and had God’s eternal Laws written in the heart by steadfastness / faithfulness. Many among the Sabbath-keepers had not actually kept the Sabbath holy because they are not holy in the first place, and moreover, many of the Sunday-keeping Protestants who claim to be justified by Christ are not truly justified because the evidence of being justified is the ability to perfectly obey and keep God’s Laws. Many of these followers of God and the Messiah are not keeping the Sabbath both in spirit and to the letter of it. And because they see the Sabbath commandment as an externally written code, it condemns and kills them. They are guilty, and that commandment cannot do anything but condemn them.

But if the Spirit of the Law is written in their hearts, they will live in it, and the actions will follow. There is no condemnation to those who live in the spirit, that is, to those who has Christ in their hearts, because when Christ is in the heart, His Laws and eternal righteousness are also there. So why keep Sunday when the Commandment plainly shows us that the Sabbath should be kept? In Hebrews 4, it’s the same Sabbath. It does not endorse Sunday or any other days, but the same Sabbath. Where did our Evangelicals get this foreign Sunday observance and make it their regular practice? There is no salvific element in it. No true rest in the spirit. Worship on Sunday is not worshiping God “in spirit and in truth.” It is in Roman flesh and in falsehood.

6) Rev. 1.10 Lord’s day, -Sunday, according to Papal Christianity. This text is interpreted to mean Sunday even if the writer was a Jew. Then both the Roman-catholics and Evangelicals would quote the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas to prove their tradition of Sunday observance because if they find it in Scriptures, the only day recognized by God and Jesus as His day, “the Lord’s day” is none other than the holy Sabbath day (Isa. 58.13; Mk. 2.27, 28). Sunday was never the Lord’s day. Revelation 1.10 is NOT Sunday, but the Sabbath day. John was in the spirit during the Sabbath day. Christ revealed Himself to his apostle at Patmos in the day He is Lord of. And that day is NOT Sunday. The argument enhancing the status of Sunday as Lord’s day was wholly unscriptural. Most of these arguments were taken from mere non-apostles, from the gentile papal writers of that Roman church. Well, I have no business with believing human opinions especially in spiritual matters. There must be a direct “Thus saith the LORD”, “the law and the prophets/testimony,” “what is written in the Law,” and no more than that. Paul and John said that the spirit of the antichrist, the mystery of iniquity had begun already even in their times (2Thess. 2.7; 1 Jn. 4.2, 3). I conclude that the Didache, and other spurious documents that are not written by the apostles themselves are the manifestation of this lawless spirit of the antichrist, early setting the stage for the rise of that blasphemous lawless system at Rome. Why conclude that the Lord's day is Sunday when the apostles had not ordered or mandated it? Those conclusions were merely the opinions of Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and other non-apostles, all Jew-hating gentiles.

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7) Sunday advocates enthusiastically argue that after Gen. 2.1-3, no Sabbath-keeping or Sabbath observance was ever mentioned down to Exodus 16.22-23. But when asked where Sunday observance is ever mentioned after Gen. 2.1-3 down to Exodus 16.22-23, all we get are bewildering looks. The Bible has no Divine commandment about Sunday observance. Such logic is purely invented at Rome and Alexandria by gentiles who are non-apostles. Not a word from God, the Messiah, and His Jewish Apostles about any change of day of worship from the Sabbath into Sunday. Some desperate Sunday advocates argue that there is no sabbath at all in Genesis. But let me ask. Is there Sunday in Genesis? All you get are garbage answers.

8) Psalm 118.24 says “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” But the gentile interpreters such as Justin Martyr and other non-Jewish theologians take it out of context to mean Sunday. Hello? Israel’s faith has nothing to do with false heathen religions that do not recognize Yahweh the Creator of heavens and the earth. Those who worship on Sunday, and yet claim they knew the God of Adam, Abraham, Jacob, the Israelites, Moses, the Messiah and His apostles are excluded in that faith of Israel. Their connection to Jesus does not sanction their error about Sunday observance. Still they are disobeying the Commandment of God, and are counted as Sabbath-breakers in His sight.

Lastly, both Roman-catholics and Evangelicals would cite the writings of the church Fathers, the Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, and other Roman writers in support for a historical proof for the viability of Sunday observance. 71 But those very materials are the writings that help shape that blasphemous antichrist 71

“Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change in the Sabbath was made by their church, and they cite this very change as evidence of the supreme authority of this church. They declare that by observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath, Protestants are recognizing her power to legislate in divine things. The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to infallibility, and when the world and the Protestant churches accept the spurious sabbath of her creating, they virtually acknowledge her claim. They may cite the authority of the apostles and fathers in defense of this change, but the fallacy of their reasoning is easily discerned. The papist is sharp enough to see that Protestants are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to the facts in the case. As the Sunday institution gains favor, he rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.” (White, Ellen G., “The Seal of God”, No. 1, Signs of the Times, November 1,1899, last paragraph, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1899&month=November&d ay=1&paragraphReferences=0.

But even historical records within the Papal church, the evidences about Sabbath viability are not silent. For the following examples: 1) Ignatius (30-107 C.E.) “Let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God...After the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s day as a festival, the resurrection day, the queen and chief of all the days” (Ignatius, Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson eds., Vol. 1., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA [reprint 1993], pp. 52-63).

2) Apostolic constitutions (? – 4th Century C.E.) “Keep the Sabbath and the Lord’s day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection.” (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson eds., Vol. 7., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA [reprint 1993], p. 469).

3) Socrates –church historian (305-439 C.E.) “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this” (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chap. 19, trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), vol. 2, p. 132.

4) Sozomen –church historian (323-425 C.E.) “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome and Alexandria” (Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chap. 19, trans in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), vol. 2, p. 390.

The earliest part of Christian history outside Israel tells us that the Sabbath was still kept, except in Rome and Alexandria.

Furthermore, primarily it was Rome which led in this disregard of Sabbath observance by instituting Sunday in its stead, first by a secular Sunday Law by Constantine on March 7, 321 C.E., and next by a religious one by the Council of Laodicea stated

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system that had attempted to change times and the Law (Dan. 7.25; Dan. 8.23-25; Dan. 11.36; 2Thess. 2.3-12; Rev. 13 & 17), or the Papacy. But the opinions, suppositions, and inferences of the church leaders and the facts of history do not make them God’s Commandments. The Creator had not commanded that His Sabbath should be changed into Sunday. There was no such permission and Command even from Christ and His thirteen Jewish apostles. This logic is human invention and perversion. We have to distinguish God’s plain Commandments from human nonsense, most of which are invented and initiated at Rome. Sadly, the Evangelicals follows the road to Rome, instead of going back to Jerusalem where Christ spent all His life, and where the apostles took their seats as leaders of the first church. The centuries that followed were tainted with pagan impurities. Sunday is not a Christian teaching. It is unJewish and pagan. There was no any reason to alter the Sabbath commandment in order to accommodate Sunday. The logic that Sunday was celebrated in honour to the Messiah’s resurrection was unknown during apostolic times. The book of Acts had no record for Sunday-as-resurrection-celebration day; neither throughout the Scriptures is such reasoning to be found. The Apostles and the original Christians did not celebrate Sunday to commemorate the Messiah’s resurrection, did they? Such practice was unknown. And why should His resurrection to be celebrated when there was no any reason for its celebration, just as His birth was never celebrated by His Jewish followers and the gentile converts? The command was that His death should be remembered (not celebrated). 72 Paul wrote about Christ’s resurrection in 1Cor. 15 but he did not even mentioned Sunday. There was nothing significant in this day to Paul’s mind. The only thing that matters is that Jesus arose from the dead, and that gives us hope. But the logic that it is to be celebrated on Sunday is a gentile conception of Justin Martyr, and the rest of the in Canon 29 in 364 C.E. prohibiting rest on the Sabbath, and that Christians should work on that day. The Council of Orleans (538 C.E.) prohibited even agricultural pursuits. In 585 C.E. in a council at Macon, Gaul, the council declared “Sunday is the day of perpetual rest,” and that a disregard of this command incurs penalty, the wrath of God, and “the unappeasable anger of the clergy.” In 596 C.E. Augustine wrote to Pope Gregory that Briton Christians were “given to Judaising” and “were ignorant of the holy sacraments and festivals of the church.” That is, they observe the Sabbath and were ignorant of Sunday observance.

In 602 C.E. Pope Gregory called the Sabbath-keepers, “preachers of anti-christ.” He said that “Christ is our Sabbath.” In 664 C.E. King Oswald of Northumberland ordered Sunday observance. But Sabbath-keepers, instead of submitting to it, withdrew to the Isle of Iona and to Ireland. Between 732-769 C.E. another step was taken for making Sunday as Sabbath, depreciating the true Sabbath. In 791 C.E. the Council of Friuli, Italy mentioned “the Sabbath” as the day “observed by the Jews and our rustics." (And not just rustics, nor “the rustics,” but “our rustics”: this gives us the evidence that the Sabbath was still observed even in the Roman church. Pope Nicolas 1 (858-867 C.E.,) pronounced that Sabbath rest “is the doctrine of anti-Christ"; but that Sunday rest “is obligatory.” Hello??? But in 1069 C.E. the believers in Scotland were still keeping the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, “literally upon the seventh day of the week.” And now even the Protestant’s Augsburg Confession (1530) had clearly admitted that the observation of the Lord’s day, Sunday, had been appointed by the church only. Booom! So here we have our Protestants’ inconsistency in that they profess to accept Sola Scriptura, and yet, in their Sunday observance, they have “Bible and tradition.” The Puritans had put themselves into open shame by their distinction of having popularized the idea of Sabbath as applying to Sunday. Previously they were ridiculed in this because people saw their inconsistency in rejecting church’s authority while accepting Sunday as Sabbath. Outside ecclesiastical sanctions were the secular laws favouring and enforcing Sunday as day of rest, so that what Christians now popularly (ignorantly) recognize is Sunday as the glorious resurrection celebration, while the true Sabbath day, God’s “day of delight” was placed in the background and buried into oblivion. Man violates His commandment to “REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY,” and exalts laws of their own abnormalities and perversities. But all this makes man in place of God and the pivot of this human rebellion is the exaltation of papal Sabbath in place of God’s Sabbath. Therefore Sabbath observance is making human reason and human laws above the laws of the Almighty. This is false worship, and false Christianity. Sunday observance as Rome has changed it means worship of the Papacy as God in the place of God. It is the sign of man in place of God and above God, and this sign of man (666) is when Sunday becomes a law that coerced everyone so that people cannot buy or sell without paying homage to this sign of man, the sign of human rebellion against God’s high authority. Sunday observance is placing the creature above the Creator, and the laws of the church above the Laws of God. 72 There were only two events that the word “celebrate” applies, one is on the seven days Feast of Tabernacles just after the Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] (Lev. 23.41 –“And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.”), and the other is on the Sabbath day (Lev. 23.32- “from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.”). Birthdays, resurrections, and the day after the Passover week were not celebration days. Celebrating birthdays is pagan. Celebrating a god’s resurrection is pagan (Mithraism). Celebrating Easter Sunday is Papal (read pagan), and both unJewish and non-Apostolic. Christmas is –hello? Where did we Christians get this nonsense?

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Roman-writers who were anti-Jews, in their attempt to distinguish themselves from the Jews, and to cast contempt upon the Jewish faith. But the fact is, it is even doubtful whether Christ arose on Sunday, because the resurrection event happened “in the end of the Sabbath” (Mtt.28.1), toward the dusk, yet it was still within Sabbath hours, and not after the Sabbath. It was the gentile converts who are enthusiastic in that logic about celebrating Sunday as Christ’s resurrection despite the indefinite proof from Scriptures on the contrary.

It should be remembered that originally, Christians were composed of Jews who believed in their own Messiah. But because many resist this belief and would not endure that it was their own Yahshua of Nazareth, the apostles turned to the uncircumcised gentiles who gladly received “the faith of Yahshua” the Messiah. But even before Paul went around the world, there were gentile converts called “proselytes” (Acts 2.10), converts to what? To the faith of Israel, Judaism, in the hope that the Messiah will come. Therefore, true Christianity is within the bounds of Judaism, and should remain within it, and is nevertheless a Jewish sect at its best. The teachings of Jesus and Paul were rabbinic. But it was the legalism of the rabbis which had poisoned God’s ideal of grace for His people, making Judaism a system of human tradition. And men are tempted to obey God’s law in their own strength without being conscious of Christ, the true sacrifice for sin. Therefore Jesus and Paul came to correct the faith and attacked errors, and turn it to what it ought to be, “the just shall live by his faithfulness/ steadfastness” (Habakkuk 2.4; Lk. 16.10-12; Matt. 25.21-23; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10.38, 39; Heb. 3.6, 14; Rev. 2.10; Mtt. 24.13; Mtt. 5.20, 48). But there was NO CHANGE in the Ten Commandments. It cannot be changed. The Sabbath day can know no change because “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2.27, 28), and it remains eternal so long as we have the same Creator who will be with His obedient people of this age and to eternity in the world made new (Isa. 66.22, 23; Rev. 21.3; Ezek. 37.26-28; Jer. 32.37-38; Zech.

8.7, 8).

Sunday was made a Christian holiday only at Rome and Alexandria whose church leaders were anti-Jewish.

The rest of Christendom originally observed the true Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week. Interestingly, nothing less than the Roman writers themselves acknowledge this fact. Even as late as in the thirteenth century C.E., the Sabbath was still kept by the Waldensians and many other Christians who do not want human inventions to crowd out God’s true words. They cannot afford to mingle human traditions nor any ecclesiastical pronouncements as their criterion however learned the theologian or scholar expounds them.

Error is error, and it can only be defined and pointed out by God’s plain words. Therefore we should obey only the plain “THUS SAITH THE LORD”, and not “THUS SAITH THE CHURCH”, nor “THUS SAITH THE NON-APOSTLES OR CHURCH HISTORIANS.” When the Sabbath is restored in its rightful place, our conception of what is right is also restored, and our views on the Creator is attuned. And the dynamics of human abnormalities on the cosmic scale is better understood. Sunday observance is unrighteousness by works and human inventions, or unrighteousness by unfaithfulness.

Now Sunday observance (invalidating God’s true Sabbath) is the one major papal error that leads the Sundaykeeping Protestants to look with contempt upon the rest of the Ten Commandments, and gives them fresh courage to deny its validity altogether in the name of grace, as if the grace of Christ is antagonistic against His Father’s Law or His own Law, and therefore the Father is against the Son, and the Son tolerates sin and lawbreaking and Sabbath-breaking in the name of grace. This perverted interpretation on Paul is the evidence that it is the Sabbath Commandment they do not like. They would not see that this is the only Time-Law that defines God the Creator, and we His subjects and created beings, animate and inanimate. They hate God’s Sabbath for no reason. Their first object is to invalidate and undermine the Sabbath Commandment by quoting largely on the writings of the non-apostles such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Eusebius, Sylverstre 1, Aquinas, and the rest of the gentile authors, as if they were apostles themselves ordained by God to historically alter any iota or dot of His Law. After destroying the Sabbath, this will give them a pretext to destroy the rest of the Commandments claiming that it’s the Mosaic Law abolished at Christ’s death, as if Christ had come down to do away the with Law His own mouth had spoken at Sinai. The Sabbath therefore is the root of their Page 68 of 174

entire problem with their concept of grace. Remove the Sabbath and all the rest of the Commandments come to nothing. But it was the papal system which was so effective enough in officially removing the Sabbath Commandment from the Decalogue with only its feeble argument that Christ’s resurrection needs to be celebrated on Sunday, and that we celebrate grace on Sunday, no longer works such as the Sabbath Commandment, as if the Sabbath is a work and not a rest. This grace-celebration encourages sin to multiply, and the root is Sunday observance. People no longer have the correct sense of the importance of God’s Ten Commandments. They despise it as irrelevant. They look with scorn upon the Sabbath. Therefore this particular Commandment is still externally written to them condemning them. This was not written in their hearts, and this alone, until time will come they will realize its importance, and that there is no sanction from the Scriptures of their Sunday-observing because God has no mandate to alter His Sabbath commandment in any dispensations of grace. Old or Renewed Testaments, God’s Sabbath knew no change, and needs no change. We ought to see the light in this truth, and abandon forever this papal error. I see the clear connection between Rome and the Evangelicals in this particular. Sunday observance unites the Evangelicals to the Papacy, just as their belief in soul immortality and eternal torment links them to spiritualism and New Age. Some desperate theologians might unsettle God’s Sabbath commandment with arguments about the uncertainty of the Sabbath using Lunar Calendar, arguments from Gen. 2 that there was no Sabbath in that text, and some other numerous perverse arguments. But when you ask them one thing, WHY GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND ENDORSE SUNDAY IF GOD’S SABBATH COMMANDMENT SHOULD NOT BE KEPT? The answers we get are pure garbage of human nonsense, no word of God, of Christ, or apostles, for we cannot get any Commandment from the Scriptures or any statement that the Creation Sabbath was replaced by Sunday, or that God intended that this Time-Law will be obscured by any human reasoning and philosophies. We can have whatever argument we can turn to, and win, and resist God Himself, just as Lucifer resisted God’s rule and rebelled against Him. The opposition attitude that refuses to be convinced in the light of evidence show that one is not willing to obey. Arguments however brilliant, is not the basis for truth because the bias is set in whatever position one chooses. For example, I can perfectly refute Sabbatarians’ arguments, but the motive behind my acts is not the truth per se, but mere refutation of the Sabbatarians. Unconsciously, these men are rebelling against the Creator Himself, and say in effect that there is no God. During Christ’s day, there was this perversion of God’s Laws, but in the last days, the intensity of such perversion will be perpetuated by “the children of disobedience,” who “break the Law and teach others the same” (Mtt. 5.19), and that by the apostate Protestants who seek union with the “man of sin/lawlessness” the Papacy. And just as God’s Commandment keeping people will be distinguished by their righteousness and perfect obedience to all God’s Laws, so the children of disobedience will be distinguished by their wickedness and utter disdain to all God’s Laws and all order. God’s saints will have character that fits them for eternity, but Satan’s followers will have imperfect characters that fit them for hell. The Sabbath Commandment brands God’s saints as His people, and their keeping it signifies that God is their Creator and Sanctifier (Ezekiel 20:12, 20). Sunday is the mark of Apostasy, inasmuch as Sunday is the mark of Roman sovereignty.

In the next instance, let us observe the Diagram of normality and abnormality in Christ’s day:

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(Diagram 2.4) FROM NORMAL VALUES TOABNORMAL VALUES: During the Messiah’s day and the Renewed Testament Times)The Divine ideal is aligned at the top boxes, while the human ideal were listed below it.

DIVINE IDEAL: Grace and restfulness

EVIL HUMAN IDEAL: Human works and restlessness

Love for God and man.

(false) Love for God, and no love for man (1Jn.4.20, 21).

The Jews of that time were zealous for the Law. In that zeal, their Messiah was killed, Paul (Saul) persecuted Christianity.

Love to God was strong, love to man is selfish. They only love those they consider neighbours and who are lovable. They find it hard to love their enemies and forgive.

God is worshiped, no idols.

God is worshipped, but religious teachers were also revered, obeyed, and followed as guides.

Rabbinic opinions were preferred.

SABBATH: a day of blessing, doing good (Mtt. 12.12; Lk. 13.16)

SABBATH: burdensome, with additional rabbinic traditions

FOOD: (unclean animals) Not an issue (Mk.7.19). The context is Jewish.

Does not make sense to allow unclean animals to be eaten by Jewish audience

FOOD: food sacrificed to idols, food as a material evil, an issue (1Cor.8 & 10; Rom.14.; 1Tim.4.3).

Unclean animals (Act.10) not an issue; it’s the gentiles, being referred as unclean. They are cleansed. But the unclean animals remain the same until today. The “broma” in 1Tim. 4.3 means “food” or “meal”, NOT just flesh meat.

Unclean animals were never created to be eaten with thanksgiving. Paul has no authority to pronounce clean what God had pronounce unclean.

Therefore the interpretation making Paul to say that he allows unclean foods to be eaten is gentile and wrong.

COUNTRYLIVING: Jesus and John the Baptist both lived in the rural districts. They have Strong bodies and powerful discerning minds.

MINISTRY: Empty of reputation, maverick or “warik-warik” ministry, no fixed income, salary, or home, selfsupporting (Phil. 2.5-8; Mtt. 8.19, 20; Mtt. 10.911; Lk. 10.4-9; Lk. 12.15; 2Cor. 11.19; 2Cor. 12.16; 1Thess.

2.9; 2Thess. 3.6-12); Empty of human praises, derives honour or accreditation from God alone (Jn. 5.41, 43; Gal. 1.1, 12; 1Cor. 1.2531.)

CITY-DWELLING: A mission field, where sick and distorted people crown together.

The ministry is in the city, since the Old Testament times to our day. But living in the cities is not ideal. It is rather a sick mission field to be worked by healthy reformers who were raised in the countryside.

MINISTRY: Urban distinctions and accumulation of titles, degrees (Mtt. 23.8-12; Mk. 10.42-45; Mk.12.38, 39; Lk. 16.15), wealth (Lk. 16.19; Lk. 20.47; Mk. 12.40), hirelings (Jn. 10.12, 13) who bans and ostracize reformers (Jn. 9.22, 34; Mtt. 23.32; Jn. 16.2; Mtt. 10.17; Jn. 11.45-53; Acts 4.1-7;

EDUCATION: Uncorrupted by schools of theology, Jesus and John stood with their originality unspoiled.

Although maverick, yet their ministry was a power in the world.

EDUCATION: poisoned by popular rabbinic opinions, the disciples at first found it hard to discern the spiritual teachings of Jesus (Mtt.15.12-17; Mk. 8.15-21; Mtt.16.612; Lk. 12.1). It is only when “the Spirit of Truth,” apart from theology, taught them the mysteries about God clearly that they fully understood and appreciate the beauty of His simple, yet grand teachings. Most people who depend on the teachings of their theologians cannot discern God’s voice clearly.

The disciples and followers of the Messiah were poisoned just as in our days by the interpretations of the theologians. God’s ideal was obstructed by the complications of theology. They could not hear God’s voice speaking directly to their hearts. What they hear were the opinions of their religious leaders because they look up to them as their guides. God was not heard actually. It was the professors of theology that is preferred.

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schools brought confusion to their perceptions about their heavenly Father. They viewed God as a vindictive judge ready to inflict punishment upon every mistake, and so the religious leaders multiplied their ceremonies and commandments as if to appease an angry God. The views of the materialistic Sadducees that God is detached from creation makes them frigid as they view such a god as dismal and uninvolved, similar to Calvin’s. The Pharisees would separate themselves from the common people and the undesirables. Other kindred separatists view marriage and food as material evil. These are due primarily to their idolatrous esteem towards their religious teachers, and a love for their opinion. They do not want to see the beauty and simplicity of the plain “thus saith the LORD.” They make the law hard on themselves, so that it becomes a burden instead of a delight. The Law became a curse, and not blessing. Instead of serving God truly and steadfastly, they descended into mechanical obedience or legalism devoid of love for God. Until they came to believe that keeping the law itself brings salvation, without understanding their reason for keeping it, and the event that prompts them to obey, viz., God loves them, and in such depth of gratitude they obey from the heart.

Jesus and Paul had no problems with the Law from their days to our time. That Law of the Ten Commandments as God wrote in His own fingers remain unchanged and valid as long as He exists. What the Messiah and Paul attacked is man’s treatment of it, and the wrong way it was lived, by both Jews and gentile converts alike. Christ and Paul pierced through the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees being not satisfied with it, and would have the internal religion, not the external performance of rites and even the works prescribed by the law. And that had always been the right way as God intended it to be: faithfulness or steadfastness, not by legal performance of the deed devoid of heart-willingness.

But there was the same Law as found in the Ten Commandments, and the same Sabbath. Food or the noneating of unclean animals was never an issue because even the gentile converts are converted to the faith of the Jews, which means, they are not to eat unclean animals and are to worship the Creator by observing the Sabbath.73 The issue was whether circumcision is still applicable. Paul would not agree since it should be in the heart. But concerning the dietary laws, the unclean animals were never allowed in the Renewed Testament. The issue at stake was whether or not a gentile convert should eat animals offered to idols, or animals strangled, and the prohibition of blood. Some Christians who are strong in faith would argue that since pagan gods do not have real existence, food offered to these gods cannot harm a person. While others who are pagan will see in such boldness a blot in Christianity. They would see that Christians are also idolaters like them because they ate foods offered to idols. Paul says that such foods are not unclean because the gods of the pagans do not actually exist. But those foods that are offered to idols of which Paul said it is alright to eat are bulls, lambs, oxen, and goats. Those were clean animals from the Jewish standpoint in Lev.11. Therefore if Paul says that it is okay to eat those animals, there would have been no issue because culturally, even the meat offerings of the pagans were clean animals from God’s standard as found in Lev.11 &Deut. 14. Further in Mark 7:19, the text had been grossly mistranslated in other versions to mean that Christ allowed the eating of all foods, clean and unclean. Context does not warrant such view because the issue is not about clean and unclean animals but the eating with unwashed hands and the ceremonial defilement concomitant to it.

Syntactically, the Greek antecedent of meats is its “purging” and “the latrine”, which does not translate as “saying all foods clean,” as what some translations had carelessly mistranslated. Moreover, it would be nonsense and out of context for the Messiah when the argument is about hand-washing and the evils of human hearts, and then He would blurt out suddenly announcing that all animals are to be eaten, clean and unclean.

That would make no sense to the Jewish audience; maybe for the gentiles. But the audience were Jews, and not gentiles in Mk. 7. Yet even the gentile converts are converts, meaning, they obey Jewish law, and are no longer gentiles. That is, they have read the Laws of God given through Moses, and forsook their gentile way of thinking, living, and eating. So how could it be possible for a convert to wallow in the eating of unclean 73

The text in Acts 15: 19-20, 28, 29 were taken from Leviticus chapter 11; Leviticus 7:22-26 in the context of Leviticus 19:2.

The reason why there is no redundant mention of those clean and unclean distinctions is that “Moses, after all, has never lacked spokesman in every town for generations past; he is read in the synagogues Sabbath by Sabbath.” (Acts 15.21). The pronouncement in Acts 15 does NOT allow in any sense the eating of unclean animals.

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animals again? For what purpose was his/her conversion? Conversion to go back and become a gentile again, or conversion to the faith of Israel, to “Yahweh who is the true goal and hope of their forefathers”? (Jer. 6.7) The big picture in Romans chapters 1 & 2 is that God plays no favourites in His dealing with humanity. Jews and gentiles were on equal footing, condemned and justified. The Jews had no reason to boast of their possession and knowledge of the Law, and the unclean gentiles are also justified because even if they have no law known to them, they did what the law required as written in their hearts. In my dynamics of sin abnormality, just as natural descent or lineage will not entitle one automatically for salvation, the supposed depravity of the gentiles do not automatically merit them damnation. Nature whether depraved or born-holy is not something to be depended upon; it’s the choice, the God-enabled ability to submit to the authority of Christ, and to remain therein. Therefore Christ’s being born holy does not make His automatically sinless and righteous. He had to be tested many times and severely whether He will remain steadfast or not. Indeed, He seems to have faltered at Gethsemane had not an angel was sent to strengthen Him (Lk. 22.43). This was God’s grace to finite and fallen human nature as in Christ’s fallen human nature which was about to yield to the temptation of giving up, and to fall into sin. That weak nature did not fall because God’s grace hold Him up, and He Himself taxed His human strength and place it on the will of God no matter the great inconvenience. Jesus was victorious in the struggle with perversity and depravity not by nature, but by choice and resolution. His victory was not due to natural powers in that filthy flesh because there was no any good in it but all badness, selfishness, and vileness. Rather, it was His God/angel-enabled human choice and steadfastness that rise above the difficulty of His sinful flesh that made the difference. The perfect obedience required of Christ is also required of us, just as it was required of Adam and the rest of the saints. Only those who died holy and obedient to the last are counted as God’s people. We may fall many times, but God works through our efforts to the end that we will be faithful at last. And allowing His Laws to be permanently written in our hearts, we will never again fall into sin, but will perfect in this lifetime the righteousness required, and overcome sin completely just as our Master had done.

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III. Treatment of human Abnormalities (in the light of Romans 3:20 to Romans 8, and Scriptures) Note: Romans 8 should be viewed in the light of Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 4:7 since the Torah is the basis from which all teachings in the Judeo-Christian domain come from, and not vice versa. Paul should be interpreted from the perspective of Christ’s own theology, commands, and teachings, and not vice versa, since He is the only legitimate Interpreter of God and of what man ought to do concerning salvation. The Spirit of Christ speaks through Paul, but we get our Christian theology from the commands of Christ, and Christian theology centres on Christ’s teachings as the only standpoint.

Paul detailed the wonderful fact of God’s free gift of grace apart from any efforts on our part. We do not deserve it. What we deserve is death because in Adam, we who participate in his sin will also have to die. But Christ was sent to impute His righteousness to us and died for us “while we were yet sinners”. Wonderful love! We are already entitled for salvation. God was already reconciled to us and have forgiven us in Christ.

Just as Christ treated the sinners in Luke 12, so God treated sinners as if we have never fallen. Therefore Paul exhorted the believers “be reconciled to God”. This means that while God is reconciled to us, it does not follow that He is reconciled to our sins. It is left with us through the Spirit He has given that we “mortify the deeds of the body,” (Rom.8.13). Just as we are to reckon ourselves “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2.20). Jesus Himself commanded us to take up the cross daily, renounce self, and follow Him (Lk. 9.23). This means that we must put to death the old Adam moment by moment by the power of the Spirit, because if that old sinful Adam will live again, the Law will put it to death. And now as sinners, we have been dead already. And just as Christ was risen from the dead, so we are to live in such a way as we are newly created in the spirit, and not in the works of the flesh which is under the condemnation of the Law. The Law of sin do not hold dominion over us because we are under grace. And those who are under grace since the time of Adam are actually not under the condemnation of the Law for they remain in Christ. Because if He truly lives in us, the righteousness of God as expressed in the Law is fully written in our hearts. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, who lives in the Spirit, that is, in harmony with the righteousness of God as expressed in that spiritual Law. And there is no condemnation for those who truly obey the Law because that is living according the Spirit, and not the evil works of the flesh. But condemnation is upon those who are disobedient to that Law. And since there are those who had been disobedient, they need Christ to dwell in their hearts in order to become obedient. And if Christ is truly living in their hearts, they are obedient and are not under condemnation or the penalty of the Law. The presence of Christ in the soul expels sin, and the Laws are written in the hearts by steadiness/steadfastness/faithfulness. But sometimes we allow “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things” (Mk. 4.19) to choke the Word, the “Christ in you” (Col. 1.27) to die out. Therefore we are expected to be vigilant at all times, to maintain that connection between us and God, and never to allow anything in this world to come between us and our Saviour. We ought to watch and pray always, and obey. God will not do the watching for us. He will not do the obeying or the praying for us. We are to show and to exert our effort on our part because we appreciate the salvation He had so freely bestowed on us. And if we are truly reconciled to Him, we must also be reconciled to His law and righteousness.

WHAT ABOUT ORIGINAL SIN. IS IT REAL? SIN, -YES; BUT GUILT, NO, DEFINITELY NO. Sin entered the world, and its effects are experienced by all. Adam our father was the primary instigator of sin in the world so that by his example other human beings on their own free will were also influenced to commit sin. They may not sin the way Adam did, but they do so “by disobeying a direct command” (Rom. 5.14).

Adam’s misdeed made/placed (Katestathesan –aor, pass, ind.) all people in a position of condemnation (v.18), and so also by the Messiah’s righteous act, all will be made/placed (Katastathesontai –Fut, pass, ind.) in a position of acquittal. The effect of lawbreaking had been experienced by all Adam’s offspring, including bad traits. But guilt cannot be communicated except if one actually commits sin. By one man’s sin death (NOT sin) reigned (v.17). Death spread to all because of the sins of all, or EPH-HO PANTES HEMARTON “upon whom”, “in whom” all have sinned. The translations that make sense should be: “For this reason death spread to all in whom all [who] have sinned” or “for the reason that death spread to all because of the sins of all.”

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Death happens as consequence of sin actually committed. No committing of sin means no death, like Enoch and Elijah and the 144,000. Not every individual in this planet have actually sinned, but only those “in whom”, “upon whom” are sins found, in those who actually committed sin. Using 1Cor. 15.22 as metaphor to prove original sin is inadequate because we cannot find “sin” there, but “death.” It is death that we inherited, and the sin which we have participated in being influenced by the initial disobedience of Adam. But we do not inherit the guilt. There is no guilt attached to a child who has inherited the sinful genes or bad traits from one’s parents. Guilt comes only when one is enticed and yielded to evil desires (James 1.14-15; Prov. 5.22), and when one commits sin (Jn. 8.34). One who commits sin is of the devil (See 1Jn. 3.8), and an infant has no ability to commit any sin. He/she has to have a purpose and intent before he can have the capacity to “commit” sin. It is POION pres., act., part. =practicing, committing. This is something which is not nature, but a conscious choice, a doing, a practicing, the intending of one’s purposes. Just as imputing sin or guilt upon our race as what God did because of Adam does not mean that every person of this planet was actually and inherently made sinners by that divine verdict of condemnation, nor such a positioning (Katestathesan) transform all Adam’s offspring to become inwardly sinners and inwardly guilty, but only “in whom” all who have sinned, so justification does not in heart instantaneously alter the inherent moral qualities of a race pronounced justified. Paul’s concluding statement in Rom. 5.21 is succinct: “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is, grace might establish its reign DIA DIKAIOSUNES (Lit. “through belonging to righteousness”). The grace received is useless if there is not resolve to forsake sin and do right. Just as Rom. 5.19 does not make man automatically righteous, but that the righteous example of Christ influences people to be righteous especially those receptive to it, so pronouncing the race wicked or sinful does not make them qualitatively wicked except if one chooses to be wicked.

In Gen. 3, the ground was cursed for the sake of man. Man must work. But God appointed work as a blessing.

The earth was cursed “for your sake”. For the benefit of man it was cursed. Work is always a blessing before and after the fall. Idleness is sin and a curse, work is not. Adam was to work and eat from the seat of his brow.

But then it was not bad in itself. “And the life of toil and care which was henceforth to be man's lot was appointed in love. It was a discipline rendered needful by his sin, to place a check upon the indulgence of appetite and passion, to develop habits of self-control. It was a part of God's great plan of man's recovery from the ruin and degradation of sin.”74 Even after the fall, God’s pronouncement about the subjection of the woman to the husband, the work, and the enmity were for their rehabilitation and for their upliftment. Even if their body are to decay and lost vitality, they are still to be tested, and they are to learn from their errors and to become steadfast to the end. Depravity is not the issue, but the obedience, because why were Enoch and Elijah who were descendants of the fallen and depraved race of Adam were given the chance to get to heaven without seeing death? Are they born more righteous and more perfect that Adam before the fall? Yes. How? Their choice and not their nature. Therefore it is not the sinful, fallen, and depraved nature that we make excuse for our mistakes and imperfection in doing God’s will. It is the choice. We can choose by God’s enabling grace and by the power of His Spirit not to sin. By His grace we can choose to live perfectly without committing iniquity (Ezek. 33.15). We can overcome. And there have been millions of saints in the past who have overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Imperfect nature and depravity is not the hindrance, it is the wrong choice. And God will hold us accountable for our choices.

There is one aspect I would like to re-emphasize in God’s gift of salvation for the humanity. The problem with some legalist Jews is that it is hard for them to accept God’s free salvation. They suppose that it had to be worked, and that they deserve their due from God after they have performed His commandments. They will have to curse God if His blessing is lacking. Therefore the relationship is legal. But with gentile converts it is different. They looked upon themselves as the Jews look at them: dogs and outcasts. Surprised that the 74

White, The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets (1890), p. 60. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=60.

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message of hope, and that God was gracious to offer salvation to them, they took it as free gift. Those who are truly converted with the thought that Christ died for them both Jews and gentiles and have fully appreciating that gift exceeds the demands of the letter of the law and loved God not for the sake of rewards but because His loved had overflowed to their response, and their response overflowed without any consideration whether they die or live. The thing is they are just happy. And the world thinks they are insane. 75Yet the concept of grace is not original in the Renewed Testament as well as the filthiness and inadequacy of human righteousness. Daniel, Isaiah, David, and those who encountered God’s searing holiness felt sinful in His presence so that only by His grace they too are to be justified.

There was nothing wrong with any of the laws of God. Man’s treatment of it is the problem. Man would not submit to His righteousness and thought himself able to be righteous apart from Christ, and apart from His enabling grace which prompts righteous choices. Because of that legalism the Messiah and the apostles corrected the false notion, -the multiplicity of human traditions invented by the rabbis and theologians of their time. Whereas God’s laws were simple and comprehensive, they complicate it 76 and multiply its regulations 75

Christians are abnormal from the world’s perspective. What is normal in the world is to walk in the broad way (Mtt. 7.13), to drink and be merry for tomorrow will be as today or better still (Isa. 56.12; 2Pet. 3.3, 4; Mtt. 24.38, 48-51; ) and to deny God by saying “He does not matter” (Jer. 5.12; Isa. 30.11). But the Christians are different. Indeed, they are abnormal if seen from the perspective of a society that is selfish and egotistic. A Christian is selfless and self-sacrificing. A psychologist will conclude that they are self-hating and self-depreciating. A Christian would not enjoy what sin-loving society enjoys, or any enjoyment that has no Christ in it. Therefore they are viewed as killjoy, odd, eccentric or weird. A Christian sets his affection on things above, even as where Christ is (Phil. 3.20; Col.3.1-4; Phil. 4.8; Mtt. 6.19-21; Lk.16.9-12) and have no undue anxiety for earthly provision just like what the gentiles live for, -what to eat, drink, and wear, but to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness (Mtt. 6.25-34); hence the misrepresentation that they are narrow-minded hermits, just like how Jesus appear to Pilate (Jn.18.35-37 – Here Jesus said that He is King and the spread of His kingdom consists of truth implanted and practiced in life. Pilate might have thought in his mind about what he understood of Jesus’ kinghood: “What? You are a king, and Your kingdom consists only of words and truth? Surely You are no threat to me”. Pilate might have supposed that Jesus is like some hermit who knew nothing about empire and government). Christians generally do not feel at home in this world. And since they reckon themselves as pilgrims and strangers in this planet (Heb.11.13), having some home in heaven prepared by Jesus (Jn. 14.1-3), they are deemed schizophrenics with psychotic episodes of “spiritual” hallucinations. Christians do not enjoy what the world ordinarily enjoys (fornication, covetousness, love of distinction or prestige -1Jn. 2.16; See Gal. 5.19-21). They endure persecutions, hatred, calumny, poverty, and deprivation for the sake of strict moral integrity. They hate sin, and their moral purity cannot harmonize with the corrupt majority, and so they sorrow for the sins of the world just as the sorrow of Abraham for the sinners at Sodom and Gomorrah. The godless world sees their grief useless, bitter, and stupid. But the tears of a Christian are sweeter than the joys of the world. The folly of the Christians cannot be understood by the natural mind in its selfish, egotistic state. Some of the texts shows to what lengths this folly lead them: See Heb. 11.13-16, 33-40; James 5.11; Mtt. 5.10-12; 1Cor. 4.10-16; 2Cor. 11.23-31; Rom. 8.35-39; 2Cor. 5.13-17; Jn. 6.57; Mk.10.29, 30; Mtt.16.24. And because the world cannot comprehend their high moral standard, they are hated by the majority. The purity of the Christians condemns the excess and impurities of the world, and so they will be subject to malicious attacks and character assassinations. The wickedness of the wicked will project their own blackness and paint upon the saints the attributes of their own black hearts.

They will see the righteous just as vile as themselves. There is nothing holy or good to the wicked. Their eyes are darkness, and so what they see is black. They cannot see the beauty of holiness, nor appreciate truth and righteousness. The glory of Christ which is the life and happiness of the righteous is to them torture and destruction that they must turn away from it (Rev. 6.1517); while the righteous who are pure in heart “who loved His appearing” will welcome Him with the words: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” They are pure and holy in hearts, so they will not wish to hide from His glory but will welcome it with rejoicing, because their hearts were in perfect accord to His principles of righteousness. And they hate sin just exactly as God felt towards it. They are sons and daughters of God while in this earthly pilgrimage, and therefore they are fully partakers of His divine nature, and not the depraved nature which was no longer potent (Isa. 25.9; Tit. 2.11-15; 2Tim. 4.8; Jn. 16.22,23; Mtt. 5.8; Heb. 12.14; Lev. 19.2; 2Pet. 2.2-11; 1Jn. 3.1-3; Jn. 1.12, 13).

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God made man simple and straightforward, but we complicate ourselves (Eccl. 7.29). And so with a sinful heart’s treatment of God’s simple laws of love, they complicate it and armed them with legalistic applications. They invented creeds and systematic theology, and ostracize as “heretics” and “cults” those who do not conform to their paper inventions. The fact is, Creeds are not “the law and the prophets” or “the law and the testimony” (Isa. 8.20). The criterion of the believers in Christ should be plain “Thus saith the LORD”, and not “thus saith the church” or “thus saith Justin Martyr, John Calvin, and

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to the extent that the rabbinic laws and the people’s understanding of the Laws given to Moses was leavened with the attitude of legalism instead of doing it as what it ought to be done: Love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And so long as there is love, the commandment is not burdensome. The yoke which “neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15.10) are not the plain statement of Yahweh given to Moses because to the obedient heart who had those laws written in their hearts, God’s commandments “are not grievous” (1Jn. 5.3). It is the legalist that wants to observe the law, plus their traditions in order to make up for the lack they had: Love. They do not have love, and so they multiply their rituals and additional laws supposing God is pleased with them. The fact is “their heart is far from Me” (Mtt. 15.8; Isa. 29.13). God hates and cannot accept legal services. He wants the true heart response and not the obedience + rewards motivation. It should be obedience, whether there is heaven or hell, blessings or no blessing, safety or martyrdom. White was right in defining the right motive of serving God: “It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.”77 Augustine.” It is often the case that the scribes falsify the Law with their lying pens (Jer. 8:8; Ezek. 22.26; Mtt. 15.3, 9; Mtt. 5.19). Therefore we must have the Beroean Jew’s mindset: individually search the Scriptures to see whether what was said is authentic (Acts 17.11). It is never safe to trust our pastors, priests, bishops, and theology professors, because “the head of every man is Christ” (1 Cor. 11.3). Furthermore, it is fatal to repose our trust to any human spiritual leader because we might be misled if their teachings are wrong. And most often, not all the words and moral principles of a pastor or theologian of a church are correct and Biblically sound. It is not safe to trust them for spiritual guidance because just as the multitudes were misled by the maxims and theology in the Messiah’s time (Mtt.15.12-14; Lk. 12.1; Mtt. 23.8-10; Jn. 7.47-49; 1Thess. 5.3), the same condition exists today and in every succeeding generations from the past: The truth is always banned from the synagogue (churches) and branded as heresy (now “cult”) by theologians in the cities who idolatrously set up their creeds and teachings only to persecute, stigmatize, and burn those who refuse to agree, so that God’s true church is banished invisible to the wilderness (Acts 7.38; Rev. 12.6, 13-17) and in a state of hiding from the institutionalized idolatrous churches in the urban metropolitan. They thought that their well-defined creeds are Scriptures themselves and must be obeyed, and that those who do not subscribe to their set of definitions are labelled as “heretics”, “sects”, or “cults”. They do as what the Jews of Christ day did, and as what Paul in his orthodoxy did (Phil. 3.6), as what the Roman church did to the protestants, and as what both the Roman-catholics and apostate protestants does to those they dubbed “religious dissents” and “cults.” In God’s sight, none of them are better. Men merely complicate themselves, adding principles that are not in the law. Creeds and church manual are not God’s word. Denominational and institutional thinking of what a church ought to be is narrow, limited, and man-made. They are human inventions and cunning. God’s commandments are simple, comprehensive, and never grievous. It can be and had been obeyed ever since by the willing and obedient who had experienced God’s love. But the legalist and hypocrites cannot and would not do them, and so one group multiplied rituals and regulations in an attempt to keep it, while the other teach that the Ten Commandments was no abolished by Christ because we are now under grace and not law.

Both opinions are wrong. God’s Commandments are obeyed by the obedient, but disobeyed by the disobedient and the hypocrites. The Ten Commandments including the Sabbath was never changed nor altered in the Renewed Testament. It was the same. The problem is the theologians’ wrong interpretation of the Law. They are complicating themselves with their confused theologies. And so they multiply words and doctrines to undermine the power and validity of the Law. But Jesus said “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mtt. 5.19). He never said “if you love Me, CHANGE My Commandments” but “if you love Me, KEEP My Commandments” (Jn. 14.15).

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White, Ellen G., The Desire of Ages, (1898), p. 480, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=480. The real motive of a Christian for following Christ is not to escape hell or win heaven and eternal life. That’s egocentric fear. The result will be salvation by fear of hell and desire for heaven. The correct motive should be AGAPE (self-sacrificing, unconditional, careworn, rugged and not selfish love). This AGAPE in a Christian is the AGAPE respond to God’s AGAPE to us, a heart-felt appreciation of God’s sacrifice for us. “For the love (AGAPE) of Christ constraineth us… that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2Cor. 5.15). It is not that Christ is ministering in the sanctuary above that we benefit from His sacrifices (egocentric concern), but that we felt a concern towards His ministry in heaven as the bride towards her Husband, and to prepare ourselves while we wait for Him, as what Scripture says, “His wife hath made herself ready.” (Rev. 19.7; Eph. 5.25-27; Phil. 2.14, 15; Tit. 2.11-15; Rev. 3.21). God is faithful to

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THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT HAVE BEEN FULFILLED IN US The purpose of humanity’s present treatment is to restore, and restoration is perfection. A morally restored human being has perfect character, not in heaven, but here below, and in this life time. It is in this sinful planet with our sinful flesh that we are tested whether or not we will obey God’s will or find excuses to disobey by using many silly gentile theologies. Paul’s words very clearly shows concerning this coming down of Christ “that the righteousness of the Law MIGHT HAVE BEEN FULFILLED in us TO THOSE WHO WALK NOT AFER THE FLESH BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT” (Rom. 8.4). In other words, Christ descended so that THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW might have been fulfilled in us, in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. He came down to become man like us so that it would be easier for all humanity to have the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in those who walk after the spirit. There is a positive purpose of Christ coming down, and that’s not only treatment but full, complete, perfect moral restoration in our very lifetime – if, and only if we walk in the Spirit. Provision for our restoration is abundant. But not all appreciated this divine effort of God in His coming in the SARX and condemned sin in the SARX. Many have not this righteousness of the Law fulfilled in their lives because they would not submit under Christ’s rule to walk under the Spirit. They walk in the flesh with its evil work, the works that are not in harmony to God’s Commandments. Christ brought grace for all in order that the righteousness of the Law might have been fulfilled in us who walk in the Spirit.

In verse Rom. 8.3, the statement of Paul does NOT say “What THE PERSON could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,” but what “the LAW could not do in that it was weak through the flesh.” It is the Law, NOT the person who is weak. Therefore the person, enabled by a connection with Christ will have the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in him/her. But the Law is powerless to effect a change, just like a mirror cannot cleanse one who is looking at it with a stained face. One must have the cleansing blood –“Christ in you,” so that the righteousness of the Law might have been fulfilled in us. This is why Christ came down in the sinful flesh and condemned sin in the flesh, so that we, by doing what He did in the same sinful flesh (1Pet. 2.21-24) and armed with the same mind like His mind (1Pet. 4.1, 2) the righteousness of the Law will also be fulfilled in us. Let us not imagine that Christ did everything for us so that all we have to do is to do nothing but believe and rejoice and relax. No. We ought to overcome in our own accord as Jesus overcame (Rev. 2.7, 11, 17, 26; Rev. 3.5, 12, 21; Rev. 21.7). “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1Jn. 5.4). If Jesus was holy, and God is holy, we ought to be like Him, obey like He obeyed, be perfect as He was, conquer sin as He did in the sinful flesh, and be fighters on our own domain. Christ had done His side of story, but the other half is ours to complete, or else if we are not found righteous and overcomers, He cannot acknowledge us as His children. God does not save us in order to sin, but that we cease from sinning and in order that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us.

YAHWEH'S AGAPE IN MARY MAGDALENE'S FAITH RESPONSE IS THE GOSPEL (MK. 14.9): The Centrality of Mary Magdalene’s Agape Response in the Gospel of Yahweh.

The Greek word "Agape" is a kind of love that is worn-out, rugged, unconditional, self-sacrificing, and otherconcerned, and not expecting any returns. Agape is rarely used in ancient Greece, but Scriptures used it to describe God's selfless love for humanity as revealed in Yahweh.

In Mark 14 we read the story how Mary, in appreciation for what Yahweh did in saving her broke the alabaster jar, the price of which was equivalent to more than a year's wage (more than 300 denarii). It was used for us. The question is are we faithful to Him? He will save only those who in this sinful life are living faithful to Him (Lk. 16.1012; Mtt. 25.21-23). We have heard of statements as “celebrating the faithfulness of God”, and what about “the faithfulness of the saints”? This display of faithfulness in the saints will be seen once more at the climax of this earth’s history when there will only be two extremes: the holy versus the wicked (Rev. 14.12; Rev. 22.11; Dan. 12.3, 10; Mtt. 25.32-46).

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kings and priests for high initiation rites. Mary's act of pouring this perfume out extravagantly shows how Yahweh's love in redeeming her soul impressed her so much. And in gratitude she intentionally self-invited herself in the Pharisees' feast only to break the seal open and poured out all its costly contents on Jesus' feet and head. She would be thought of as crazy. But the Lord understood the act. In Mary's prodigal outpouring of gratitude which for Judas was a "waste"78 Jesus saw His body to be broken79 for the world, and to give life for all the world, and for every person. God gave all of Himself (Rom. 8.31, 32) for the world, without sparing anything. To Yahweh’s thinking, Judas' words about "such as waste" might have been true that Jesus indeed wasted His life and risked all, and prodigally given everything of Himself for all the world. It was a sacrifice without any limits. He might have asked like Judas "why this waste"? "From a human point of view, such a sacrifice was a wanton waste. To human reasoning the whole plan of salvation is a waste of mercies and resources. Self-denial and wholehearted sacrifice meet us everywhere. Well may the heavenly host look with amazement upon the human family who refuse to be uplifted and enriched with the boundless love expressed in Christ. Well may they exclaim, Why this great waste? But the atonement for a lost world was to be full, abundant, and complete. Christ's offering was exceedingly abundant to reach every soul that God had created.

It could not be restricted so as not to exceed the number who would accept the great Gift. All men are not saved; yet the plan of redemption is not a waste because it does not accomplish all that its liberality has provided for. There must be enough and to spare."80 The fact is, we are already redeemed, and that salvation is a gift given to us by God. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of your selves, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 4.8). It was already in our hands, the only thing is, we do not believe it, or refuse to believe it.

God in the Messiah had poured out His life for the salvation of the whole world, for saint and sinners alike, without any limitation or exemption. He withholds nothing. And He was not selfish enough to think that He will die only for those who will respond or to the elect, but for all, whether they accept it or not. Jesus is the Saviour of all men, of the whole world, draws all men to Himself, lights every man that comes into the world, gives His flesh for the life of the world. 81 He died for all, and justification is for all. But this justification can be resisted by many, and many will be lost because they resist that divine acquittal which was already theirs.

All are already reclaimed; all are bought with a price. But not all wants to be under the new Master who already reclaimed them with such infinite cost. They want to live under that old master of sin and the devil.

Mary, on the other hand, appreciates the Messiah's love for her, this is why He said "Your faith had saved you; go in peace" (Lk. 7.50). What was this faith in Mary that saved her? It was simply when she realized that without the grace of Yahweh she will be lost. She appreciated that sacrifice of Yahweh. Knowing that her Master will die as He said, she felt it a privilege to anoint His while being still alive. Despite the criticisms, Yahweh commended her act. "Leave her alone" He said, "she has done a gorgeous thing to Me.. When she poured this perfume on My body it was her way of preparing Me for burial" (Mk. 14.6; Mtt. 26.12). In fact, Mary's heart-felt gratitude should be the Christians' response, and the response of the whole human race for what God had done for us in sacrificing Himself for us. Mary's appreciation of Yahweh's love is gospel. It shows not the selfish receiving of God's grace, but a concern for Yahweh in His death on the cross, a sympathy for Yahweh's sufferings. Yahweh's love in healing Mary's soul evokes a response in her towards the One who saved her. So with us. God's love will not produce lukewarm Christians, but followers who are filled with love towards the One who loves them first. When we realize God's love, we respond like what the world counts craziness. He sells house and lands and goes on mission. We die for martyrdom and would not love our lives unto death (Rev. 12.11). We cross mountains, we serve God without any thinking of any material returns. We do not serve Him because we are afraid of hell, or that we are after the reward of heaven. We serve Him, we 78

Mk. 14.4; Jn. 12.4-5.

79

1Cor. 11.14 - King James Version.

80

White, the Desire of Ages, 565, 566. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da62.html.

81

1 Tim. 2.3, 4; Jn. 12.32, 33; Jn. 1.9; Eph. 1.3-5; Rom. 8.28-39; Jn. 6.51; Jn. 4.42; Rom. 12.3.

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love Him for the love He loved us, whether that will result to something we do not know. We do not expect any in return, just as God didn't expect returns, but that He gave Himself for the lost race, whether they will love Him or not. This risk abandonment and utter love without any reserves and condition will lead one to follow Christ and obey Him in all things. This realization will make the recipient give all to God and obey all His commandments, including the Sabbath commandment. Jesus holds nothing back in His sacrifice for us, so why withhold something back in our love for Him? He did all He can to redeem us, then why selfishly receive His grace and not equally reciprocate that love as our appreciation to His sacrifice? Why egocentrically think only of our salvation how we can be saved, or whether we might end up in hell when God wants all to be saved? And why selfishly appropriate God's grace and rejoice in that salvation without any thoughts of concern towards the One who suffered at the cross, and who is not in the heavenly Sanctuary pleading on our behalf? We as the bride of Christ should feel a concern towards Him as our Husband, as the bride felt towards the Bridegroom. And the bride must prepare herself to get ready. She must have a feeling of concern towards her husband now in the heavenly sanctuary. To accept, receive, and celebrate God's love without feelings of concern and sympathy towards the One who sacrifice for us is selfish and egocentric. When God's Agape touched our hearts, we respond with equal Agape towards Him, sacrificing all for Him, not to win His favour or earn salvation, but because we value His love, and we show our gratitude for Him who loved us. Mary's act is basic gospel God's part and man's part. Simon's response was lukewarm. He might not have appreciated Yahweh's healing of his leprosy the way Mary appreciated Yahweh's healing of her sin-sick soul. When we do not have that Mary's gratitude, and concern for Yahweh's death, we might be like Simon the Pharisee who selfishly loves to receive salvation and grace and enjoy it, without reciprocating that love or showing appreciation towards the person who did us good.

Those who do not have this Mary-appreciation, serving God and obeying His commandments would be very difficult, and the obeying itself no matter how steadfast is imperfect and wrong in the first place. There is really no reason to aim for salvation and be saved if one misses the point of salvation: the God loves the world so much that He sacrificed all for us sending His Son to die for us. If a person do not realize this fact of God loving the world, all kinds of his obedience is wrong. There must be this motivation of Agape in a person.

Mary felt to the depths of her being the love she owed to her Master. She cannot afford to enjoy it secretly, and she cannot be silent. In that new life of hers, she risked her reputation by going into that house. She didn't care if after the act she might be reprimanded or criticized. She didn't consider the embarrassment as the result of her behaviour. God also might have thought Himself crazy for saving sinners who might not love Him, but He died for them, anyway. He might be ridiculed at the cross, but He died for them, anyway. A true Christian who realized this great love will have the same responses. He/she will do great acts of sacrifices. Yahweh said "he will do greater things than these because I go to My Father" (Jn. 14.12). One like Mary will feel sympathy, a concern, a love towards the One who died and sacrificed for him/her. That's a two-way response that naturally happen for the one who realized what salvation is. But for the selfish Christian who feared hell and selfishing aims heaven, he/she will merely receive, and receive, and receive, and will think only how he/she will be saved. He/she does not care what happened to the Saviour, nor show a concern for Him, but felt content being saved without reciprocating that love, without a desire to make God happy. He/she is not only lukewarm at what he/she received, but is selfish and refuses to obey God's Commandments. It is therefore crucial that before we proceed to understand how sin abnormality is treated, we realize the fact of Mary's gratitude towards Yahweh. This is the manifestation that her soul's treatment was accomplished. Without that response, we can say that she remains sick. It is discouraging to find out that Christians remain in their sin-sick condition without any spiritual improvement on their part. They keep on receiving grace, and that grace had not done anything in their lives because they love sinning.

Let’s look for a while the parallel of Yahweh’s Agape and Mary’s Agape. Both were prodigal, lavish, and non-selective in its intent. It is an Agape, and not the selfish, tyrannical Eros which generates only repulsion.

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(DIAGRAM 3.1) YAHWEH-MARY PRODIGALITY PARALLEL: WASTEFUL ACTS OF AGAPE

GOD HIMSELF SPILLED ALL FOR ALL Yahweh the Saviour

IS EQUAL TO

THEIR AGAPE ACTS OF SPILLING OUT

IS THE GOSPEL

MARY MAGDALENE BROKE THE SEAL OF PERFUME AND POUR OUT ALL ITS CONTENTS Mary Magdalene

The significance of the gospel of Yahweh in Mary’s Agape response benefits not only for those who will response but for those who will not respond as well. Salvation was risked at eternal loss on the part of the Son of God who has the possibility to commit sin and thereby lost the goal of salvation. It was given with abandon.

Yahweh was not merely lent or offered up for the sinners, but that He was given permanently for the lost race, whether His coming will be successful or not, He was sent and given anyway. Salvation is already ours, even if many will reject it, it is ours already. But a few appreciated it, or treasured the gift. All are elected and predestined for salvation, “But only those who do the will of My Father in heaven” will enter the kingdom of heaven (Mtt. 7.21), who persevere to the end (Mtt. 24.13; Rev. 2.10; Heb. 3.12-14; Heb. 10.35.36), and who are partakers of the Divine nature here and now (2Pet. 1.3-11). Only those who make use of the grace given to them will be saved, who do their part in overcoming as the Messiah overcame (Rev. 3.21). Ellen G. White wrote: “There is a work that every one of us must do if we would be saved in the eternal world. But while we must on our part do what God has given us to do, we must realize that, having done all, we should come far short of salvation, did not the Lord on his part do that which finite, sinful man cannot do for himself. The religious life is wholly dependent upon the blending of both human and divine forces. Man is to work out his own salvation, but he cannot do this without divine aid; and although Christ has paid an infinite price to save the souls of men from everlasting ruin, he will not do that part of the work which was left for man to perform.

We are to live by faith. We are not to be controlled by impulse and feeling, but the principles of God's law must govern our lives. While we look to Jesus as the source of all power, we shall not fail to receive help in every time of need, “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” In the work of salvation, God requires the cooperation of man. The Christian must put forth strenuous exertions, and God will unite divine grace with his human effort. The servant of God must avail himself of the precious privileges and opportunities that are given to him, that he may become efficient and successful in copying the divine Pattern. In the work of salvation the grace of Christ is united with a willing and obedient service, on the part of man. The sincerity of our profession of love to God will be made manifest by our earnest endeavors to fulfill the requirements of his law. Those who are the servants of God will renounce all evil habits and associations. There will be constant and earnest efforts made to lift up the soul from its defilement. There will Page 80 of 174

be repentance toward God for past transgressions, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,—a faith that says, “I believe that God for Christ's sake has forgiven my sins.” Supplication will be made to God for his transforming grace. We are not to be altogether passive, thinking that there has been no task allotted to those who would win immortality. No; no; God calls upon us to do our best with the powers that he has given us,— to put to the stretch every faculty, and exercise every ability, that we may not fail of everlasting life. That man can be saved in indolence, in inactivity, is an utter impossibility. There is a constant conflict before those who would win eternal life. Faith and works go hand in hand. That man has nothing to do but to believe, is a fallacy and a most dangerous doctrine. Faith without works is dead. A man saved in his sins would be out of harmony with the plan of redemption and the work of God. Sin must be hated, and put away. The works of the flesh must be warred against. The Christian cannot be an idler. No sluggard ever engages in a determined opposition to inclination and folly. He will not be found on the defensive when Satan presses his temptations upon the soul. Those who would inherit eternal life must subdue pride, conquer passion, walk in the light as God is in the light. They must run in the way of God's commandments. They must make use of all the helps that providence has placed within their reach, looking constantly unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith. Christ says, “Without me, ye can do nothing.” 82 There is no such thing as one way love relationship. It should be two way. The sinners do not receive God’s grace to continue in sin, but to forsake all sins and to fully reciprocate love to him/her. Without this reciprocation, the recipient is selfish and egocentric. He/she does not experience what is salvation; no concern felt towards the one who loved him/her. Such mistaken understanding will result to spiritual infants who do not know how to love God in return. Content of receiving grace, one keep receiving it without any change of heart, principles, and attitudes; no forsaking and overcoming of sin. It is like a video depicted in Nicole Mullen My Redeemer Lives lyrics (Hoyt) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bF1Vol4jNA, about a son who asked to run, but since he is invalid, his father run the race for him. In applying to our Christian experience, we see in the invalid son Christians who do not actually experience moral restoration but remain in their sins, and God always giving the grace fighting for him, and yet the grace appeared useless because there is no result on the recipient itself, no healing, no change for the better, all is sickness and depravity. This video is a wrong presentation of what gospel is all about. The correct and classic on is Mary Magdalene’s show at the feast of Simon’s house. Nothing can improve upon that model. Jesus extolled Mary’s act to the skies, making it a paragon of what the essence of the gospel is: Agape = restoration, or Agape resulting to Agape response.

In the Mary Model, along with Lk. 15 – the only reality is that the lost was found, and by choice returned, while Hoyt’s gospel depiction falls short of representing true Gospel. The Gospel is not only “for God who loved the world that He gave His only Son” but also “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The question is, is it an act of believing when one loves lawbreaking or sinning while claiming to know God? Yes it is, but that’s the faith of devils and hypocrites (Mtt. 7.21-23; James 2.14-26; Titus 1.16; Mtt. 23.3).

Egocentric Christians do not reciprocate back to God. They have ZERO OBEDIENCE, ZERO OVERCOMING, ZERO SAINTHOOD, AND ZERO MARTYRDOM. As parent, how would you feel towards a son or daughter who after you have given all yourself for them, when they are all grown ups they forgot you and have not reciprocated your love? They are selfish children who grew up unable to see the sufferings of others. Christians who do not give back AGAPE to God don’t realize God’s AGAPE for them, nor His terrible and risky sufferings. Either they don’t realize it or they are just abusive, disobedient children who always ASK and RECEIVE, and ENJOY salvation, but refuse to give back to God and follow what He did, -to love selflessly, be merciful, and remain spotless and trustworthy in the sinful flesh as Christ their Example did. They do not care that sin had threatened the very order and unity of the Godhead, causing Christ 82

White, “The Co-operation of man with God,” Review and Herald, October 30, 1888, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1888&month=October&day =30&m=1&paragraphReferences=1.

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to put to open shame for their sins. They wouldn’t mind. They just enjoy and say “Thank you, Lord.” They are not bothered what to do next that there is the cross to bear, the self to be crucified and put to death, and that the reason why they live is that they live because of Jesus.

At Sinai as well as at the cross, God does the loving first, liberating His people before he stated His covenant in Ten words. “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of slavery out of the hand of bondage” (Ex. 20.2). These ought to be given more importance; the realization of God’s AGAPE act, before one can truly obey. God talk’s like a wise parent who showed affection to a child and then instructs him/her what to do. The child’s heart is first won before he/she can obey with love. But a parent who scolds a child in order to be obeyed will only produce one that obeys out of dread, legal duty, and exasperation, but no love in the heart, not mixed with faith. God showed His love first, therefore it should be easier for us to respond with perfect agape to God (no idols, keep the Sabbath day holy, do justice, forgive others). Children who saw, realized, and appreciated what great sacrifices their parents did to them are usually the ones who reciprocate best. This is common to poor families where children grew up with a heart that feels the woes of others and can sympathize with them because they experienced the wounds of their own parents firsthand being poor.

When these children have grown up they would want to reciprocate their parents’ love and sacrifices and would feel inadequate that they have not reciprocated enough. In a true Christian, there can be no boasting.

The fact is one thought humbly about his/her love and deeds in the ministry. But there is this reciprocating element present, the sense of indebtedness, the consciousness of being bought with a high price of redemption which is no less than the infinite blood of God that removes finite sins.

On the other hand, false Christians are selfish. They don’t reciprocate back to God. They won’t deny self nor carry the cross and crucify self, doing what the Messiah did, and intends to equally reciprocate His love to the best of their heart, soul, and strength. They do not show concern for God, whether what they choose makes Him happy or sad. They enjoy the fact that the Lamb died and paid all their debt at the cross, but would not bother what He is doing now in the Sanctuary after his death and resurrection. They were sad at His death, and rejoiced at His resurrection and ascension, but they don’t care nor show any concern for Him in His work as our high Priest. They would love the picture of Jesus interceding in their behalf, and so they have that fresh power to do and sin again, instead of feeling shame of their own sins afflicting their souls before God like in Lev. 16.31, a realization of His death which results into a spiritual impetus that leads them to do right and be in harmony to His Commandments. They don’t show concern for Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary as the bride must feel concern for her Husband while waiting for His appearing. They don’t follow His wherever He goes (Rev. 14.4), even to the Heavenly Sanctuary, by living in deep soul-searching and putting away of sin from their lives. They don’t bother to vindicate the honour of God in their lives, nor are they conscious nor feel obligated that God’s honour is at stake in their own hands and their own living. They do not realize the significance and their accountability not to dishonour God’s name in their own lives. Their service to God is egocentric; prompted by fear of eternal fire and a desire to be saved, instead of thinking about the One who saved them, and that they must stand firm for Him (Lk. 22.28) as His trustworthy and faithful soldiers resisting sin and obeying the Commandments of God in every specific.

They serve God in order to escape hell and be safe to rest and live in heaven. But they do not serve God because their hearts were melted at what happened at the cross. They do not serve God for the purpose of living to please Him and make Him happy, but to please only themselves. They serve God because they want to be happy, not that in order to make God happy. Their life principles don’t show any concern toward the wants and wishes of God, and His honour whether what they did makes Him happy or not. They say, “I’m now saved. Bahala na si Jesus kung anong nang yari sa Kanya. Wala na akong pake. Ang importante He saved me” Truly egocentric, selfish, and lawbreaking.

They won’t bother what Jesus is still doing in the Heavenly Sanctuary. And they don’t cooperate. Actually they don’t understand the significance of Jesus’ high priestly ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary today. What they suppose is that Jesus intercedes continually so that even if they continue sinning, Jesus intercedes and still Page 82 of 174

saves them IN SIN. They have no idea that wilful sins deserve immediate punishment and cannot be atoned for. They don’t understand and won’t understand that the purpose of atonement is not just to kill the Lamb, but to take the blood inside the veil in order that the sins that are truly repented and forsaken will be blotted out.

They themselves must cooperate by honest soul-searching and repentance moment by moment, condemning and executing sin in the sinful flesh, looking unto Jesus until His perfect image will be perfectly formed in them, and they are found without spot and wrinkles.

Ah, they would have none of it, and so their views of Christian living are confused: living as a Christian and sinning at the same time. They will not forsake their sins because they think that Jesus’ officiating is for their benefit so that they remain in sin, and be saved while sinning. This is nothing but abuse and selfishness, the wicked intent of crucifying Christ many times (Heb. 6.4-6; Heb. 10. 26-31). There is no change in principles, no appreciation for what God did at the cross. No love for Him in return for His love. No reciprocity and no concern for Christ after what He did on the cross. Therefore they cannot cooperate with Him in His work in the Heavenly Sanctuary, that they who look into the Sanctuary in the eyes of faith should put away sin (Heb. 10:19-39). Jesus’ Heavenly Sanctuary service is for our enabling (Heb. 4.16; Heb. 5.8, 9).

This gospel of Mary’s AGAPE to Jesus transcends the common FAITH + WORKS formula. One might argue That faith without works is dead. That is true. But this one is different. Works without AGAPE-Appreciation is not valid. Such obedience falls under “works of law” which is not mingled with heart-appreciation on what happened at the cross. We can only obey correctly if we appreciate and cherish God’s great love at the cross.

Without this experience all subsequent obedience are entirely wrong and legalism, hypocritical and fearful of hell. Therefore we must learn back the lesson at Calvary, that Jesus died so we need not die, provided that we remain in Him, doing the same sin-executions in the same sinful flesh like what Jesus did (Rom. 8.3-4, 12,13; 1Pet. 4.1,2; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Heb. 12.1-4; 1Jn. 2.3-6). To remain in Jesus is to have the same faith, “the faith of Jesus,” the faith which is intolerant to sin even while having the same sinful flesh, and to have the same mind, the mind of the Messiah, the mind which ruled over sin in the sinful flesh, which would not allow its clamours to dominate decisions, but execute those desires moment by moment, denying self, crucifying self daily. And there is no respite in that warfare until we hear the words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” And yet in heaven, and after the war against sin in over, we still have that same hatred against sin as what we have felt since we have Jesus in our hearts while still on earth. That principle is permanent, as God’s Laws should be permanently fixed in our characters, just as the wicked will remain fixed in their wickedness just before Jesus arrives (Rev. 22.11; Daniel 12:10) being led by that “man of sin” –the Papacy (2Thess. 2.3-12; Rev. 13).

When talking about faith, it is something an impossibility to what is natural. If we have faith, we believe that we can be righteous as God is no matter how impossible it is for our human strength. When we have that faith like Abraham’s faith, that will be credited as righteousness because we are in that state of mentality that does what is the impossible, -the godlike, and not the limited and finite ways of man. Living in faith is living not to sin but to go against our sinful nature, and in that sinful nature reveal God, to manifest God in the SARX (1Tim. 3.16). It is like doing a Beethoven. This German composer despaired of her hearing because it would be easier for a soldier, cook, and tailor to lose that sense. But to a composer of music, it meant everything. And yet it appears incredible that Beethoven who became totally deaf did not excuse that deafness not to compose music. He did what is against nature, and goes beyond it. Despite the odds, he carried into perfection his calling in life and has done what his genius impelled him to do, no matter the natural impossibilities and disheartening difficulties. He could say, “Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.”83 A true Christian believes in the impossible, believes that he/she can do God’s will in the sinful flesh and can master and dominate sin in the sinful flesh. He/she believes that a person can perfect a Christian

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Thinkexist.com Finding Quotations was never this Easy. Public domain: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/beethoven_can_write_music-thank_god-but_he_can_do/294977.html

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character even despite sinful nature. Such is the steadfast faith of the saints of all ages; God’s Laws were written so permanently fixed in their hearts that they hate sin and would resist it.

In the next diagram let us see a simple illustration of this faith in Mary that saves her. It is also the faith response that alone can save a professed believer.

(DIAGRAM 3.2) YAHWEH’S AGAPE REPONSE TO MARY AND MARY’S AGAPE RESPONSE TO YAHWEH

Yahweh the Saviour’s Agape

The Agape of Yahweh to Mary Magdalene: forgiveness of sins

The Agape response of Mary to Yahweh’s Agape: poured out everything to Him, a concern towards Him in His death. Mary not merely receives; she also gave back and reciprocates Divine Agape with equal Agape response on her part.

Mary Magdalene’s Agape “Thy faith hath saved you, go in peace” (LK. 7.50). “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial” (Mk. 14.9)

The response of Mary for the new life she received from Yahweh is the response that is central to the Gospel, and is itself the core of the Gospel because in Mary Magdalene’s prodigal act, Yahweh both saw His prodigal sacrifice bring mirrored in that wasteful outpouring of perfume, and at the same time Mary’s concern toward Him who was about to die as sacrifice. The significance of Mary Magdalene’s act is that for us, being recipients of God’s grand sacrifice, if we realize and cherish His efforts, and appreciate His wounds and labours, we would feel equal concern towards Him by anointing Him with our own Agape response as a result of His Agape to us (1Jn. 4.19). That gratitude is righteousness. That gratitude is steadfast obedience to Him and a willingness to do Him favour, obeying ALL His Commandments, and would even do great lengths to die for Him and become a martyr for His name. Agape is power. It is the secret of how to permanently obey the Law. And without Agape, no any obedience is possible. Therefore, there should be Agape experience, and the true appreciation of what was done to a person. Treasuring this reality will produce something that goes beyond human limitations. It will do the impossible.

THE LAW AND ITS CLAIMS ON US The law in Rom. 3.20 includes the Ten Commandments and all God’s principles in a written code. In Rom 7.12 it is “holy, just and good”, it’s “the perfect law of liberty”, “the royal law” (James 1.25; James 2.8). But Page 84 of 174

viewed as written codes as in Rom. 3.20 it brings condemnation. In our attempt to keep it, we cannot be justified. And if there is the law, that law can only kill, especially if it is externally written. It’s like a checklist of rules of dos and don’ts. The unwilling does not want to obey it. Therefore, to the disobedient, that Law will only put him/her to death because his/her life principle is against that Law, and is not in harmony with it (Rom.8.7). That Standard of righteousness will make his/her sin appear exceedingly sinful and will execute him/her to death since that holy Law is justice, and the one who commits sin is unjust and disobedient. But the willing obeys this Law because it is written in the heart, and not as an external written code. The significant point is, it is the same Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments which is the twofold love principle: supreme Love to the Creator, and impartial love to fellow human beings. Sunday observance is not included in this Law of love to God. The Sabbath Commandment remains the same Sabbath Command by the Creator Himself, and not one precept of it was ever altered at the cross, nor at Christ’s resurrection. It remains intact.

The reason why there are so many confused Christian churches and became abnormal is because they disregard this important Time-law. Just as the reason why humankind in this postmodern generation is confused about is identity and definition of self and existence is because they do not recognize God the Creator. How? By specifically treating the Sabbath Commandment with contempt and rejecting it as unimportant and void, wrongly categorizing it as the Old Covenant, and therefore obsolete. 84 But to God’s 84

This is where Christendom missed the main point of soteriology. They divided God’s salvation into two categories as if they are matters of time, calling one the Old Testament, and the other, the New. But why is it called “Old” and why is the other called “New”? God has only one everlasting covenant of grace for humankind, and that is to save us all. And that covenant is always new. What made it old is man’s faulty treatment of it. But this everlasting salvific covenant is God’s perfect method in saving sin. And the method is only one and the same, by grace, and not by egocentric human works. This everlasting covenant is stated in many different figures and languages under Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the post exilic and finally during the Messiah’s time to our day. That is the everlasting Covenant; salvation by grace through God-enabled faithfulness and steadfastness. First there existed the everlasting covenant in the mind of God from all eternity. He revealed it to humankind through His Law which is holy, just, and good. Down to Abraham, the response was faithfulness to that covenant. But at Sinai, something different happened. The Israelites trusted in their own power to obey it and said that “All that Yahweh had spoken we will do” (Ex. 19.8; Ex. 24.3). The only thing is, it’s only words, mere profession of belief without faithfulness or steadfastness of heart. This results to disobedience and law-breaking. They broke their promise and built an idol (Ex. 32; Jer. 31.32). There was nothing anything wrong with that Covenant of God as Sinai because it was perfect and it is still the covenant of grace. The fault is not with God or with the covenant, but the people’s faulty response and faulty promises. God is not satisfied with legal obedience. He wants the heart. He says to Moses “I have heard what this people have said, and they say it well. But how I wish they have a heart!...” (Deut. 5:28). God wants to write His Laws in our hearts as it should always have been. That’s the new covenant way. The Old Covenant is the wrong manner initiated by man to God’s covenant of grace. The everlasting covenant was turned into Old by man’s treatment of it, the unsteadfast heart. This results to disobedience. Therefore, no person who has the Old Covenant mindset can obey any of God’s Laws because to him those Laws were externally written in stones, and not in the heart. But a person who is under the Renewed Covenant is obedient. The Laws were written in the heart. God’s everlasting Covenant is not matters of dispensation as if the one is by works, and the other is by grace. It was and is, and remains always by grace since the beginning of time. It was never by works. It was man’s faulty treatment of it that rendered it Old and obsolete, ready to vanish. God hates such a covenant of works. He does not like to write it in stones, but in the hearts of the people. But since many Israelites were disobedient, He could only write the Law in stones to the end that the same Law should be written in the hearts by faithfulness and steadfastness. If we treat them as matters of time or dispensations, the conclusion will be that God initiated the salvation by works, and then finding it faulty He initiated grace. We then get the idea that God was mistaken in His methods because He had to revise it. But this view is wrong. God’s everlasting covenant of grace knew no mistake. Rather, it was man’s initiating, man’s faulty treatment to that glorious covenant that makes it old that God needs to renew it. The covenant remains the same, but it needs renewing. It should be written in the hearts by faithfulness / steadfastness. But the condition remains the same in both dispensations: OBEDIENCE to the same Law of righteousness. “Those who accept and obey one of His precets because it is convenient to do so, while they reject another because its observance would require a sacrifice, lower the standard of right, and by their example lead others to lightly regard the holy Law of God. “Thus saith the Lord” is to be our rule in all things” (White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 78, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=FE&pagenumber=78). God’s standard of righteousness for salvation in the Old Testament is not lowered in the New Testament. He requires the same PERFECT OBEDIENCE in all dispensations and in all human existence. The Old and New Covenant is not matters of time, but matters of attitudes and different religious experiences. One is old, which is disobedient and does not keep the law, while the other is obedient, steadfast, and keeps the law. There are people in the Old Testament who lives in the mindset of the Renewed

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eyes, it remains His holy Sabbath day, as well as for Christ and to all the Apostles. And the majority of the Christian world and the human race are guilty in this particular commandment. They trampled upon their Creator by exalting their own spurious sabbath, Sunday, and by that, they have the temerity to say that all His laws were no longer valid because we are under grace and not law, as if making Paul antinomian and worse than a criminal. But Paul had corrected the wrong view of treating the law. He seek to restore its true lawkeeping as Jesus did, that its principles should be internalized making one steadfast, faithful, immovable and inwardly trustworthy as God can trust. True Law-keeping is and should be motivated by Agape (love), and not by hypocrisy or legalism (legalism is when a person does things in a perfectly legal way, while the heart is not with it. It is equivalent to hypocrisy). But true obedience is neither legalism nor hypocrisy. True obedience is honest and without any ulterior motives to gain reward. It obeys the law out of love and appreciation of God’s character, and would have died for that belief. The problem with Evangelicals and Roman-catholics is that when one keeps the Sabbath holy, they will automatically dub the person “legalist”. They do not understand what is legalism and hypocrisy, either. They do not see that true obedience is not legalism, and has nothing too with legalism. Much more they do not understand what true obedience is, - faithfulness/ steadfastness, as “the just shall live by his faithfulness / steadfastness” (Habakkuk 2.4). If a Christian is not faithful or steadfast, he/she is a law-breaker and is disobedient. God cannot trust such person to live in heaven. They must perish and not live in God’s sight.

There is nothing wrong with the law of God because it is the law of life and liberty, “holy, just, and good”.

The problem with legalist Jews is their application of the law. They suppose that in itself it will justify them then they had performed the law one by one, as if in a series of dos and don’ts. They failed to internalize its eternal precepts that it is the intent that matters, not just the performance of the deed. The righteousness that Christ demands from us is the internalizing of that law into the motives and intents. One can be outwardly good and play the plastic hypocrite, and behave courteousness, while the heart is godless and is opposed to what he/she had acted. One may not commit murder, but anger is equivalent to murder.

Another is the way the Jews and legalists view the Ten Commandments. When they attempt to obey it using their own strength apart from the righteousness of Christ, they see only their own righteousness actually, and so they fall short of keeping that law. Still they are law-breakers.

When we are confronted by the law, which gives us the knowledge and the definition of sin, we must not come to the law to get righteousness, but to the One who gave the law who is the Source of that righteousness. 85 We do not find righteousness in the law itself, but we find it in the righteous One who wrote that law. God wrote the Law in the tablets of stone to the end that it should be written in the tablets of our heart. What’s the evidence that it is written in the heart? When one is willing to obey it from the heart, and not as if you are forced like complying a checklist of dos and don’ts, but from the love in the heart that responds to God’s love.

Therefore all the Commandments are fully and perfectly kept, not one is left unkept, – all the Commandments including the Sabbath Commandment.

Covenant such as Abraham and many others, while there are people in the Renewed Testament who lives under the Old Covenant mindset, that is, they are disobedient, and the Law is something that is externally written to them like checklist of dos and don’ts, and not written in the heart. Those who are truly justified are the ones who can keep the law. While those who never realized the magnitude of God’s love cannot and will not keep any of His Laws, they are disobedient and unrepentant.

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The Jews supposed that in the reading of the Torah and practicing it, they find eternal life. Jesus says that the Torah point to Him, but they did not come to Him (Jn. 5.39, 40). The goal, object, aim, and purpose of the Torah is Christ. Therefore when we have Christ, and Christ is in us, we have the Torah in our hearts, and the fruit of the Spirit is seen. Sin is unthinkable when the Law of life in in us. It empowers us to put to death sin and its affections. But it is us who must do the mortifying of those wrong desires. (Rom. 8.13).

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But we are ruined by sin and our flesh is weak. Romans 8 seems to say that Christ was made in similar situation so that what He did in that flesh was an accomplishment in our behalf, and all we have to do is to be happy and rejoice, and do nothing except believe.

But we still have to substantiate our claims that we accept His sacrifice, and make sure that we received and believed it by doing our part, in order that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us”, and that is to “walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8.4), and walking in that manner is our duty. God will not do the walking for us. And it is us who “through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8.13), it is us who like Christ must deny self, and take up the cross daily, and follow the Messiah (Lk. 9.23). God will not do the mortifying for us, neither the denying of self nor the vigilant following of Jesus. We should do it ourselves through His enabling grace. He gave us His Spirit, but it is us ourselves who must perform the act. God Commanded us to obey, but it is not God who will do the obeying, but us. We are the ones who must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.2.12), for it is God who provides the energy within (v.13 Gr. “ENERGEO”). And we are accountable for our own obedience and our own disobedience, not God. 86 We 86

Nevertheless, the power that makes us obedient is from God alone. As what we can is in the parable in Lk. 18, Jesus exhorts His followers to persist in their prayers. “It was Christ Himself who put into that mother's heart the persistence which would not be repulsed. It was Christ who gave the pleading widow courage and determination before the judge. It was Christ who, centuries before, in the mysterious conflict by the Jabbok, had inspired Jacob with the same persevering faith. And the confidence which He Himself had implanted, He did not fail to reward. He who dwells in the heavenly sanctuary judges righteously. His pleasure is more in His people, struggling with temptation in a world of sin, than in the host of angels that surround His throne.” (White, Ellen G., Christ’s Object Lessons, Ch. 14, “Shall not God avenge His own?” p. 175, 176. ) Public domain. Jesus is the Source of our Righteousness. His name is understood in the Old Testament as Yahweh Tsidkenu “Yahweh our Righteousness” (Jer. 33.16). And if He gave His righteousness so freely, we ought to wear it and prove that we wear it by living out His life, or else, being found without that wedding garment (Mtt.22.11, 12), we are wearing our own garments of righteousness. And God will not accept such righteousness or our own way of obedience. When we obey Him, it should be from what He had clearly Commanded, and not what we want or how we prefer to obey, for example, the Sabbath commandment. God never left it for man to choose a day of rest of his own devising, conceit, preference, or convenience. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day” (Mk.2.27, 28).

And that Command had lost none of its force so long as God stands as our Creator. We cannot change what God had intended for us. No amount of sophistry could alter this most important Time-Law, the only Law that defines who we are and who God is, that we are mere creatures and Yahweh is our God. Otherwise if we change that day into Sunday we make a god out of ourselves as the Papacy had done. Therefore day-offs and rest day should only be on Saturday, and not Sunday. But when we observe Sunday for our worship, such practice is establishing one’s righteousness without God’s prescription, a righteousness that is not valid because it is disobedience. It is a kind of worship not in Spirit and “in Truth” (Jn. 4.23), because worshiping God “in Truth” has nothing to do with worshiping Him on a wrong day, Sunday. Right is more pleasing to Him than wrong.

God cannot accept a service that contradicts His plain and explicit Command: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is THE Sabbath of Yahweh your God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy strangers that is within thy gates:” And the Rationale is given “for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahweh blessed THE Sabbath day and sanctified it”. This is the longest Commandment in the Decalogue which starts with the word “Remember”. And it is surprising the soon after a Christian receives Christ and reads the Bible he/she not only forgot it, but deliberately ignored its importance. That is how both Roman-catholics and Evangelicals trample the Sabbath Commandment under their unholy feet (Ezek.22.26; Mtt.5.19. Mal.2.8, 9) and supposed that it is okay to ignore and treat it unimportant to a Christian. The same Commandments we broke will judge us. Christ has no new laws to give. The twofold principle of the love commandment did not abolish the law and the prophets but that “On these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets” (Mtt. 22.37.40). This summary had not altered or changed any of the Ten Commandments, and the Sabbath remains unchanged in it. WE ought to keep the same Sabbath if we love Yahweh our God with all our heart, soul, and strength. And besides, Jesus had not taught any new law. This commandment was taken from Deut.6.5 and Lev.19.18. In fact all of Christ’s teachings about the law are rabbinic, and rabbinic at its best. He taught nothing outside Judaism, but within Judaism. Christianity is a Jewish sect (Acts 24.14), and not a gentile religion. So why have Sunday when the Law and the prophets, and the apostles had never commanded a change in the Sabbath making it Sunday? If our church is built upon the unbroken Spiritual heirship of the prophets and apostles with the Messiah Himself as the chief cornerstone (Eph.2.20), what is the valid basis for Sunday observance? One can search throughout the Scriptures, but no change had ever been made in that Commandment. The Sabbath in the Old Testament remain the Sabbath in the Renewed Testament, and Jesus taught it (Mtt. 24.20; Mk.2.27, 28; Mtt.12.12; Lk. 13.15, 16). The apostles observed it (Acts 13.14-15;

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must act on our convictions. Jesus stressed the doing (Mtt. 7.24-27). He had never said “believe only” but believe “and do” (Lk. 10.28, 37). But when we have accomplished the task we are commanded to, we deserve no credit; we simply did what we were instructed to (Lk. 17.7-10). Nevertheless we must do them, and see to it that we accomplished His Commandments, just as Jesus, Paul, and the holy ones of the Old Testament did in their lifetime (Jn. 17.4; Jn. 19.30; 2Tim. 4.7, 8; Heb. 11.). They see to it that the Commandments of God were done, and nothing is left undone. But this can only be done when we have that AGAPE in our hearts, the realization of what God has done for us.

The hypocrites are those who say “and do not” (Mtt. 23.3). The profess they know God but in works they deny Him (Tit.1.16). A wrong faith is the faith that is dead, like a breathless corpse (James 2.14-26). “It is not the hearers of the law that are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Rom. 2.13). To hear and not to obey is like the disobedient, lying hypocrite in Mtt. 21.30 about the son who profess to decide to go to the vineyard, but changed his mind and didn’t. Therefore we are accountable by our choice, and God will not do the choosing for us. There are people who have faith, but their works contradict their convictions. In God’s sight they are hypocrites. It’s like a law student who topped the bar exam, and after that did nothing. He has theory, but he did not brought it into practice. Jesus said “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (Jn. 15.2; See also Deut. 20.20; Lk. 13.9; Lk. 3.8, 9; Lk. 19.8). In Jesus own words we can picture one who is connected to Christ by profession, but no profession of faith can save a person if one is disobedient and remains wicked while being connected to Christ at the same time. Only the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom.2.13). Those who are not doers of the law are hypocrites and wicked. They may profess that they are Christians but they cherished some secret sins in their lives, and they live in manifest opposition to God’s Ten Commandments.

Those who profess to have the faith of Jesus are obedient to His commandments, and not disobedient. And therefore, they also are obedient to God’s laws and not disobedient to them.

If Jesus and the Father are one, they must have the same Principles. And if They have the same Principles, They must have the same Authority. And if both of Them have the same Authority, They should have the same Law and the same Grace. If Christ came to enforce His Father’s Law in order to abolish sin and unrighteousness forever, why do Evangelicals divide the Testament calling one Old and the Other New? What made it Old Testament? Jesus and the apostle had never called those books Old Testament. And why is the other called “New Testament”? The Hebrew word for New is “Qadash” – to renew, to make something of a new quality which was not previously there. Therefore the New Covenant in Jer. 31.31-34 is only a Renewed Covenant, with the same Laws, except that they are and should be written in the tablets of the heart, and not in stone or papers. And it should have been written in the heart in the first place, so that God need not write them in stones and parchments and institute other numerous laws and rituals. And if Jesus and the Father is has one Law and one grace, there should be only one way of salvation: by grace alone. God’s religion since the start of sin had always been the religion of grace. It was man’s perversion of it that made the everlasting covenant old, so that it needs to be renewed. But the laws remain the same laws. No new laws were ever instituted, and not new sabbath was made. It was the same laws and the same Sabbath. All these laws should be kept not by intermittent and feeble professions that backslides from time to time, but by faith / faithfulness or steadfastness. A man/woman who has a steadfast/faithful heart always and naturally keeps God’s Commandment. While one who cannot be trusted in heart, who is dishonest, cannot keep any of God’s laws.

Heaven’s holiness and sinlessness should be live now. Christ will not come to change our character but to give rewards to the righteous and the wicked. Those who die evil will rise from their graves with the same Acts 13.27; Acts 13. 42-43; Acts 13.44-49; Acts 16. 13; Acts 17.1-4; Acts 18.1-4). It was the custom of Jesus our Example (Lk.4.16) and of Paul (Acts 17.1-2) to be inside the synagogue and talk about Scriptures. That day was never Sunday. Their regular custom was on the Sabbath day. The faith is Jewish, not goyish (gentile, pagan). The God is Yahweh, and not the Papacy. The Messiah is the Messiah of Israel, and not a gentile worshiper of Mithra. So what exactly is the basis of the Christians’ going to church on a wrong day? It is a righteousness of their own invention, they termed it “a day celebrating the resurrection of Christ” to which Paul in 1Cor.15 had not mentioned in the least: - he never mentioned Sunday.

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disposition and temperament. If we do not overcome our bad traits, when we die it will remain with us in our tomb. And when we rise at the resurrection, we rise with the same self, attitudes, and principles unimpaired.

We rise with the same individuality. It is in this life that we change for the better, and overcome our inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil. While our great high Priest is in the heavenly sanctuary interceding for us, we should seek to become perfect in Him, and put self to death daily, lest we are found wearing the garments of our own righteousness, and not the righteousness of the Messiah. Professed Christians how claim to have Christ in their hearts must have eternity and heavenly character today, and must live heaven here below, and bring down heavenly perfection in this sinful world like bringing the sun to a dark cave, just as Jesus brought heaven down when He lived in this sinful flesh. It’s a paradox, but people must wonder that while humans, we have that unearthly and heavenly character as though we belong in that world of light. Therefore, let’s set our affections on things above, and reckon ourselves pilgrims on earth (Heb. 11.13; Lev. 25.23; 1Pet. 2.11, 12; Col. 3.1-3; Phil. 3.20; Phil. 4.8). Therefore as heavenly beings, as sons and daughters of the heavenly King, we must have that perfect hatred against any sin, imperfection, and unsteadiness, and love steadiness, fixity and trustworthiness of character, such as God can trust, accept, and can recommend before all heaven.

THE COMPLETE MORAL RESTORATION NOW ATTAINED IN THIS PRESENT SINFUL EXISTENCE It is important to understand why the Son of God died. The answer is simple: To restore us completely and perfectly to God, to His image, to His perfect character. While we remain physically ugly, having deformities now, our corruptible bodies will be changed and restored to its primeval glory at the coming of the Messiah.

But even if we are still in this kind of decaying bodies, God’s perfection should be seen in our characters. The reality of loving Him with all our heart, soul, and strength are to be experienced now. And because we love Him with all our strength, our bodies should glorify Him. A person who carelessly squanders his/her health, and becomes sickly, and asks church elders and pastors to pray for him, and after being healed remains as violator as before in the laws of health is not giving God glory in his/her body. God’s restorative plans for him/her failed due to one’s uncooperation. Gospel is restoration, not only in character but in our health, and in all aspects of our lives. It should bear Divine perfection as such as can represent to the world the beauty of our heavenly King as Daniel was when he stood in the courts of Babylon, and as Joseph was in Egypt. Christ died on the cross to make all humankind holy and perfect from Adam to the last being born in this planet, and to make it easier for them to become perfect even in this sinful side of existence. Those who knew this good news must have perfectly transformed characters here and now in this present life, for such is the goal of God for the world, to restore us to divine perfection, morally and wholistically. The whole essence of the gospel is reconciliation or restoration. Reconciliation of what? Of the degraded race to its Creator. Therefore, if Christians profess they knew God and are reconciled to Him, they must also be reconciled to His righteousness, His Ten Commandments, and to His Divine perfection as soon as they have that realization, and forsake sin and all unrighteousness. Otherwise God will deny them, “I never knew you, depart from Me, ye that do iniquity.” When we know God, our characters should be transformed exactly like His character even in this present sinful existence. This reality is fully attained by those who realize and correctly appreciate the reason why Christ died, and who valued His death in their lives. They have become perfectly obedient and holy and have entirely obeyed the Law because they allowed His grace to transform them. In this present existence they have become fully partakers of the divine character. Ellen G. White wrote: “Those who serve God should aim at perfection. Wrong habits must be overcome. Right habits must be formed. Under the discipline of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known, Christians must move onward and upward toward perfection. This is God's command, and no one should say, I cannot do it. He should say instead, God requires me to be perfect, and He will give me strength to overcome all that stands in the way of perfection.

He is the source of all wisdom, all power… The world has set up a standard to suit the inclinations of unsanctified hearts, but this is not the standard for those who love Christ. The Redeemer has chosen them out of the world, and has left them His sinless life as a standard. He wants them to rise above all cheapness of word or action. "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.""Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the Page 89 of 174

revelation of Jesus Christ. . . . As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." .. The eye of the Lord is in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He knows all our temptations, and He expects us to resist them as Christ resisted them. Jesus died for us that we might live His life of purity. Our prayer should be, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." The heart must be purified; for out of it are the issues of life. The will must yield its helm to the command of Christ. Paul describes this as putting on the new man, "which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." No compromise with sin can ever be accepted by a pure and holy God. No conversion is genuine that does not radically change the heart, the character, every line of conduct. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Not a moment should be wasted on a patchwork religion. Our citizenship is above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. This present life is only our training-school. Here we are to be purified that at Christ's coming we may be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,--prepared to receive the inheritance of the saints in light. The true Christian obtains an experience that brings holiness. The light of truth irradiates his understanding. A glow of love for the Redeemer clears away the cloud that has interposed between his soul and God. The will of God, pure, elevated, and sanctified, becomes his will. His countenance reveals the light of heaven. His body is a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. Holiness adorns his character. God can commune with him; for soul and body are in harmony with the principles of heaven.” 87 A perfect character is not just attainable now but is expected of and imperative to everyone who claims he/she is a follower of God. God requires it as He required it from Adam and from Christ. He required it from Adam before the fall, and He still requires it from us even after the fall.

He could expect it because He knows we can through His grace, and because He gave us all the powers and the sufficient grace in order to perfect and fulfil all righteousness, and attain it in this side of life. But we on our part must strive for it by determined efforts making use of His enabling grace. 88 “But Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. A noble, all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the 87

White, Ellen G., "Be Ye Therefore Perfect." July 17, 1901, Signs of the Times, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1901&month=July&day=17 &paragraphReferences=1.

88

White further expounds, “The work of consecration must go forward and upward, elevating the mind, elevating the speech.

Thus we become more and more heavenly minded, better prepared for translation. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Man is to be perfect in his sphere, as God is perfect in his sphere. How can we attain so lofty a standard? The required perfection is based on the perfection of Christ. In Him is our righteousness. He spoke these words, and he was by birth a human being, though allied to divinity. Every provision has been made that man should be a partaker of the divine nature. God never issues a command without furnishing the grace essential to carry it out. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing."(-Ms 157, 1898, pp. 1, 2. ("Be Ye Therefore Perfect," typed December 5, 1898.) Qouted in Manuscript Releases Volume Six, p.5, No. 347 Manuscript Materials Requested by The 1973 Seminary Prophetic Guidance Class, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=6MR&lang=en&pagenumber=5&QUERY=Jesus&res ultId=43186&paragraphReferences=0) “Perfection of character is based upon that which Christ is to us. If we have constant dependence on the merits of our Saviour, and walk in His footsteps, we shall be like Him, pure and undefiled. Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege. . . .Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honour God in character. . . . We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us.

Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was. Our Saviour is a Saviour for the perfection of the whole man. He is not the God of part of the being only. The grace of Christ works to the disciplining of the whole human fabric. He made all. He has redeemed all. He has made the mind, the strength, the body as well as the soul, partaker of the divine nature, and all is His purchased possession. He must be served with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength. Then the Lord will be glorified in His saints in even the common, temporal things with which they are connected. "Holiness unto the Lord" will be in the inscription placed upon them.” (White, “Perfection Now?” God’s Amazing Grace, chapt. 222 [1973] Morning devotionals, Public domain: http://centrowhite.org.br/files/ebooks/egwenglish/devotionals/God's%20Amazing%20Grace.pdf.

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merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected. Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you can not overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.”89 Now the final outcome of the treatment of moral abnormality should be seen now. Our bodies will die and decay, but we will rise again at His coming with a changed body, wholly transformed and immortal. But our characters remain the same just as during the moment we were forced to sleep in our graves at death. We will have the same attitudes, thoughts, propensities, disposition, and individual distinctness when we rise from our grave, those traits remain, the traits that are ours just before we die. Although our sickness and physical deformities will be left in the grave, our character remains the same. Those who are saints when they die will be the same saints that God can trust when they will rise. But if we have one trait in our character that is not in harmony with the Ten Commandments, God’s standard of perfection, there is no reason for us to rise with the faithful saints whom God can entrust with eternal riches. If we have any cherished sins, bad habits, sinful disposition that are not overcome in this lifetime, we cannot be expected to rise with the righteous, holy, and the undefiled. Our destinies will be fixed among the wicked who are lawless and untrustworthy in little things.

We cannot expect some magical change in our characters to happen when Christ comes. He will not come to change our characters, but to give rewards. Character change happens now while we have the time and while Christ is in the sanctuary interceding for us, giving us the power to overcome. But there will be no more change of characters during His coming. In that glorious event of the resurrection morning, both two principles have already fully developed and were fixed for eternity: “they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (Jn.5.29). There is no mention here in this event about faith alone that saves, but the deeds that must be judged as evidence whether the faith is the genuine faith, “the faith of Jesus” or the faith of devils. It is then the time of reckoning and the giving of rewards. True, we are saved by grace, but it is through our own faith/faithfulness, - how we treat that grace that counts in the end. God freely gave us His enabling grace to the intent that we live in it and conform to His righteousness, and be in harmony to all His Commandments. That grace is the chance to live righteous lives, and at the same time power to enable us to obey. And we must obey because we are empowered at the cross to become obedient, holy, and perfect. That is what the power of grace does to the sinner who saw what happened at Calvary. The question is, do we appreciate and cherish this gift of grace resulting to our perfect conformity to God’s righteousness and complete obedience to all His Commandments? Or do we grow lukewarm, careless, less vigilant, allowing the thorns, thistles, and the lusts of other things to choke the Word,90 and spurn and squander God’s salvation,91 and join with the godless?92 There is no problem with the reality that God saves us in His own way, the problem is, how do we respond? If we accept His salvation and yet we do not watch, prepare, and remain vigilant, or we allow our zeal to lax, and are lazy to endure to the end, and that we are not in this sinful life become fully partakers of His divine character, God will not acknowledge us before the heavenly universe as His sons and daughters who are faithful to the end in His

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White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p., 331, Public domain:https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=COL&lang=en&pagenumber=331&paragrap hReferences=1.

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Mk. 4.19; 2Tim. 4.10; Heb. 12.15-17.

91

Heb.2.3; Mtt. 22.5; Lk. 19.14.

92

Mtt. 24.48-51; 2Pet. 3.1-4; Isa. 56.12; Isa. 30.11; Jer. 5.12; Zeph. 1.12.

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warfare.93 He will lump us with the iniquitous wicked, the hypocrites, and the slothful servants who cannot be trusted in this life even with little things. 94 "The overcomers, who upon the earth were partakers of the divine nature, He makes kings and priests unto God." 95 "Every man has corrupt and sinful habits that must be overcome by vigorous warfare. Every soul is required to fight the fight of faith." 96 PREDESTINATION DOCTRINE: A HINDRANCE TO PERFECTING CHRISTIAN CHARACTER Scripture urges spiritual and character growth, and discourages spiritual dwarfism (1Cor. 14.20; 1Cor. 3.1-3; Heb. 5.12-14; 2Pet. 3.17, 18; 2Pet. 1.3-11; James 1.2-4; Rom. 5.3, 4; Heb. 12.7-11; Col. 2.6, 7; Heb. 6.1; Mtt. 5.48; Rev. 3.21; 2Cor. 6.1; Eph. 4.13-16; 2Tim. 3.16, 17; Jude 1.20-21). But the doctrine of eternal election (Predestination) blocks all efforts and attempts at perfect obedience and character development. Predestination theory is the hindrance because it makes a Christian lazy, frigid, self-assured, and presumptuous that he/she is saved despite his/her habitual disobedience to God’s Law. And feeling immovable and secure in that belief, he could commit as many crimes as he can without any compunction and feeling of risk that salvation can be forfeited at such carelessness (Heb. 10. 26-31; Heb. 3.12-14; Heb. 6.4-8; 1Cor. 10.12; Rev. 3.15-19; Ezek.

33.13; Mtt. 12.43-45; Prov. 26.11; 2Pet. 2.20-22; Mk. 4.18, 19; Heb. 12.15-17). It gives a mediocre and cheap attitude resulting from the theology that because God had elected some to be saved, He also damned some for hell, and so freewill is a fiction. God created mechanical persons and their choices are not their choices but His choices. The beings that God had created possess no real personalities, no individuality, but that God made them so and willed them so, and also willed their righteousness and their unrighteousness. Therefore the sin of Lucifer and of Adam was not their own act, but God’s. In the end it is God who should be blamed for the sins of the world, and not the created beings because in the first place they are not accountable for their own choices because they have no choice at all since their creation. It is all God’s choice, and God’s will. As a result, there is no meaningful response. The Christian under this Calvin’s creed has a dismal frigid temperament, no affection, no loving response toward God. It is as though God cannot and does not need man’s love and responses, as if He feels no delight for a sinner who repents 97 because after all He is the one 93

Lk. 22.28, 29; 1Cor. 15.58; Mtt. 24.13; 1Jn. 3.9, 10; 2Pet. 1.3-11; Lk. 12.47.

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Mtt. 25.26-30; Mtt. 7.21-23; Mtt. 24.50, 51; Mtt. 22.12, 13; Titus 1.16; Eph. 5.3-6; 1Cor. 6.9-10; Gal. 5.19-21; Mtt. 5.19, 20; Lk. 9.62; Mtt. 25.41-46; Rev. 21.27; Lk. 16.10-12.

95

White, The Upward Look, p. 313, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/ro/book/147.2405#2411.

96

White, God's Amazing Grace, p. 292. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=AG&lang=en&pagenumber=292&paragraphReference s=1 97

Contrary to Luke 7.15 “joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance”; “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” (ZephanYah 3.17); “And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness: And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; That they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws. Praise ye the LORD.” (Ps. 105.43-45) But this element of gladness and fond expectation of God is inappropriate if He already predestines them to be so, and knows at hand what to happen. Such a god is frigid as an ice, dismal and listless as Calvin’s very temperament! Further, predestination denies to God the feeling of longing for His creatures to obey and to repent. He said “O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.” (Isa. 48.18, 19). “O that[mi-Yittan-“Oh, how I wish”, “who would give”] there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deut. 5.29). The Lord pleads with the wicked, “turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”(Ezek. 33.11);“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? ” For I have

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who controls man’s free will, making him a robot and a non-being. The theory of Predestination leads to presumption, and to those who have low morality this results to disobedience and acts of impunity without any compunction. To the intellectuals, it leads to persecution just as Calvin approved the burning of Michael Servetus. Verily, the coercive Predestination doctrine is an offspring of the Papacy, a heresy that misrepresents the character of God as though He operates on vindictive justice whose anger on sinners is unquenchable. This doctrine makes God appear like a treacherous demon. It does not correctly represent God. The idea developed

by Calvin is not Jewish, but a mixture of Graeco-Roman philosophy which views God as though He were mechanically static and fixed in His Laws without any straining affection and concern for sinners. And being Sovereign, His will happens because His Laws are immutable. There is no freewill except His own, and what happens are just the result of His freewill which does not respect the freewill of the creatures. The created beings have no obedience in their own. And there is no development of character that will happen, and character development is wholly insignificant. Everything is by God alone. No amount of energy resides in the creature. We are mere automations of God’s mind and cannot act on our own salvation, cannot choose God, cannot endure to the end, cannot watch and pray and resist the devil and steadfastly overcome through His no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”(Ezek. 18.30-32).

Hosea through the Spirit rejoined, “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually” (Hosea 12.6). But such pleadings is useless for the person who supposed/presumes that he/she is already elected for salvation and cannot lose it, no matter one is sunk and has a rotten heart. Calvinism’s Predestination is presumption and presumption is dangerous because it is the counterfeit of faith. There is a thin line between true faith and presumption. “But faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption. For presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God's promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God, and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequence of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures. Often when Satan has failed of exciting distrust, he succeeds in leading us to presumption. If he can cause us to place ourselves unnecessarily in the way of temptation, he knows that the victory is his. God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience; but to depart from it is to venture on Satan's ground. There we are sure to fall. The Saviour has bidden us, "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Mark 14:38. Meditation and prayer would keep us from rushing unbidden into the way of danger, and thus we should be saved from many a defeat.” (White, The Desire of Ages (1898), 126) (emphasis mine). Truly, a Calvinist cannot know whether he/she is truly saves unless his/her heart should be in harmony with God’s Law, and he/she lives in perfect conformity to its precepts. Predestination does not make a person saved. One must but be steadfast obedience to God’s covenant. “The just will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2.4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10.38, 39; Ezek. 33.14, 15; Heb. 3.6, 14; 2Cor. 6.1; Rom. 11.21-22; Mtt. 24.13; Rev.2.10; Rev.3.21; Lk.16.10-12; Mtt. 25.21-23). Israel is God’s elect, but only the obedient remnant among them is fitted to be called His people. Many are called, but many of them did not respond to the call to God’s regret. He is not responsible for the hardening of their hearts. It is their own failure to watch and pray and remain steadfast. They became indifferent to the sweet light of heaven and their conscience grew calloused, and yet they presume that everything is fine because of that goddamn and accursed Predestination presumption that God had ordained whatever that happens, and that there is no free will. And the believer would therefore grow careless in that presumption and would not watch to and remains steadfast. The heart is no longer responsive to the pleadings of conscience but is presumptuous, and will reject further light and truth revealed in His word which is presented by a preacher new to them. “God does not propose to remove every objection which the carnal heart may bring against His truth. To those who refuse the precious rays of light which would illuminate the darkness, the mysteries of God's word remain such forever. From them the truth is hidden. They walk blindly, and know not the ruin before them.” (White, The Desire of Ages, 587.5). That’s the terrible part of free will. We are responsible for our own choosing for salvation, and not God. He expects us to be all saved. And when saved at last, we cannot boast of our freewill because it is indeed our duty to be saved, because we are not of our own for we are bought with the price (1Cor. 6.19, 20). We merely acknowledge ourselves as servants. (Lk. 17.7-10). There is no problem with having fulfilled the will of God and having done all righteousness required because we ought to obey and perform and do what is expected of us. The problem is when we take credit of it as if it was done in our own strength, and forgot that it is God who empowers us. If we miss that point, all our righteousness is human striving, and not valid no matter the heroic and selfless exertions. It will descend into heartless legalism, and God does not like that. It is like filthy menstrual cloth which amounts to nothing in God’s sight. We have to be conscious always that we are dependent of God’s righteousness, and when clinging to Him, we must not look to self how much we have attained but only to remain our eyes fixed on Jesus. Unconsciously we become like Him without our knowing it.

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enabling grace. No, these are myths. The fact in Luke 17.7-10 does not exist. There is no development of love on our part towards the One who loves us. No growth of Christian experience. Predestination is a stumbling block to Christian experience. With it is the poison of presumption that leads to “once-saved-always-saved” attitude.

Further, if eternal election is true, there can be no authentic relationship between Christ and the sinner in the sense of non-coercion. Jesus knocks at the doors of our hearts (See. Rev. 3.20). He would not force and entrance. He would wait. To claim that those who are elected will respond is pure speculation. It is not proven from Scriptures that God foreknew who will individually respond. And just as God has the power to forget the sins He had forgiven, He has the power to choose not to see through futurity of the individual salvation of all people. If this Calvinists’ tenets if true, then God’s relationship with humankind is static, frigid, mechanical, and will not promote growth and warmth of feelings on the part of both creatures and God. Both parties would see each other’s face silent and indispose to talk.

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE: THE MAJOR HINDRANCE TO ATTAINING RESTORATION FROM ABNORMALITIES AMONG CHRISTIANS The reason why Christians of today still fail to attain to moral perfection is that they refuse to acknowledge the validity and perpetuity of God’s moral standard of righteousness, the Torah. Sabbath non-observance among Evangelicals and Roman-catholics is the cause of their incomplete obedience to all God’s Ten Commandments. God cannot accept a faulty obedience. These sincere Christians have no problem identifying that fact that the Torah points to the Messiah, and therefore they must seek the Messiah for righteousness. But the Laws that should be written in their hearts they resist, for finding fault with the Sabbath Commandment, they would like to invalidate the rest. And like Walter R. Martin, they say that no one can keep the Law. But they including Dr. Martin should have added, “in our own strength.” And therefore they will not keep God’s Law because they suppose they can’t, and in effect, they concluded that they must not. They failed to see that Christ intercepted Satan’s deprivation at Gen. 3.15 so that we are now empowered to perfectly obey God’s law even in the sinful flesh, just like the saints of all ages have done. But actually, there is only one Commandment they would not like to see and obey, and that’s the Sabbath commandment. They manifest the same spirit found in ancient Israel (Ezek.22.26). They must break it so that they could break all the rest of the Commandments, and establish their perverted thesis that grace annuls the law, and that we are no longer bound to keep the Law. In such pathologic theology they are worse than the vilest of criminals in prison houses. They break God’s Law and teach and influence others to do the same (Mtt.5.19). And so their abnormalities will never stop. Refusing to accept God’s Sabbath Commandment, they will not know what God’s rest meant. They will have confused views about which day we ought to rest. They will select whatever day that suits them, quoting Rom.14.5, as if this very verse meant what Sabbath-keeping is.98Furthermore, 98

As what I have expounded a while ago, to “esteem” (Greek, “krino” –distinguish, decide judicially) and to “regard” (Greek, “phroneo” –regard, entertain) as in Rom. 14.5 is not the same as to “keep holy” or “sanctify”, or “consecrate” (Hebrew, “Qadash”) as what is plainly stated in Sabbath Commandment in Ex. 20.8-11. That’s plain and simple and should not be muddled up together to mean one thing because those are two different words and two vastly different contexts. Paul was not referring to the Sabbath day when he mentions this passage in Rom.14. The context does not talk about the weekly Sabbath day, either. For an insight about the Sabbath outside the gospels, Hebrews chapter 4 is the appropriate reference. But Rom. 14 is not about day of worship, as though God’s Sabbath was to be replaced by any other days one chooses. That is not the intent of the apostle. What Paul meant is that we should act on our individual convictions and not pass judgement on another persons’ practice about eating and regarding favourable days, because “every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (v.12). It would be unthinkable for a gentile convert during that time to suppose that God’s Sabbath was now replaced by any other days one chooses, and then arguing that anyway our ultimate rest is in Christ. No. Jesus did not abolish the Sabbath Commandment, neither did Paul nor all the Jewish apostles. That’s unthinkable for a Judeo-Christian religion. No gentile convert would argue that way. The Sabbath was always kept since the days of the apostles down to the Waldensian Christians and other Christians not connected to the Roman church. They kept the true Sabbath pure and unmolested in the mountains, far from metropolitan control where Papacy’s power was at its height. Probably Rome and Alexandria would exert so much logic and eloquence to establish Sunday in Christianity because these churches are Jew-hating and arrogant gentiles who would not bow to the supremacy of the God of Israel who created the heavens and the earth in six days and who rested on the Sabbath day. They

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because they lessen the obligation to keep the Sabbath Commandment, they will encourage rebellion against all other laws in the Ten Commandments just what they did to that God’s time Law, teaching that they are no longer binding. And so human sin abnormalities will not be checked. There is no moral compass that directs the mind to Christ because the Law that defines sin was taken away by the scholars with their lying pens who falsify the law, and who refuse to see God’s Sabbath (Jer. 8.8; Ezek. 22.26). With the Sabbath out of the way, restoring humanity to its original rest will not be attained. They will not see that it is God who had finished everything in creation and redemption. They do not understand the beauty of the Sabbath, that in spending time with the Creator it will refresh them giving them spiritual, physical, and intellectual impetus, realizing that it is their privilege to fully depend on God in the accomplishment of His purposes in their lives, and that they need not worry, because just as God had created and redeemed them, He will be able to help their personal problems in life. Keeping the Sabbath holy is recognizing the fact that God is in control of our affairs as our Creator and Redeemer, and that we need not worry for tomorrow because God is always there for us.

Indeed, “the Sabbath was made for humankind” (Mk. 2.27), and not just for the Jews. But I do not understand what made them anti-Jewish when God’s religion had always been Jewish and will remain Jewish to the end as the true religion of the Messiah (Jn. 4.22).

Another aspect about Sunday observance is that it prevents a Christian from obeying all God’s laws. As what I have repeatedly said, the reason why most Christians would say that we cannot keep the law, or we are not obliged to keep the law is that they refuse to keep the Sabbath day holy. This is the root of their darkness making it hard for them to obey the rest of God’s Laws. This itself is a moral abnormality of Christendom.

Finding fault with the Sabbath Commandment, they find fault with the rest. Just as the Jews stumbled 99at the belief about Jesus as their Messiah Who alone can save them from their sins, so Christians stumbled at the Sabbath Commandment so that they would not keep all the rest. “The sign of obedience is the observance of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. If men keep the fourth commandment, they will keep all the rest.”100

would establish Sunday in an attempt to set up the authority that dares to change times and laws, the Papacy (Daniel 7.25; 2Thess. 2.3-12; Daniel 8.25; Daniel 11.36). God “did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we recognize God as the living God, the creator of heaven and earth.”(White, Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church, (1898), p. 34).

99

Rom. 9.32, 33; Mtt. 21.42-44; Jn. 1.29; Jn. 5.39-40.

100

“It was no human voice that spoke to Moses, giving him the Sabbath as a sign. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths, ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people." [Ex. 31.12-14] The Lord does not leave so important a precept as this without definite specification.

"Six days may work be done: but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant." [v.16]. Human philosophy declares that an indefinite period of time was taken in the creation of the world. Does God state the matter thus? No; he says, "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days [not six indefinite periods of time; for then there would be no possible way for man to observe the day specified in the fourth commandment] the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh he rested, and was refreshed." [v.17] Please read carefully the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. God says again, "Remember [do not forget] the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Yet with the living oracles before them, those who claim to preach the word present the suppositions of human minds, the maxims and commandments of men. They make void the law of God by their traditions. The sophistry in regard to the world being created in an indefinite period of time is one of Satan's falsehoods. God speaks to the human family in language they can comprehend. He does not leave the matter so indefinite that human beings can handle it according to their theories. When the Lord declares that he made the work in six days and rested on the seventh day, he means the day of twenty-four hours, which he has marked off by the rising and setting of the sun. God would not present the death sentence for a disregard of the Sabbath unless he had presented before men a clear understanding of the Sabbath. After he had created our world and man, he looked upon the work that he had done, and pronounced it very good. And when the foundation of the earth was laid, the foundation of the Sabbath was laid also. When the morning stars sang

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“Had the Sabbath always been kept, there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel. The sacred observance of God’s holy day would have led the minds of men to their Creator. The things of nature would have brought Him to their remembrance, and they would have borne witness to His power and His love.

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the seal of the living God. It points to God as the Creator, and is the sign of His rightful authority over the beings He has made.”101 Just as eating flesh foods will not bring us to the divine ideal of healthy diet in our body consecration, so we cannot be completely restored to God in our moral aspect unless we repent of our Sunday observance and worship Him in spirit and “in truth” (Jn. 4.24), in His holy day of delight,102 the true Sabbath day. Worshiping God on Sunday is not worshiping Him in spirit and “in truth” but in error and in Roman idolatry. God is not honoured with such erroneous worship. That is a common day for work, and why should it be set apart for worship among Christians when God have never commanded us that His Sabbath should be replaced with Sunday for day of worship? Who gave Christians the right to trample upon God’s Sabbath Commandment and gathers for worship on a day He did not recognize?

No Christian can claim that he/she is fully united to God in Christ unless one should obey the Sabbath Commandment just exactly as it is written. We remain pagans and false Christian should we continue to disregard and ignore the Sabbath Commandment. This is the only Commandment that connects the creatures to the true God, and without this Sabbath Commandment being kept, one is a pagan, or a heathen who does not know what he/she worshiping. One may claim he/she is a Christian, but he/she is actually paying homage to the Papacy, and not to God as his/her Creator. Such person remains in the abnormality of sin, unless he/she repents of this error, and keeps the Sabbath day holy, just as Jesus, His apostles, and His followers had done throughout the ages. Remember, only at Rome and Alexandria with their pride in sophistical learning printed and published, - only these urbane centers have Sunday popularized in their books and worship, but Christians elsewhere not connected with Rome have always kept the Sabbath in the mountains free from Roman contamination.

For a brief moment, in a Diagram at the next page, we shall see the outcome of Christ’s restorative grace in the present lives of the saints just before He comes. Before the Lord appears in the sky, two classes of people will have fully developed their characters: the holy ones and the disobedient wicked.

together and all the sons of God shouted for joy, God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. In giving the Sabbath, God considered man's spiritual and physical health. (White, Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church (1898).

101

White, “The Seal of God” No. 1, Signs of the Times, November 1, 1899, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1899&month=November&d ay=1&paragraphReferences=1.

102

Isa. 58.13.

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(Diagram 3.3) A DIAGRAM ABOUT THERESTORED PEOPLEANDTHEDEGRADED WICKED: DIVINE IDEAL VERSUS SATANIC IDEAL JUST BEFORE YAHWEH’S SECOND COMING, FINAL RESULT OF GRACE. The Divine ideal are the items listen in green boxes, while the Satanic perversion are those below in the black squares.

LOVE TO GOD AND MAN (Rev. 14.12) DIVINE IDEAL: Perfect character fully attained before 2nd coming (Rev.22.11; Rev.14.12; Rev.14.4, 5; Dan. 12.10)

EVIL HUMAN IDEAL: CONTINUED PERVERSITY , IMPERFECTION, AND WICKEDNESS (REV.22.11)

THE SABBATH DAY: God’s authority recognized and lived (Rev. 14.7, 12; Ex.20.11; Heb.4.4-11; Mtt.12.11, 12; Lk.13.16; Mk.2.27; Isa.56.2-8)

HEALTHY SAINTS: Steadfastly obedient to all God’s Laws, including health Laws.

Righteousness BY FAITH/FAITHFULNESS: the true faith -“The faith/faithfulness of Jesus” which leads to obedience to God’s Commandments (Rev.14.12; Habakkuk 2.4 – “the just shall live by being faithful/steadfast”).

“THE FAITH OF JESUS” (an overcoming faith, it overcomes sin), “MYSTERY OF GODLINESS” –“God revealed in the SARX” – sinful human flesh (1Tim.3.16); condemns sin in the sinful flesh (Rom.8.3,4).

COUNTRY-LIVING:

WORSHIP the Creator, not the beast (Rev. 14.7; Ex.20.11; Rev. 14.9-12). True worship.

WORSHIP: a popular religious revival only in form but without substance; a church-going attitude but withabsence of spirituality and the conviction of sin.

HATE GOD, CURSE HIM (Rev. 16. 9, 11, 21), and persecutes God’s saints with coercive laws (Rev. 12.17; Rev. 13.1518; Jn. 16.2)

FOOD: Vegan, back to the original fleshless diet as in Gen.1.29 and Ex.16.35 – Num.11.6-9

FOOD: eating of flesh and blood prevalent as in the days of Noah.

SUNDAY:the mark of Papal supremacy recognized and enforced by apostate Protestants (Rev. 13.11-18)

NEW COVENANT: God’s Laws were heart-written =willing obedience to God, and trustworthy, fitted for heaven

OLD COVENANT: slaves to sin, disobedient lawbreakers; Legalistic – forced obedience, cannot be trusted by God; not fitted for heaven

SICKLY SINNERS: Violators of God’s Laws, health Laws, and all Divine Laws.

SALVATION by grace through faithfulness: Rest in God, live God’s plain commandments; live out Christ and His righteousness.

SALVATION BY HUMAN WORKS: Invention of human creeds, doctrines that contradict the plain “Thus saith the LORD”, “what is written in the Law”, “it is written” resulting to breaking of God’s Law (Mtt.5.19; Ps.119.126; Mtt.15.3-9; Rom.3.31) and by “many such like things” of human traditions (Mk.7.8, 9, 12; Jer. 8.8; Ezek.

22.26); and resisting Christ’s righteousness.

farming, God’s ideal occupation for man (Gen.2.8, 15). Saints to leave the cities when abominations or Rome’s impious laws are coerced on human conscience (Mtt.24.15-21; Rev.13.11-18)

STUCK IN THE CITIES with the difficulty of buying and selling issue which is to be imposed by the beast (the Papacy) through apostate America/ apostate Protestantism (Rev. 13.11-18)

Unrighteousness BY PRESUMPTION/faithlessness/ unsteadfastness: the faith of devils (James 2.19; Titus 1.16), false faith that leads to disobedience to God’s Commandments, lawlessness, no moral accountability to God’s Law; unfaithfulness to God’s covenant.

“THE FAITH OF ROME” (sin is nature, cannot be overcome due to total depravity; Immaculate conception; Evangelical’ sinless human nature of Christ); “MYSTERY OF INIQUITY” (Spirit of antichrist –denies that the Son of God come in the SARX (1Jn. 4.2, 3 = excuses sin in the flesh)

IMAGE OF GOD FULLY REFLECTED AND REPRODUCED IN HIS CHILDREN: Sabbath –the mark of God’s perfection and sovereignty; characters of the saints fully exhibiting God’s perfect character. (Rev.22.11; Dan.12.10; Rev.14.12; Mtt.24.45-47; Mtt.25.21-23; Mtt.5.48; Rev.3.21; PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER (2Pet. 1.3-11)

IMAGE OF THE BEAST/SATAN FULLY REFLECTED AND REPRODUCED IN HIS OFFSPRINGS: Sunday –the mark of imperfection and rebellion to God’s authority; characters of the wicked fully manifesting Satan’s imperfect and lawless character (2Thess.2.312; Rev.22.11; Dan. 12.10); PARTAKERS OF THE SINS OF THE HARLOT MOTHER (REV. 18.4)

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THE STUMBLING BLOCKS TO TREATING SIN ABNORMALITIES (Points taken from throughout this paper): 1) Immaculate Conception dogma and the Evangelicals’ view of Christ’s human nature as sinless. (Rationale: How can a Christian attain perfection if we cling to these views? If we view Jesus’s human flesh as perfect, sinless, and naturally holy and righteous, how can we follow Him as our Example, when the rest of us have this fallen SARX? Scriptures tell us that we can and we must, just exactly as Christ, in the same fallen, and sinful SARX have overcome. See. 1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Heb. 12:1-4; Mtt. 5.48; Heb. 6.1; 1Cor. 7.1; Rev. 3.21; 1Jn. 2.3-6; Lev. 19.2; Deut. 18.13; 2Pet. 1.3-11; Titus 2.11-15; Phil. 2.14,15. In those texts among many others, nothing is mentioned that we cannot be perfect, or that we should not be perfect. Any Bible reader will get the overall impression that the Scriptures is basically written to make us better persons. But not only better, but to become the sons and daughters of the Most High. That book tells us that in this life we ought to be partakers of the Divine nature. It does not encourage us to remain infants, imperfect, and low in spiritual stature. That good old book does not encourage us to be spiritual dwarfs, but to be steadfast overcomes who conquers every besetting sin and be victorious in the battle of faith) 2) Calvinists’ teaching, “Total depravity” (Rationale: This perverse doctrine is an excuse to be imperfect and remain in total depravity. It is not good news at all, but bad news for Christians. The good news is in Gen.3.15 which shows that the depraving work of Satan in our race was forever interrupted. And that there is NO MORE TOTAL DEPRAVITY NOW. There will always be a hostility against evil, and that the good will triumph. God never taught Cain about man’s “total depravity” when He challenged him in Gen.4.7. There actually is no such thing as total depravity as Calvinists assert. Only the weak, mediocre, and insecure Christians would believe in this doctrine. No one who is a fighter for God would be hindered by this weak concept. This doctrine fits only to weak hearts and weak minds that are not willing to obey the will of God, or to realize that we are accountable to our own choices. In our civilized world, this doctrine makes people stupid.103 One philosopher observes, "When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that 103

The German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was even harsher in his observations, but not confined only to universal sinfulness, he lumps the rest of Evangelical beliefs flatly in such a bad representation. He said, “The everyday Christian. -- If the Christian dogmas of a revengeful God, universal sinfulness, election by divine grace and the danger of eternal damnation were true, it would be a sign of weak-mindedness and lack of character not to become a priest, apostle or hermit and, in fear and trembling, to work solely on one's own salvation; it would be senseless to lose sight of one’s eternal advantage for the sake of temporal comfort. If we may assume that these things are at any rate believed true, then the everyday Christian cuts a miserable figure; he is a man who really cannot count to three, and who precisely on account of his spiritual imbecility does not deserve to be punished so harshly as Christianity promises to punish him. (Nietzsche, Human, all too Human, s.116, R.J. Hollingdaletransl. Cited in: http://www.theperspectivesofnietzsche.com/nietzsche/nchrist.html) Nietzsche is saying that those tenets above (as formulated by churches) if believed, will make a Christian miserable because his spiritual ineptitude (as a result of those dogmas) makes him unworthy of martyrdom, because those beliefs are indeed stupid, and makes a person less worthy to be called a Christian. Nietzsche mocks at those incompetent dogmas common to organized churches, that these makes a person useless even within the realm of his being a Christian. As far as I am concerned, what Nietzsche got was the only version of Christianity he was being exposed to, -the Papal Christianity, and that includes both Roman-catholic and Evangelical dogmas. If many philosophers were exposed to the writings of Ellen G. White, how different would be their outlook! It is interesting to observe that only the Greeks, and NOT the Hebrews, believed that sin was resident in the flesh. But Jesus is a Hebrew. He does not share the same pessimism prevalent in the Graeco-Roman mindset when it comes to religion, nor that “total depravity” loser complex. It was a Jew with a chutzpah, a kind that fights, thrives, and endures to the end despite the direst condition. “The mark of a superior personality is steadfastness under severe misfortune.” (Ludwig Van Beethoven).

Truly, “the righteous will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2:4). Notice that in today’s politics, , “total depravity” is subconsciously used to excuse sin. For example, the Liberal Party says, “Please excuse de Lima, and other politicians’ lapses; they’re only humans.” And so crimes and all sorts of sin and injustices are perpetuated. First from the Roman church who crafted those dogmas (Mental Reservation, Immaculate Conception, the Confessional system, Purgatory = all these strengthens sinning among the masses), then by Evangelicals who defend Christ’s sinless human nature. And next, to the societies who excuse sin by citing that sin is nature, and that humankind is totally depraved or sin is universal. Therefore the bad opposite necessitates that righteousness must also be nature, and that choice or choosing is useless. This line of theology justifies Predestination or Eternal Election. The command to overcome and be perfect becomes irrelevant, and the repeated admonition of the Master and His apostles to “watch and be ready” are fiction and nonsense. Everything should be

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they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings." (Bertrand Russell, 1927). Why debase ourselves when God at Gen. 3.15 had already worked for man's uplifting? Have we not known or read godlike saints in the past and at present whose lives were wholly transformed because they were partakers of the divine nature? I cannot fully emphasize the malignity of this dogma. One thing is sure; it invalidates the idea that there is such thing as free will and free choosing.

Coupled with predestination, it renders the efforts at development of Christian character comatose and flat.

One will not partake the divine nature. One is lazy to overcome bad habits because the thought that our nature is depraved vitiates his/her striving for the better spiritual growth. Or on the other hand, feeling lucky or assuming that he is elected from eternity; he will not watch and pray but feel complacent and think he is secure of his salvation. If he does adultery many times a day, he felt secure in his sins thinking that God still saves him despite his wickedness. But even in the doctrine of election, Calvinists are not certain whether they are among the elect. Because the true elect are those who obey ALL the Commandments of God, and they cannot obey because they think they are totally depraved, in need of grace, and yet after having grace, they think they are still totally depraved. This is crazy. Therefore Depravity leads to mediocrity and moral weakness and spiritual dwarfism, while Predestination leads to presumption and calloused indifference. Akin to this view of Total Depravity or Universal Sinfulness by the Calvinists is the same Papal teaching that sin is nature, and therefore inevitable. Calvin and most Evangelical merely imbibed and continued the errors of Rome from Augustine by grossly perverting Rom.8:29, 30 and Romans 9 as basis for Predestination, and Rom. 3.23; Rom. 5.12 and Ps. 51 as basis for universal sinfulness, -as if all were born sinners and are guilty. But the text in Rom. 5.12 says that it was death, NOT sin which pervaded the world. The disobedience of one man does NOT automatically make all humankind and individual people sinners as what Rom. 5.19 had been commonly misinterpreted. Not all are sinners, but only those “all [who] had sinned.� Enoch never sinned, and so with Job, Daniel, Joseph, King Josiah, King Asa, Elijah, Zacharias and Elisabeth. God had to take Enoch and Elijah to heaven on account of their own righteousness. They were never taught to believe that sin is nature, and inherent in the flesh. Rather, sin is an outside element as what Gen. 4.7 strongly proves. If sin is nature, then righteousness is also nature. And if righteousness is nature, then it would be natural for Daniel, the Messiah, Paul, Abraham, Moses and David to do right, and cannot be able to sin. They need not overcome evil or sin for there was no need of such exertions or striving against sin, and besides, it would be impossible for them to sin inasmuch as what is natural for them is being righteous, and that to sin is unthinkable. They cannot and would not do it, no matter how they choose they will. Likewise, if sin is nature, then there is no way out for all the race of Adam except to be condemned to hell, except that God must justify them, and at the same time do something in them making them holy by His own will and in His own way, without the consent and cooperation of the creature, forcing them to salvation despite their disposition against the Law. Calvinists assumes that those who are elected will respond to God's call. But God always call people, and the supposed elect turned away and despised the offer. While those who are not the elect (gentiles) had positively responded. But even those gentiles did not remain in that calling but apostatized and sinned. Biblical history tells us quite something else than what our theologians want Paul to say. God knocks at the doors of our hearts. He wants to make us holy. He sent prophets and messengers. He had already justified our race right at the entrance of sin, and He treats us as though we have never fallen. He befriended Abraham, and talked faced to face with Moses, Job, Elijah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and yet He urges the importance of obedience. But still not all the justified race respond. All are justified already and counted as bought with a price, but only a few take advantage of this privilege by holding onto it, and living steadfastly in it. They want to retain their status as slaves, and refuse to be freed from sin, no matter the fact that they are already chosen from the foundation of the world in order to be conformed to the image of the Messiah. If sin is nature, and that there is no way out. God provided the way out, always do, and always frees us from sinning. We need not think that sin is mechanically determined as God predestined it. Even salvation must be mechanical which no human choosing can alter or change. Righteousness and spiritual maturity is fixed by a God who determines beforehand, and no spiritual maturity actually occurs by the Christian himself, and by his own striving and overcoming because everything must be ordained and operated by God, irrespective of our choosing, and even if we may not want salvation or hell altogether. This doctrine held by Evangelical churches is wrong, unethical, presumptuous, immoral, and repugnant to common sense and civil feelings.

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natural for us or that we ought necessarily to sin being slaves to sin [Rom. 6.1, 2, 6, 11-13, 15, 18-19, 22] because in Genesis 3:15 God had already freed us even before we know it. Rom. 2.13-15 attests the fact that this moral power is present in every heart even if one is not a Jew. Therefore sin should never be thought of as nature because we are already bought fully with a price [1Cor. 6.20]. Since Gen. 3.15, and even before the foundation of the world, we stand fully justified already in God’s sight, freed from sinful nature. Depravity is therefore a myth, except we choose to be depraved and indulge in it. Therefore, people are not born depraved because since Gen. 3.15, our moral capacity to choose was as viable as before Adam had fallen into sin.

Rather, people are depraved because they choose to. And if they choose not to, and keep on surrendering to the power of God, they will be able to break the power of depravity and be restored to perfection. How? By choice, -the choice as reinstated and restored from the start, in Gen. 3.15. Now sin which was previously a nature, was, under Gen. 3.15, no longer nature. What is natural is the power inherently felt which struggles against sin. Since Gen. 3.15 there had always been an enmity, a hostility against sin, or a hatred against it, which was hitherto not natural in the sinful heart of Adam and Eve who fell into harmony with it. But now that harmony with sin was forever disrupted. We felt hatred against it, and there are two powers within. But goodness is now our nature. God in Gen. 3.15 had made it easy for us to be born good and not to love sinning.

He gave us that hostility, that enmity against sin. Therefore is in no longer our nature. Goodness is now our nature. But we cannot and must not rely on the natural to define us. Even if we have that inclination to do good and evil, we still have to choose to prove it. We need to be tested. Luther once said that before a tree bears fruit, God knows whether such a tree is evil or good. But let me interrupt Luther. Lucifer, and Adam and Eve were good by nature, and God knew it because He created them perfect, and yet they sinned. So were they created evil, or were they naturally evil because they chose evil? Therefore sin and righteousness is not nature, but choice. God intends that those endowed with the power of choice should choose only the good and reject evil, but the choosing of evil by creatures who are created perfect and holy is beyond His will, and beyond His intent. “God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency.” 104 And seeing that sin will triumph, He already made an escape, giving fallen creatures the chance to repent, and treating them as though they have never fallen, imparting to them anew His divine nature, and expelling the evil, sinful nature, yet many persist in their choice, and God could not no more. He is not a participant of their wickedness; that’s their own choice. No matter the chance to become partakers of divine nature, by choice they want to the evil nature. Therefore it is their choice, and not nature, because nature cannot determine choices, because choice is a spark of power beyond nature. Furthermore, if sin is nature, the result would be tantamount to WEALTH = RIGHTEOUSNESS, and POVERTY = SIN. For example, in our society a person or a family will not steal or commit crimes especially if that person or that family’s background is highly educated and has substantial income. He cannot and will not steal because there is no need to, and no reason to. In this line of thinking, we got the equation WEALTH + EDUCATION = NO CRIME, NO SIN. If a person is educated and has ample income, there is no reason to commit crimes. But if the person is poor and not educated with ethics, or is not a professional, committing crimes is a necessity and therefore natural. But that’s not the way God wants His saints to be. There is no easy way to rely on the natural as automatic causes that necessitates righteousness and sinning. The forcing of the choice beyond nature must happen. It is no guarantee that a Jew, schooled in the Law should not fall or cannot fall into sin.

A real Jew is achieved only by choice, and never by natural descent in God’s estimate. For the perpetuation of being a Jew is the knowledge and practicing, and steadfast obedience to the Torah. What if there is a Jewish family having little children, and these kids are left by themselves into the world without being taught in the Torah, and are becoming disobedient to the Covenant. Being of Jewish lineage avails them nothing. The kids have become gentiles in their disregard of the Torah. Similarly, a gentile unschooled in the revelations of the Torah, and yet had done what that Law requires (Rom. 2.13-15) is counted as Jew, for to be a real Jew is not 104

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 23. Public domain: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=egqBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=god+did+not+ordain+that+sin+should+exist+but+he+foresaw&source=bl&ots=p_C w1B05Yd&sig=xdNPf3KeQqLPZNNiD8ys5gh5qmw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjONnYld3QAhXJTrwKHRH0BdIQ6AEIJzAD#v=onepage&q=god%20did%20not%20ordain%20that%20sin%20should%20exist%20b ut%20he%20foresaw&f=false.

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by its external, fleshly distinctions, but the internal attitude alone (Rom. 2.28, 29). On the opposite, yet the same strand of argument, it is no guarantee that a gentile, schooled and educated in sin, shall not become obedient or being unable to reverse his/her nature, and do righteousness by choice and by arguing within his own convictions in favour for the right (Rom. 2.14-15). The levelling point is the choice and not nature at all.

We cannot rely on the natural as argument in favour to sin and righteousness claiming that sin is nature or righteousness is nature. If so, the Jews will simply rely on their physical connection to Abraham as guarantee for salvation: They are saved because naturally they are righteous, and sons of the law. John the Baptist urges fruits of obedience as basis, and not nature (Lk. 3. 8-9; See Deut. 20.20; Lk. 13.6-9; James 2.14-26; Mtt. 5.13; Jn. 15.2; Lk. 19.8; Rom. 9. 6-9. The Spirit through Paul says that Jews who are righteous by nature still needs to put their faith in the Messiah, in order that, for the purpose of, to the end that they should be justified by having “the faithfulness of the Messiah” (Gal. 2.16). “The righteous will live by his own steadfastness” (Habakkuk 2:4). God wants to have this way, that even if poor and severely tempted by circumstance, despite the urge of natural inclination and natural necessity, we rise above these and do what is beyond nature, and perfectly obey the Law of God no matter the difficulties nature and circumstances can impose on us. There is no excuse, and there can be no any excuse for sinning no matter how severe the tests. Sin is sin; no excuse can be given to justify it. We sin because we choose to, and yielded to it even if there is no need to. And it is not the poverty, lack of education, natural disposition that gives us lawful excuses, for no lawful excuse can excuse with is unlawful in the first place. Man can be poor and yet steadfast, pure, untainted and undefiled in character. Also one can be rich and yet remain humble, lowly, pure, and uncorrupt. Or we can be poor and criminal at the same time. Rich and corrupt, whatever the case, the choosing makes the difference. God wants that in whatever condition, we reveal His perfect righteousness whether we are rich or poor. Nature does not give licence or excuse to sin. Therefore sin as nature does not have any meaning, and sin itself is not nature but a choice. If we subscribe to argument that WEALTH + EDUCATION = no crime, no sin, the reality balks us. We see many rich and educated people end up spiritually bankrupt, Christless, and has no humility, but are self-important and lovers of distinctions, hypocrites (that is, courteous, tactful even if the real attitude is the exact opposite). Here we see that the more education and more wealth, the greater the craftiness and multiplicity of species of deceit, prevarication, rotten selfishness, conceit, and absence of natural sincerity and the absence of humility. Rather, we have the equation: EDUCATION + WEALTH = more sins. The cause of sinning is not due to poverty or riches, prefill or postfall nature, but the choice alone, for the mind and the governing principle is above nature, and no nature or circumstance, nor any severe temptation or tests can force one to commit sin, except when one consents. Sinning is not due to depravity, but the choice. God will not accuse us of depravity because our physical condition is on the downward progress to dying and extinction. Rather, God will accuse us how we treat His grace. He gave us the chance to live perfectly once more in Gen. 3.15, and holds us as fully answerable to our choices, as if we had never fallen to sin, as if Adam and Eve and Lucifer did not exist around to tempt and cause sin. It is us ourselves to blame, not any other causes around us, inasmuch as Adam, Eve, and Lucifer had committed sins, and they, not other causes are accountable for it. We cannot blame other Lucifers for committing sin but Lucifer himself. We do not blame the serpent around Eden, because even if there was the serpent they could still eat of the tree by their own choosing. It does not need a serpent to induce them to eat of the forbidden tree. It takes only their choice. And Satan himself, even before his fall, have sinned by his own choice and in his own mind, not that some other cause is to be blamed. And because it does not matter in whatever condition we commit sin, and that what matters is the choice, the concept of total depravity should be ignored. In Gen. 3.15, right at the fall, God liberated us from slavery, and gave back our ability to live a perfect life again as though no fall or depravity had ever happened. We ought to reject this theory of total depravity or universal sinfulness. Although it is true that man commits mistakes, that happen only by choice and by a conscious act. Not all have sinned, but only those who choose to, therefore as much as all choose to commit sin, all have sinned. But Paul is wrong. Not all have sinned. Jesus never sinned. Job, Enoch, Joseph, King Josiah, Zechariah and Elisabeth, Daniel, have never ever sinned. Job may claim that he had sinned in his youth, but in God’s estimate, he remains perfect.

Daniel prayed about the corporate sin of Israel, yet God recommended his righteousness as model (Ezek.

14.14, 20). Not all are depraved, but only those who yielded to perverted appetites. Paul had built upon the idea that all have sinned in order to establish his point that the human race are in need of God’s grace. But Page 101 of 174

not all have sinned. Enoch, Joseph, Elijah, Daniel, Job, King Josiah and King Asa, Jesus, Zacharias and Elisabeth did not. Not all chose to commit sin. Many lived a perfect life without committing any sin. But although the righteous saints are conscious that they are perfect (Job. 9.21), they would not claim any credit.

They know that apart from God, there can be no true righteousness. They would not feel proud or spiritually secure.105 They remain humble. It is God who pronounced them as such. That is why whatever pronouncements the Biblical writers in their finite minds had supposed that no one had not committed sin,106 such insight is wrong and not correct, because it contradicts what God Himself had pronounced about Job, Moses, Abraham, and David107, and what Inspiration estimates about Enoch, Noah, Daniel, Zacharias and Elisabeth, the Messiah, and the 144,000 saints in the future.108 The one who pronounced who were perfect were not Solomon, Paul, David, nor Jeremiah, but God Himself. He knows who among His saints had lived a perfect life without any sin. And so He cannot afford to let them die like the rest, He had to take them alive like Enoch and Elijah. The wrong doctrine of the Calvinists about Total Depravity makes us totally depraved, and deprives us from seeing the fact that there have been millions of saints who had never committed sins throughout their lifetime, and that there will always be, as there always have been. Just as there have been many wicked since Adam’s fall up to this time, so God’s steadfast race lived in such perfection that they don’t want to commit any sin, and they did, although not all are as perfect as like them. What matters is that in the end, we die faithful and perfect).

3) The popular theory that God’s Commandments cannot be kept, and that perfection cannot be attained in this side of existence. (Rationale: The advocates of this rebellion excuse is taken from 2Chron. 6.36; Ps. 130. 3-5; Eccl. 7.20; Isa. 64.6; Rom. 3.22-25; 1Jn. 1.8-10 as if these texts commands them not to obey and not to be perfect, and prohibits them to obey, overcome, and be perfect and blameless. But Scriptures does not encourage imperfection or disobedience, or an imperfect and incomplete obedience to God’s requirements, nor a character that has blemishes or any spot. It takes the perfect and no less than that which God expects from the race on whom He bestowed so much grace and spiritual energies. Remember, just right after the fall, God lacks nothing on His part just to water the garden and to pour out such vast divine powers to perfectly uplift us to that perfect state just like when our race was not yet fallen. He said “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (Isa. 5.4). He sent His Son so that the Laws should be written permanently in our hearts making us holy, and steadfastly obedient, and perfect. His Son lived to show example how to resist sin in the flesh – by ceaseless vigilance and prayer. He instructs His prophets that the 105

Ellen G. White notes: “As we have clearer views of Christ's spotless and infinite purity, we shall feel as did Daniel, when he beheld the glory of the Lord, and said, “My comeliness was turned in me into corruption.” We cannot say, “I am sinless,” till this vile body is changed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. But if we constantly seek to follow Jesus, the blessed hope is ours of standing before the throne of God without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; complete in Christ, robed in his righteousness and perfection.” (Signs of the Times, March 23, 1888, public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/820.8715#8731.

106

Eccl. 7.20; 2Chron. 3.36; 1Kgs. 8.46; Dan. 9.5-14; Rom. 3.23

107

Num. 12.7; Gen. 26.5; Job. 1.8; Job. 2.3; 2Chron. 7.17. Although these men, -Abraham, Moses, and David had committed sins, yet God counts them as the people who “obeyed my Commandments, statutes, and Laws.” It is the ruling principle God counts in the end, and not the past mistakes. Notice that Job claimed to have sins in his youth (Job. 13.26), but God nevertheless reckoned him as perfect. The way God views sinless perfection is not the same as our static view. God counts perfection in the present progressive tense, and not the past.

108

Gen. 5.21-24; Gen. 6.9; Lk. 1.5, 6; 1Pet. 2.22; Rev. 14.4, 5. These people –Enoch, Noah, Joseph, Daniel, Zacharias and Elisabeth, the Messiah, and the 144,000 are such saints that have never committed any sin throughout their lives. And we all can be like them, even from the womb, if we just choose to. There have been millions of saints who are like this, but the doctrine of Universal sinfulness prevents us from seeing it. Building a wrong theology using these texts (Eccl. 7.20; 2Chron.

3.36; 1Kgs. 8.46; Dan. 9.5-14; Rom. 3.23), theologians greatly erred and missed the point that there have been many saints who had never committed any single sin throughout their existence. That is possible when we are always connected and dependent on God.

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righteous will survive by his own steadfastness / faithfulness (Habakkuk 2:4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10. 38, 39; 1Cor. 10.12). In short, all heaven was interested for our complete and perfect moral restoration in this lifetime. But we must be tested in the sinful environment whether or not we can stand and remain steadfast and develop into perfection. The numerous texts show that God obliges us to be perfect and obedient, faithful even in little things, to maintain prayerful vigilance, and to complete all the requirement for righteousness and the steps to perfection, and to overcome as exactly as the human Messiah did(1Jn. 3.3; Mtt. 3.15; 2Pet. 1.3-12; James 3.2; Mtt. 18.8, 9; Rev. 3.21; 1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24; 1Jn. 2.3-6; Heb. 12.1-4; Gen. 17.1; Lev. 19.2; Heb. 12.14; Mtt. 5.8; Deut. 12.28; Deut. 18.13; Josh. 22.5; Prov. 11.20, 21; 1Kgs. 8.61; Mtt. 5.48; 1Cor. 11.1-34; Isa. 45.22; John. 7.18; Phil. 2.14, 15; James 2:10; Jn. 14.23, 24; 2Tim. 2.9; Rom. 6.1-6; 2Cor. 5.1418; Jn. 8.11; Jn. 5.14; Mtt. 25.21-23; Lk. 16.10-12; Mtt. 26.41; Lk. 21.36; ). And that there are saints who had obeyed God’s Commandments, stood for the right, and conquered sin in the end (Gen. 5.22, 24; Gen. 26.5; Gen. 39.6-10; Job. 1.8; Job. 2.3; Ex. 12.6-8; Heb. 3.5; Num. 27.22; Josh. 11.15; 1Kgs. 15.5; 2Kgs. 23.25; 2Chron. 34.33; Esther 3.4; Esther 5.9; Ezek. 14.20; Dan. 3.16-18; Dan. 6.10; Lk. 1.6; 1Pet. 2.22). Finally, the saints of the earth’s last history will reveal such shining perfection and complete obedience to all God’s Laws in contrast to the wicked who will have developed in image of Satan’s imperfection in their characters (Lk. 18.8; Rev. 14.12; Dan. 12.3; Rev. 14.4, 5; Rev. 22.11, 14). What’s the sense of Christ’s exhortation for Christians to be perfect, to overcome just exactly as He overcame, to live upward, holy, obedient lives, and be successful overcomes in His strength if Dr. Walter R. Martin, and the rest of the rebels keep on telling us that we cannot keep His Commands? It sounds as if these theologians like Dr. Martin break God’s Law and influence others to do the same (Mtt. 5.19; Deut. 13; Jer. 8.8; Ezek. 22.26). But that’s dangerous (Mtt. 18.6, 7; Mtt. 7.21-23; Lk. 6.46; Jer. 28.15-17; Prov. 28.9; Ps. 119.126; Mtt. 15. 3, 6, Titus 1.16). Are these rebellion preachers prepared to argue before God that He made Laws that could not be obeyed and that He was at fault in making those Laws? And what about the Bible heroes whom God Himself acknowledged as having kept His Laws, Commandments, Statutes, and judgements? What about the blameless couple like Zacharias and Elisabeth? What about Moses, Abraham, Daniel, Job, Enoch, King Josiah among others who died faithful and who were perfect in their lives? And what about Paul who said “I have finished my course,”? (2Tim. 4.7). The arguments of these lovers of imperfection gets to nowhere, for there is no commandment or statement in all the Scriptures that say that we cannot obey God’s Commandments, but that evidences are overwhelming that many have obeyed. How? By steadfastness/ faithfulness (Rom. 9. 31-33; Jer. 31.31-34; Habakkuk 2.4; Rom. 1.7; Heb. 10. 38, 39; 1Cor. 10.12; 2Cor. 6.1; Ezek. 33.14-16), that is, when one is truly consistent to the end, and through the strength of Christ becomes trustworthy and faithful that God Himself can entrust him/her with eternal riches, having passes the severe tests in this present existence (Lk. 16.10-12).

4) Deliberate ignorance on God’s Fourth Commandment: The Sabbath Commandment, by both Romancatholics and Evangelicals (Rationale: How can the abnormality of sin be cured if one refuses to let God be God and invent a rest day of our own making and our own righteousness? The Fourth Commandment lost none of its validity in the Renewed Testament times. It remains the same, and will remain forever. It will remain the Sabbath for humankind (Mk.2.27) and not just for the Jews, just as their Messiah belongs to the whole world. We do not fully experience rest from our weekly works, to rest in the hands of our Creator so long as we rest on a wrong day, Sunday. God had not blessed this day. And He never unblessed His holy Sabbath day. Therefore Christians today are guilty in this one particular Commandment. They ignored it, and suppose that nothing is wrong in their practice of Sunday church-going. They are giving God a wrong worship, and not worship in spirit and “in truth.” They are giving God a lie, a worship based on their own self-righteousness. But a heavier blame rests on the Papal church because it deceives the world by instituting Sunday observance, and the Protestants unwittingly followed. But the Protestant who took the “sola Scriptura” slogan should take the Bible and the Bible only. And yet the Command to change Sabbath into Sunday and worship on Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of the Messiah is not in that “sola Scriptura” but of the Papacy alone. They actually have Bible and tradition just like Rome, and are not reliable advocates of the “Sola Scriptura” slogan. In this specific aspect, the Protestant are not following the Bible but Rome. And that’s a major abnormality; the Evangelicals’ manifest sin and rebellion against God’s Creatorship.)

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5) Deliberate ignorance about the importance of all God’s Laws, especially the health Laws and dietary commandments. (Rationale: The thought that health is gospel is unknown in the Protestant world. Many pastors and church members become sick and dying. They request for prayers, while they remain violators to the laws of health. God has His laws written in everything of creation, and the laws of health were never treated as important because the theologians think only for the spiritual. They ignore the texts that shows that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that we ought to present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom. 12.1; 1Cor. 3.16,17; 1Cor. 9.27; 2Jn. 1.2; Jn. 5.14; Ex. 15.26; Prov. 28.9) 6) Human idolatry that leads to idolize city-settling, a love for distinction, and a depreciation of God’s original ideal occupation for the human race which is farming or country-living. (Rationale: Many including the mindset of the gentiles [Rom.1.18-32 & Gen.4.17-24; Gen.11.4; Gen.13.11-13; Gen.18.20; Gen. 19.4-9] are so polluted with immorality due to congesting among themselves in the cities, inhaling the contaminated morality in those places including the pride of profession, so that humility, sensitivity to God’s natural laws are ignored and despised. God’s prophets and reformers have been raised up in the rural areas in order to minister and preach in the cities. They have sound minds and strong bodies, perfecly fitted to represent God to the world) 7) The compartmentalization of God’s one everlasting covenant into two covenants (Old and New) as if they are matters of two dispensations, when in fact they are matters of two vast different attitudes. (Rationale: If we view that God had instituted an Old Covenant which is a covenant of works, and then finding it a mistake, He made a New Covenant which is by faith, we charge God with the fault that He made two methods of salvation, the one is by works, and the other by faith, and that God Himself was mistaken when He made the Old Covenant of works. This is untenable and a careless error by Evangelical theologians. God had never instituted a covenant of works. His true religion is always by grace since the fall of Adam, and not by human works or human self-righteousness. God’s covenant with humankind was everlasting, and everlastingly new.

To God, it remains always new. It cannot and must not become old. Also to His obedient, faithful saints it remains always new, and so they derive strength from it because it inspires and refreshes. But it was the disobedient people’s treatment of that everlasting covenant that made it old. Their unsteadfast hearts made them disobedient so that God cannot trust them. It was such a heart that His Laws were not written internally, but externally as written codes in stones and papers, and it only kills and condemns because the disobedient person who sees them will be terrified by that Law because he/she is disobedient. He is condemned by that righteous Law. But there is no condemnation to them who are obedient to that Law. Condemnation rests only on the disobedient. But the truly obedient ones had the righteousness of God which is “Christ in us, crucified, dead, and risen”. When we experience death to sinful desires, then our outlook are transformed, our hearts are now in harmony (and not against) the Ten Commandments. We are living the reality of the New/Renewed Covenant. Why? When Christ is in the heart, the very righteousness of God is in us too. And when we look at the Ten Commandments, it will no longer kill us because it was also written in our hearts, -our hearts being faithful, steadfast, obedient, and perfect, such as God can entrust eternal life. But let it be understood that there is the same Laws in the New/Renewed Covenant, the Commandment of twofold love as summarized in detail in the Ten Commandments. And the Sabbath Commandment is the same in the Old and the Renewed, the seventh day of the week, and not Sunday. The old Covenant Sabbath is on the seventh day, Saturday, but the New/Renewed Covenant Sabbath is still the same seventh day, the Sabbath day. God has no reason to change His Sabbath Commandment. Not a hint was ever listed from Christ’s own words, the apostles, and the gentile converts as found in the sola Scriptura about any change in the Fourth Commandment. What makes that New/Renewed Covenant old is the mistake of the disobedient, and their disobedient, and not God who made such a perfect everlasting covenant of grace. It was man, and not God who was not steadfast to the everlasting covenant. That covenant knew no change but renewal (the same Laws to be written in the hearts). Therefore the everlasting Covenant and the old Covenant are not matters of dispensations, but matters of two vast different spiritual attitudes and experiences. Those who live under the renewed Covenant are obedient and steadfast because God’s Laws were written in their hearts, while those who live with the Old Covenant Page 104 of 174

mindset are disobedient and slaves to sin like Hagar who cannot produce a true, legitimate son, but a slave in Gal. 4.24, 25. It is unrighteousness by works. Contrast this to Sarah’s conception which was by faith. The righteousness that comes from the Renewed/everlasting Covenant produces a true heir, and not a slave (Gal. 4.26-Gal. 5 and 6). It is the true righteousness that is by faithfulness, and not by legalism/slavery/works which results only to perpetual disobedience. For example, to the disobedient child, the parent needs to remind him/her over and over, and had to spank and punish him/her many times to the intent that moral discipline will be internalized in the heart. In the same way, God wrote His Laws in the stone tablets, and instituted the ceremonial system of grace and sacrifices so that the disobedient people will be horrified of their sins and appreciate the righteousness of God’s Laws, and hate sin, -the sin that caused the death of the victim. And their hearts will be softened at such wondrous grace that they will hate sin and love righteousness. God ordained that system so that people will understand grace. He wrote His laws on tablets of stones and parchments to the end that those principles of righteousness should permanently be written in the tablets of the hearts by steadfastness and faithfulness. The old covenant was ratified with blood, sacrifices, and written laws so that these will lead the people to live under the New/Renewed Covenant. A child will no longer need spanking and discipline, no longer need further instructions (Jer.31.33, 34), if the Law and discipline is internalized in his/her nature. But if the same child will fall again into sin, the same Laws must punish and remind him so that those Laws should be written in the heart. But the punishment falls upon the victim, and not him/her. It falls upon Christ, the victim and the Sacrifice. So what will the child do at such extravagant grace?

It will soften the heart so that sin becomes hateful to him/her. Understanding it, one become willing and obedient. Keeping the law is now a delight. It is internalized and no longer need to be written externally on parchments like a checklist of dos and don’ts upon a person who forgets. One is now living under the New/Renewed Covenant. He realized the greatness of God’s love, and this makes him/her hate sin forever. The laws were now written in the heart by steadfastness and faithfulness. It is within his/her nature, and not outside it. It brings life because he/she is now living in the Spirit, and not in the flesh. The spirit of the law brings life and liberty, while the letter of the law (as written externally) brings condemnation and death. But understand this, that both Covenants had the same Law, the twofold love commandments. God has no reason to change any of His laws in both covenants. And there is only one condition: obedience. Those who are living under the old covenant mindset find it hard to obey. They are slaves to sin like Hagar who cannot produce a legitimate son, and therefore cannot produce a true righteousness but patchwork, a human righteousness which results into slavery to sin because the laws were not internally written. They will disobey because they do not appreciate what was done by the victim who died in their place. But those who live under the renewed/everlasting covenant find it easier to obey all the Commandments because they realized what was done by the sacrificial victim, and the God who liberated them from sin and bondage. There are old Testament saints who repeatedly experience the scene of the death of the lamb victim, and appreciating the ritual, it transformed their natures to being obedient and steadfast. Realizing God’s grace, they felt indebted to His great love causing them to hate sin and love His Laws or righteousness. How much with us Christian who saw the unveiled glory of God in the infinite sacrifice of His Son. This experience of Agape-love should lead us to become obedient to all His Commandments, and such obedience is not legalism, but true and abiding. We felt indebted to God’s great love just as the Israelites of old, and we cry out “for He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever”, and we respond with the same equal steadfast love (Agape) as much as all our strength, soul, and hearts can give. Something will happen inside. It will make us hate sin with such extreme hatred, and a love for His Commandments. Those righteousness principles will be internalized in the heart. All His Commandments are kept perfectly and easily, without hindrance, without legalism. We do it not by force but by steadfast love for God who steadfastly loved us. Notice this, there are people living in the Old Testament but who lives under the New/Renewed Covenant experience as Abraham and the obedient Israelites and saints, while there are Christians who are living in the New Testament times, but whose mindset are under the Old Covenant- that is, they are disobedient, legalist, and find it hard to obey God’s Commandments.)

8) Salvation by grace through faith or the righteousness by faith was taken to mean – salvation by cheap grace through unfaithfulness, or unrighteousness by unsteadfastness, unfaithfulness, and disobedience to God’s Law. (Rationale: Salvation is always by grace since at the start. But what God had done calls forth human response Page 105 of 174

of faithfulness / steadfastness as “the righteous will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness” [Habakkuk 2.4].

We must be faithful to that grace, and not fall from it [Heb. 10.38, 39; Rom. 11.21-22] “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”[2Cor. 6.1]. “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip.” [Heb.2.1]. Righteousness by faith is not unrighteousness by faith. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” [Rom.1.18]. “For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience” [Col. 3.6].

“For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him..?” [Heb. 2.2-4]Disobedience to what? To God’s Law. But Jesus came so that by His obedience, many will become righteous, (Rom. 5.19;), and not unrighteous. In other words, He came so that many will be influence to be righteous, doing what He did (1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24. The wrong side is that many Christians want Christ’s righteousness to be imputed to them while they live in sin and disobedience. The Bible does not condone such vicious theology.

The obedience of Christ will influence many to become righteous, just in opposite to the disobedience of Adam had influence many to become unrighteous. But if one chooses to remain unrighteous, the obedience that Christ had accomplished will not make us righteous but evil, because we do not submit to His righteousness).

9) Calvinists’ doctrine about Predestination (Rationale: This leads to “once saved, always saved” presumption. True faith leads to obedience, and obedience leads to constant and unremitting struggle against evil tendencies and desires. See 1Pet. 1.22; 2Cor. 7.1; Heb. 6.1; Rev. 3.21; James 4.7,8; Heb. 3.6, 14; Heb. 10.35-38; Mtt. 24.13; Rev. 2.10; Rom. 11.22; 2Cor. 6.1; 1Cor. 10.12; 1Cor. 9.27; Col. 1.21-23. The Predestination of the Calvinists is Presumption, and presumption is sinful leading to downfall [Ps. 19.13; Ezek. 33.13]). Being saved by grace through election does not imply that it is impossible for the elect to fall, because in most cases, those who are supposed to be God’s children of the kingdom grew perverse, disobedient, and become worse than the heathen. While the gentiles who accepted became righteous. But this is not God’s act, but the response of the creatures. God does not intervene with such responses, nor effect those responses. It is their own treatment to the grace that comes to their senses, and the manner they persevere in their responses. God will be able to complete what he had started in us, if we on our part remain steadfast and vigilant. Salvation is not predestination. Salvation is God’s work plus mans cooperation. God has a part in man’s justification which does not include man’s part, but His and His alone. But sanctification is different; it is God’s perfect work in man with man’s consenting and allowing God’s spirit to work within, and with unremitting vigilance and resisting sin and overcoming evil on the part of man himself. Yet man really has a part, and that cannot be denied. The only thing is, it cannot be credited to him for salvation because the strength belongs to Christ, and he ought to be saved as he is bought with the price.

Next is, he only does what is expected on him as his duty to the Master, and therefore deserves no thanks (Lk. 17.7-10). And besides, we are indeed expected to be saved, so what’s the big deal about our own efforts at salvation when we are indeed expected to do it and not be slothful or unfaithful, but faithful and trustworthy? But God rejoices when the lost will come back, when the rebellious people will repent and turn back, He is affected. His heart is not some static god of Greece and Rome which has no emotions. Our God is a person being who, although omnipotent and powerful, felt joy and pain in our condition.)

10) Failure to sharply distinguish the image of God (Perfect character=steadfastly obedient) from the image of the beast/Satan (imperfect character=persistently rebellious). This failure of discernment is due to being neutral when it comes to character development, and the non-acceptance of the fact that we can in this lifetime reach the full stature of Christ by combining divine power with human effort in becoming fully partakers of the divine character. (Rationale: God’s cannot accept neutrality. Either we are His children who perfectly obey all His Commandments, or we are the devil’s disobedient children, content to remain in our sinful condition and undeveloped, imperfect characters).

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11) Worldliness: Friendship and alliance with the world or any world accredited institutions for the sake prestige (Gen. 11.4; James 4:4; Jn. 6.43-44); with its sexual lusts, and wealth-based self-esteem (1Jn. 2.15-17); the gentile principle of domination, licencing, and ostracizing non-conformists (Mtt. 23.9-12; 3Jn. 9-11; Mk. 10.41-45; Jn. 16.1-3); the appetite to be in the side of the popular but wrong majority which teach lies and errors (Mtt. 7.13, 14; Rev. 13; 2Thess. 2.3-12; Ex. 23.2); a dependence on men of learning and rank, and not on what is the truth (Jn. 7.48; Jn. 12.42; Mtt. 15.12; See Jer. 17.5). The reason why the disciples cannot easily grasp the simplicity, beauty, significance of Jesus’ teachings is that they are minds have been poisoned by the theology of their times which was largely based on the opinions of the rabbis, scribes, and Pharisees (Mtt. 16.5-12), instead of simply going back to the plain “Thus saith the LORD.” Both the disciples and most of the people are too much dependent on what their religious leaders say. This lead Israel to reject her own Messiah.

They cannot discern the glory of His mission because the teachings of their theologians are stumbling blocks.

So with us today; we cannot see what the Bible clearly teaches because wrong theology from theologians had so long polluted our minds into believing a lie, especially the lies of the Romish church, which to some extent was shared among the Evangelicals. In the last days of this earth’s history, people who believe in popular theology will believe in lies which will eventually lead them to reject the truth and follow the majority that worships the beast and his image as what Revelation chapter 13 and 2Thessalonians 2:3-12 informs us. Some enforce their beliefs in a form of creeds and signing of statement of creeds in the universities and theological seminaries, but “opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, . . . the voice of the majority” 109 are not valid grounds to prove that such a belief is true.

Ecclesiastical sanctions, systematic theology, Bible commentaries, theological journals cannot in any way make a thesis truth and then use them as the only ground to denounce others belief structures. We believe only the “law and testimony” (Isa. 8.20), “what is written in the law” (Lk. 10.26), “the law and the prophets” (Mtt. 5.17) and “thus saith the LORD.” Any theology that destroys the validity of the Ten Commandments, and teaches that man cannot keep the law, and must break the law must be a crazy theology (Mtt. 5.19). It is unsafe to depend on pastors and professors of theology for our spiritual guidance. We must validate any teaching by our personal investigation of God’s words (Rom. 14.5) just like what noble-minded Jews in Beroea did (Acts 17:11). White points out: “Satan is constantly endeavoring to attract attention to man in the place of God. He leads the people to look to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as their guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn their duty for themselves. Then, by controlling the minds of these leaders, he can influence the multitudes according to his will. When Christ came to speak the words of life, the common people heard Him gladly; and many, even of the priests and rulers, believed on Him. But the chief of the priesthood and the leading men of the nation were determined to condemn and repudiate His teachings. Though they were baffled in all their efforts to find accusations against Him, though they could not but feel the influence of the divine power and wisdom attending His words, yet they incased themselves in prejudice; they rejected the clearest evidence of His Messiahship, lest they should be forced to become His disciples. These opponents of Jesus were men whom the people had been taught from infancy to reverence, to whose authority they had been accustomed implicitly to bow. "How is it," they asked, "that our rulers and learned scribes do not believe on Jesus? Would not these pious men receive Him if He were the Christ?" It was the influence of such teachers that led the Jewish nation to reject their Redeemer. The spirit which actuated those priests and rulers is still manifested by many who make a high profession of piety. They refuse to examine the testimony of the Scriptures concerning the special truths for this time. They point to their own numbers, wealth, and popularity, and look with contempt upon the advocates of truth as few, poor, and unpopular, having a faith that separates them from the world. Christ foresaw that the undue assumption of authority indulged by the scribes and Pharisees would not cease with the dispersion of the Jews. He had a prophetic view of the work of exalting human authority to rule the conscience, which has been so terrible a curse to the church in all ages. And His fearful denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees, and His warnings to the people not to follow these blind leaders, were placed on record as an admonition to future 109

White, The Great Controversy, 595. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=GC&lang=en&pagenumber=595.

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generations.”110 Some cannot believe because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. It is ridiculous to see Christians admiring this or that popular speaker or pastor. Verily, this specie of idolatry is tolerated by the world-loving who will not endure to learn the truth by personal investigation of Scriptures.

Lazy Christians depend on the opinions of popular speakers who undermine the authority of God’s Law with their theology. These people are more dangerous than an open criminal, for while their behaviour are decent and refined, their attitude towards God’s holy Law is perverse and questionable.

Those Stumbling blocks to God’s restorative plans are the confused doctrines of the Papal churches (Roman church and the Evangelicals). Let us see one by one from the root cause of it all: CONFUSION # 1 ANTICHRIST AND SUNDAY OBSERVANCE: I am referring to both Satan and all people who sit in place of God and teach others their laws, and not God’s laws (Mtt. 5.19). Satan refuses to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and Christ’s Lordship, and wants himself to replace God and His Laws. This spirit is manifested in all the godless, and in religious leaders who want to replace God’s Laws with their impious laws and interpretations in place of God’s clear and unequivocal Commandments. Antichrist spirit is that a creature wants to replace the Creator by making himself god, and alters God’s Commandments, replacing them with human inventions. The example of this is the existence of Sabbathless atheists and pagans. Inasmuch as the Sabbath Commandment is the only Time-Law, the longest Commandment in God’s Law that defines who the Lawgiver is, what He does, and that we are His created subjects, the mind of the antichrist (Satan, sin, Rome –pagan and papal) wants to replace God’s sovereignty by setting up its own Laws, and changes, alters, and makes no effect God’s protective Laws which is holy, perfect, just, and good. The Law of the Creator is perfect. The laws of the antichrist are inferior. God’s Commandments covers a vast field in His creation including natural, ethical, environmental, agricultural, ethical, moral, military, and domestic or civil laws. No Laws from pagan Rome, pagan Christianity could replace that law. Any human attempt to alter any of it places himself against the Creator’s ideal for humanity. The antichrist mentality invents laws that banish the Creator from human mind, and the result is atheism and paganism who do not acknowledge God as the Creator who made the heavens and the earth in six literal days and who rested on the Sabbath day.

Christianity professes to worship the same creator God, but that’s hypocrisy. So long as they remain to observe a wrong day of worship, Sunday, they are not recognizing the true Creator, but the laws of Rome.

They are pagans who know not who they worship; -pagans garbed in the garments of Christianity –papal christianity which is a corrupted christianity, and no christianity at all. It is a pseudo-christianity that worships on Sunday. The concrete, visible, historic, and institutional culmination of this antichrist spirit is in the Roman church. The example is SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. It is the greatest boast of this papal church that she changed God’s Sabbath into Sunday, even without Biblical mandate, and yet the protestants who distanced itself from that church is paying homage NOT to God as the Creator, but to the Papacy in their observance of Sunday.

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS. CONFUSION #2 SOUL IMMORTALITY: Once the creature acts independent of God’s Law, he will think himself as immortal as God (1Tim. 6.16), and that he cannot die. This is the claims Satan wants Eve to think, “ye shall not surely die…ye shall be as the gods” (Gen. 3.4), even if he knew that apart from God there is no natural immortality. The belief of transmigration of soul when one dies is the belief of all pagan countries, except Israel. Resurrection, NOT soul immortality or transmigration of souls is the belief of the Jewish religion. Christ Himself does not teach that a soul is immortal. In the Bible, a soul is the life, the person himself. There is no such thing as an intelligent entity that exists eternally outside the dead body. Soul exists always with the body, in the body, and is combined with the body, and never apart from it. Dualism of soul and body is a Greek idea, and belief common to all pagan nations who are deceived by the first lie of the serpent to Eve “ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3.4), despite God’s statement that if His command was 110

White, The Great Controversy, 595, 596. Public domain: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc37.html.

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disobeyed “ye shall surely die” (Gen. 2.16, 17). This belief contradicts Biblical statements that a soul that sins will die, and be annihilated in the end. God will put an utter end to evil. And in the new creation where all things are new, former things will not come to mind, neither the crying, nor any crying. (Gen. 2.16, 17; Gen. 3.19; Gen. 3.22-24; Ezek. 18.4, 18; Jn. 3.16 –the word “perish” does not mean to live in eternal torment; Isa. 66.17; Nahum 1.9; Mal. 4.1-3; Rev. 21.1,4; Isa. 65.17). How can those who belief in this confusion reconcile the idea of God’s statement that to die is to return to nothing, when they think that to die is still to live outside the body? Results of this confusion: 1) If this confusion is not confusion but true, sinners will nevertheless live as God being immortal, and cannot die. 2) How could Jesus die as a criminal who took our place if His soul remained immortal? If the soul is immortal, then Christ never actually died. He never died for us. He simply fly His way to heaven at His death, descended to hell, and preached there in prison, and did not actually die as a criminal because the soul was immortal. Then He entered into His body and was risen.

Another confusion is that when God will punish the wicked in judgement, there will be no such thing as real death for them because they still have eternal life in torment. And why? Because the soul is immortal as commonly said, and cannot die. Therefore what Jesus said in John 3.16 should be rephrased into “whosoever believeth in His should not HAVE ETERNAL LIFE IN HELL but have EVERLASTING LIFE.” But this crap must not be endured by Christians who have some particle of sanity in their heads. 3) Jesus is still being tormented until now for our sins, and the torment is forever because He took our place. There will be no end for that torment so long as He lives. In the day of Judgement, the wicked will be tormented, and the righteous will enjoy heaven, but Jesus will remain forever tormented because He took the sins of the righteous, and there is no transfer for that sin. It must remain forever in His body. He will be tormented for it forever. If He was punished as sinners substitute, His punishment should be like the sinners ultimate punishment, everlasting, and until now He is being punished. There must be no end for that punishment because the soul was immortal, and cannot die. But this is unthinkable. Sin is limited, sin has an end, and sinners are not immortal because the soul that sins must die. Therefore the death Jesus died on the cross is a real death, and sin is terminated in that body. It was not eternal but finite. The punishment of the wicked will also has an ultimate end. And they shall “be as though they have never been.” (Obad. 1.16; See Nah. 1.9; Mal. 4.1-3).

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS. SINNERS WILL COMMIT SINS BECAUSE THE RESULT IS STILL IMMORTAL LIFE, THE SOUL CANNOT DIE, THEY SAY. CONFUSION #3 UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION (Foreknowledge = Predestination). I am referring to John Calvin’s erroneous theology. Unconditional election along with its connection to Perseverance of the saints states using Rom. 9.11-21; Eph. 1.4-8; Jn. 10.27-28; Acts 13.48 that those who were elected will believe and will persevere to the end; but without looking into the whole of Scripture that there are those who once believed but who turned out of the way and had backslidden, and that there is a possibility of backsliding as what Heb. 10.26-31; Heb. 3.12-14; 1Cor. 10.12; 2Pet. 2.15-21; 2Tim. 4.10; 3Jn. 9, 10; Mtt. 12.43-45; Isa. 5.4; Mk. 4.18-19 informs us; hence the exhortation to take heed (1Cor. 10.12; 1Pet. 5.8; Lk. 21.36; Mtt. 26.41).This confusion will make it appear that humankind will not have any participation in salvation because God alone has the free will, and that He determines who He will save and who He will consign to “Eternal Torment.” The word Predestination was used six times in the Renewed Testament, but not one passage referred to Predestination as something that consigns people for hell. It was always a predestination that intends for the salvation of all, and not the selection of some for salvation and others for damnation.

Concerning Foreknowledge, I see only eisegesis, a reading into the term prognosis. God never ordain what He foresaw. The evil of sin did not come because God foreknew it; He foreknows it because it was coming. The problem with Calvinists is that they claim they knew how God’s foreknowledge operates, when in fact the Bible had not revealed how this aspect of God works in salvation. God does not interfere with our free will when it comes to salvation. His plan of salvation is the greatest evidence that He does not intercept human freewill. He might intervene at some specific events but His foreknowledge does not impinge on human choices to accept His salvation. Although He knew in advance what men will do, it does not mean that he causes them to act because He knew it. It is like a picture which He has no power to change because of free will. What He foresaw will happen because it was the result of man’s free will which He does not interfere.

The only election in the Scriptures is found in Mtt. 7.21 –“Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall Page 109 of 174

enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN”; and in Rev. 22.14 –“Blessed as they that DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, that they may have right to the tree of life, and MAY ENTER IN THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY.” (See also 2Pet. 1.2-10).

Unconditional election is unbiblical. Scripture informs us of the possibility of forsaking the right way (2Pet. 2.15-20, 21-22; 1Cor. 10.12; Heb. 10.26-31; Prov. 26.11; Mtt. 12.43-45). Connecting the link of this error to the Calvinists’ belief about total depravity or the universality of sin is the confusion that because sin is nature, it is God who naturally and actually planted and originated sin in Lucifer, in Adam and Eve, causing their fall, making them His created objects, created with the sickness and virus of sin causing their fall, and yet they are immortal (Confusion #2). He will cause their redemption while they remain totally depraved in character.

They cannot become fully partakers of the divine nature and overcome as Christ overcome. No. They must remain depraved, imperfect, and sinning while God saves them. And there is no way to uplift them from depravity except by compulsory election of grace because sin is nature and no one escapes it, even Christ. It is assumed that those elected by grace necessarily respond positively, automatically, even if their likes and dislikes were bent on evil. Those who believe this theory must always presume that they are saved, and think themselves lucky being elected, even if they are not actually certain. Why? They kept on thinking they are depraved, so how can they obey and say they are God’s obedient children if they are not partakers of His divine nature? The confusion about Foreknowledge is that it’s only Calvin and the Calvinists who constructed how God foreknows, even if it is not revealed in Scriptures. The Bible states that God’s counsel stands, and that his power intervenes in the course of history, but NOT His foreknowledge. The Bible is silent about how God foreknows one’s damnation and salvation. The word “foreknow” is a static verb. Used with proorise/proorizo (predestine) it was intended for salvation, and causes salvation, but NOT damnation. But Calvinists must always presume that they are saved and are lucky being elected, even if they are not actually sure. They kept on thinking they are depraved, so how can they obey and claim they are God’s children if they do not live the reality of being partakers of the divine nature here and now? In addition, the only election in Scripture is not something that we believe we already are, but if we remain steadfast in obedience, and not retrograde.

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS STRENGTHENED BY PRESUMPTION. IT IS SUPPOSED THAT THIS DOCTRINE WILL RESULT TO PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. BUT NO. IT RESULTS TO PRESUMPTION. A PROFESSED BELIEVER, SUPPOSING THAT HE CANNOT LOSE HIS SALVATION WILL DISOBEY GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS AND YET ASSURES HIMSELF THAT HE WILL NOT LOSE SALVATION BECAUSE GOD HAD ALREADY ELECTED HIM FOR SALVATION BY FOREKNOWLEDGE. BUT THE ONLY VALID ELECTION IS FOUND IN MATTHEW 7.21 –“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” And that will is in His Law (Ps. 40.8; Heb. 10.9). It can be kept only by faithfulness / steadfastness in the faith of the Messiah (Jn. 6.29, 40; Rom. 3.22, 26 – “him that is OF the faithfulness of Jesus”; Gal. 2.16 –justified by the faithfulness OF Jesus”; Rev. 12.17; Rev. 14.12 – have the faithfulness OF Jesus), and NOT by an intellectual assent (faith). “Faith” is a wrong translation of Habakkuk 2.4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10.38, 39. It should be translated “steadfastness” or “faithfulness.” The translated word “faith” is biased, and does not represent Biblical doctrine of FAITHFULNESS/STEADFASTNESS (Habakkuk 2:4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10.38, 39) which is Hebrew is “Emunah” (firmness, steadiness, trustworthiness, faithfulness, steadfastness), and in Greek “Pistis” (faithfulness). FURTHERMORE, THE THOUGHT THAT GOD CHOOSES THEM AMONG THE FEW IS DISCOURAGING, BECAUSE THEY WILL BE OBLIGED TO PERSEVERE, EVEN IF SOME OF THEIR WISHES AND INCLINATIONS ARE EVIL. AND IF SOME FELT THEY BELONGED TO THE UNLUCKY ONES, THEY WILL LIVE IN CONTINUAL DREAD, OR IN TOTAL ABANDONEMENT TO SIN, NOT KNOWING THAT GOD'S REAL INTENTIONS IS FOR OUR GOOD, AND THAT HE PREDESTINED US ALL TO BE SAVED, NOT WILL THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH (2PET. 3.9; EZEK. 33.11; EZEK. 18.23; TITUS 2:11). SOME SUPPOSE THAT THE ELECTION WILL RESULT INTO PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS THAT THE SAINTS MUST PERSEVERE TO THE END AND MUST NOT FALL AWAY. BUT THERE IS POSSIBILITY Page 110 of 174

FOR THE SAINTS TO BACKSLIDE, AND THEY DO NOT CONSIDER THAT POSSIBILITY. THE ONLY VALID TRUTH ABOUT ETERNAL ELECTION IS FOUND IN MATTHEW 7:21. ONLY THOSE WHO DO THE WILL OF GOD WILL ENTER HEAVEN, NOT THOSE WHO ARE PREDESTINED, AND WHO REJECT THEIR CALLING IN THE END. NOTICE THAT THE COMMAND TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART SOUL AND STRENGTH IS TO LOVE HIM ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF OUR OWN CONSCIENCE, WITHOUT ANY COERCION OR EXTERNAL DIVINE INFLUENCE TELLING US WHAT WE DO NOT WANT TO DO, OR COMMANDING US TO LOVE WHAT WE DO NOT LOVE. AND BECAUSE WE ARE COMMANDED TO LOVE HIM, AND WE OURSELVES LOVED HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US, WE NOW LOVED HIM IN OUR OWN DECISION, AND ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE, AND NOT THROUGH ETERNAL ELECTION BY GOD. HIS ETERNAL ELECTION OPERATES FOR THE GOOD OF ALL HUMANITY SO THAT ALL SHOULD BE SAVED. HE IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH. THE ONLY THING THAT DAMNS A SINNER IS THE SINNERS OWN CHOICE, AND THE THING THAT SAVES A SINNER IS GOD’S GRACE GIVEN TO ALL, PLUS THE SINNERS OWN CHOICE AND CONSENT TO AVAIL THAT SALVATION FREELY DISPENSED TO ALL. CHOICE HAS A PART, AND HOW WE HANDLE AND GUARD IT IS TERRIBLY IMPORTANT. GOD WILL NOT DO THE WATCHING AND PRAYING FOR US. WE DO IT OURSELVES. AND WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR NOT BEING SAVED BECAUSE WE ARE CARELESS AND DO NOT HEED HIS INSTRUCTIONS, NOR CHERISHING HIS LOVE TOWARD US. CONFUSION #4A PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS: Both Augustine and the Calvinists claim that perseverance of the saints is a gift externally given from God who elects who He favours. I say, no. The perseverance of the saints is not a gift to be received, but a quality of character that must be developed by “whoever that endures to the end” (Mtt. 24.13). The claim that the elect are gifted by God with perseverance is nothing but theology, NOT Scripture. There ain’t any statement in the Bible that some are to be gifted with perseverance, and some are to be hardened. In this hardening issue, Calvinists often quote that God hardens Pharaoh. Making it appear that it was God alone, and Himself only who arbitrarily hardened the Egyptian monarch despite himself. But they ignore Biblical passages that states that it was Pharaoh himself who actually hardened himself. 111 Further, their theology is incomplete and incapacitated due to gross dependence on Augustine and Luther who also lacked comprehensive exegetical skills to analyse a passage syntactically.

They would not depart from what Calvin saw, and would not look beyond what Calvin sees. If God hardens sinners, truly God is more cruel and pernicious than Lucifer. And because this is the bad habit of the devil to attribute to God his own wicked attributes, what Calvinists do is exactly what Satan is doing, painting God with Satanic attributes. I will not accept such a demon to be my god. This is not the God I knew. It’s the god of the Calvinists, the Papal church and Calvin who approved the burning of Michael Servetus and Michael Sattler, and the god of Augustine’s mind whose vile church ordered the execution of millions of religious nonconformists. It is the god of fallen and apostate churches. They do not know Christ nor His Father for doing that! (Jn. 16.1-3) Perseverance of the saints suggests that sin is nature, and that righteousness is also nature. If righteousness is nature, or perseverance is a gift it makes a person unable to lose salvation and incapable to commit sin, for how can he/she commits something entirely unnatural for him/her? And if sin is nature as what eternal election must result into, it makes a person unable to become righteous or to choose righteousness as option because 111

Ex. 7.13, 22; Ex. 8.15, 19, 32; Ex. 9.7, 34, 35; Ex. 13.15. The passages in Rom. 9 does not tell us objectively that because God showed mercy on some, He rejects others, or because He showed mercy on whom He chose to, He will NOT show mercy on others. Such kind of antithetical Hegelian logic does not exist in Paul’s vocabulary. The emphasis of the ninth chapter of Romans is that God’s will is free and unconstrained, and that He not man initiated salvation by His own benevolent will, NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALL WOULD COME TO REPENTANCE. (2Pet. 3.9, 10).

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God is hardening those whom He chooses to harden, and damns them at last torturing them to eternal flames, a torture that is not able to destroy an immortal soul, either. Damn such kind of mischievous and traitorous deity! He was no different from the Satan himself, and in fact worse than the latter. If perseverance is a gift, or if righteousness is nature, how then did Lucifer sin? And what of Adam and Eve who were naturally righteous? It was claimed by Calvinists that perseverance is a gift given only to the selected, or the elect. But what about those who fell into sin? Are Calvinists saying that it is God who hardened them making them commit sin and so establish His arbitrary rule to prove that He is the cause of all things, of both sin and righteousness alike?112 Is that their best contribution to theology, their well-said masterpiece? To me it’s a piece of utter wickedness and a well-defined doctrine on how to be merciless and cruel. The Calvinists teachings are giving us the idea “Be ye cruel and arbitrary as your father in hell is cruel.” But it is Satan they are actually referring to. If Rome’s seat of authority is from the devil (Rev. 3.1, 2), and that the same power is the blood-drunken “Mother of whores” (Rev. 17.5, 6), therefore these “whores” truly exist, and that after the mother’s whoredoms, continuing the spiritual prostitution in her veritable daughters. No less than the Calvinists and the churches who shared Rome’s dirty teachings were the sharers of Satan’s character trait of lust for murder, not to mention their ridiculous and perverse doctrines. You see the absurdities of Evangelical teachings. These beliefs that I have specified are truly wicked. And not only wicked, but repugnant to every decent society. In this enlightened age, people who hold those eight-point doctrines are to be better viewed as psychopaths and twisted citizens who do not have a healthy mentality. Their very beliefs make them perfectly fitted to be institutionalized in mental asylums, and not here in our cities. In their belief in the gift of perseverance, depicting God as the One doing the initiative independent of humanity’s consent, there really is no development of character, and the adding of virtue to virtue required of us in 2Pet. 1.3-11, and other numerous passages of fulfilling all righteousness besides Mtt. 3.15. Every sincere Christian must better abandon Calvinists bad teachings. It does not make a person better but confused with his/her views about God, religion, and society. But I am amazed why many are still as stupid as the rest, holding tenaciously in those beliefs when it only makes them just like the image of their father, the devil.

CONFUSION #4B COMPLETED ATONEMENT AT THE CROSS: If priestly atonement was completed at the cross as what Evangelicals suppose, (1) to a Roman-catholic, this supplies a reserve fund of merit to be applied to the sinners’ account through ecclesiastical intercession by priests, the saints, and Mary; (2) for a Calvinist, a completed atonement at Calvary the issue about Salvation is placed beyond the influence of human free will. Out of this theory comes their version of Predestination with its cousin “once-saved-alwayssaved” presumption. But the atonement was complete as far as Christ as the Lamb-victim is concerned, but NOT completed right there as concerns His work as our High Priest. The penalty was paid in full in the death that was decided upon even before the world was made. All are entitled to salvation that is free. All should be saved. But Christ died only as the Lamb sacrifice, and as a Victim. God is reconciled to us and treats us as though we have never fallen. But this does not follow that He is reconciled to our sins. He will not justify sinners who remain in their sins. One has to repent, and to repent is to have a change in principles, attitudes and practices. The one who truly repents has completely (NOT incompletely) turned away from sin and is now 112

A Calvinist who is amateur about his/her own theology will naturally quote Isa. 47.5 doing a careless exegesis without regard to proper translating options based on context that defines the Hebrew word Ra’ as “calamity”, “disaster,” “ruin”, and not evil in the moral sphere. And besides, the chapter is talking about God’s sovereignty in executing judgment, and not the creating of moral sinfulness. Some will take Prov. 16.4, without doing some basic word study of pa’al (do, make, perform, acted, practice), and rasha (evil, wicked). If you take their interpretation, it would instantly appear that God created the wicked for the purpose of destroying them in hell. This is crass folly of an incompetent exegete misleading minds, poisoning God’s reputation as if to mean he is essentially a devil. The correct translation or understanding should be “Yahweh has made (NOT created) each thing for its own end, even the wicked (whatever that wicked is, NOT necessarily persons or people, but may mean things or calamity), for the day of disaster.” And if its person (wicked person), the point is that God has a purpose of the existence of that wicked person for the day of calamity. But the text does not say that God CREATED (Heb. bara) the wicked.

The word used is simply pa’al, NOT bara. There is no way that God acts arbitrarily to harden a person’s heart against his will, or to make a person love Him against that person’s consent. The principle of coercion and arbitrary control is in the principle of Satan’s kingdom. Did I not say that the Calvinists are operating in this principle by making God like the devil in heart and sentiments?

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fully reconciled to God’s Commandments or righteousness. Christ’s death reconciled God to man, but not to man’s sins. Man must experience Justification personally and become changed in character. Justification means more than a legal declaration; it does something in a person. To be legally declared Justified means that we are entitled to heaven as predestined that we all should be saved. But our fitness for heaven is different. We ourselves must accept this saved status, and remain steadfast in it (Sanctification). Therefore we ought to continually allow God to purify us, and we on our part must remain in constant vigilance, and through His strength be overcomers on our own account. What about the Lamb as victim? A Lamb’s blood can only act as payment for sin, but it is the priest which should atone for the sin, and not the Lamb. The payment was made full and complete at the cross, and the reconciliation (atonement) was carried to effect in the sense that we are fully justified. But only a priest can officiate for an atonement (Lev. 4.20), not the sacrificial lamb. Christ came on earth to die for our sins as the Lamb of God who take away the sins of the earth (Jn. 1.20). He did NOT come here as high priest because that could not be. “If He were on earth, He could not be a priest at all, since there are already priests to offer the gifts prescribed by the law” (Heb. 8.4). If there is an atonement at the cross, who officiated the process? Rome and the wicked priests. The killing of the lamb cannot make atonement because the sinners only murdered its victim (Lev. 4.1-4, 13-15). And the dead Victim had paid in full what was demanded from every sinner. After the sacrifice, the priest takes the blood and make the atonement (Lev. 4:5-12, 16-21). In the atonement, what matters is the blood of the victim. An atonement without blood is not atonement at all. It is the blood that makes the atonement, without it there can be no forgiveness (Lev. 17.11; Heb. 9:22). The high priest must take the blood as evidence of sacrifice. Although Christ was our anointed high Priest of the Renewed Covenant, He could not act in that capacity except after His ascension. Scriptures do not show us that He did something priestly after His resurrection that can be called an atonement at all. Atonement can be made only in the Sanctuary, but Calvary is not sanctuary. It is outside the camp (Heb. 13.11-13), -outside the temple, and outside the heavenly Sanctuary. In Heb. 8.4 He could not make an atonement here on earth, because He could not be priest while on earth. The priesthood of the Jewish system is earthly, the divine priesthood is heavenly. Only after His ascension could Christ begin the work of atonement as our high Priest when He entered the heavenly sanctuary for us. Therefore, the atonement at the cross, far from being finished had only begun and to be carried to completion in the year 1844 as what Daniel 8.14 informs us.113 It’s being complete at the cross is His being a victim, but NOT as a priest. The payment was made in full. But the final atonement is to take place after His ascension when He will enter the Most Holy place to complete what was started, and to see whether those who had accepted His salvation are worthy of their divine status (Mtt. 22.11, 12). This is investigative Judgement when God Himself sees whether or not those who believe in the Messiah are worthy of their calling, whether or not they are truly covered by the blood of the Sacrifice, whether they lived His life and continued in holiness. Sins are not automatically blotted out all at once; it is never destroyed when it is forgiven. Rather, it’s only transferred to the Sanctuary according the Levitical priesthood which has its parallel in Christ’s high priestly ministry. Its record is still there and is not yet blotted out. It can only be blotted out in one’s record in heaven only if one is continuing to live the right life steadfastly and sins are constantly repented of, bringing it to Jesus in order to remove it. But if a person who lives a righteous life suddenly backslide by returning to the sins they cherished in the past, the 113

The explanation about the year 1844 based on Daniel 8:14 which had its starting point when the decree of King Artaxerxes of Persia took into effect in the autumn of 457 B.C.E. is a subject that deserves to be written into many books. But we do not have the luxury of space to expound them here. It is one of the basis of Seventh-day Adventist principles which I found more logical than any scholarly works in the Christian world. Seventh-day Adventists are basically Arminian. The logical position to be taken by a non-Arminian is to say that the Atonement was completed and final at the cross. But for an Arminian, one should participate in that Atonement by true repentance following the Lamb wherever He goes, even by faith into the heavenly Sanctuary, and to remain always in Christ, because Christ is still doing the intercession in the Sanctuary which will terminate shortly before He comes. He will come to this earth, but NOT as intercessor dealing with sin, but as Judge to execute judgement on the righteous and the wicked, and to give rewards. Although the Seventh-day Adventists are Arminians, they reject what is false in Arminianism, and accept what is true in it, and reject what is false in Calvinism, and accept what is true in it. We do not have the space to point them out here, and discuss one by one. But throughout my paper, I suppose it was already delineated which ones in the Arminians and Calvinists’ theology are acceptable, and which ones are not.

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entire sinful life will roll back on them when the investigative judgement begins, and the books opened (Dan. 7.9, 10). Not all sins are transferred to the Sanctuary, only those that are sincerely repented of and forsaken and not all sins are blotted out except those that are overcome and put away entirely from one’s life. If all sins are automatically blotted out as Evangelicals claim, (3) everybody will be saved, or if all sins are transferred to the sanctuary and that there is no investigative judgement, then anyone with their sinful desires, with their bad habits and law-breaking attitudes still within them will be taken to heaven. But God will not jeopardize the peace of His kingdom by filling it with persons who are antagonistic to His Law and order. Furthermore, if priestly atonement was finished at the cross (4) Christ’s high priestly ministry will be fiction and totally irrelevant. He will just be there for nothing, or to keep on standing there for no reason.114 (5) There will be no need for a heavenly sanctuary at all. (6) There will be no need to cleanse a nonexistent sanctuary. (7) The 2300 days prophecy in Daniel 8:14 is useless. The atonement, far from being finished at the cross, had just begun at the cross. Christ had done the full payment at the cross, and bought us to Himself with an infinite price. God had done in Christ everything He could for humanity as far as His will to save us all is concerned. But that’s only half the package. Not all will avail of the grace He has given. Many would not believe and accept Him as Lord of their lives by continuing to live in sin, treating Him with contempt by saying “We will not have this man to reign over us.” (Lk. 19.14). “God does not propose to remove every objection which the carnal heart may bring against His truth. To those who refuse the precious rays of light which would illuminate the darkness, the mysteries of God's word remain such forever. From them the truth is hidden. They walk blindly, and know not the ruin before them.” 115 “God does not compel men to give up their unbelief. Before them are light and darkness, truth and error. It is for them to decide which they will accept. The human mind is endowed with power to discriminate between right and wrong. God designs that men shall not decide from impulse, but from weight of evidence, carefully comparing scripture with scripture.” 116 (8) Lastly, to the Seventh-day Adventists who compromised with Evangelicals by their perverse interpretation that the high priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary mean as “applying the benefits of the finished atonement at the cross,” I say, you are a confusion to the Seventh-day Adventist fundamental principles regarding this teaching. The pioneers never condone such view. If that’s the case, it is a contradiction to mean that His sacrifice was complete because there is to be an application of benefits as if that atonement is not enough.

Why say “finished work”, “finished atonement at the cross”, “completed atonement at the cross” if Christ has still something to do in 1844 about the blotting out of sin? The correct position is that the atonement at the cross, far from being finished, had just begun. Christ cannot atone for sins while a lamb-victim because only a priest, not the victim, can do the office of atonement. Christ office as our high Priest begun after He ascended to heaven, and not before His ascension. The completion of the atonement is when the blood is brought to the Sanctuary to be presented there as evidence that the victim had died. And the sins to be transferred are those that are truly confessed, repented of and forsaken, to be cleansed inside the Sanctuary. And it will be cleansed if the human beings who profess to believe in Jesus Christ should remain in that grace, looking by faith into Jesus in the heavenly Sanctuary, praying in faith, confessing and put away sin, constantly repenting of any sin, and be steadfast to the end, and not fall back into sin. This requires human effort. God will not work with man who does not cooperate with His purpose of grace. Man must put his will on the side of Christ and accept Him as Lord of their lives by steadfastly obeying whatever He commands. What happened at the cross, the grandeur of Agape love displayed at such as sacrifice must be real to him/her, transforming his/her mind, making him/her hate sin and love righteousness. Faith is then born, the true faith that works by love and 114

Some argue that the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ was finished on 31 C.E., saying that He is our past priest. But Hebrews 4:14 contradicts this view. He is our priest AFTER 31 C.E. Christ is still our high Priest until the close of our probation. We are told to hold fast in our profession. As a result of that AGAPE realization, we obey as He obeyed.

115

White, The Desire of Ages, p. 588, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=588.

116

Ibid., 458.5, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&pagenumber=458&paragraphReferen ces=1.

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purifies the soul (Gal. 5.6; 1Pet. 1.22; Jn. 17.17; 1Cor. 7.19; Gal. 6.15), or else believing alone is nothing but utter hypocrisy and partial (Titus 1.16; Mtt. 23.3; Mtt.7.21-23; James 2.10), because it does not purify the life4 and change the attitudes, principles, and practices.

Now what’s the result of a belief that states that atonement was finished at the cross?

RESULT: PREDESTINATION (PRESUMPTION) = “ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED” = DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS IS ITS POSITIVE POSSIBILITY, AND NOT ONLY A POSSIBILITY BUT A REALITY. A PERSON BELIEVES THAT HIS SAVED STATUS AT THE CROSS IS IRREVOCABLE, AND THAT NO HUMAN INFLUENCE CAN ALTER WHAT WAS COMPLETED AT THE CROSS. ONCE I BELIEVE THAT I AM SAVED AT THAT CROSS, I AM ALWAYS SAVED NO MATTER WHAT I DO. EVANGELICALS WOULD NOT SEE THAT WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CROSS MUST RADICALLY TRANSFORM A PERSON’S LIFE SO THAT ONE’S HEART WILL BE FULLY AND PERFECTLY RECONCILED TO GOD’S LAW, AND THAT THERE IS THAT CONSTANT, STEADFAST OBEDIENCE, VIGILANT WATCHING AND PRAYING FOR THE SAKE OF THAT AGAPE THAT FIRED AND CONSTRAINED HIM/HER. ONE WILL NOT FALL BACK INTO LUKEWARM COMMITMENT BUT WILL LIVE WITH A NEW HEART, UNDER THE NEW COVENANT (THE LAWS OF GOD WRITTEN IN THE HEART WHICH MEANS, STEADFAST AND PERMANENT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS).

THE REALITY OF MAN’S FREE WILLAND ITS IMPORTANCE TO SALVATION None can deny the existence of free will when it comes to salvation. After the fall, it was restored in Genesis 3.15 by the promise of God that the evil will be defeated, and that in Gen. 4.7 He encouraged Cain to overcome sin. He did not scold him by saying that his will is depraved or that he cannot resist nor overcome.

He can and he must! In my conversion story I experience this theology about free will, that Augustine and Calvin is wrong, and that the Seventh-day Adventist theology as tested in my experience and the Bible evidence is right. We may have believed in Christ, but not all of those who believe will persevere to the end.

Some will persevere while living in sin, and they are hypocrites (Titus 1.16; Mtt. 23.3; Mtt. 7.21-23). Some grew weary and backslide. Some allow thorns and thistles to grow and choke the word (Mk. 4.18, 19). None can deny the reality that human freewill easily changes many times. Only a few would endure to the end, and die faithful unto death, just as only a few are actually honest men who are consistent in their decisions. God’s salvific act is dependent on man’s response or choice. In the Old Testament God often chided with the faithless in Israel because no matter His efforts for their salvation, they refuse to be purified, and so God pronounced the terrible sentence: “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (Hos. 4. 17). He called them “reject silver” (Jer. 6.29, 30) because they refuse to be purified from their dross and sanctified from their sins. To us in the New Testament, when the wicked at the last days of this earth’s history will persist in their sins, God will declare “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still…”(Rev. 22.11). This is similar to His attitude to the antediluvians when He said “My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen. 6.3).God will leave the wicked finally to their choices, and they will reap the fruits of their rebellion. The Lord, in His loving providence may hedge us with His laws to protect us from dangers. He sends preachers, prophets, and His word to warn us. But should we persist in our wicked choices, He will finally leave us. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, cutting off His pleadings from our conscience, such a sin will never be forgiven, the fact that continual rejection of that Voice hardens our hearts until we can no longer hear His voice like the Jews of Christ’s day who dismissed the voice of conviction and he power of the Holy Spirit as the Power of Beelzebub (Matt 12:25-32), and our conscience grown hard like Pharaoh’s, “seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2). Jesus states “the last state of that man is worse than the first” (Mtt. 12.45). This is the reality of freewill. That’s why Jesus urges His followers to always “watch and pray,” and Paul reminded the church to take heed, lest they fall (1 Cor. 10.12; 1Cor. 15.58; Col. 2.5; Heb. 3.14). Peter also did the same (2 Pet 3:17). Jesus was quick to prompt His churches (Rev 3: 2, 3). David mentioned Israelites mistake in this matter of steadfastness (Ps 78:37). We cannot let God choose for the choices we decide; it is us who make the choice to be good and not God. God wants us to be good, and expects us to be good. He wants us to put our will to His side, and that we allow His to control us. But it is us who must let Page 115 of 174

God and allow Him to rule for us. It is us who let Him hold the reins. Sometimes we want to manage our lives, and not let God do His will. God has done His part in watering the plant, in giving spiritual blessings, the Holy Spirit and all other incentives. All energies of heaven are poured out unsparingly for the restoration of man, so that our sinful natures will be transformed into His divine nature, even in this present life. Therefore the act of sin is our own act, and we are responsible of it because the moment we lost our dependence of Christ’s righteousness, we will begin to act for ourselves without His guidance, and then in a moment, we were not aware that we are already establishing our own righteousness and thus fall from grace. But the act of righteousness is not our own act; it is God who is working in us. And the good fruit is not our fruit, but the fruit “of the Spirit” (Gal. 5.22, 23), if we allow His Spirit to work in us. Therefore, we simply allow Him to do His own thing in His own way making us perfect and holy. The hardest thing is the choice to allow Him and to let Him do His will in us. God is the One who gives us repentance, but we are the ones who must choose to will to serve Him, to repent, and to let Him govern our entire lives. But many times Christians want to manage their own lives, therefore their righteousness is a list of rules, and they fail so often. In their self-righteousness they made many promises and vows to God when in fact God does not require them to do so. They should rather let God fulfill His own promises to write His Laws in their hearts, to let Him dwell in their lives and cleanse their unrighteousness, not that they would make promises to God to be good. God knew such promises are like ropes of sand, and it will fail. That’s the old covenant attitude in Exodus 19: 8 which God does not like. Later He told Moses that He heard their self-assuring words, “they said it well” He said, “I wish they had a heart…” (Deut. 5:28, 29). It is indeed vital to remain connected to God in prayer moment by moment. Yes, we have a choice, but we must always bring Christ with us, and not for a moment forget Him, so that in our walk with Him we are on safe paths, and our feet for salvation is sure. There is a dreadful reality of this choice aspect in man’s salvation. God will not just save us against our will. He cannot work in those who deliberately refuse to repent or to those who don’t want to get back to Him. If one is saved or has received Christ and repented, is it still possible to lose his/her salvation? This question kept harassing me over the years, and as I grew older reading the Bible I have found through experience and through Bible stories that ONCE SAVED IS NOT ALWAYS SAVED. A curse is on those who do not continue under the covenant to do what is written therein (Gal 3:10; Heb. 8:9). These words refer to the law and justification. Gentiles Christians are not exempt (Heb. 10: 28, 29; Rom 11:20-22; 2:13-15). If a man turns from his course, and trusts in his righteousness, and turns out from the right path, his righteousness will not be counted. God will not justify even the justified man if he turns out wicked (Ezek. 33: 12, 13), for He will not clear the guilty (Ex. 34:7). He says… “I will not justify the wicked” (Ex. 23:7). A law that justifies the wicked is a wicked law. And a grace that justifies an unrepentant sinner is not grace but lawlessness and rebellion. Moreover, only those who endure to the end will be saved at last (Matt 24:13), and those who are “faithful unto death” (Rev. 2:10). Our profession of faith will not save us if in our last breath we cease holding unto God’s hands despite God’s efforts to hold us up. Demas turned and left Paul, “having loved this present age” (2 Tim. 4:10). A similar case is presented in 2 Pet. 2.1520 - “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” And there are numerous cases where God’s chosen people are stubborn, and turned aside from the right path. And such wayward course cannot be justified as we have read in the previous texts. In their state of stubbornness, they are rebels and are not to be counted as His children, except if, and only if they repent and turn from their wickedness, and live straight (Ezek. 33.14-16). “The severity of God is felt when we are separated from him; but when we repent of our sins, and make our peace with him through the virtue of the cross, we find him a merciful Father, reconciled to men through his Son” (Spirit of Prophecy, Vol 3, 186).That is the price of the power of choice if we on our part allow it to lax, and forget the instruction of Christ who keep on repeating the words Page 116 of 174

“watch and pray always” “be ye also ready.” Are these useless, idle words? The reality of choice should bring us into realization that man is free to choose whom he will serve, to choose to be faithful or not, and man oftentimes forgot and turns wayward. That’s his responsibility. Therefore we cannot deny that many will be lost because many are more bad and careless than the good, and it is also evident that only a few people are good who are consistent and conscientious Christians who take heed what the Bible says and live in it.

Moreover, only a few truly love their neighbours as themselves. The rest as superficial Christians fond in doctrines, but does not possess the love. It is not even enough to love our neighbours as ourselves. We are to love people the way Christ loves. He told us to “love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (Jn. 13:34). Nor is it true that God did everything for His great name’s sake as the basis of God’s unwavering providence in holding our slipping hands, because God always did through His numerous providences, through punishments, through the voices of the prophets and nature, and yet no matter how He watered and do everything to the vineyard, “it brought forth wild grapes” (Isa 5:4). Time and time again He sent prophets to rise early and warn His people, but they grew indifferent and killed them. God always strove to bring back His wayward people to Himself in a thousand of ways He could, not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9) and yet there are still a lot of “reject silver” who would not want to be purified and have salvation. He saved His people from exile as He had promised because He don’t want His great name be reproached among the gentiles (Ezek. 20:42-44), but yet again after their return, and after their reformation under Nehemiah and Malachi, the sanctuary services degenerated into a rut of legalistic ceremonies with numerous laws, so that the burdensome and minute exactions rendered God’s law impossible to be obeyed, which was not so originally. As the people’s heart became farther from God, so their man-made traditions multiplied. The spirit of the law was replaced by the severity of the letter made so by the misinterpreters of the Laws. And in their distinction as separate people they shut out God’s blessings which should have flowed out to the world. They were filled with envy and jealousy that they don’t want God to show mercy to the gentiles.

The result was spiritual pride, a blind area preventing them from seeing their Messiah. When Jesus appeared, they stumbled at His teachings which pierced through their legalism. They were so slow to see what heart religion is, the religion of true faith and devotion, and not the reliance on ceremonies. Now Paul came to define our relation to Grace and law, still the Jews clung to the letter of the law as the source of righteousness and would not have the righteousness that comes from God who gave that law. They looked at the Law as a checklist of dos and don’ts instead of allowing God to write them in their hearts. But the Protestants are worst.

They ignored God’s laws altogether, not only as our definer of sin, but that to them it is no longer binding or important since we are now under grace, and not law. Unable to define the “law of sin,” they muddled up law as sin itself, contradicting Rom 7:7. The law of sin is NOT the same as the “perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25; 2:12). The law of sin is that when one transgresses the law, he sinned, and one who commits sin is enslaved to its power. Sin is a slave-master, and its law is that one who is under its power, or under its dominion and law, must pay its penalty: death. But we are under grace; therefore we must walk in the spirit and love according to that grace, that is, live according to the precept of the law of liberty, the law of love.

And that’s not a righteousness that credits us salvation because that’s our duty, and that is what is expected of us. We can only do it if we allow Christ to dwell in our hearts. If we are under God’s grace, sanctified by Christ’s blood, we are no longer under the law and its dreaded penalties. We have eternal life, and the law is powerless to kill us with its death penalty. But if we are under the law, that is, if commit sin and therefore come under the law’s domain to penalize with death any transgressors, then we are not under grace, and our heads are unprotected under its heavy penalties, until that law which gives life to the obedient, will crush the disobedient with death. There is no problem with those who are in Christ, because His righteousness had made them holy. They do not sin, that is, their hearts are in harmony with God and His principles as expressed in the Ten Commandments. But there is real problem with those who are not in Christ, who are disobedient, and yet looks at the law like a checklist of rules, and yet cannot obey them. Why? Because it was not written in their hearts, and they are disobedient, this is why they are having a hard time. They are under the heavy penalty of the law which can kill them, and yet they attempt in their own strength to keep that law which was not even written in their hearts. Why? Because they are unrepentant, and therefore God cannot justify them or make them holy to keep His holy laws. First, they must repent, acknowledge their wrongs, and confess that the Law is holy, just, and good, and that they failed. And then ask Jesus to cleanse them and to make them righteous.

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That righteousness is not from that law, but from the Giver of that law. And when they are justified by Christ, they are no longer under the condemnation of that law or its penalties because they were already made righteous, that is, obedient to the law they had violated. Those who are under Christ’s blood because of repentance, have no problem with the law, and are not under the law and its exactions. No law can judge an obedient person who walks in the spirit, and not after the flesh. But try to commit sin, and the same holy and just law will execute its punishment on you. There is no law of life morals and in nature that we can violate without any consequences. Transgression of the law brings slavery and death. But having that law in the heart in the sense of its being blood-written by Christ in our hearts is perfect liberty and freedom. Bible texts exhorting us to continue in God’s grace (Acts 13:42; Rom. 11.22; Col. 1.23; 1 Tim. 4.16; Heb. 3.14), to remain faithful unto death (Rev. 2.10), to endure to the end (Mtt. 24.13), to be steadfast and not to fall like the wicked (2 Pet. 3.17), to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1.10), to examine whether we are in the faith and to prove it (2 Cor. 13.5), to take heed to ourselves and unto doctrine, and to continue in it in order to be saved (1 Tim. 4.16), to lay hold on eternal life and to keep the commandment without spot, unrebukable until the Jesus’ coming (1 Tim. 6.12-14), to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,” “to cast not away your confidence” (Heb. 10. 23, 35; See Heb. 3.12-14), repeated command to “watch and be ready” (Mtt. 24.42, 44; Lk. 21.34, 36; Mtt. 26.40, 41; Acts 20.31; 1 Cor. 16.13; 1 Pet. 5.8,9; The Lord’s own words in Rev. 3.2, 3; Rev. 16.15; Rev. 2.26), the reality of the word choked by thorns, or withered due to stoniness and sun, and lacking endurance ( Mtt. 13.20-22; Lk. 8.13-14; Mk. 4.5-7) and the possibility of faith grown dim and joining the drunk and getting drunk with them (Mtt. 24.48-51; 2 Pet. 3.3, 4; ) –these teachings do not condone the fools’ presumption, “once saved, always saved,” because one can choose anytime to cast aside God’s grace, and choice can sometimes be so rebellious that it will depend on one’s own righteousness and forget God, and become self-righteous, or be self-decidedly wicked (Rev. 22.11). How easily men backslide!

Only just a few remain consistent and unchanging, and only a few are wholeheartedly enduring to the end and do not falter along the way. The rest are weakling Christians who lack endurance, persistence and patience just like those planted on stony ground or a ground full of thorns. The choice of man is responsible for that, and God is in no way responsible for our wicked and careless choices. Sin is our own act, not God’s. God’s foreknowledge is not responsible in predestining those who refuse to be saved. It is true that only a few will be saved because there are actually only few in a thousand who in heart have God’s law and principles, and are truly righteous. Only a few, as we can observe around us, and as what Christ sees (Matt. 7.13, 14). But God did not predestine them to be righteous, that’s their choice, and the influences which they succumbed to. He predestined that all, if possible all must be saved, but He knew only a few will respond. His foreknowledge did not impinge upon our choices. His predestination wills all to be saved, and that was His intent not willing that any should perish (2 Pet.3.9). But He knew that not all will appreciate His will and act upon it. Only a few are in the straight narrow path. And when we have done all we could, we do not ascribe credit to ourselves (Lk. 17.7-10). The majority of the Christians are on the broad ways of life which leads to death. Theologians who mislead people with their erroneous justification concepts are among those who preach rebellion and lawlessness. Jesus does not condone the theology of those making light any of His commandments (Mtt. 5.19; Jn. 14.15; 1 Jn. 5.3). If the Sabbath was made for man (Mk. 2.27), what God said about the disobedient Israelites applies also to His professed Israel today (Ezek. 22.8; 26, 30, 38).

Completed Atonement at the cross results to Limited Atonement. Let’s look at this later after the next confusion (confusion #5).

CONFUSION #5 ETERNAL TORMENT: I have given an explanation about this in footnote #23 third paragraph. I have not further elaborated about the “worm that do not die,” and the Hebrew “olam” in relation to Tyre and Sodom and Gomorrah. By Hebrew or Greek exegesis, and in relation to the whole Scriptures, there is no ground for this silly and distorted doctrine. (1) Are the worms as immortal as God who alone has the immortality? (Check out 1 Tim. 6.16) (2) What’s the point of tormenting sinners eternally? What will God get? Will the righteous repent afterwards? Why keep them crying? Is God worse than the devil in cruelty and brutality? The Evangelicals will answer that the eternal fire vindicates His eternal righteousness, and the eternity of His law. I say, the punishment is also eternal as to its effect: death, but not the punishing or the Page 118 of 174

tormenting. The goal of God’s punishment is to destroy the wicked completely, and to annihilate them forever, and blot out their entire existence from the fair face of God’s creation, in order for Him to recreate new heavens and new earth where there will be no more pain and crying. (3) Where will the sinners be in that new heavens and new earth? The Evangelicals answer that they are somewhere out there in the lake of fire. But where? Where is that inferno located in the earth made new? And where is the eternally burning hell? I have only one answer, that’s in Malachi 4:1-3; Nahum 1.9; Obadiah .16 – They will be reduced to ashes, God will make an utter end of the wicked, fully consuming them (Isa. 66.17), they will be as though they have never been. The problem with that everlasting fire’s location is that it is nowhere to be found in the new creation. It’s pure Graeco-Roman fiction injected into Papal-Evangelical Christianity, which is nothing but fiction at its best. The account in Lk. 16.19-31 is a parable, and not an authentic account, due to many considerations that goes beyond what is reasonable. Why is there Abraham, and NOT God who is the judge? How big was Abraham’s bosom? What’s the name of the rich man? Why is there no mention of a soul which separates itself from the body when they died? It said that they both died; the one died and carried to Abraham’s bosom, while the other died and was SEPARATED FROM HIS BODY AND WENT TO HADES. But the Bible does not tell that way, but that the rich man died, was buried, and in hades he cried to Abraham. Therefore both were in their physical bodies, and not spirits or disembodied souls. The rich man felt the need for water. And was Abraham a giant having long arms that extends through the great gulf fixed between them? There was no God in the story. No end. But it taught a lesson that there will be no more second probation once a person dies. And besides, this story was a common Mediterranean fictitious account spread among Hellenized Jews who adopted pagan beliefs about soul immortality (4) If sinners and hell continue to exist, then we can question God’s power in solving the problem of sin; He can’t solve it because it remains eternal. Sin has a beginning, and it has an end. Sinners also do not have eternal life, but that they are to perish. (5) It would be difficult for Evangelical to accept that the punishment is NOT eternal because in the first place they belief in that Satanic lie about the immortality of soul. They believe in soul immortality common to all false religions, and therefore the only logical step for them to believe is that soul will be punished eternally, -as if sinners were also immortal as God and His saints.

One man who felt the sting of a cruelty brought about by religious dogmas popular in Christianity is Thomas Paine. He said, “It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.”117 He further states, “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”118 It is true that God’s loving nature was not properly understood in His anger, and that the wrath of God shows His anger. This quality of love was clouded by Jewish creeds, Romancatholics and Evangelicals who depict God with satanic attributes of murder and vindictiveness. The Seventhday Adventist church alone presents the correct view in this matter and removes the sting attached in this wicked dogma of Eternal torment and repudiates that same dogma held among the Evangelicals and Romancatholics. Moreover, no other protestant movement had so far removed itself from Rome than this group. God destroys no one. The sinners are destroyed by their own wickedness. When sin becomes full-blown it brings death (James 1:15). It is Israel that had destroyed itself (Hos. 13.9-11). The destruction of the wicked is that they see how they slighted God’s overwhelming love and that they feel the shame for abusing and neglecting it. They would welcome death than an eternity with God. Please refer to footnote #23. The condemnation in judgment is His “strange work” (Isa. 28.21). The Hebrew for “Strange” in this passage are “zuwr” and “nokriy”; zuwr means “to turn aside, to be foreign, strange, profane, commit adultery; and nokriy is translated 117

Thomas Paine, Public domain: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/37343-it-is-from-the-bible-that-man-has-learned-cruelty.

118

Thomas Paine; et al. (1824). The Theological Works of Thomas Paine. R. Carlile. p. 31, quoted in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine#cite_note-85.

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“foreign, adulterous, nonrelative, different, wonderful.” It is foreign to God’s nature to kill anyone. Indeed the Hebrew words show that what He will do is indeed His “strange,” “foreign,” “different” work. Murder is not His attribute because it is Satan’s characteristic, and not God’s (Jn. 8.44). God never in anyway contradicted Himself when He stated the sixth Commandment, “YOU WILL NOT MURDER,” when He at the same time destroyed the rebels at Sinai. Nor was He a murderer when the wicked at last shall have acknowledged the justice of their exclusion from having eternal life, when they are to be removed from existence. The fact is, God is NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALLL COME TO REPENTANCE (2Pet. 3.9, 10; Ezek. 33.11; Ezek. 18. 31, 32). And this attitude of love remains everlasting. Even when the wicked will be destroyed by their own sins, God still is not willing that ANY should perish. He does not want it; the wicked wants it. They do not want eternal life or the eternal righteousness that accompanies it. They love sin, disobedience, instability, unstable righteousness, impermanent obedience, and not everlasting righteousness that God Himself can trust. In short, they love short terms, and that’s nothing but impermanence and death. “But he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death” (Prov.

8.36). There are literatures that help disabuse our minds concerning this important aspect of God’s attribute (love in anger) wrongly interpreted by both Roman-catholics and Evangelical churches.119 Their wrong doctrine gives birth to their erroneous teaching of Eternal torment, making the cause of Christianity a reproach among decent minded intellectuals and a stumbling block to our faith. It’s a pity that Thomas Paine, along with Bertrand Russell and Nietzsche were never exposed to the Seventh-day Adventist influence, to the beauty of the teachings that magnified the loveliness of the Saviour in that “testimony of Jesus” which is “the Spirit of Prophecy” (Revelation 12:17; Revelation 19:10). But you might have asked, “Well, will they certainly believe in SDA teachings?” I do not claim that they will or they might, but at least they will be enlightened to receive messages from this movement when all the rest of the churches teach darkness and error, just like the teachings of the Roman church which poisons the reputation of God, making Him appear what He is not.

If Protestants protests against the Papal church, why they are now silent? The purpose of the Protestant movement which begun right at the midnight of the Dark Ages had always been that God’s people would be called out from the errors of the Roman church and be brought to the light of God’s word which shines gradually along their path as sunlight shines from dawn to noonday. But surprisingly, those who profess that they are Protestants, far from running away from Rome, are going back to it, in spirit and in doctrines. Instead of building a tent near to heavenly Jerusalem, they pitched them neared to Rome. Today we would rather hear the term “Evangelicals” than “Protestants.” A. T. Jones noted that “In the City of Chicago, III., Dec. 5, 1912, an assembly of three hundred and nineteen clerical delegates from thirty-one professedly Protestant denominations intentionally and expressly repudiated the word "Protestant."120 In 2014, An Anglican Bishop, Tony Palmer, in a Charismatic Evangelical Leadership Conference emphatically said “The protest is over.”121 He further stressed in that video that we unite with the Catholic church. The Protestant reformation will be 500 years by 2017, since the time Martin Luther in 1517 posted his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg church.

But what a contrast! Today’s Protestants were “open-minded” Evangelicals who would prostitute their way back to Rome! Truly the whoring daughters of their very harlot Mother. But we need not be surprised in this apostasy among the Protestant churches. Revelation 13 gives us the picture that the second beast (apostate 119

These references are in pdf files: Graham Maxwell, Morris D. Lewis, F.T. Wright, Gary Hullquist, “The Loving Wrath of God The Compatibility Between God’s Love and His Wrath” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/LovingWrath-Hullquist.pdf; Adrian Ebens, “Original Love A Biblical Love Story” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/OriginalLove.pdf; Adrian Ebens, “Serpent Revealed In Canaan Conquest” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/SerpentRevealed.pdf; Adrian Ebens, “Christ’s Antedeluvian Cross” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/AntediluvianCross%20(1).pdf; Adrian Ebens, “God’s Strange Act” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/Gods-Strange-Act-A5%20(1).pdf.

120

Jones, Alonzo Trevier, “Lessons from the Reformation” Public domain: http://www.thethirdangelsmessage.com/PDF/Lessons%20from%20the%20Reformation%20-%20A.T.%20Jones.pdf.

121

Prove all Things, “The Protest is Over….No More Protestant Church” Feb. 26, 2014, Public domain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxup_QnfSHg

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America) will advance the power of the first beast (Papacy), by forming an image for her. This is materialized when Protestant churches will unite among themselves, resolving doctrinal differences for the sake of union, corrupt union. But the union which is ecumenism among churches will result only to trampling of God’s Law and a setting up of papal decrees by the Protestants themselves. Following the steps of their harlot mother, the apostate Protestants will do the same and will complete what her mother had started in setting up impious laws that go opposite to God’s Law, and in ostracizing religious dissents as a disturbance to common peace. In February 19, 1894, Ellen G. White observes: “The Lord has pronounced a curse upon those who take from or add to the Scriptures. The great I AM has decided what shall constitute the rule of faith and doctrine, and he has designed that the Bible shall be a household book. The church that holds to the word of God is irreconcilably separated from Rome. Protestants were once thus apart from this great church of apostasy, but they have approached more nearly to her, and are still in the path of reconciliation to the Church of Rome.

Rome never changes. Her principles have not altered in the least. She has not lessened the breach between herself and Protestants; they have done all the advancing. But what does this argue for the Protestantism of this day? It is the rejection of Bible truth which makes men approach to infidelity. It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy.”122 ““The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High.” 123 It is really best to keep our distance from this pernicious church, and to point out uncompromisingly and not to remain silent at the Evangelicals’ compromise with her in their actions towards the Papacy in uniting with her in that accursed ecumenical World Council of Churches. Instead of rebuking the papal church, and to remain separate from her, the Evangelicals welcome her with such veritable whoring embrace, as if both of the harlot mother and her harlot daughters had long been separated by too much doctrinal strife. Those who do not read their Bibles, or the protestant professors of theology who are influenced by the Jesuits’ Historic-Preterist124 and Futurist-Dispensationalist125 schools of interpretation will not be able to identify the antichrist as the papacy, and thus will be misled by the errors spawned through her vast Jesuitical inter-theological seminary operations and infiltrations. Sometimes you cannot know whether your own church pastor or a church pastor who builds a new church is nothing but a Jesuit, trying to instill Latin terms, usages, vocabularies, and teachings calculated to capture the hearts back to the papacy. This is also done through theological journals, theological forums, and religious gathering where there is the vantage ground to influence minds. Then all you 122

White, “Romanism and the Religion of Nature” Signs of the Times, February 19, 1894. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1894&month=February&day =19&paragraphReferences=1.

123

White, The Great Controversy, p. 571. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=GC&lang=en&pagenumber=571.

124

This interpretation invented by the Spanish Jesuit Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613) was unwittingly and carelessly adopted by Evangelicals. Alcazar made this interpretation as a reaction against Protestant Reformers who commonly view the papacy as the antichrist in the books of Daniel and Revelation. To counter this, he invented this school of interpretation. The result is, the pope could not be the antichrist because the event had already happened in the past. It makes the book of Daniel and Revelation a written history, and not prophecy.

125

Another Spanish Jesuit Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) suggested that the antichrist is a personal antichrist who is to appear in the future in the time of the end, and continue its power for three and a half years fulfilling what was mentioned about it as the little horn in Daniel, and the beast in Revelation.

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hear are the same demonic teachings such as Eternal Torment, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Soul Immortality, and the usual and untouched eternal practice of most Christendom: Sunday observance. The aim is to threaten people so that they get inside a church. But then what these people get are the very wrong notions about God, -the treacherous, cruel, vindictive God who delights in the sufferings of His creatures, the God willing that some will perish, and not come to repentance.

Now what’s the purpose of threatening people with this silly belief? Let me tell you the effects of this error.

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS. THIS DISGUSTING BELIEF OF THE EVANGELICALS PRODUCES FEAR, SO THAT OBEYING GOD OR A DESIRE TO BE SAVED IS BECAUSE THERE IS ETERNAL HELL TO AVOID. THE MOTIVE IS SELFISH OR EGOCENTRIC, NOT BY LOVE. THEREFORE THE OBEDIENCE RENDERED TO GOD IS A COERCED OBEDIENCE BASED ON THAT STUPID FEAR OF ETERNAL TORMENT, AND SUCH OBEDIENCE IS LEGAL WHICH IS NOT OBEDIENCE AT ALL. GOD HATES HYPOCRITICAL OBEDIENCE ABOVE ANY OTHER OBEDIENCE. WHILE GOD CONDEMNS OPEN SIN COMMONLY COMMITED BY PERSONS OF LOW MORALITY, HE HATES AN OBEDIENCE BASED MERELY ON PROFESSION OF THE MOUTH, AND NOT FROM AGAPE RESPONSE. FURTHERMORE, THIS TEACHING, LIKE DOUBLE PREDESTINATION, AND LIMITED ATONEMENT, TRULY MISREPRESENTS GOD AS SELFISH, DEMONIC, CRUEL, SELECTIVE, NOT UNIVERSAL IN LOVE, AND A GENTILE LIKE ANY SELFISH GENTILE GODS OF GREECE AND ROME. AND WHEN A PERSON IMBIBE THESE MISREPRESENTATION, IT MAKES THEM SUBCONSCIOUSLY CRUEL, VINDICTIVE, AND SPIRITUALLY PROUD. IS IT NOT A WONDER THAT EVANGELICALS IN THEIR BOOKS STIGMATIZE THE MORMONS, JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES, IGLESIA NI CRISTO, AND OTHER RELIGIOUS BODIES, AND OFTEN, MERCILESSLY IN THE INTERNET BECAUSE THEY HAVE THIS CRUELTY OF A GOD MISREPRESENTED AS CRUEL? YES IT IS, CERTAINLY. IN ADDITION, IT MAKES THEM ANTICHRISTS, FOR AN ANTICHRIST IS THE ONE WHO REPLACES CHRIST AND SITS IN JUDGEMENT AND IN CONDEMNATION ON OTHER PEOPLE AS IF HE IS CHRIST THE JUDGE. CONFUSION #6 LIMITED ATONEMENT: What? Limited Atonement according to Calvinism is that Jesus did not dies for all, but only for the sheep, the elect (Jn. 10.11, 15; Mtt. 25.32-33; Jn. 17.9; Acts 20.28, and Eph. 5.25-27. It’s like a playsafe payment theology. God paid the sins only of the elect. Then the Bible texts that were selected were strongly biased, and confined only for this purpose, that Christ does nothing for the wicked. What was paid was for the church, the elect. Such as Saviour as depicted by the Calvinists is selfish. This is the result of selective Foreknowledge or selective Predestination which is not found in the Bible. This belief notoriously contradicts 2Pet. 3.9, 10; Ezek. 33.11, 14-16, 1Tim. 2.5, 6; and takes to mean that the Saviour of all men is not the Saviour of all men (1Tim. 4.10) but only those who believe, 126 nor the Saviour of the world (Jn. 1.29; Jn. 4.42; 1Jn. 2.1, 2) whose goodness was not limited only to the good men but also to the wicked, providing for their carnal desires! (Mtt. 5.45; Hos. 7.15; Jer. 5.7, 8; Hos. 2.8; 2 Sam. 12.8; Num. 11.18-20; Ps. 106.13-15; Job. 22.17,18). So how can He limit His atonement to those He only foreknew? Because God foreknows specific persons to be saved, He must also damn others against their will, just as He saves them against their desire. This view, far from making God omnipotent Saviour of both good and the bad, makes Him impotent. Such God is like a gentile who shows favouritism only to the good and rejects the bad. The worst part is that He Himself makes people bad and depraved precisely like what the devil does to humanity. Calvinists’ idea is that because God is the author of everything, He is also the author of evil (Isa. 45.7; Prov. 16.4). No one has the right to question His way (Rom. 9.11-29), for even if He does evil, what He does is always good. This repugnant interpretation makes God a devil who makes people evil and punish them for the evil He Himself had caused. It makes Him extremely selfish and more than a demon. In their 126

Note, the word “MALISTA” does NOT mean “especially” but “that is.”

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attempt to exalt the sovereignty of the will of God, they make His will impotent and ineffective because He caused evil in them in the first place, and cannot cause them only to become good. He controls easily things and does not have power to conquer man’s badness because He caused them in the first place. God has an easy way of salvation: causing people to sin, and then causing them to do right. He need not plead or strain a nerve like a woman in labour (Isa. 42). He might appear ingratiatingly so, but only hypocritically. He actually caused their evil. (1) If He damns some for hell, and that He has the power to select for salvation, why not select all humankind against their freewill. Anyway it rests on God to save whom He will save. Why not save all if the choice is His alone? (2) Did God really selectively foreknow some to be saved and some to be lost? Where in the Bible is such a theology based? I cannot find a reference. It does not follow that because what He foreknew He also predestinate –referring to the righteous, that He also foreknow some to hell. It was not found there, Joe (Review Rom. 8.29, 30). The verb Predestination has the possibility to be selective, but the selection is for all. But foreknowledge does not select. It is a verb that does not intend to do something. It is a mere mental picture, something God knew without being physically involved towards the object known.

Predestination is for our salvation always, not for the damnation of some. God is not willing that ANY should perish. That’s not His attitude. (See. Ezek. 18.31, 32; Mtt. 18.12-14; Lk. 15; 1Tim. 2.4; Tit. 2.11; Acts 17.13) Both Luther and Calvin are giving God a lie with their theology about a God that is hidden. It makes Him treacherous and hypocrite, a God who speaks something differently from what He actually intends. How can we trust such a God? It will give others the right to boast they are the elect, but what’s the basis of such boasting if no mortal knows whether or not he/she is among the elect. Just because some knew Calvin’s theology does not entitle them to eternal election, because obviously Calvin’s theology has many errors, and is far from being perfect. I will point out later the connection between Papal theology and Calvin’s, even if the Reformer himself had always been antagonistic towards the papacy. (3) It is true that the effect of God’s foreknowledge is irrevocable, and the effect of judgment cannot be altered: that the righteous will have eternal life, and the wicked will be burned up, consumed, and reduced to ashes. But God does not interfere with our choices. We are free to decide to serve Him or Satan. He did not select who should be saved but gives equal opportunity to all. The result of their choices is that what happens irrevocably in the future, either they are saved on not (Mtt. 7.13, 14). God sees who will be saved, and who will be damned, but what He foresaw is the result of the creatures’ decision, not by God’s determining them, because it was not His will that any should perish. He did not intend what He saw, He did not want it. He did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence. He had a plan ready because He knew sin will happen, but He did not cause it to happen.

He foresaw because it would really happen, not that it will happen because He foresaw it. (4)What’s the point of Jesus being given to the lost race if His atonement was limited? Limited to whom and by whom? To the righteous alone? Or limited by the sinners? Or the purpose of His coming is to call sinners to repentance? (Lk. 5.32). If atonement means reconciliation (Katallage), what’s the purpose? To select only whom He wants to be reconciled to, as based on that fictitious persons in that foreknowledge? But to select those whom God knows to be good is pointless. Why select, why court the willing? It takes challenge to seek the lost and God did just that. He strained Himself like a woman in labour only to free us from slavery (Isa. 42.14-17), but not all like what He did, and not all respond. (5)If Atonement is limited, the effort is not for the lost, but for the righteous, and that’s selfish. Jesus did not intend to love only those who are lovable. That’s gentile outlook (Mtt. 5. 46, 47). Limited atonement is selfish atonement. If so, God is egocentric and selfish like any other gentile gods. (6)The text in Mark 10:45 that says that His life was for the ransom of “many” was taken to mean that the atonement was indeed limited to some, and that it was not for all. Therefore, it should rather be translated “a ransom for few” to fit in the “limited atonement” paradigm. This defeats the purpose of His coming to our world to rescue sinners. Atonement was never limited to the elect, but extends to the undeserving wicked. The purpose is to reconcile the lost world to Him, and to predestine all to be saved. God is not willing that any should perish. But not all responds. Some chooses not to. But there are those who choose to respond. Now what determines their salvation, God’s atonement or their choice? I say both. God died for their sins and treats all humankind as though they have never fallen, but that does not mean that He is reconciled to their sin. He gives opportunity to repent, and provides light so they can have faith- the faith of Jesus. Many repented, but do not persevere. Many profess to have faith, but grew weary and forsake the right path. But there are also those who remain steadfast to the end. Now does salvation and atonement depends on Page 123 of 174

human choice or God’s choice? God’s choice is that all should be saved, but since He grants freedom, He will not coerce nor purpose to overcome man’s resistance to His grace. He will not remove their objection to His will. He will not remove their unbelief or rebellion without their consent. They have to deal with it, and repent.

They will be hardened should they continue to reject His grace. Salvation depends on the choice of both God and the creatures, not on God alone. God died to make man holy, man must be holy and obey. God works, man must cooperate. God commands, man must obey. He can obey because He was enabled to obey, and allow God to transform him, but it is he who must do the obeying, not God. He is accountable for that choice, not God. But if man will at last be saved because he had chosen the right path as God expects him to be, will God be grateful to Him? No. We must still reckon ourselves unprofitable servant (Lk. 17.7-10). Nevertheless, Jesus will see the travail of His soul, and will be satisfied (Isa. 53.11), the lost God is seeking is found and returns to Him, and He rejoices (Mtt. 18.13; Lk 15). Some will quickly misconstrue this to mean salvation by grace plus human works, but this is not human works. This is God-enabled cooperation from man which God requires and expects from all His children to do. He never expects disobedience, or believing alone, but to obey His commandments, and obey them perfectly, not imperfectly. Some might argue that the death of Christ, His work is useless because we can add up to it. But we cannot add what Christ had done, or our best efforts. It was His strength that enables us to obey and do His Commandments, and that’s not an addition to His grace, that’s obedience required from us. Yet we must obey because this is the condition of eternal life in both covenants. The only wrong thing about obedience is the motive: Do we obey because we fear hell or want to gain heaven, or do we obey because God wants it even if we do not want to? Or do we obey because it is our delight to do His will because we are constrained by His love at the cross? God chooses us all for salvation, not just some, but all. To make it appear that He chooses us irrespective of our preferences would mean that He truly bypasses our free will and that He wants only to fulfill His own agenda despite our incooperation. God does not choose us against our will. Nor will He overcome our freewill if we do not want to. That choice is free and never coerced in any way.

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS. MANY WILL NOT OBEY OR REMAIN IN GOD BECAUSE WHAT’S THE POINT OF STAYING IN CHURCH WHEN NO ONE IS SURE WHETHER HE/SHE IS AMONG THOSE TO WHOM CHRIST DIED? THIS VIEW WILL HAVE NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON PEOPLE WHO HEARS IT, THE EFFECT IS NEVER POSITIVE OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS BUT SNUBBERY AND CONTEMPT AGAINST SUCH A GOD WHOSE ATONEMENT IS LIMITED. I SAY, THE EFFECT OF THAT ATONEMENT IS NOT LIMITED. BECAUSE CHRIST COVENANTED TO GIVE HIMSELF TO THE WORLD, EVEN THE WICKED ENJOYED THE BENEFIT OF LIFE. WE ENJOY THE FRUITS OF VEGETATION AND PROCREATION BECAUSE SOMEONE HAD DIED SO WE NEED NOT DIE. EVEN THE WICKED WILL BE DESTROYED AT LAST, THAT ATONEMENT OF CHRIST REMAINS UNIVERSALLY BENEFICIAL, MEANING, EVEN THE WICKED THEMSELVES CANNOT EXERCISE THEIR EVIL FREEWILL EXCEPT AS A RESULT OF THAT ATONEMENT. THAT ATONEMENT PROVIDES FREE WILL. AND EVEN IF AT LAST THE WICKED WOULD NOT BE RECONCILED TO GOD, THEY WILL ACKNOWLEDGE HIS JUSTICE AND LOVE AS UNLIMITED, AND THAT IT EXTENDS TO THEM EVEN TO THEIR WICKEDNESS. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT THEY REFUSE TO SUBMIT TO HIS ALLCONSTRAINING LOVE. LIMITED ATONEMENT IS THAT IT IS THE CREATURE WHO LIMITS THIS ATONEMENT. IN THAT SENSE, CALVINISTS TO NOT DENY THAT THERE IS REALLY A FREE WILL THAN OBSTRUCTS GOD’S RECONCILIATORY INTENTIONS. HE CAN RECONCILE ALL MEN, BUT IF MEN DO NOT WANT IT, HE CAN DO NOTHING MORE, BUT LEAVE THEM TO THEIR HARDNESS OF HEART. CONFUSION #7: TOTAL DEPRAVITY: The belief of Total Depravity actually makes a believer totally depraved and spiritual incapacitated from the start to finish. He remains depraved, and would have no chance in lifted himself/herself up against the fate that is imposed arbitrarily upon him/her. Limited Atonement justifies the belief about Total Depravity. How? The thought that Christ’s atonement is selective makes a person feel secure of his mediocrity, and will be stuck in that realization that man is totally depraved in Page 124 of 174

everything. The Atonement selects who to atone. Or that the man himself limits the benefits of the atonement by one’s utter rejection and hardness of heart. But the title itself (Limited Atonement) sends wrong implication encouraging those who are already depraved to remain in such depravity, or be encouraged that depravity is indeed nature. Using Paul, they will argue that all are as self-hating, self-depreciating as Paul was. What a feeble fighter such person appears who refuses to recognize the God-given strength within him. I do not see any reason to agree that man is born incompetent for salvation. Nor do I see it a defective view about God’s salvation that if I am able, the God’s work and power is frustrated. On the other hand, I saw that God always empowers since birth, since man gains the consciousness. And that even the natural man who exists without the law, has this spirit within him (Rom. 2.14, 15). Even Cain, as the natural man was urged by God to fight sin (Gen. 4.7). Not all are born totally depraved. And our depravity is never total at all but interrupted, and conquered at Gen. 3.15 already. What remains is our choice. The texts (Rom. 3.9-11, 18; Rom. 7.18; Rom. 8.7-8, 9; Eph. 4.18; 2Cor. 4.4-6; Eph. 2.3) are real, but this outlook do not remain always in a person. One can choose to change in response to God’s call. There have been moments of grace God bestows in His mercy, and those moments are available always within the hearts of every person. So why remain in that morbid incompetent thinking when help is always within the reach of all, and that help is the holy spirit which always within the hearts to strive and convict of sin? But the Holy Spirit will not always strive. He will choose to leave us to our own choices should we persist in our perversities. The result is hardening of the heart. We, not God are responsible for this hardening. We, not God are responsible for our own damnation. And we, not God are responsible for our salvation. He expects us to be saved, and therefore we ought to choose to be saved.

That choice is not His to make but ours. He cannot choose us against our will, nor will He do tricks to constrain the indisposed. He pleads and knocks the doors of our hearts, and waits for us to open to Him. The sovereignty of God ends when my free will begins. God is not willing to rule those who are not willing to be ruled, either. His rule is never coercive, but benignant, loving, and winning. This confusion is the result of Augustine’s doctrine about original sin. There is a systematic connection is that thinking. First of all is to replace the authority of the Creator by the authority of the church. With that argument, it is lawful to begat the Papacy as able to pronounce alteration on God’s Laws especially the Sabbath Commandment. Having done away with the Creator’s sovereignty, the creature now replaces Christ effectively and becomes immortal (Soul immortality). This error brings with it its closest relative, Eternal Torment. But Unconditional Election provides rationale for this, in that it provides the basis who to selectively torment. Along with Eternal Torment, the idea that the Atonement was completed at the cross carries with it the error that salvation is beyond our free will or the influence of human decision, and that it rests solely on God’s choice alone who to atone and who to save. We are saved even if we do not want it, and we go to hell even if we do not want it.

Logically, this predestination theory provides reason for limited atonement, in that the sense of Christ’s dying is not the same for all, as if Christ’s love for some is not the same love for all. The limitation lies both with the Saviour and the creature. There is no support for the Bible for this except to be rooted out of context to mean that Christ was only for the elect, and not for both righteous and wicked.

The three combined beliefs (Unconditional Election, Completed Atonement at the cross, Limited Atonement) makes a strong defense for Total Depravity, - confirmation that a person is truly and totally depraved. Good if some will fight and conquer in the strength of God. What if they will succumb to the idea of imperfection of character and will remain imperfect all their lives? God cannot claim them as His children, either, because their service is not wholehearted- that is, perfect. Their obedience is imperfect obedience, which is disobedience still. Although it gives us encouragement to know that Christ is our Saviour, it does not provide the view that He is our Example in overcoming and in perfection. The texts chosen by Calvinists were so selected so as to avoid the ones that gives basis for becoming as perfect as God is, and to condemn sin in the sinful flesh as Christ did. The next logical flow of Total depravity is the sinless human nature of Christ which is in the confusion #8. So these four are closely related. And it only tells one thing: NO ONE CAN PERFECTLY OBEY THE LAW EVEN IF CHRIST ENABLES US. NO ONE CAN BE PERFECT, EVEN THERE WERE THOSE WHO ALREADY WERE, AND HAD ALWAYS BEEN.

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Let’s get back to the issue about depravity. As far as my infancy is concerned, I was NOT born a guilty sinner.

No. I felt the innocence of soul in those early childhood years. Wicked propensities, evil desires bent towards the world were foreign to my nature. My moral inclination had been bent towards the right since my earliest childhood. I have always loved virtue above material pleasures, and I hated sin. My mother was like Mary, Jesus’ mother who was careful enough to bring my tastes to remain in harmony with heaven’s ideal of perfection, and like Christ, I do not grow up as a mismanaged child who display tantrums at seasons of inconvenience. I was noble, and princely in mind and heart. It is also a fact that I misbehaved many times, but it was by deliberate choice, and I do not felt it a nature in me. It was a choice to do badly by a child who was born good. Never had it occurred in my childhood, youthood, and manhood years the premonition or fear that I am incapable of keeping God’s Commandments, or doing God’s will. The question is, have I completely done it? What was left undone that I have never done? I was never raised with such pessimistic background that says that man is born depraved, or that nobody’s perfect. It was a positive, heavenly atmosphere that continually encourages overcoming and perfection. I do not despair like Paul who exclaimed “Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me in this body of death!” Rather, I always say, “Thank God, Jesus helps me fight sin and overcome!” Paul is never my model for perfection. I look always to Jesus, my precious best Friend. The moral impetus of my spiritual upbringing is that all humanity can do God’s will and overcome sin; we can and we must, because Christ enables us always, and that NOT doing God’s will or not obeying ALL His Commandments is not nature, but deliberate choice. And as such, I am accountable. I hold on to this moral integrity up to my teen age years. What attracted me was not vice or aimless pleasures common to young people of my age bracket. What gave me so much delight and reason to live is the task of perfecting godlike character, the holiness of life, purity of heart, and godliness in all aspects. Jesus had been my continual Source of happiness, and though invisible, I considered Him as my only best Friend. I found comfort in His words in the Gospels. As I read them, His words spoke to my heart as though I was living during the days of the apostles walking with Him throughout Judea. Those words were living power. Paul’s theology was simply an explanation for a deeper understanding of how corrupt flesh could be overcome. Everything in the Bible I found to be an encouragement to fight sin and attain perfection. I am not hindered at all with the thought that I am born a depraved man or incompetent spiritually because abundant grace had always been provided.

There were moments in my life when I slipped from God’s grace, and sinned grossly, and that by my choice.

But I do not ascribe it to a human nature that is morally weak, for such a morality I have never felt since. From early infancy upwards I found only strength, no weakness, but strength, –the power imparted by Christ, as a result of a highly spiritual upbringing even from the womb of my mother. It was a Jewish background, with the privilege of adequate exposure to the light of God’s word, that righteousness is natural for us, and that we are not sinners of the gentiles (Gal. 2.15). Yet we were early taught that even with this righteousness, we are still to depend on Christ for strength, and remain steadfast always. Therefore it never occurred in my mind that I cannot obey the Law. What is always in my mind is that I can obey the Law because God’s Commandments are also His enablings. When He commands, He carries with it the power to obey, so that when I hear the command, it would be easier for me to obey that to disobey.

The question is, am I harmed when I obey God? Am I wicked because I obey the Commandments? No. Rather, it is those who disobey who are the children of disobedience. I could only look with scorn and contempt about this miserably pessimistic theology of the Calvinists which inspires incompetence and mediocrity. Such theology with its morbid effects has no place in my principles. That theology is a breaking of God’s Law (Mtt. 5.19). Why? It encourages people not to keep the Law because it says it cannot be kept. Thus falsely charging God of giving commandments that cannot be kept. If man could not keep the Law, “then there was fault with the Lawgiver.” 127 Grace does not replace obedience. Grace only enables and empowers man to 127

White, Signs of the Times, January 16, 1896, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1896&month=January&day =16&paragraphReferences=0.

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perfectly obey the Law. Grace does not lower God’s standard of righteousness, but it only brings man up so that he could live in perfect harmony to God’s Commandments. Christ came down to reconcile man to God, and if man should be reconciled to God, man should also be reconciled to His Law and perfection. That’s not only God’s initiative without our consent, but always with our consent. God will write His Laws in our hearts.

But does not end with a period there. In Rom. 11.27 where Paul cites the Renewed Covenant, he quoted Isa. 50.20-21 and Isa. 27.9, and that’s conditional: this applies only to those “who repent of their rebellion.” He will not justify the wicked in any way, but punishes transgression. But He will justify the repentant (Ex. 20.5, 5; Ex. 23.7).

Christ came down not to commit sin and abolish the Law, but to condemn sin in the flesh and enforce the Law fully and entirely. All who are followers of the Messiah must follow Him –condemn sin in the flesh and live in perfect harmony to God’s Law. That is the purpose of Christ’s coming in the SARX, to make man a fighter and an overcomer like Himself. But Calvinistic thought is such as dangerous thing that it blinds the mind in order that we cannot see how we can overcome sin and perfectly obey the Law. Physical inconvenience cannot hinder us in the process of striving. “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom. 8.37).

DOG – FAITHFULNESS VERSUS MARTIN128 -UNFAITHFULNESS I find it relevant to mention our recently deceased dog in this doctrine about depravity. Peewee was her name.

She had fine dark brown hair, of playful behavior, but would normally bark at unfamiliar guests. She does her job as guard in her capacity. Every morning we feed her. She would move around the house with that funny tail and a rushing noise that don’t annoy us. One thing came to my mind, was this dog serving her master because she was fed or she’s truly loyal despite there is no food? In the morning, when I prepare her warm meal, she would jubilantly shout in anticipation. Then I continue to think what was her motive in serving us. I observed that she serves us even without food, and that it was the master that matters to her. Because when I tried to feed her the morning meals she was always fed, in a few instance, I would tease and provoke her as if to divert her attention from eating. I would draw near to touch her or take away her food. Surprisingly, she would stop eating and look at me. Every time I gave her food, she would not eat immediately, but would raise her head and look at me intently. She would not stop looking at me until I will leave. It feels as though she’s grateful for the food. And again, in the midst of her meal, I would show up to interrupt her. She’s not angry, but would stop eating and look at me again. And the most memorable part of that meal is when I touch her head. She would stop eating and would push her head against my hand as if wanting my caresses more than her necessary food. Now I am convinced that it’s not the food that gave her greater pleasure, but my presence and my touch. For why would she stop eating and would rather jump from her house and quit eating just for my touch? Then I would leave, and she would continue eating. This I did every time I feed her. A faithful dog, she would wake up at night in her sleep when I arrived so late. She would stand at the door step and wiggles her tail and pushes her head against my hand. How she longed for those touches! When there’s somebody outside, or a voice of stranger, she would bark naturally in alarm. That’s her nature, and she steadfastly fulfills it as most dogs do. During her 17th year, her old age was visible. Her steps were no longer agile but slow and sleeps a lot. The week of her demise was marked with sudden dislike for food. She would eat very little, and would no longer eat. I took videos of her to immortalize her memory. She was not sick (We know if the dog is sick or not). This time we understood that she was approaching her last days of life because her lifespan was within the dogs’ range of life. She would stay on a place for so long, neither eating nor drinking anything but would lie all day and all night long. I covered her with a cloth to keep her warm. She was week. Everytime I went out of the house and go for school I was thinking whether she will still live, or what time she might have died. During the Sabbath of that week I was assisting at the piano for a church practice for singing when my father sent me SMS message informing that Peewee seems to be calling up on me. (Of course, that’s the 128

By "Martin", I mean Dr. Walter Ralston Martin, an Evangelical self-proclaimed cult watchdog, along with Biblical scholars who teach that God’s Law cannot be kept perfectly in this lifetime.

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implication because it’s only me and my dad at home, and I give the direct care for the dog). My dad added that she makes a loud moaning sound as if a farewell voice. As I read the message my heart was pounding heavily in sorrow. I quickly started out heading for home. I hope she’s still alive when I arrive. As I opened the gate, I saw the miserable figure of our faithful dog, lying on the dust beneath the car. I watched her and think that she must still be alive. But I also thought she might be dead because she makes no sound. It was difficult to see her because she was beneath the car. Unexpectedly, I saw her lungs raised twice. I saw her breathed her last two breaths. Not convinced that she was dead I pulled her, and with a cellophane covering my hands129 I palpated her lungs to feel any heartbeat. I felt very faint and diminishing pulses, but there was no longer breathing in that body. As yet, there were no parasites yet standing on her hairs, therefore there is still life in her because the parasites might be sucking her blood as of that moment. Her tongue stick out, and her eyes begun to sink. Her eyes were no longer sensitive to dilate and constrict. Again I touched her lungs with cellophane and could hardly felt any vital signs. I was then convinced that she is no more. The moment of the dog that had recently died was glorious, for memories of my badness and goodness for her was recalled.

Instantly a flood of her active and cheerful services flashed scene after scene into my mind that I have no power to control. That night I reviewed her goodness, and the steadfast services she gave to our family, the joy of having her around. It was a creature which had definitely fulfilled to her lasted hours her role in life as a creature, -a rebuke that man, in his capacity as a creature neglected, and as such with so many theological excuses for not fulfilling and obeying God’s simple Commandments! During the morning, I went to see her body lying flat. I haven’t buried her yet because the previous day was the Sabbath and it was raining hard outside since afternoon towards the whole night. But this time, Sunday morning, the day was bright. I saw the parasites stood on her hairs. I buried her 4 feet deep. Peewee’s gone, and gone forever. My dad burned her house the following days. There was no more remembrance about her to cherish except the video I took of her, during her last days when she lapped water from a basin, and when she was extremely weak. Moments of spiritual insight came to me, that that dog, common to many dogs have fulfilled both in letter and spirit their role as dogs, and are faithful to their masters. Peewee breathed before me her last two breaths. I could still remember the time when she lie very weak, that I touched her. And when I leave, she would looked at me, as if asking, “why are you leaving me, lonely and bereft of companionship?” The dogs cannot express in words their wants and desires, and it takes a benevolent heart to understand and empathize with their feelings. And as stewards of God’s creation we must be kind to animals, all animals including cows, chickens, pigs, etc. There is no reason to take the lives of animals just to gratify our appetite for a luxurious meal. The one who is not kind towards animals is not a kind person at all, but cruel and malignant.

I contrast the steadfast loyalty of our dog to Walter Martin’s unwillingness and unfaithfulness to do God’s Commandments. Our dog was far better than Dr. Walter R. Martin. He acknowledge like any Calvinists would that God’s Law is always there, and that it cannot change or be vanished away, but the only terrible part is “you can’t keep it,” he said; hence, giving God the fault that He made Laws that cannot be obeyed by man.

And who is Walter Martin to say that we cannot keep it? I can keep God's Law perfectly, and have done it, and will be doing it, and no pessimistic theologian tells me what to do for that matter. Is there something wrong with God in making such laws, or is the man to blame for not being willing to obey it? Martin and the Evangelical scholars had many excuses ready for not obeying the Law. One is Total Depravity, another is the Finished Atonement at the cross (Jesus did everything at Calvary, so the decision of our salvation had been decided upon right there, and that’s beyond the influence human influence. We need not do our part in overcoming, obeying, and resisting sin, or continually repent, ask forgiveness, and go on to perfection [Heb. 6.1]. Jesus did all reconciliation at Calvary, and He is fully reconciled to us and to our sins. So it does not matter if we commit sins in the future because the finished atonement implies that everything had been decided 129

I covered my hands with cellophane to avoid direct contact with our dead dog because touching dead body of an unclean animal is strictly not allowed as God had explicitly instructed (Leviticus 11:31-39). And who says that this command, along with Lev. 7.22-26; Lev. chapters 11 & 19 are no longer valid, when in the light of Acts 15. 20, 29, the context that “Moses, after all, has never lacked spokesmen in every town for generations past; he is read in the synagogues Sabbath by Sabbath” (Acts 15. 21) is that the gentile converts have no other Scripture than the Torah, and these converts are converts not towards paganism, but INTO the Jewish religion, from whom salvation comes? (Jn. 4.22).

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at the cross, and that atonement was final. God is reconciled to both us and our sins. And we are automatically sanctified and righteous, and therefore cannot sin. No more action on our part is require, and no more overcoming. It was Jesus who did everything. We need not afflict ourselves in soul-searching, repentance, and contrition as in the typical day of atonement because everything was made in Calvary by the Victim. The Victim atones for sin (and not the Priest, which is absurd and false);Sinless human nature of Christ (Jesus is born naturally sinless, therefore He alone can obey the law, because He cannot sin. We cannot obey it because we are not born like Him and He was not born like us. We can only rejoice and accept His obedience, and believe that He did everything for us. But we cannot do what He did, and we cannot obey the Law); and Unconditional Election which Martin might not have articulated exhaustively. He might have found this doctrine too embarrassing.

Now I say that a house dog is better than the Evangelical scholars who give God that pessimistic excuse of not obeying the Law of God due to those creedal and doctrinal excuses of their own invention. Why could a dog faithfully and steadfastly serve its master, but professed followers of Christ cannot perfectly obey and follow His examples? Our pet dogs obey us because we feed them and we cared for them. If they are adopted by another master, their loyalty may switch to the one who cared for them the most. Similarly, we who are bought

by Christ’s precious blood ought to have found it easy to be slaves for righteousness (Rom. 6.15-19; Jn. 6.56.

57; 2Cor. 5.14, 15; Ex. 20.1, 2), that is, to be steadfastly obedient to all His Commandments, because we now live because of Him, and for Him. But why this incompetent and indolent disobedience? The reason is that according to them, sin is nature (Total Depravity). Instead of viewing righteousness as choice, to them righteousness is nature arising from the teaching of the Antichrist about sinless human nature of Christ which we cannot and have not attained in this lifetime, and could not be like him (flatly denying 2Pet. 1.3-11; Rev. 3.21). Another is that atonement is finished at the cross (we need not do anything, because the atonement right there was beyond human decision. It has been decided by God without our consent) RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS; MORAL INCOMPETENCE, SPIRITUAL IMPOTENCE, LAWBREAKING. CONFUSION #8 SINLESS HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST: It had been the root of Evangelical theology concerning the human accomplishment of righteousness to rest upon the idea that the Saviour is sinless in order to be an all-powerful Saviour, and that He was exempt from our moral pollution which was passed to our genes from Adam. Because both Roman-catholics and Evangelicals suppose that we are born totally stupid and incompetent, it would be irksome for them to see Christ having the same humiliation in which our humanity had sunk. They deny fact in the Bible such as in Heb. 2.10-11,14-18; Phil. 2.5-8; Rom. 8.3,40; Heb. 4.15, 16. Total depravity (stupidity) exempts Christ’s human nature as sinless, and cannot sin, so we cannot follow His example because we are not like Him (This Roman teachings makes us so unlike Christ, and makes Christ so unlike us). This invalidates and precludes the Messiah’s commands and exhortations for spiritual life because we cannot at the outset, because we are sinful by nature and will and must remain so forever. The same line of determinism was the doctrine about Limited atonement, and the cause of this is the idea about Finished Atonement at the cross. The root is coercive Foreknowledge resulting to Unconditional Election. I have elaborated this in Footnote #23. This view brings confusion about who Christ is as our great high Priest.

(1) Christ could not be qualified to be our high Priest in heaven unless He must fully partake our sinful nature.

(Heb. 2.17). In that way He can comprehend what real struggles we have undergone, and provide escape and encouragement how to resist sin in the same flesh that He took. The words "touched" and "like as we are" connects HOMOIOMA (likeness) to our identity (Heb. 4.9, 14-16). Only when Christ suffered our same and identical temptation could He be in a position to "succor" us in our conflicts and temptations (Heb. 2.18). (2) Christ's church is His bride whom He will marry (Rev. 19.7-9), but how could He marry a bride of different kind of humanity than Himself? Both the Lamb and His saved people, both the Bridegroom and His bride should have the same common struggles and experience of "overcoming," crucifying self, taking up the cross, and dying together. (3) In 1John 4:1-3, the word flesh used by John and also in Pauline epistles is the Greek "SARX" -the fallen flesh touched by sin. But in 1 John 4:1-3 teaching that Jesus took this kind of flesh is the text that one is from God, having the heavenly credentials. To deny that He came in that flesh, the fallen sinful Page 129 of 174

nature, is of the ANTICHRIST (1Jn. 4.3). Therefore the teaching that Christ took the unfallen, sinless nature is what John warns about the teaching of the ANTICHRIST. Rome has this teaching in their Immaculate Conception although the emphasis is on Mary. But the Evangelicals continued this error in full-blown manifestation by their doctrine that Jesus was born exempt from human sinfulness, and that He did not took the fallen sinful nature of Adam. Therefore both the Roman-catholic church and the Evangelicals have this spirit of the ANTICHRIST. But the Evangelicals were worse than the Papacy because they completed and fully advanced what Rome had begun, teaching what is the most opposite to what John had warned us about.

Please refer back to footnote # 23 for a review of this issue. Teaching that Jesus' human nature is sinless is pointless and irrelevant to us. What's the point of overcoming as He overcame, and obeying as He obeyed if His human nature was not the same identically fallen and sinful like what we have? So we can remain in our sins and that's alright to be imperfect and not overcome, anyway only Jesus is perfect and is not the same like us. He saves us IN OUR SINS, and NO MATTER IF WE PERSIST IN OUR SINS, but He cannot be our Example in all things, but He was not like us in all things as concerns our human sphere of existence.

RESULT: DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS, AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SIN, LAWLESSNESS, IMPERFECTION, AND TO BE UNLIKE CHRIST, BECAUSE THE CASE IS HOPELESS: WE ARE NOT BORN LIKE HIM, AND HE IS NOT A BORN-SINFUL HUMAN BEING LIKE US. THERE IS NO USE TO OVERCOME AS HE OVERCAME, THEREFORE THE INCENTIVE IN REVELATION 3.21 AND MATTHEW 5.48, AND MANY OTHER TEXTS ARE FLATLY USELESS. JESUS IS OUR SAVIOUR, BUT NOT OUR LORD TO BE OBEYED, NOR AN EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED. BUT THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST IS THE ONE THAT DENIES THAT CHRIST IS BORN IN THE SARX (1JN 4.2, 3) WHICH ALREADY EXISTED SINCE THE TIME OF THE APOSTLES (2 THESS. 2.7; 1JN. 4.3). ANY TEACHING THAT SHOWS THAT CHRIST’S HUMAN NATURE IS SINLESS IS OF THE ANTICHRIST, AND SINCE THIS TEACHING IS FOUND IN THE ROMAN CHURCH AND THE EVANGELICALS, THEIR TEACHING IS A MANIFESTATION THAT THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST IS IN THEIR MIDST. LET NO ONE TAKE THIS IMPORTANT TEACHING FOR GRANTED, THAT THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST IS TRULY THE SAME SINFUL SARX LIKE OURS, AND IN THAT FILTHY FLESH HE OVERCAME. IN THIS BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION, OUR BELIEF IS ATTUNED THAT JESUS IS NOT ONLY OUR SAVIOUR, BUT OUR PERFECT EXAMPLE AS WELL, AND THAT WE OUGHT TO DO EXACTLY WHAT HE DID, BECAUSE THAT IS HIS COMMAND, AND WE DARE NOT DISOBEY (LK. 9.23; JN. 13.15; PHIL. 2.5-8; ROM. 8.2-4; 1PET. 4.1,2; 1PET. 2.21-24; REV. 3.21; MTT. 5.48; EPH. 5.1; 1JN. 2.3-6; LK. 4.16; ACTS 17.2; 1COR. 11.1; 1JN. 2.4; 1JN. 5.3, 4).

THOSE WHO EXEMPT CHRIST FROM THIS SINFUL NATURE OF HUMANITY MAKE HIM ONLY A SAVIOUR, BUT NOT AN EXAMPLE. THIS THEOLOGY HAD ITS ROOTS IN MARTIN LUTHER’S RELUCTANCE TO VIEW CHRIST AS OUR EXAMPLE. HE SAID THAT WE CANNOT FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE. BUT WHO TOLD ME THAT I CANNOT FOLLOW CHRIST’S EXAMPLE, IF HE WAS MADE WITH THE SAME SINFUL PHYSICAL MATERIAL LIKE WHAT I HAVE, AND IN THAT ORDINARY NATURE HE OVERCAME? THE RESULT OF THIS IS THAT A PERSON SHOULD ONLY BELIEVE, BECAUSE CHRIST DID EVERYTHING. THEY MISSED THE POINT THAT HE IS OUR PERFECT EXAMPLE IN EVERYTHING, AND THAT THE PERFECT OBEDIENCE REQUIRED BY GOD FROM ADAM AND FROM CHRIST IS ALSO REQUIRED FROM US AS IT HAD ALWAYS BEEN REQUIRED FROM ALL HIS SAINTS. SUCH OBEDIENCE IS BY MEANS OF STEADFASTNESS / FAITHFULNESS ALONE WHEN WE ALLOW HIM TO WRITE HIS LAWS IN OUR HEARTS. IT SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD AS WHAT I HAVE POINTED OUT BEFORE THAT THE MARKS OF THE ANTICHRIST IS THE DENIAL THAT THE SON OF GOD IS COME IN THE SARX (CORRUPT FLESH TOUCHED BY SIN). THIS IS THE TEACHING OF THE ROMAN CHURCH IN THEIR IMMACULATE CONCEPTION WHICH MAKES MARY’S MOTHER SINLESS, SO THAT MARY HERSELF WAS SINLESS TOO WHEN HE BEGAT CHRIST. BUT THE WORST OF THIS IS THE EVANGELICALS WHO COMPLETED THIS SINLESS NATURE BY TEACHING THAT JESUS WAS EXEMPT FROM SIN, AND WAS BORN WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN OR DEPRAVITY, Page 130 of 174

MAKING HIM UTTERLY UNLIKE US, AND HIS DEATH ONLY A FAKE DEATH. THE EVANGELICALS ARE WORSE THAN THE ROMAN CHURCH IN THIS REGARD BECAUSE THEY FULLY DEVELOPED WHAT ROME HAD STARTED, AND THAT IN THEM 1JN 4.2, 3 IS FOUND. THE EVANGELICALS NEVER TEACH THAT MARY’S MOTHER OR MARY WERE SINLESS, BUT THAT CHRIST WAS BORN SINLESS, AND THAT HIS HUMAN NATURE IS THE SAME LIKE ADAM BEFORE THE FALL. THIS IS HOW THEY EXEMPT HIM, USING LUKE 1.35 AND HEBREWS 7.26 AS IF SIN IS NATURE, AND NOT A CHOICE. THEY MISSED THE POINT THAT WITH REGARDS TO CHRIST’S PERFECTION AND SINLESSNESS OF CHARACTER, IT IS THE RESULT OF HIS CHOICE, AND NOT NATURE. HE WAS SINLESS AND PERFECT BECAUSE HE CHOOSE TO, AND NOT DUE TO A SINLESS NATURE, BECAUSE THE HUMAN NATUREHE ASSUMED IS FALLEN AND DEPRAVED (INTERRUPTED DEPRAVITY), LIKE OURS. AND IF BY CHOICE, WHAT HE DID IN OVERCOMING SIN WE CAN ALSO PERFECTLY ATTAIN, OR ELSE THE BIBILICAL EXHORTATIONS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS ARE USELESS, THE ONES FOUND REV. 3.21; MTT. 5.48; ROM. 6:11-15; ROM. 8.12,13; ROM. 13.13, 14; TITUS 2.11, 12; DEUT.18.13; GEN.17.1; PHIL. 4.13. REMEMBER, AS WHAT I HAVE SHOWN IN FOOTNOTE #23, THAT WHEN ALL RENEWED TESTAMENT WRITERS WHEN DESCRIBING THE FLESH CHRIST USED, THEY ALL CONSISTENTLY USED THE WORD “SARX” AND NOT “PNEUMATIKOS”. THIS TELLS US THAT CHRIST, NOT JUST BORN HUMAN LIKE US, BUT WAS INDEED BORN WITHOUT ANY EXEMPTION IN HIS FLESH, THAT HE TRULY SHARED OUR DEPRAVITY IN THE FLESH AND IN HUMAN NATURE, YET HE CHOOSES NOT TO COMMIT SIN. SCRIPTURE INFORMS US THAT “THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH” – JESUS BECAME QUALITATIVELY WHAT HE WAS NOT BEFORE. HE WAS GOD THE CREATOR; NOW HE BECAME A CREATURE WHO MUST OBEY THE CREATOR. HE WAS HOLY AND DIVINE; HE THEN FORCED HIS DIVINE NATURE INTO SINFUL, FALLEN, UNHOLY NATURE, AND FORCED THAT INNATELY SINLESS AND SPOTLESS MORALITY INTO A HUMAN MORALITY CONTAMINATED WITH ALL SPECIES OF WICKEDNESS AND VILENESS, YET CHOOSING TO GO AGAINST ITS NATURAL SELFISHNESS, RELINQUISHING NATURAL DESIRES, AND GOIND BEYOND THE NATURAL, OVERCOMING SIN IN THE NATURALLY SINFUL FLESH, AND CONDEMNED SIN IN THAT NATURALLY SINFUL FLESH. HIS PERFECTION DOES NOT LIE IN HIS NATURE, BUT IN HIS CHOICE TO OVERCOME AND BE PERFECT. NATURALLY HE CAN COMMIT SIN AND FALL INTO SIN ANY TIME, BUT AT EVERY STEP HE DID NOT CHOOSE TO. INCH BY INCH THE DEVIL TEMPT HIM VIGOROUSLY WITH MANIFOLD TEMPTATIONS IN THE FLESH, IN PRESUMPTION, AND SELF-EXALTATION. SATAN EXULTED THAT CHRIST ASSUMED THE WEAKNESS OF OUR RACE AND SUPPOSED THAT CHRIST COULD BE FULLY OVERCAME. BUT JESUS NEVER YIELDED TO TEMPTATION, NOT EVEN BY A SINGLE THOUGHT. EVIL IDEAS MIGHT FLOAT IN HIS HEAD, BUT HE DID NOT ENTERTAIN OR TAKE PLEASURE IN IT, BUT RESISTED IT STEADFASTLY. IF JESUS WAS BORN IN A FLESH DIFFERENT FROM US, OR LIKE ADAM BEFORE THE FALL, SATAN WOULD HAVE HARD TIME TEMPTING ONE WHO CANNOT BE TEMPTED. BUT IT WAS A FALLEN NATURE CHRIST TOOK, AND THEREFORE SATAN FIERCELY ASSAILED HIM WITH TEMPTATIONS WHICH HE KNEW CHRIST WOULD SUCCUMB TO. UNFORTUNATELY, HE DID NOT SUCCEED. YET EVEN AT GETHSEMANE SATAN WAS THERE, DOWN TO THE CROSS, HE WANTS TO FORCE CHRIST TO SIN, BUT OUR SAVIOUR AND EXAMPLE WOULD RATHER DIE THAN COMMIT ANY SIN. THIS STEADFASTNESS OF THE MESSIAH, LIKE THE STEADFASTNESS OF JOB, ENOCH, JOSEPH, DANIEL, AND THE SAINTS OF ALL AGES SHOULD ALSO BE IN US. NOW GOING BACK TO ADAM AND EVE’S SINLESS NATURE. WHY WERE THEY TEMPTED DESPITE THEIR SINLESS NATURE? IT WAS BY THEIR CHOICE. TO US WHO HAVE THIS FALLEN NATURE, IT IS NOT AN EXCUSE THAT WE WILL FALL BECAUSE OF THAT NATURE. BUT THAT LIKE CHRIST, WE OUGHT TO GO AGAINST NATURE, AND OVERCOME SIN IN THAT SINFUL FLESH LIKE WHAT CHRIST AND THE FAITHFUL ONES OF ALL AGES ALWAYS DO. THERE Page 131 of 174

IS NO EXCUSE TO COMMIT SIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND IN WHATEVER BACKGROUND WE ARE RAISED. THE ONLY IMPETUS THAT PROVIDES EXCUSE FOR SINNING IS THIS WRONG TEACHING OF THE EVANGELICALS ABOUT CHRIST’S HUMAN NATURE AS SINLESS. OVERALL RESULT OF THE 8 CONFUSIONS: LAWBREAKING, truly as predicted in 2 Thess.

2.3-12 about the mystery of iniquity by the man of lawlessness, the Papacy. Sinless human nature of Christ results to the idea that disobedience to the Law is lawful because the Law cannot be obeyed because we are depraved and that Jesus alone was sinless. Sunday observance is the number one stumbling block to this disobedience among Protestants. These errors are shared by both Roman-catholics and Evangelicals. Inasmuch as Augustine teaches double predestination in which God selects some to be saved and some to be consigned to hell or those to whom God will not save, Calvin holds the same view. Double predestination is taught by Augustine, no matter some may deny it. Another is that Augustine taught that in His grace God accords the elect the gift of perseverance that they will not sin, and if ever they commit sin, the will repent and eventually be able not to sin. (The question is, what about those who are not in the elect? The prostitutes, heathen, and the unsteadfast believers? Are they not given this gift of perseverance? But where is the Bible reference for this gift of perseverance given only to the elect? This is assumption and not valid.) Both Augustine and Calvin are uncertain who shall compose His elect. This poor theology is very pitiful. It is as though we hang in the balance, dumbfounded at God’s sovereign will, and waiting only whether we are among the elect or among the damned. Augustine also taught about a grace that could not be resisted. Now we have the three, Unconditional Election, Perseverance of the saints, Irresistible grace. However, Augustine did not teach “once saved, always saved”. And there are also differences between Augustine and Calvin as there are in Augustine and the Roman church. But in essence it was John Calvin who is the biggest erudite plagiarist in the world of Evangelicals. He derived and borrowed a lot of Augustine’s theology, and that with no credit at all. So we have the man who in heart abhors the Roman church, but is nevertheless influenced by its church fathers, and who, ungrateful of this reality, gives no acknowledgement that many of his ideas were not original in him. Calvin plagiarized from Augustine what the Roman church regarded as heretical and what many of the Roman fathers would not agree with such as double Predestination, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, and total depravity).

For the Roman church, there is still free will aided by Christ). If God is the only One who will find a way of making His grace effective for the elect, why should anyone bother himself to attempt to do what is right?

Salvation by God alone or salvation by God-man cooperation? God alone or God + human steadfastness? If by God alone when doing what I want (good or bad) won’t affect my being elect. It will not change by predestined status. Calvinists may argue that if salvation is God + human effort, then Christ died in vain. But if salvation is by God + human steadfastness, had Christ really died in vain? No! Because He died so I can obey and remain steadfast, and it is I on my own accord, through His imparted strength and sufficient grace that I can obey. Calvin’s exact borrowing of Augustine had serious consequences: A) It makes humanity uncertain of their elect status due to confused view that it is God who does all for them and they do nothing, and that they in fact cannot initiate for their salvation before or even after grace had come to them, and that they cannot do good, but that God does all the good for them (all they have to do is to believe and then relax). Or that their obedience is not valid and won’t count in salvation because God does everything.

B) The anyway attitude –results to lawbreaking, and is a lawbreaking in itself. (Whatever happens I need not worry. God knows whether I’ll be saved or not, and He will be the one to bother to find the way so I can remain steadfast. All my strivings and choices don’t matter. I need not exert or strain a nerve to overcome.

Whatever I do won’t affect my predestined condition. Trust and be happy. I’ll do what I want, good or bad, no matter. If I’ll be saved, then I’ll be saved by God’s own choice. And if I’ll be damned, then I’ll be damned!

Que sera, sera – whatever will be, will be!).

Such a God as depicted by Augustine and Calvin is nothing but a loveless, vengeful, mischievous demon that I have never known in my Scripture readings since childhood. It is a strange ogre that is presented. This novelty is clearly an invention and flight of stupid imagination from twisted personalities and depraved morals that Page 132 of 174

find excuse in being unable to successfully overcome a bad habit. Augustine and Calvin had a speculative definition of God’s foreknowledge and predestination, but not an authentic personal experience of God’s very personality as depicted in Scriptures.

I do not criticize Calvin’s motives. I am showing the Papal-Evangelical connection in this part. The teachings of Calvin had Augustinian roots, and Augustine had much of Gnosticism as his standpoint in interpreting Christianity. Plato and neoplatonism are one of Augustine’s exposures. Just as Justin Martyr was from GraecoRoman philosophic background, Luther and Calvin some of the baggage of these disciplines. The result is confusion when it comes to reading the Jewish Scriptures by allowing it to speak by itself, and in a nonphilosophic, non-Hellenized hermeneutics. But it does not need heathen philosophy to understand Scriptures.

Luther and Calvin knew this, however they got from Rome most of the doctrines that result only to LAWLESSNESS. All of the confusions I have listed result to lawlessness, or a vague grace-as-liberty-tobreak-the-Ten-Commandments teaching, or sobering realization that the law is there but could not be kept, due to Depravity, Sinless human nature of Christ, Finished Atonement at the Cross, Eternal Election, Perseverance of the Saints, Eternal Torment, Soul Immortality, and Sunday Observance. The system of lawlessness is the system of the Antichrist which has vast ramifications. It ranges from an institution to an attitude among many people that is docile to institution-based thinking. When a person trusts in churches, creeds, denominations, church policies, church manuals, and would look to their pastors, bishops, and professors of theology instead of reading for themselves their own duty to God, the purpose of the antichrist spirit is achieved. It seeks to replace Christ in teachings, authority, and manner of learning. Whereas Christ’s Commandments were simple and clear, they complicate it so that the meaning becomes opposite to what it was stated. Almost every statement and sentiment of the Scriptures was given an interpretation that it was not meant as it was plainly stated in the original language. Therefore Hebrew and Greek training are essential for a correct understanding of Scripture. But why could not the Bible scholars who teach these language see the big picture that what they do and believe in worshiping on Sunday is a violation to the Law of God? Why can’t they not see that man has indeed a part in God’s salvation when it was plainly stated there, and that there was no single statement in Scriptures that we will not do anything about our own salvation but believe? I wonder at the prodigious and deliberate ignorance of our theologians who wrote many Bible commentaries, but who poisoned the Law with their own lying pens! The bottom line for their disobedience is their rejection of the Sabbath commandment which will condemn them when God shall bring every work into judgment using that same Ten Commandment principles which they slighted and made of no effect, teaching others to break the same (Mtt. 5.19; Eccl. 12.13, 14). In violating this commandment, other species of disobedience and hatred for God came in.

In the next diagram we shall see the two states of perfection. The first was when there was no sin, the last was then sinlessness will be achieved in the lives of the saints just before Christ comes. In between lies the errors of the Papal churches which poses as stumbling block to our faith. God’s plan to perfectly restore our moral powers even in this sinful side of existence is made obscure by the reign of that “man of sin” –the papacy.

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(DIAGRAM 3.4) THE TWO PERFECT MORAL CONDITIONS: BEFORE SIN AND JUST BEFORE YAHWEH’S SECOND COMING: THE PAPAL CHURCHES’ ERRONEOUS DOCTRINES ARE THE MAJOR STUMBLINGBLOCKS TO GOD’S PURPOSE OF PERFECTLY RESTORING HUMANKIND TO HIS PERFECT IMAGE. Creation: Perfect Righteousness before Adam’s Fall

Just before the Messiah arrives, the wickedness of the world will reach its peak led by “the man of sin” the Papacy (2Thess 2.3-12; Rev. 13), instituting Laws that is antithetical to God’s Laws, and universally legislating it on the moral consciences, on pain of death and economic loss (Rev. 13.15-17); while God’s saints will become in perfect character like the image of their Father.

ORIGINALLY: Sabbath, Health, Perfect Obedience, Salvation: by steadfastness/ faithfulness; not by legalism (forced obedience) or unsteadiness

Perfect at the Start but untested

Immortal (Conditional immortality – Gen. 2.16, 17)

THE LOWEST POINT OF HUMAN SPIRITUALITY: THE ROMAN-CATHOLIC INSTITUTION IS THE ROOT OF ALL ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS IMMORALITY AND CORRUPTIONS WORLDWIDE.

538 C.E.

THE REIGN OF DARKNESS

Beginning of papacy’s unhindered rule. The starting point of 1260 years

JEWISH-PAGAN DISTORTIONS: Jews (Sabbath: burden) Pagans (Sabbath: unknown) Jews (Salvation: Legal) Pagans (Salvation: by human attempts) Jews: (Health – lowered lifespan, but longer vitality compared to gentiles) Pagans: (Health – lowered lifespan, less vitality compared to the Hebrew race)

Gen. 3.15 & Gen. 4.7

Gen. 3.15 & Gen. 4.7 The Messiah’s Death (Rev. 13.8; 1Pet. 1.19, 20): -gives humankind sufficient grace to overcome sin, and power to perfectly keep God’s Law (2Cor. 12.9; Rev. 14.12).

-provides the realization that the Lamb-Victim, the perfect Sacrifice is our Example in destroying sin in the sinful flesh; but we ought to do exactly what the Perfect example did (1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-25; Heb. 12.1-4; 1Jn. 2.3-6; Rom. 8.1-4; Jn. 13.15).

-tells us that being bought with the price, humankind must yield to the Spirit’s influence, and resist sin with the might given at Gen. 3.15; Gen. 4.7; and by the Lamb, and forsake slavery of Satan, and to live for Christ alone (2Cor. 5.14-21-2Cor. 6.1; Jn. 6. 56-58; Rom. 6) -implies that humankind in this lifetime must completely overcome sin, go on to perfection (Heb. 6.1), remain steadfast forever (Hab. 2.4; Heb. 10.37, 38; Rev. 2.10; Mtt. 24.13), and fight to the end (Gen. 4.7; Eph. 6.12; Rev. 3.21; James 4.7, 8)

1798 C.E.

Papacy terminated

by Napoleon BY “THE MAN OF SIN” OR Bonaparte’s general Louis Alexandre –THE PAPAL SUPREMACY Berthier. End of (2THESS. 2.3-12) 1260 years, but not The blasphemous persecuting power which the end of Papal “attempts to change times and the Law” rule. Papacy is to “persecutes the saints of the Most High” exercise the height of its diabolic powers (Dan. 7.75) at the climax of “utters blasphemies against the Most High” earth’s history by (Dan. 7.25; Dan. 8.25; Dan. 11.36; 2Thess. leading the world 2.3-4) into its brand of Suppressed the truth about Christ’s morality (Rev. 13; heavenly sanctuary (Dan. 8.10-13) and 2Thess. 2.3-12); invents earthly priestcraft which is NOT legislating laws just valid in the light of Heb. 4.14-16; 1 Tim. 2.5; opposite to God’s laws, through 1Jn. 1.9; Mtt. 11.28, 29; Dan. 8.10-13; Dan. Apostate 9.27; Heb. Chapters 8-10.

Protestantism enforcing those laws internationally on pain of death and material deprivation.

Moral Restoration Before Christ’s Coming: Righteousness is perfect, the same as before Adam’s Fall

RESTORED BY COMMANDMENTKEEPING REMNANT WHO HAS “THE FAITHFULNESS OF JESUS” (Rev. 14.12; Isa. 56:2-8) Sabbath, Health, Perfect Obedience, Salvation: by grace through faithfulness / steadfastness; not by legalism (or force obedience) or unsteadiness

Perfectly Restored, and fully tested The living righteous to be translated without seeing death.

Since 538 C.E. when the papacy reigned unobstructed by barbaric tribes to 1798 C.E. when this religio-political power was rendered moribund by France’s general, Berthier, the span of papal rule at its height was 1260 years, giving the world a profound eclipse in science, economics, politics, spirituality, and in every aspect of human existence.

RESULTS OF PAPAL SUPREMACY:DISTORTIONS OF PAGAN CHRISTIANITY FROM GOD’S ORIGINAL JEWISH CHRISTIANITY

-murder of 50-68 million human lives (no other institution killed a lot of people than this church of Rome) -Sabbath Commandment deliberately changed into Sunday in an attempt of the Papacy to create a god of itself, against the Creatorship of Yahweh who created the heavens and the earth in six literal days and Who rested on the Sabbath day. Rome invented its fake Sabbath obscuring the glory of God the Creator.

-Concept of Obedience: distorted into legalism and penance, or performance of religious rites and of attending the idolatrous Mass.

-Perfection: Immaculate Conception says “Nobody’s perfect; we can’t” (In the Evangelical theology, we have a parallel in Total Depravity and sinless human nature of Christ) -Importance of Health Laws: unknown, THIS IS THE MOST IGNORED ASPECT WITHIN CHRISTENDOM. BUT VIOLATION OF HEALTH LAWS IS VIOLATION OF GOD’S LAW (THOU SHALT NOT KILL) BECAUSE THE AUTHOR OF BOTH THESE LAWS IS THE SAME CREATOR, THEREFORE IT IS SIN TO BE NEGLIGENT WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTH. (Jn. 5.14; 3Jn. 2; 1Cor. 9.25-27; Ex. 15.26; Prov. 28.9; Rom. 12.1; 1Cor. 6.19-20; Lev. 19). MOST SINNERS ARE SICKLY, THEREFORE GOD’S CHILDREN OUGHT TO BE HEALTHY. SALVATION CONCEPTS: UNRIGHTEOUSNESS BY LICENTIOUSNESS TO SIN (Instead of Righteousness by faithfulness/ steadfastness –Habakkuk 2:4; Rom. 1.17; Heb. 10.37, 38) Roman-catholics =legalistic unfaithfulness Evangelicals =inconsistent appreciation of God’s grace leading to presumption; Grace + disobedience to God’s Law = salvation, or Grace + slothful unfaithfulness = salvation.

Page 134 of 174 The Doctrines such as Sunday Observance, Soul immortality, Unconditional Election (Predestination), Eternal Torment, Perseverance of the Saints, Completed Atonement at the Cross, Limited Atonement, Total Depravity (Universal Sinfulness), Sinless human nature of Christ, and eating of pork and unclean animals are the errors that had its roots in the Papal church. These are shared by both the Roman church and he r papal churches, the Evangelicals.

Notice that Gen. 3.15 and Gen. 4.7 shine throughout the scene with unchanged and unabated omnipotence and efficiency in both Testaments. The reason is that when the Lamb covenanted to give His life as ransom, humanity at the point of its fall immediately given sufficient and overwhelming moral powers to fight and overcome sin until the fallen race who steadfastly surrendered to the rule of Christ will reach the same level of perfection just exactly before the fall. The only stumbling block is Satan’s dominion through the Roman institution which brings in the wholesale of papal errors introduced into Christianity, crippling the Messiah’s pure Jewish church into an impotent, totally depraved, unclean pagan Sunday-keeping harlot which had the appetite of murdering saints by means of erecting creeds, dogmas, and finally the stakes to burn “heretics” and religious dissents, ostracizing them through official church statements and ecclesiastical sanctions. Whereas God expects perfect obedience and perfection of Character from the race purchased by His blood, the Papal church and her papal churches the Evangelicals prevent it with their disgusting doctrines and distorted interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures.

Another Diagram (Diagram 3.3) shows a thesis (the Jewish ideal for redemption), and its antithesis, how the erroneous teachings of the Papal churches confused our minds about what God wants us to become, so that not all will become what He expects us to become due to these closely knit sin-teachings or well established system of false beliefs.

I term it “Jewish” because our Bible, the source of our faith is the product of Jewish writers, and the faith we belief is Jewish, not pagan. Salvation comes from the Jews (Jn. 4.22), not from gentile interpretations. The New (Renewed) Testament is not a departure of the Old Testament but an intensification and continuation of it. And the Old Testament is NOT “Old” in any way as what gentile Christianity named it.

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THESIS AND ANTITHESIS OF SALVATION MECHANICS: THE JEWISH TRUTH VERSUS PAPAL-EVANGELICAL PERVERSIONS: (DIAGRAM 3.5A) THESIS: THE JEWISH IDEAL OF REDEMPTION

God is the Creator; the agape of god also exists in creatures’ hearts.

God is allowed to be god.

Redemption: the execution of Foreknowledge is redemptive: 1Tim. 2.4; 2Pet. 3.9; Ezek.

33.11; Lk. 24.47, not destructive or selective. God foresaw beforehand that sin will exist, but he did not cause what he foresaw.

Sabbath remembered & kept holy = all the laws of god obeyed by steadfastness

Universal, unlimited atonement even to the wicked. God treats us as though we have not sinned. (Lk. 15.1,2; Rom. 3.23, 24; Rom. 5.1518; Jn. 6, 32, 33, 53; Jn. 4.42; Mtt. 6.45; The word “Malista” in 1’tim.

4.10 does not mean “especially” but “that is”). He was already reconciled to us (But this does not mean He is reconciled to the sinner’s sin). The sinner realizing God’s love must repent and be reconciled to God’s Law and remain obedient

Conditional immortality: humankind must perfectly obey in order to remain immortal, or else they must die. That death is complete cessation of life, not everlasting life in torment. Jesus died this kind of complete death

Jesus became man: 1) assumed our fallen, sinful nature and in that nature overcame sin, giving us example to overcome as he overcame (Heb. 2.14, 17; Rom. 8.2-4; 1Pet. 4.1; 1Pet. 2.21-24; 1Jn. 2.3-6; Rev. 3.21; 2Cor. 4.11,12; Lk. 9.23-24) –perfection of character can/ should be achieved (Mtt. 5.48) 2) Imparted divine nature to expel depravity from our nature, and expel sin. God’s divine nature should be partaken by us (2Pet. 1.3-11).

3) Jesus absorbed our sinful nature, was made in our sinful flesh.

4) Depravity is not nature but choice.

Excellence and perfection of character should be achieved (Mtt. 5.48).

5) Depravity is the result of choosing, NOT inborn.

6) Physical depravity with its limited & carnal impulses is what Christ took. It was the filthy SARX which our common flesh that He took. He was never exempt from this depravity, but He overcame by steadfastness, and steadfastness is choice, not nature.

Perfect obedience

Man disobeyed (Not because he can’t obey, but because he chose not to obey)

Salvation for all men good or bad

The choice is yours; salvation is available to all and is non-selective, non-coercive (Jn. 6.66-69; Rev. 22.17; Deut. 30.15-20; Josh. 24.15; 1Kgs. 18.21; Ezek. 18.31, 32;LK. 14.23; Mtt. 22.9,10; Isa. 1.16-20; Isa. 55.; Jer. 7.13; Rom. 9.24; Rom. 2.11; Rom. 10.12, 13; Eph. 1.3-5. 11,12; Rom. 8.29) We are chosen for our obedience, and we on our part should prove it (Mtt. 7.21; 1Pet. 1.2; 2Pet. 1.10; Rom. 12.2; Heb. 3.14; Mtt. 24.45-51).

Justification is by FAITHFULNESS, NOT by Predestination or God’s coercion. Faithfulness is overcoming in God’s strength, partaking of heavenly nature, by choice. The result is perfect character.

Eternal election is assured for those who remain steadfast (Mtt. 24.13; Mtt. 22.9-14; ). Presumption is sin, and results to damnation (Ezek. 33.13)

THE RESULT IS SALVATION: ETERNAL LIFE BIBILICAL DOCTRINES: 1) SABBATH (GOD IS THE CREATOR); 2) CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY -MAN MUST OBEY IN ORDER TO LIVE IMMORTAL, OR ELSE HE MUST DIE; 3) ETERNAL DEATH IS COMPLETE CESSATION OF LIFE, JESUS DIED THIS KIND OF DEATH; 4) HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST IS SINFUL; DEPRAVITY IS NOT NATURE BUT CHOICE, EXCELLENCE AND PERFECTION OF CHARACTER SHOULD BE ACHIEVED (MATT. 5.48); 5) ETERNAL ELECTION IS ASSURED BY ALL WHO REMAIN IN GOD AND ARE FULLY PARTAKERS OF HIS DIVINE NATURE; UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION IS PRESUMPTION AND PRESUMPTION IS SIN AND WILL RESULT TO DAMNATION.

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(DIAGRAM 3.5B) ANTITHESIS: PAPAL-EVANGELICAL PERVERSIONS OR CONFUSIONS CONFUSION #1 Creature usurps God’s place (Antichrist); makes a creator of himself, and deliberately forgets the Creator’s sovereignty.

Result of Confusion #1: The existence of Sabbathless pagans and atheists, and the Sabbathless among Roman Christians: SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

Result of Confusion #1: Disobedience to and breaking of ALL God’s Laws, including Health Laws, Dietary Commandments, Environmental, Civil, Domestic, Military, Agricultural Laws. God’s Torah was never obsolete today, except those that points to Christ’s death (Dan. 9.27; Col. 2.16, 17; Heb. 9.9-14; Heb. 10.8-10).

Stumbling at Sabbath Commandment, Papal churches stumbles with the rest (James 2.10)

CONFUSION #2 “Ye shall not surely die.” SOUL IMMORTALITY (Gen. 3.4).The first lie of Satan.The common belief of pagans and all false religions.Hebrews do not believe that when a person dies there is a disembodied soul that separates itself from the body. The parable in Lk. 16.19-31 is widespread in Mediterranean world among Jews who adopted Hellenistic ideas that is never Jewish at all. Jesus intends to drive an important lesson.

According to this view sinners don’t die.

Result of Confusion #2: If this belief is correct, Jesus death is fake. This view brings confusion about the way Jesus died.

CONFUSION #5 ETERNAL TORMENT Results of Confusion #4: 1) Drives a person into a wrong motivation for salvation: Fear, instead of AGAPE (1Jn. 4.17, 18; 1Jn. 5.1-3) 2) The understanding of Jesus death is confused: He died in eternal torment, and if eternal, He must still be in torment until now, even if He had already risen from the dead because the punishment for sin is eternal torment according to this wrong belief.

3) Coerced obedience due to fear of the eternal torment is another result of this erroneous dogma. God looks fiercer and crueler than Satan.

Coerced obedience results to legal compliance or LEGALISM. There is no AGAPE-based obedience but obedience due to fear. This confused doctrine is what Papal churches (Roman church and Evangelicals) use as religious propaganda to instill slavish fear on people, and accept God egocentrically out of fear of punishment and for a reward. This teachings cannot result to AGAPE response to God

CONFUSION #3 FOREKNOWLEDGE & PREDESTINATION (UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION) : God coerces those He foreknew to be saved or damned to prove that He is trustworthy in His foreknowledge. He must select those He wants to save, and rejects those He don’t want because what He foresaw ahead of time should happen, or else He might be called ignorant. He must violate our rights, anyway He is the Creator and we are just nothing (Rom. 9.11-23). HE IS SELFISH AND EGOCENTRIC, LIVING AS HE PLEASES JUST LIKE ANY SELFSEEKING GODS OF THE PAGAN NATIONS. His sacrifice at the cross is hypocrisy. But this stupidity is not what the Bible teaches. Even Romans 9: 11-23 does not show that God’s action tends to produce evil, but to promote His mercy.

The Bible does not reveal how God’s foreknowledge operates. Whereas Paul many times used the word “Predestine,” the intention is always for salvation, NOT for damnation of some. But the PapalEvangelical interpreters read into Scriptures a supposition which is not there (eisegesis).

CONFUSION #4A COMPLETED ATONEMENT AT THE CROSS: Result of Confusion #5: 1) Salvation is fixed beyond the influence of man’s free will.

2) Free will is irrelevant 3) The Command of the Messiah and the Apostles to watch, be ready, pray, overcome, be steadfast, take heed do not make any sense 4) The Command to be perfect is treated as unimportant and not applicable.

5) Christ’s priestly work in heaven means nothing because the atonement was finished at the cross. So what is He doing at the heavenly Sanctuary if His priestly atoning work was already completed at the cross?

Results of Confusion #5: 1) God is the author of sin 2) God makes sinners and righteous. It is not they who choose to be wicked, but God Therefore God is the ultimate Sinner.

CONFUSION #4B PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

CONFUSION #6 LIMITED ATONEMENT: What? Is His being Saviour of the whole world limited?

THE RESULT OF CONFUSIONS #3, #5, #6, #7=PRESUMPTION KNOWN AS “ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED”

CONFUSION #7 TOTAL DEPRAVITY:This nonsense fits only to paranoids and psychologically disordered Christians Result of Confusion #7: It makes mediocre Christians (which are no Christians at all), spiritual dwarfs, full of imperfections in character

CONFUSION #8 SINLESS HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST:Result of Confusion #8: His sinless human nature is not good news to us who are fallen in nature. Jesus is simply a decoy to be admired, but not an Example of overcoming and struggle. This view confuses how Christ died, along with Confusions #2 Soul Immortality & 5# Eternal Torment. Is He still in torment now?

And how could He die if the soul is immortal? His death is but fake.

DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMANDMENTS; NO OVERCOMING; NO PERSEVERING FAITH BUT PRESUMPTION; NO HUMAN, GOD-ENABLED EFFORTS; NO FREE WILL BECAUSE DEPRAVITY PREVENTS IT: THE RESULT IS STUPIDITY, PARANOIA AND MEDIOCRITY; GRACE LEADS ONLY TO STRENGTHEN SINNING; REPENTANCE IS NOT GENUINE BECAUSE OBEDIENCE TO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IS DISCOURAGED. OBEDIENCE IS BY FEAR OF ETERNAL TORMENT; OBEDIENCE IS BY COERCION; ABSENCE OF AGAPE RESPONSE TOWARD GOD = NOT A VALID OBEDIENCE; OBEDIENCE IS LEGAL BECAUSE IT WAS MERELY PREDESTINED = NOT A VALID OBEDIENCE ALL.of 174 PageAT137

DISOBEDIENCE RESULTS NOT TO ETERNAL LIFE IN TORMENT BUT TO ETERNAL DEATH: COMPLETE ANNIHILATION OF SIN AND SINNERS.

HOW TO TREAT SIN ABNORMALITIES (Summary of the points in this 3 rd section): 1) Unlearn what pastors, theologians, priest, and any religious leaders have taught, and look unto Jesus alone and to God’s word without looking at the interpretations of books; and correcting of the stumbling blocks previously mentioned.

2) By beholding we become transformed. Look unto God in the perspective of the natural things, and not the artificial inventions of the urban-settlers, such as their concept of rank and love of distinction. Absence of humility is very dangerous because it forfeits salvation (Mtt.18.2, 3; Mtt.23.8-12; Lk.22.25-27). Look unto God and not to Creeds and “lying pen of the scribes which falsified God’s Laws” (here theologians, Jer.8.8; Ezek. 22.26) See Isa.45.22; Jn.12.46; Lk.15.12-14.

3) What will happen to the Law if the law-enforcers are inconsistent? What will happen to God’s Law if He will not enforce it, or if there were no enforcers, or if the enforcers are not consistent? The scenario will be like an overpass. We see posts such as “NO VENDORS ALLOWED”, and yet because there were no policemen who consistently enforce the law, lawless elements will continue selling in our overpass roads, constricting our pathways. But praise! God we have One consistent Law-Enforcer, Jesus. He will magnify the Law, and abolish sin (Isa. 42.21; Hebrews 9.26; Dan. 9.24), and will continue to do this and become the author of eternal salvation “unto all them that obey Him” (Heb. 5.9). The Father is the great Law-Giver. But the Judge of all the earth, the Advocate and Law-Enforcer is the Son, YHWH the Saviour. The purpose of Christ dying on the cross is to fully reconcile sinners to His righteousness, and to engrave and write the Laws permanently on our hearts. If we don’t allow Christ to free us from sin slavery, we remain slaves, and under the penalty of the Law. But if we allow Jesus to enter the door of our hearts, He will sup with us [Rev. 3.20], no longer enemies, but His sons and daughters, reconciled to His Law and perfection. That is, we become perfect because we cooperate with His will, and we overcome and would no longer sin. We become exactly like Him in righteousness and perfection of character as Father is the same like His children, and the image and attributes are perfectly reproduced. Therefore those who have Christ in their lives are also His Lawenforcers who will magnify the Law and defeat sin in their lives. Then let us allow Jesus, God’s Law Enforcer to enforce His Law in your heart so that all traces of sin abnormalities will vanish. Just as the constitution of a nation is useless with the police to enforce it, so God’s Law is useless unless there is Someone who enforces it.

God’s Law Enforcer is Christ our Lord. When He lives in our hearts, He enforces that Law by writing in our hearts making us steadfast and faithful. The problem with Christians is that they want God’s Ten Commandments to be abolished, which is impossible. If they cling to that attitude, their sin abnormalities will remain unovercome and uncorrected. They will remain sinful, and God will not acknowledge them as His children because they are evil. They do not want Christ to rule their hearts, and therefore they do not submit to His Laws which was the same as God’s Laws. A Christian ought to understand that Jesus had not come to abolish the Law but to enforce it more fully, writing them upon our hearts, making us steadfast, holy, steadily obedient, and pure. He came to abolish sin and death (Heb. 9.26), but not His Law, for that is impossible. Or else He must abolish His own existence. God’s Law and existence are of the same essence. Take away His righteousness and His Law, and there is nothing to which we can define His personality. His Law is the very transcript of His character and righteousness, the only aspect through which we can see His likes and dislikes, and the very basis of His justice. So why change His law? Why teach that the law is now abolished at the cross? That wrong interpretation directly contradicts Mtt.5.19. When Paul says that those who are in Christ “are not under the Law but under grace,” it means that we are not under the penalty of the law which mean death. But if we do not have Christ in our hearts, that is, we live in sin and cherish it, then we are under the penalty of the Law, and it will surely put us to death. Therefore the only safety for all humanity is to have Christ, and having Christ means that we must have His Law and righteousness. We do not remain in unrighteousness, or in sin, but we forsake sin and repent, that is, we live in perfect harmony to His Commandments. So what “law” was Paul talking about in Rom. 6.14, 15? It was the law of sin (Rom. 7.25), the dominating principle that makes us sin. That sinful law in our sinful nature commanding us to sin some more. But when we are under grace, we are freed from the law of sin, the law that makes us slaves. But that Page 138 of 174

law of sin is not the same as “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1.25; James 2.8), which is not sinful, but “holy, just, and good” (Rom. 7.2), of whom Paul seeks to establish (Rom.3.31), and of whom the Messiah will magnify and make honourable (Isa. 42.21). When that righteous law is written in the heart, it expels the law of sin out. It is the righteous law versus the sinful law. The latter is sinful nature causing sins when we consciously yield to it. While the righteous law resists that sinful law. And there is no excuse because the Spirit of Christ always prompts us to choose what is good as long as we are willing to be guided. Otherwise He will leave us to darkness, and allow us to reap what we have sown.

4) The Law can be perfectly kept because Christ had intervened (Gen. 3.15; Rev. 13.8; Gen. 4.7; Ex. 20.2; 2Cor. 5.15); “because I live, ye shall live also” (Jn. 14.19). Depravity is nature (physical), but total depravity is no longer nature but a choice. We do not die with depraved nature, but with the choice we lived in the end. It was not Adam’s fault that he was created perfect, nor of Christ, Isaac, Samuel, John the Baptist being born holy, just as it is not sinful to be born rich like Mar Roxas. The fault is when they choose evil. So there is nothing guilty about some people being born with specific depravity due to bad traits of their parents. All of us, including Christ, are born genetically depraved. What matters is, do we condemn sin in the depraved SARX, or do we allow it to destroy us? Sin should be mastered and dominated (Gen. 4.7). And why do we say that sin abnormality or depravity need no harm us? Because while Satan had intercepted intending to totally deprave our race, Christ at Gen. 3.15 instantly interrupts the depraving process, pronouncing solution ere the curse of sin was to happen, and right there rendered depravity impotent and ineffective especially in all who yielded to God’s transforming grace. Even the gentiles felt that power (Rom. 2.13-15).

There is a downward process for those who indulge their natural depravity, while an upward force in those who choose to overcome their evil natures, and by God’s enabling grace go contrary to that depraving element, making use their status as “partakers of the divine nature.” This is what God wants us to be even while having the sinful flesh. The commands (promises) in the Scriptures130 are for us now who are living in this sinful side of existence, and not when we will be in heaven or in earth made new. Just as the Son of God absorbs and partake all our sinfulness and destroys sin in His sinful flesh, so in exchange we ought to fully partake His divine character even while living in this sinful side of existence.

There is always the depravity of hereditary bad traits, but what matters to God is the choice. He holds us accountable to our choices as if depravity had never happened. Depravity’s power was forever interrupted since Gen. 3.15. Remember in Gen.4.7, God did not stoop down to discourage Cain lecturing about total depravity, but that He challenged him to overcome sin. Therefore depravity is forever interrupted and no issue at all after Gen. 3.15. And when it comes to potency, it is a myth in the light of our free choosing because God had opened the way of escape in Gen. 3.15. Since Gen. 3.15 humanity can act as though we have never fallen in sin and depravity because that evil power was forever interrupted at Gen. 3.15. And we are as accountable to God of our own choices just like Adam and Eve were when they are tested. God gave man His Spirit to argue with flesh, although not always (Gen.6.3). One who chooses sin is a slave to it (Jn. 8.34), he “shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” (Prov.5.8). But realizing the magnitude of what God has done for us 131 we can choose to overcome and not be entangled by sin. We can choose never to be depraved, but to strive with all the powers He has given to us to become perfect, holy, and sinless as He was in His live in the flesh. We dare not forget that Christ at Gen. 3.15 had already implanted His divine nature in us. We ought to struggle against sin by the divine nature freely given to us. We have the power to choose, but beside our fallen nature we possess divine nature as implanted by Christ so we can perfectly overcome and that there is no reason to use nature as barrier for not overcoming successfully. By becoming aware, we know what to do. But the 130

Gen. 17.1; Deut. 18.13; Lev. 19.2; Mtt. 5.19-20, 48; Eph. 5.1; 2Pet. 1.3-11; 2Pet. 3.14; Titus 2.11-15; 1Pet. 4.1, 2; 1Pet. 2.21-24; Lk. 9.23; Lk. 16.10-12; Mtt. 25.21-23.

131

Gen. 3.15; Gen. 4.7; Gen. 17.1-2; Ex. 19.3-6; Ex.20.2; Lev. 19.2; Deut. 18.13; Deut. 32.8-14; Ps. 105-108, 136; Ps. 145.9; Mtt. 5.43-48; Jn. 6.56, 57; 2Cor. 5.14-17; 1Cor. 16.19, 20.

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doing, however is different. It takes Christ in the heart so we can do the deeds of omnipotence. And when Christ is in the heart, what obstacles are there to hinder us? -Immaculate Conception’s mediocrity implications? Total depravity? Sabbath-breaking? Disregard of God’s health laws that results to sickly bodies that does not glorify Him, but misrepresents Him? Love for professional prestige and distinctions, and contempt upon God’s ideal occupation for man: farming, resulting to urban’s hypocrite courtesy, absence of artless humility, or a lack of down-to-earth sincerity? Inability to understand the New/Renewed Covenant from the Old? Salvation by unrighteousness by faith? Predestination doctrine that leads to presumption? Being neutral when it comes to character development?

Our characters should be transformed now or else we lose heaven. We cannot safely claim that our belief in Christ can save us while we love sinning, and our desires are polluted. We may claim that we are pardoned.

But "To be pardoned in the way that Christ pardons, is not only to be forgiven, but to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The Lord says, “A new heart will I give unto thee.” The image of Christ is to be stamped upon the very mind, heart, and soul. The apostle says, “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Without the transforming process which can come alone through divine power, the original propensities to sin are left in the heart in all their strength, to forge new chains, to impose a slavery that can never be broken by human power. But men can never enter heaven with their old tastes, inclinations, idols, ideas, and theories.

Heaven would be no place of joy to them; for everything would be in collision with their tastes, appetites, and inclinations, and painfully opposed to their natural and cultivated traits of character. Happiness is the result of holiness and conformity to the will of God. Those who would be saints in heaven must first be saints upon the earth; for when we leave this earth, we shall take our character with us, and this will be simply taking with us some of the elements of heaven imparted to us through the righteousness of Christ." 132 Our existence of this live is crucial. Our business is to overcome every defects of character through the strength of God, or else God will not claim us as His children because our hearts and attitude resembles more of the sons of devils.

When we are finally restored at last, God will be very happy, just like the lost son who returned. But we are not lost coin or lost sheep which possess no power of choice, we are humans and we can reason. We are fully accountable for our own losses. When we are at last found, that is, we return to God. God rejoices. He is happy that His sacrifices was appreciated and compensated by the lost who came back. Jesus will see the travail of His soul and will be satisfied (Isa. 53.11).

132

White, Selected Messages Vol. 3, p. 191. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/100.1131#1132.

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MAN’S PART IN GOD’S SALVATION: There Should Be Agape In The Heart Whosoever believeth (Literally “is faithfuling”) in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” –Jesus (Jn. 3.16) “But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” –Jesus (Lk. 17.7-10) “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;” (Heb. 3.14) “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” –Jesus (Mtt. 7.21-23) “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” –Jesus (Lk. 13.24) “Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life.”133 “We are now on the battlefield. There is no time for resting, no time for ease, no time for selfish indulgence. After gaining one advantage, you must do battle again; you must go on conquering and to conquer, gathering fresh strength for fresh struggles.

Every victory gained gives an increase of courage, faith, and determination. Through divine strength you will prove more than a match for your enemies.”134

This is not teaching about works salvation as vehicle to earn God's favour and to gain heaven. There is nothing a man can do to cleanse himself from sin and go to heaven by his own efforts because salvation is a gift, "to be received," and it must be received, appreciated, and lived. Such gift is a banquet open to all. But we ought to wear the wedding garment which was freely given, in order to be fitted for that grand occasion (Mtt. 22.11, 12). Salvation is not something God concocted and implemented on human beings without their consent.

While justification is done without our consent, the retaining of that justified status lies primarily on our treatment to it. God will not justify the wicked (Ex. 23.6). If God justifies sinner, and the sinner knowing such awesome grace, yet continues to bear bad fruits, living in sin and disobedience, no grace will save him from destruction. It is true that we are bound to be saved, all of us, elected for salvation, and that this lost world was bought with the price by the blood of the Lamb who covenanted to sacrifice Himself as our Guarantor even 133

White, Ministry of Healing, p.455, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=MH&lang=en&pagenumber=455&paragraphReferen ces=0.

134

White, The Signs of the Times, September 7, 1891, quoted in Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 345., Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/153.2213#2217.

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before the world come to be, and before sin existed. And right where sin occurred, solution instantly effected.

The world, sold to Satan by sin was immediately bought back to Christ, and He now has legal rights over every inch of this planet, and of every single life in it, so that Satan has no any dominion here, nor us, but Christ and Christ alone. Therefore we are not our own for we are bought with the price (1Cor. 6.20; 1Pet. 1.19). Even our very breath and temporary life, our material success and daily food we owe everything to Him who died so that we can draw our next breath even in this side of existence. On top of that, Jesus redeemed us unto Himself, and treated us as if we have never fallen. That should melt our hearts, love righteousness, and hate sin and forsake iniquity. That realization should have transformed Christians wholly, so that their hearts, strength, and mind are in complete harmony with God's righteousness as revealed in His Law. The fact that God had so great and deep a love for us should prompt us to righteousness and appropriate AGAPE response to the one who first AGAPE us, not that God loved us, and we merely reacted passively, doing nothing for it, no appreciation, no concern for Christ our Lover. Man must respond accordingly and God expects it. The response of man matters to Him. He gave every ingredient for man's upliftment, so that we will bear fruits. But if the tree remain barren and fruitless, nothing will save it from destruction (Deut.20.20; Lk.13.6-9; Jn. 15.2, 6; Lk. 3.8, 9; Lk. 19.8). A slave bought with a price under a new master must serve that master and forsake the former, and he must prove himself trustworthy under that new master, and not return to the former master. A person cured of disease must "go and sin no more" and live in healthy lifestyle, and not violate the laws of nature, or else "a worse thing come unto thee" (Jn. 5.14). A tree that was given so many advantages must bear fruits for God's glory, and not stop bearing fruits, or else it will be cut down as useless. We have been forgiven much, therefore we must love much (Lk. 8.47). But to those who realize little of God's great love, their response to God's salvation is moribund and selfish. They want always to receive and receive, but they will not give back love to God, nor live in perfect obedience as what God expects them to lovingly do. Actually, their motives for salvation is egocentric, they fear "everlasting hell,"135 and in order to escape hell, they must gain 135

The doctrine of Eternal Torment/Everlasting fire is the primary tactic used by preachers to instil fear among people so that the motive of Christians for accepting salvation is because they fear the "everlasting hell." But this is repugnant to our decent society. Biblically speaking, it is incorrect to say that there is such thing as eternal torment (please refer to my footnote 19, in page 21). God alone is eternal, and the soul who sins shall die (Ezek. 18.4). Only the righteous who in this life has the same righteousness as the righteousness of God will live eternally. But those who reject salvation "will be as though they have never been." (Obadiah 1:16), and be reduced to ashes leaving neither root nor branch (Mal. 4.1-3). They will be destroyed by fire day and night, only to be annihilated at the end, and be no more. But no sinner will suffer greater than the suffering of Christ at the cross. It is not God who damns sinners, but they themselves. In the final day of reckoning, God will vindicate the authority of His Law, and the wicked will acknowledge that that law is just, and that their exclusion from heaven is due to their own choice and way of life. They would never be happy to live with God and with the pure ones because while on earth they have not trained their minds to love purity, and so they cannot appreciate the light of God's glory. Whereas this light is the source of happiness for the obedient saints, it is torture to the wicked that hates and dreaded His righteousness. They would rather seek death than live miserably with God and His saints. But the doctrine of eternal torment teaches that the wicked must live on and suffer eternally, (even greater than Christ's sufferings on the cross). This will not produce AGAPE as the only correct motive of man's salvation. It results to selfish fear of punishment, and fear makes a person obey out of fear, that is, a forced obedience or "legalism." Truly the Evangelicals are the real legalists from the light of this doctrine about Eternal Torment. The motive for their obedience is egocentric, and not love for God. They love their selves, and loves the thought that God saves them from hell, but they have no love for God and faithfulness to Him as the true bride shows to her husband (Christ). They felt no concern for Christ dying at the cross, but merely rejoice in their salvation without realizing the great love that God exerted in their behalf. They would not exert love in return, and would not respond with equal love and steadfastness, which alone qualifies for salvation, because "the just will live by his steadfastness / faithfulness" (Habakkuk 2:4). In our civilized and educated society this error is repulsive and horrifying. It depicts God as a grotesquely grim and ferocious ogre, delighting in the miseries and tortures of the guilty ones. The reason why many refined citizens drew away from Christianity and were repulsed from it is because of this morbid doctrine of eternal torment. Bertrand Russell, a British PhilosopherMathematician notes that: "I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment...You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step towards the diminution of war, every step towards better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organised Churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organised in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world." (https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/whynot.html) (Emphasis mine).

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heaven and accept Christ to be saved. But this motivation is wrong. "It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him."136 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1Jn. 4.18). That’s the heartresponse of one who truly appreciates God’s love, there is also love in his/her heart, and that love has no fear mixed with it. But our Christians who believe in that wrong belief of Eternal Torment has this fear lurking in their hearts. This is the evidence that they are not yet “made perfect in love” because “he that feareth is not made perfect in love.” It might appear simple and harmless but a fear-motivated religion results to legalism, and obedience based on legalism is nothing but imperfect obedience. The Evangelicals missed the importance of man’s own AGAPE response to God. They believe in eternal election or predestination, but predestination merely results to presumption which leads to multiplicity of sins and a lack of compunctions, and to a mechanical service to God without any struggle, but a passive acceptance of God’s grace. The service to God is frigid and cold, with the consciousness that one is already elected, and therefore cannot fall. Obedience in such an attitude is still nothing else but legalism. On the other hand, the belief in eternal torment produces fear, and fear will result to a forced obedience. Forced obedience is nothing but manifest legalism, -obedience based on legal contract devoid of agape or heart-appreciation. Both Predestination and Eternal Torment results to legal or forced obedience, one based on presumption, the other based on fear. In that line of thinking the Evangelicals are truly legalists without knowing it. Because they view that God is not affected by our joys and strivings. They are not convinced that they bring God any happiness or change of feeling, and so there is this lack of warmth in their service to God. Everything is legally accomplished as if our feelings of appreciation will never affect God. Ellen G. White states that "A failure to appreciate the value of the offering of Christ, has a debasing influence; it blights our expectations, and makes us fall short of our privileges; it leads us to receive unsound and perilous theories concerning the salvation that has been purchased for us at infinite cost. The plan of salvation is not understood to be that through which divine power is brought to man in order that his human effort may be wholly successful."137 In other words, we ought to appreciate the value of Christ's offering, and that value being received, should not be received in vain because it gives power. God's plan to save us was not understood as it should be, that this plan is intended that through the death of Christ divine power was brought to man so that man's own human effort "may be wholly successful." This is what it means about the gift that Paul says: "For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITHFULNESS." (Eph. 2.8). God saves us by grace, but it is only through our own FAITHFULNESS / STEADFASTNESS that the grace becomes effective. "The righteous will live by his STEADFASTNESS / FAITHFULNESS" (Habakkuk 2.4).

Paul had never wrote, "For by grace are ye saved" period. He added, "THROUGH FAITHFULNESS." But we cannot be faithful if we do not realize His grace. Realizing His grace means realizing His AGAPE for us, and that AGAPE will result in AGAPE in to TOWARD HIM, and faithfulness toward God. There should be love in the first place, or else we cannot obey. There should be a realization of grace, and that realization makes it easier for us to AGAPE Him and remain faithful to Him. All our acts and obedience flow from that one thing: Love, and without that Love, all obeying is nothing else but legalism and coerced. “Love must be the principle of action. Love is the underlying principle of God's government in heaven and earth, and it must be the foundation of the Christian's character. This alone can make and keep him steadfast. This alone can enable him to withstand trial and temptation.”138

136

White, The Desire of Ages, 480, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=480.

137

White, Selected Messages, Vol. 3., p. 190., Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/100.1131#1132.

138

White, A Call to Stand Apart, p. 21., Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=CSA&lang=en&pagenumber=21&m=1&paragraphRef erences=1.

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The recipients of God’s grace are not inanimate, unthinking objects, but human beings with the power of choice. They realize the magnitude of God's infinite sacrifice poured out so freely for the lost race, and in that awareness, their hearts are transformed. They now live not for lust, pride, and sin, but that they live because of Christ. "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of Me" (Jn. 6.57; See also 2Cor.5.14-21; 1Pet.2.24). Sin is hated and overcome. Righteousness is loved. God's Law is perfectly obeyed. And heavenly character is lived even in this present sinful existence. The rebellious flesh is executed daily, moment by moment. As sin is expulsed, divine nature is being partaken, until our character become as God's character, fully proving that we are indeed His sons and daughters in the midst of the wicked, disobedient world. This is the reason why man has a part in God's salvation, and that he is not passive, doing nothing. But that part is based upon his AGAPE response to God's AGAPE for him.

Now assuming we have understood the full realization of that justification wherein God redeemed us, and being happy in the state of our new-found adaption status as God's sons and daughters, we remain and continue in that status. We ought to act our own part, by fully depending upon God, putting our will on the side of Christ, and allowing Him to do His own part in His own way. The point is, we allow Him. And we ourselves, maintain our connection with Him by steadfast and eternal vigilance, and fight manfully the battle of God in utterly defeating sin. We dare not leave any works undone. We see to it that we do all God's requirements. Why, because nothing delights us so much than doing His Commandments!

5) With the consciousness of our status as His sons and daughters, bought by His precious blood in order to be freed from sin, we strive with all the powers that God has given unto us (Phil. 2.12-15). We put the depraved appetites and sinful inclination to death always and take up the cross and crucify self always, fight valiantly in the strength of God and in cooperation with God, and overcome, and dwell always on heavenly things (Lk. 9.23; Eph. 4.22, 27; Gal. 5.16; Mtt. 5.29-30; Rom. 8.13; 2Cor. 5.15; Jn. 6.56-58; 1Cor. 15.34; James 3.2; Mtt. 26.41; Judges 3.10; Prov. 5.22; Col. 1.22-23; Col. 3.5-4.5; Rom. 6.6, 11; Rom. 2.7, 8; Rom.6.12, 13; Rom. 6.6; Col. 3.1-3; Phil. 4.8, 13).We must be overcomers on our own account and do what Jesus did. Ellen G. White, states, "God will test the character on every point. He has a Father's heart, and he bears long with His children...All who desire to be among the number who will stand before God without fault must begin without delay the practical work of overcoming." 139“The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptively toward evil. As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. There is no act of wickedness that the law will excuse; there is no unrighteousness that will escape its condemnation. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfilment of every precept of the law. He said; ‘I have kept My Father’s Commandments’ John 15:10. His life is our standard of obedience and service. God alone can renew the heart. ‘It is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.’ But we are bidden: ‘Work out your own salvation.’ Philippians 2:13, 12, A. R. V.” 140 Jesus’ obedience is our standard of obedience. If Jesus obedience is our standard, what are we to do? To perfectly obey as Jesus did! And as His followers, we ought 139

White, Upward Look, Public domain: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=LY9NAR8u4S0C&pg=PA298&lpg=PA298&dq=All+who+desire+to+be+among+the+ number+who+will+stand+before+God+without+fault+must+begin+without+delay&source=bl&ots=Wl1Grn4Irq&sig=kVWDByfbkUKmD9y4rXg7z6K0Cs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTvK3qN_QAhUEebwKHe_dAKsQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=All%20who%20desire%20to%20be%20among%20the%20number %20who%20will%20stand%20before%20God%20without%20fault%20must%20begin%20without%20delay&f=false.

140

White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, p. 312 (quoted in Magdadaro, Ronnie C., What Did They Say About The Faith of Jesus, Unity in Present Truth Personal Ministries (2012) by Ronnie C. Magdadaro, p. 94). From this Ellen G. White quote onwards, the bold letters or underlined words and phrases are my emphasis. There is no need to interrupt the flow of reading by placing an “emphasis mine” at the end of each White quotes.

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to have the mind of Christ, and the same perfect faith exactly like “the faith of Jesus,” or else we are not His followers, and God will not claim us as His sons and daughters because we do not conform to the image of His Son and are never fully partakers of His divine character. Therefore, we are to obey exactly as He obeyed, and have His spirit, because “if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom. 8.9). First, we must have His mind (attitude) and His faith that resists and hates sin steadfastly, and then persevere and persist in obedience, no matter how inconvenient to our sinful flesh, just as Christ in the SARX, condemned sin in the SARX. We are to work out our own salvation as steadfastly as Christ did, and as what the saints of all ages had done. The question is, can we? Yes, we can, and we ought to work out our own salvation, because it is God who works in us, giving us the strength. Therefore, we work it out what is worked within, and act on our convictions. The grace was given not to be in vain (2Cor. 6.1), so we can resist and easily dominate sin, and go on to perfection. Jesus said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor. 12.9). In such a reality, there is always struggle which God will not do for us. He helps us through in our struggles, and tests our faith, but it is us who must fight the battle of faithfulness and overcoming, not God. "All who will can be overcomers. Let us strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Christ knows our weakness, and to Him we can go daily for help. It is not necessary for us to gain strength a month ahead. We are to conquer from day to day."141We must prove in ourselves that God can trust us, and that we are His trustworthy and dependable saints, His perfect representatives and valiant fighters against sin. God will not do the overcoming for us; it is our own job with His help and through His strength. “This work can be accomplished only through faith in Christ, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. Paul admonishes believers: ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure’ Philippians 2:12, 13. The Christian will feel the promptings of sin, but he will maintain a constant warfare against it. Here is where Christ’s help is needed. Human weakness becomes united to divine strength, and faith exclaims: ‘Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ 1Corinthians 15:57.” 142 Without Christ, we cannot achieve any victory because no matter how we fight, the strength is from Him, and without His strength, no warfare is won. Nevertheless, it is not God or Christ who must overcome for us, but we ourselves, using the power of Christ. “Wrongs cannot be righted, nor can reformations in character be made, by a few feeble, intermittent efforts. Sanctification is the work, not of a day, or of a year, but of a lifetime. The struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle. Without continual effort and constant activity there can be no advancement in the divine life, no attainment of the victor’s crown”143 “The strongest evidence of man’s fall from a higher state is the fact that it costs so much to return. The way of return can be gained only by hard fighting, inch by inch, every hour. By a momentary act of will, one may place himself in the power of evil; but it requires more than a momentary act of will to break these fetters and attain to a higher, holier life. The purpose may be formed, the work begun; but its accomplishment will require toil, time, and perseverance, patience and sacrifice. Beset with temptations without number, we must resist firmly or be conquered. Should we come to the close of life with our work undone, it would be an eternal loss.”144 “Paul’s sanctification was the result of a constant conflict with self.

He said: ‘I die daily’ 1 Corinthians 15:31. His will and his desires every day conflicted with duty and the will of God. Instead of following inclination, he did God’s will, however crucifying to his own nature. God leads His people on step by step. The Christian life is a battle and a march. In this warfare there is no release; the effort must be continuous and persevering. It is by unceasing endeavour that we maintain the victory over the temptations of Satan. Christian integrity must be sought with resistless energy and maintained with a resolute fixedness of purpose. No one will be borne upward without stern, persevering effort in his own behalf. All must engage in this warfare for themselves. Individually we are responsible for the issue of the 141

White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 3. p. 107. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/fr/book/69.539#554.

142

White, The Great Controversy, p. 469, quoted in Magdadaro, p. 99.

143

Ibid.

144

Ibid., 95.

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struggle; though Noah, Job, and Daniel were in the land, they could deliver neither son nor daughter by their righteousness...There is a science of Christianity to be mastered, --a science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, than one may become a learner in the school of Christ. Our hearts must be educated to become steadfast in God. We are to form habits of thought that will enable us to resist temptation. We must learn to look upward. The principles of the word of God – principles that are high as heaven, and that encompass eternity –we are to understand in their bearing upon our daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles. The precious graces of the Holy Spirit are not developed in a moment. Courage, fortitude, meekness, faith, unwavering trust in God’s power to save, are acquired by the experience of years. By a life of holy endeavour and firm adherence to the right the children of God are to seal their destiny...Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change. ‘Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy’ 1Pet 1.13-16, A.R.V. The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal heart. Our efforts, our self-denial, our perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life.”145 "The natural, selfish mind, if left to follow out its own evil desires, will act without high motives, without reference to the glory of God or the benefit of mankind. The thoughts will be evil, and only evil, continually.

The soul can be in a state of peace only by relying upon God, and by partaking of the divine nature through faith in the Son of God... We have each of us an individual work to do, to gird up the loins of our minds, to be sober, to watch unto prayer. The mind must be firmly controlled to dwell upon subjects that will strengthen the moral powers. The youth should begin early to cultivate correct habits of thought. We should discipline the mind to think in a healthful channel, and not permit it to dwell upon things that are evil. The psalmist exclaims, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” As God works upon the heart by his Holy Spirit, man must cooperate with him. The thoughts must be bound about, restricted, withdrawn from branching out and contemplating things that will only weaken and defile the soul. The thoughts must be pure, the meditations of the heart must be clean, if the words of the mouth are to be words acceptable to Heaven, and helpful to your associates. Christ said to the Pharisees, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.[Matt. 12.34-37]. In the sermon on the mount, Christ presented before his disciples the far-reaching principles of the law of God. He taught his hearers that the law was transgressed by the thoughts before the evil desire was carried out in actual commission. We are under obligation to control our thoughts, and to bring them into subjection to the law of God. The noble powers of the mind have been given to us by the Lord, that we may employ them in contemplating heavenly things. God has made abundant provision that the soul may make continual progression in the divine life. He has placed on every hand agencies to aid our development in knowledge and virtue; and yet, how little these agencies are appreciated or enjoyed! How often the mind is given to the contemplation of that which is earthly, sensual, and base! We give our time and thought to the trivial and commonplace things of the world, and neglect the great interests that pertain to eternal life. The noble powers of the mind are dwarfed and enfeebled by lack of exercise on themes that are worthy of their concentration. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 145

Ibid., 95, 96.

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whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. [Phil. 4.8]. Let every one who desires to be a partaker of the divine nature, appreciate the fact that he must escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. There must be a constant, earnest struggling of the soul against the evil imaginings of the mind. There must be a steadfast resistance of temptation to sin in thought or act. The soul must be kept from every stain, through faith in Him who is able to keep you from falling. We should meditate upon the Scriptures, thinking soberly and candidly upon the things that pertain to our eternal salvation. The infinite mercy and love of Jesus, the sacrifice made in our behalf, call for most serious and solemn reflection. We should dwell upon the character of our dear Redeemer and Intercessor. We should seek to comprehend the meaning of the plan of salvation. We should meditate upon the mission of Him who came to save his people from their sins. By constantly contemplating heavenly themes, our faith and love will grow stronger. Our prayers will be more and more acceptable to God, because they will be more and more mixed with faith and love. They will be more intelligent and fervent. There will be more constant confidence in Jesus, and you will have a daily, living experience in the willingness and power of Christ to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him. By beholding we are to become changed, and as we meditate upon the perfections of our divine Model, we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. There will be a hungering and thirsting of soul to be made like Him whom we adore. The more our thoughts are upon Christ, the more we shall speak of him to others, and represent him to the world. We are called to come out and be separate from the world, that we may be the sons and daughters of the Most High; and we are under sacred obligation to glorify God, as his children upon the earth. It is essential that the mind should be stayed upon Christ, that we may hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and it is necessary for us to keep before us this blessed hope, that we may not say in our hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” Unbelief in the heart will be expressed in the actions, and if you cherish it, you will soon deny the faith and become bodies of darkness.” 146 (See 1Pet. 1.13). God will never save lazy Christians who merely receive His grace and remain living in sin, and are not overcomers or sanctified by obeying the truth (1Pet. 1.22; Jn. 17.17; 2Cor.6.1). “But many do not understand the work of sanctification. They seem to think they have attained to it, when they have learned only the first lesson in addition. Sanctification is a progressive work; it is not attained to in an hour or a day, and then maintained without any special effort on our part.”147“The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous one. Day by day God labours for man’s sanctification, and man is to cooperate with Him, putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. He is to add grace to grace; and as he thus works on the plan of addition, God works for him on the plan of multiplication. Our Saviour is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them.” 148 “As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we co-operate with God in overcoming Satan’s temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.” 149 “God has given men faculties and capabilities. God works and cooperates with the gifts He has imparted to man, and man, by being a partaker of the divine nature and doing the work of Christ, may be an overcomer and win eternal life. The Lord does not propose to do the work 146

White, Review and Herald, "The Renewing of the Mind" , June 12, 1888, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&QUERY=spirit+%21evil&resultId =30070&year=1888&month=June&day=12.

147

White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, p. 472, in Magdadaro, p. 96.

148

White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 532, in Magdadaro, p. 97.

149

White, Review and Herald April 24, 1900, in Magdadaro, p. 97.

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He has given man powers to do. Man's part must be done. He must be a labourer together with God, yoking up with Christ, learning His meekness, His lowliness. God is the all-controlling power. He bestows the gifts; man receives them and acts with the power of the grace of Christ as a living agent.”150 How about the fact that we are already justified, isn’t that enough? “But while God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul through the garments of Christ’s righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties. God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul.”151 "There is no safety nor repose nor justification in transgression of the law. Man cannot hope to stand innocent before God, and at peace with Him through the merits of Christ, while he continues in sin. He must cease to transgress, and become loyal and true. As the sinner looks into the great moral looking glass [James 1.23-25], he sees his defect of character. He sees himself just as he is, spotted, defiled, and condemned. But he knows that the law cannot in any way remove the guilt or pardon the transgressor. He must go farther than this. The law is but the schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. He must look to his sin-bearing Saviour. And as Christ is revealed to him upon the cross of Calvary, dying beneath the weight of the sins of the whole world, the Holy Spirit shows him the attitude of God to all who repent of their transgressions. 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life'" 152“In order for man to be justified by faith, faith must reach a point where it will control the affections and impulses of the heart; and it is by obedience that faith itself is made perfect.” 153 “It is through faith in Jesus Christ that the truth is accepted in the heart and the human agent is purified and cleansed. Jesus was ‘wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.’ Is it possible to be healed while knowingly committing sin? –No; it is genuine faith that says, I know that I have committed sin, but that Jesus has pardoned my sin; and hereafter I will resist temptation in and through His might. ‘Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.’ [1Jn. 3.3] He has an abiding principle in the soul, that enables him to overcome temptation.”154 The words of our Lord were crystal clear: “And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” (Rev. 2.26). “Those who would overcome must put to the tax every power of their being. They must agonize on their knees before God for divine power. Christ came to be our example, and to make known to us that we may be partakers of the divine nature. How? –By having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Satan did not gain the victory over Christ. He did not put his foot upon the soul of the Redeemer. He did not touch the head though he bruised the heel. Christ, by His own example, made it evident that man may stand in integrity. Men may have a power to resist evil – a power that neither earth, no death, no hell can master; a power that will place them where they may overcome as Christ overcame. Divinity and humanity may be combined in them.” 155 “The enemy was overcome by Christ in His human nature. The power of the Savior’s Godhead was hidden. He overcame in human nature, relying upon

150

White, Faith and Works, p., 26, Public domain: http://www.gilead.net/egw/books/misc/Faith_and_Works/index.htm?http&url=www.gilead.net/egw/books/misc/Faith_and_Wo rks/3_Ellen_White_Clarifies_the_Issues.htm.

151

White, Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 366, in Magdadaro, p. 99.

152

White, Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 213, in Magdadaro, p. 66.

153

Ibid., 100.

154

White, Sons and Daughters of God, 297, in Magdadaro, p. 102.

155

White, 1888 Materials, p. 533, in Magdadaro, p. 110.

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God for power.”156“He who repents of his sin and accepts the gift of the life of the Son of God, cannot be overcome. Laying hold by faith of the divine nature, he becomes a child of God. He prays, he believes. When tempted and tried, he claims the power that Christ died to give, and overcomes through His grace. This every sinner needs to understand. He must repent of his sins, he must believe in the power of Christ, and accept that power to save and to keep him from sin...The Christian is not to retain his sinful habits and cherish his defect of character; but he is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind and after the divine similitude. Whatever may be the nature of your defects, the Spirit of the Lord will enable you to discern them, and grace may be given you whereby they may be overcome. Through the merits of the blood of Christ you may be a conqueror, yes more than a conqueror.”157“Yet we should never be content with a sinful life. It is a thought that should arouse Christians to greater zeal and earnestness in overcoming evil, that every defect in character, every point in which they fail to meet the divine standard, is an open door by which Satan can enter to tempt and destroy them; and, furthermore, that every failure and defect on their part gives occasion to the tempter and his agents to reproach Christ. We are to exert every energy of the soul in the work of overcoming, and to look to Jesus for strength to do what we cannot do of ourselves. No sin can be tolerated in those who shall walk with Christ in white [Rev. 3.4]. The filthy garments are to be removed, and Christ’s robe of righteousness is to be placed upon us. By repentance and faith we are enabled to render obedience to all the commandments of God, and are found without blame before Him. Those who shall meet the approval of God are now afflicting their souls, confessing their sins, and earnestly pleading for pardon through Jesus their Advocate. Their attention is fixed upon Him, their hopes, their faith, are centered on Him, and when the command is given ‘Take away the filthy garments, and clothe him with change of raiment, and set a fair mitre upon his head,[Zech 3.4]’ they are prepared to give Him all the glory of their salvation.” 158 “Let no man present the idea that man has little or nothing to do in the great work of overcoming; for God does nothing for man without his cooperation. Neither say that after you have done all you can on your part, Jesus will help you. Christ has said, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing’ (John 15.5). From first to last man is to be a labourer together with God. Unless the Holy Spirit works upon the human heart, at every step we shall stumble and fall. Man’s efforts along are nothing but worthlessness; but cooperation with Christ means a victory. Of ourselves we have no power to repent from sin. Unless we accept divine aid we cannot take the first step toward the Saviour. He says, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end’ (Rev. 21.6) in the salvation of every soul. But though Christ is everything, we are to inspire every man to unwearied diligence. We are to strive, wrestle, agonize, watch, pray, lest we shall be overcome by the wily foe. For the power of grace with which we can do this comes from God, and all the while we are to trust in Him, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. Never leave the impression on the mind that there is little or nothing to do on the part of man; but rather teach man to cooperate with God, that he may be successful in overcoming” 159 "God cannot save man, against his will, from the power of Satan's artifices. Man must work with his human power, aided by the divine power of Christ, to resist and to conquer at any cost to himself. In short, man must overcome as Christ overcame. And then, through the victory which it is his privilege to gain by the all-powerful name of Jesus, he may become an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. This could not be the case if Christ alone did all the overcoming. Man must do his part. Man must be a victor of his own account, through the strength and grace Jesus gives him.

Man must be a co-worker with Christ in the labor of overcoming, and then he will be a partaker with Christ of His glory."160 “’Show Thyself a Man.’—The victims of evil habit must be aroused to the necessity of making an effort for themselves. Others may put forth the most earnest endeavor to uplift them, the grace of God may be freely offered, Christ may entreat, His angels may minister; but all will be in vain unless they themselves 156

White, Youth Instructor, April 25, 1901, in Magdadaro, p. 110.

157

White, Sons and Daughters of God, 349, in Magdadaro, p. 110-111.

158

White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 472, in Magdadaro, p. 112.

159

White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 381, in Magdadaro, p. 112.

160

White, Review and Herald, Nov. 21, 1882 (Temperance, p. 111), in Magdadaro, p. 113.

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are roused to fight the battle in their own behalf. The last words of David to Solomon, then a young man, and soon to receive the crown of Israel, were, “Be thou strong, ... and show thyself a man.” 1 Kings 2:2. To every child of humanity, the candidate for an immortal crown, are these words of inspiration spoken, “Be strong, and show thyself a man.” The self-indulgent must be led to see and feel that great moral renovation is necessary if they would be men. God calls upon them to arouse, and in the strength of Christ win back the God-given manhood that has been sacrificed through sinful indulgence. He Can—He Must Resist Evil— Feeling the terrible power of temptation, the drawing of desire that leads to indulgence, many a man cries in despair, “I cannot resist evil.” Tell him that he can, that he must resist. He may have been overcome again and again, but it need not be always thus. He is weak in moral power, controlled by the habits of a life of sin.

His promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. The knowledge of his broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens his confidence in his own sincerity, and causes him to feel that God cannot accept him or work with his efforts. But he need not despair. Those who put their trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency. Instead of being held in bondage to the lower nature, they are to rule every appetite and passion. God has not left us to battle with evil in our own finite strength. Whatever may be our inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong, we can overcome through the power that He is ready to impart. The Power of the Will—The tempted one needs to understand the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man,—the power of decision, of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. Desires for goodness and purity are right, so far as they go; but if we stop here, they avail nothing. Many will go down to ruin while hoping and desiring to overcome their evil propensities. They do not yield the will to God. They do not choose to serve Him. We Must Choose—God has given us the power of choice; it is ours to exercise. We cannot change our hearts, we cannot control our thoughts, our impulses, our affections. We cannot make ourselves pure, fit for God's service. But we can choose to serve God, we can give Him our will; then He will work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus our whole nature will be brought under the control of Christ. Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in the life. By yielding up the will to Christ, we ally ourselves with divine power. We receive strength from above to hold us steadfast. A pure and noble life, a life of victory over appetite and lust, is possible to everyone who will unite his weak, wavering human will to the omnipotent, unwavering will of God.—The Ministry of Healing, 174-176.If the Will Is Set Right—The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the being will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power, the kingly power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience. You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises and your faith are of no account until you put your will on the right side. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, there is no doubt that you will conquer. When We Put the Will on the Side of Christ—Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you. You can never be successful in elevating yourself, unless your will is on the side of Christ, co-operating with the Spirit of God. Do not feel that you cannot; but say, “I can, I will.” And God has pledged His Holy Spirit to help you in every decided effort. Every one of us may know that there is a power working with our efforts to overcome. Why will not men lay hold upon the help that has been provided, that they may become elevated and ennobled? Why do they degrade themselves by the indulgence of perverted appetite? Why do they not rise in the strength of Jesus, and be victorious in His name? The very feeblest prayer that we can offer, Jesus will hear. He pities the weakness of every soul. Help for everyone has been laid upon Him who is mighty to save. I point you to Jesus Christ, the sinner's Saviour, who alone can give you power to overcome on every point.”161 “God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest 161

White, Temperance, pp. 111-114, public domain:

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what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: “God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.” Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge: “They are joined to their idols, let them alone,”[Hos. 4.17] and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels. Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.”162“These words were recorded for the help of every striving soul. Paul holds up the standard of perfection and shows how it may be reached. “Work out your own salvation,” he says, “for it is God which worketh in you.” The work of gaining salvation is one of copartnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works.

Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness. God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves. But He cannot help us without our consent and co-operation.

The divine Spirit works through the powers and faculties given to man. Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations into harmony with the will of God; but if we are “willing to be made willing,” the Saviour will accomplish this for us, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5.”163 “You will say: This is hard work; the way is too narrow, I cannot walk in it.

Is the way more strait in this letter than you find it plainly marked out in the word of God? Heaven is worth a lifelong, persevering, untiring effort. If you now draw back and become discouraged, you will certainly lose heaven—lose immortal life and the crown of glory that fadeth not away. Those who have a seat at the Saviour's side on His throne are only that class who have overcome as He overcame. Love for pure, sanctifying truth, love for the dear Redeemer, will lighten the labor of overcoming. His strength will be cheerfully granted to all who are really desirous of it. He will crown with grace and peace every persevering effort made in His name. If your daily study is to glorify God and subdue self, He will make His strength perfect in your weakness, and you may live so that your conscience will not condemn you. You may have a good report from those who are without. A circumspect life will not only bring great profit to your own soul, but will be a bright light to shine upon the pathway of others, and will show them the way to heaven…Christ was a perfect overcomer; and we must be perfect and entire, wanting nothing, without spot or blemish.” 164 “The reason why so many are left to themselves in places of temptation is that they do not set the Lord always https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=Te&pagenumber=111.

162

White, Testimonies for the church Vol. 1. 187, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1T&pagenumber=187.

163

White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 482, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=AA&lang=en&pagenumber=482&paragraphReferenc es=1 164

White, Testimonies for the Church Vol. 4, pp. 38-39, public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/de/book/114.163#193.

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before them. When we permit our communion with God to be broken, our defense is departed from us. Not all your good purposes and good intentions will enable you to withstand evil. You must be men and women of prayer. Your petitions must not be faint, occasional, and fitful, but earnest, persevering, and constant. It is not always necessary to bow upon your knees in order to pray. Cultivate the habit of talking with the Saviour when you are alone, when you are walking, and when you are busy with your daily labor. Let the heart be continually uplifted in silent petition for help, for light, for strength, for knowledge. Let every breath be a prayer.”165 “Beware of procrastination. Do not put off the work of forsaking your sins and seeking purity of heart through Jesus. Here is where thousands upon thousands have erred to their eternal loss. I will not here dwell upon the shortness and uncertainty of life; but there is a terrible danger—a danger not sufficiently understood—in delaying to yield to the pleading voice of God's Holy Spirit, in choosing to live in sin; for such this delay really is. Sin, however small it may be esteemed, can be indulged in only at the peril of infinite loss.

What we do not overcome, will overcome us and work out our destruction. Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating of the forbidden fruit there could not result such terrible consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was the transgression of God's immutable and holy law, and it separated man from God and opened the floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world. Age after age there has gone up from our earth a continual cry of mourning, and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain as a consequence of man's disobedience. Heaven itself has felt the effects of his rebellion against God. Calvary stands as a memorial of the amazing sacrifice required to atone for the transgression of the divine law. Let us not regard sin as a trivial thing. Every act of transgression, every neglect or rejection of the grace of Christ, is reacting upon yourself; it is hardening the heart, depraving the will, benumbing the understanding, and not only making you less inclined to yield, but less capable of yielding, to the tender pleading of God's Holy Spirit. Many are quieting a troubled conscience with the thought that they can change a course of evil when they choose; that they can trifle with the invitations of mercy, and yet be again and again impressed. They think that after doing despite to the Spirit of grace, after casting their influence on the side of Satan, in a moment of terrible extremity they can change their course.

But this is not so easily done. The experience, the education, of a lifetime, has so thoroughly molded the character that few then desire to receive the image of Jesus. Even one wrong trait of character, one sinful desire, persistently cherished, will eventually neutralize all the power of the gospel. Every sinful indulgence strengthens the soul's aversion to God. The man who manifests an infidel hardihood, or a stolid indifference to divine truth, is but reaping the harvest of that which he has himself sown. In all the Bible there is not a more fearful warning against trifling with evil than the words of the wise man that the sinner ‘shall be holden with the cords of his sins.’ Proverbs 5:22.Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will; and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7, 8.’Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart’—the human heart, with its conflicting emotions of joy and sorrow; the wandering, wayward heart, which is the abode of so much impurity and deceit. 1 Samuel 16:7. He knows its motives, its very intents and purposes. Go to Him with your soul all stained as it is. Like the psalmist, throw its chambers open to the all-seeing eye, exclaiming, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23, 24.Many accept an intellectual religion, a form of godliness, when the heart is not cleansed. Let it be your prayer, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10. Deal truly with your own soul. Be as earnest, as persistent, as you would be if your mortal life were at stake. This is a matter to be settled between God and your own soul, settled for eternity. A supposed hope, and nothing more, will prove your ruin. Study God's word prayerfully. That word presents before you, in the law of God and the life of Christ, the great principles of holiness, without which “no man shall see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14. It convinces of sin; it plainly reveals the way of salvation. Give heed to it as the voice of God speaking to your 165

White, Ministry of Healing, p. 510-511, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=MH&lang=en&pagenumber=510.

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soul. As you see the enormity of sin, as you see yourself as you really are, do not give up to despair. It was sinners that Christ came to save. We have not to reconcile God to us, but—O wondrous love!—God in Christ is “reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. He is wooing by His tender love the hearts of His erring children. No earthly parent could be as patient with the faults and mistakes of his children, as is God with those He seeks to save. No one could plead more tenderly with the transgressor. No human lips ever poured out more tender entreaties to the wanderer than does He. All His promises, His warnings, are but the breathing of unutterable love.”166 “As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of appetite, our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of appetite and passion. Abstemiousness in diet and control of all the passions will preserve the intellect and give mental and moral vigor, enabling men to bring all their propensities under the control of the higher powers and to discern between right and wrong, the sacred and the common. All who have a true sense of the sacrifice made by Christ in leaving His home in heaven to come to this world that He might by His own life show man how to resist temptation will cheerfully deny self and choose to be partakers with Christ of His sufferings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who overcome as Christ overcame will need to constantly guard themselves against the temptations of Satan.

The appetite and passions should be restricted and under the control of enlightened conscience, that the intellect may be unimpaired, the perceptive powers clear, so that the workings of Satan and his snares may not be interpreted to be the providence of God. Many desire the final reward and victory which are to be given to overcomers, but are not willing to endure toil, privation, and denial of self, as did their Redeemer. It is only through obedience and continual effort that we shall overcome as Christ overcame. The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years has brought sickness, pain, and death as its fruits. And as we near the close of time, Satan's temptation to indulge appetite will be more powerful and more difficult to overcome.” 167 "It may take time to attain perfect submission to God's will, but we can never stop short of it and be fitted for heaven. True religion will lead its possessor on to perfection. Your thoughts, your words, and your actions, as well as your appetites and passions, must be brought into subjection to the will of God. You must bear fruit unto holiness."168 “Those who are striving to be overcomers will be pursued by the temptations of the enemy. Satan will tempt them to corrupt the principles which all must maintain who would reach the high standard that God has set before them. Satan rejoices when he can lead souls to follow mistaken ideas until their names are blotted out of the book of life and recorded among the names of the unjust. We can overcome only in the way that Christ overcame—by wholehearted obedience to every commandment of God. True religion is obedience to all the commandments of God. Every soul who is saved must surrender his own plans and follow where Christ leads the way. The understanding must be yielded up to Christ for Him to cleanse and refine and purify. This will always be done when we receive aright the teachings of Christ. O how much we need a more intimate acquaintance with Him! We need to enter into His purpose, and to carry out His will, saying with the whole heart, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? My brother, watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. It is poor policy to give the enemy the slightest advantage. Human nature will continue to be human nature, but it can be elevated and ennobled by union with the divine. It is by partaking of the divine nature that men and women escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. When truth abides in the heart, the daily experience is a revelation of the controlling power of the grace of Christ. Never keep the truth in the outer court. Let the Holy Spirit stamp it upon the soul.

The child of God is to reach out for higher and still higher attainments. He is to confess every sin, that by his 166

White, Steps to Christ, pp. 32-35, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=SC&lang=en&pagenumber=32&paragraphReference s=0.

167

White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3., p. 491. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/119.2286.

168

White, Testimonies for the church, vol. 3, p. 538. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=3T&pagenumber=538

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example others may be helped to confess their sins and to cherish the faith that works by love to purify the soul. He is to be constantly on guard, never standing still, never turning back, but ever pressing on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ. We should keep ever before us the fact that time is short. Iniquity is increasing on every hand. The righteous are set as lights in the world. Through them the glory of God is to be revealed to the world. Keep ever before you the solemn events of the future—the great review of the judgment and the coming of Christ. You with your family are to prepare for that day. Lay no stumbling block in their way. You are to do all that you can to help your children to walk in the path of truth and righteousness…

Follow on day by day to know the Lord, rejoicing that it is your privilege to say at His coming, as you stand with His faithful, waiting children, “This is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” [Isaiah 25:9.] May God help you as a family to present to the world and in the church an example of truth and righteousness.” 169 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21. These are the words of our substitute and surety. He who is the divine Head of the church, the mightiest of conquerors, would point His followers to His life, His toils, His self-denials, His struggles and sufferings, through contempt, through rejection, ridicule, scorn, insult, mockery, falsehood, up the path of Calvary to the scene of the crucifixion, that they might be encouraged to press on toward the mark for the prize and reward of the overcomer. The plan of salvation is not appreciated as it should be. It is not discerned or comprehended. It is made altogether a cheap affair, whereas to unite the human with the divine required an exertion of Omnipotence.... Christ, by clothing His divinity with humanity, elevates humanity in the scale of moral value to an infinite worth. But what a condescension on the part of God and on the part of His only begotten Son, who was equal with the Father! ... So great has been the spiritual blindness of men that they have sought to make of none effect the Word of God. They have declared by their traditions that the great plan of redemption was devised in order to abolish and make of none effect the law of God, when Calvary is the mighty argument that proves the immutability of the precepts of Jehovah.... The state of the character must be compared with the great moral standard of righteousness. There must be a searching out of the peculiar sins which have been offensive to God, which have dishonored His name and quenched the light of His Spirit and killed the first love from the soul.... Victory is assured through faith and obedience.... The work of overcoming is not restricted to the age of the martyrs. The conflict is for us, in these days of subtle temptation to worldliness, to self-security, to indulgence of pride, covetousness, false doctrines, and immorality of life.... Shall we stand before the proving of God?170

169

White, To Brother and Sister Roth, Nov. 9, 1911, Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/10854.2000001#13.

170

White, That I May Know Him, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&lang=en&pagenumber=256.

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JESUS’ TEACHINGS IN OVERCOMING AND PERFECTLY OBEYING GOD’S COMMANDMENTS: 1) Matt. 7.17-19 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

2) Matt. 12.12 “…Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” 3) Matt. 15.3, 9 “…Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?...But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

4) Matt. 19. 17, 21 “…but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments….If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”

5) Lk. 25-37 “What is written in the law? how readest thou?...this do, and thou shalt live…Go, and do thou likewise.” (IT IS THE DOING THAT MATTERS, NOT JUST THE PROFESSION OF FAITH – or MERE "BELIEF" -Titus 1.16; Matt. 7.24-27; Lk. 11. 27, 28; Lk. 8.19-21; James 1.22-25) 6) Matt. 22.37-40 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (It does not say, “BY THESE TWO, THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS WERE ABOLISHED, BUT THAT “ON THESE TWO HANG THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS”) Note: LOVE TO GOD IS NOT AUTOMATIC. ONE MUST HAVE REALIZED WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CROSS, AND ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF HIS/HER OWN CONSCIENCE HE RESPONDS WITH THE SAME EQUAL AGAPE LOVE TO GOD, AND MANIFESTS THE SAME PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOYALTY TOWARD GOD WHO SHOWED HIM HIS PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS TO SINNERS 7) Lk. 13.15-16 “…Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

8) Lk. 16.17, 18 “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.”

9) Matt. 23.23 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (TITHING SHOULD STILL BE OBSERVED, BECAUSE JESUS SAID NOT TO LEAVE THE OTHER UNDONE, THAT IS, THE METICULOUS TITHING OF EVERY THING WE RECEIVE. THIS IS NOT WORKS-RELIGION, OR RIGHTEOUSNESS BY UNFAITHFULNESS, BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS BY EXACT AND PERFECT AND CONSISTENT OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW) Page 155 of 174

10) Matt. 24.13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

11) Matt. 24.20 “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day” 12) Matt. 25.21-23 “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

13) Lk. 16.10-12 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?”

14) Matt. 25.40, 45 “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me…Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.” 15) Lk. 21.34-36 “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

16) Matt. 26.41 “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” 17) Lk. 9.23 “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (IS DISOBEYING ANY OF GOD'S COMMANDMENT A GOOD WAY TO FOLLOW THE MESSIAH? DOES LIVING IN GRACE ANULL OUR FOLLOWING CHRIST IN ALL HE DOES? NO).

18) Jn. 6.38 “For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” 19) Jn. 14.15, 23-24 “If ye love Me, keep My Commandments….If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.” (NOTE THAT THE COMMANDMENTS OF JESUS ARE THE SAME AS HIS FATHER’S COMMANDMENTS, AND THAT HIS COMMANDMENTS ARE THE FATHER’S COMMANDMENTS WHICH HE ENFORCED. JUST AS THE GODHEAD HAS ONLY ONE SEAT OF AUTHORITY, POWER, PRINCIPLE, AND LAW. THE FATHER AND CHRIST DO NOT HAVE DIFFERENT LAWS AS WHAT MOST CHRISTIANS SUPPOSE. THE REASON FOR THIS IS THAT THEY THINK JESUS INSTITUTE SUNDAY OBSERVANCE AND REPLACED THE SABBATH WHICH HE HIMSELF HAD CREATED. THEY HAVE CONFUSED VIEWS ABOUT THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE GODHEAD AND HIS LAWS).

20) Jn. 15.10 “If ye keep My Commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.”

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21) Matt. 28.20 “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (GOING TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY IS NOT PART OF THE MAKING OF DISCIPLES. SUNDAY OBSERVANCE IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE COMMANDMENTS TAUGHT BY CHRIST: “Teaching them to observe ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.” Going to church on Sunday is NOT included in that “ALL THINGS COMMANDED” by Christ. Sunday is not part of the Great Gospel Commission. But ALL things include the Sabbath Commandment -Matt. 12.12 “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”; Matt. 24.20 “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day”, Mk. 2.27, 28 "the Sabbath [NOT SUNDAY] was made for humankind. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" [NOT SUNDAY]) “Christ came to give an example of the perfect conformity to the law of God required of all, from Adam, the first man, down to the last man who shall live on the earth. He declared that his mission was not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it in perfect and entire obedience… He came to demonstrate the fact that humanity, allied by living faith to divinity, can keep all the commandments of God. He came to make plain the immutable character of the law, to declare that disobedience and transgression can never be rewarded with eternal life…But in no case did he come to lessen the obligation of men to be perfectly obedient. He did not destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures…He came, not to set men free from that law, but to open a way whereby they might obey that law, and teach others to do the same.”171 “Christ, the Redeemer of the world, was not situated where the influences surrounding him were the best calculated to preserve a life of purity and untainted morals, yet he was not contaminated. He was not free from temptation. Satan was earnest and persevering in his efforts to deceive and overcome the Son of God by his devices. Christ was the only one who walked the earth upon whom there rested no taint of sin. He was pure, spotless, and undefiled. That there should be One without the defilement of sin upon the earth, greatly disturbed the author of sin, and he left no means untried to overcome Christ with his wily, deceptive power. But our Saviour relied upon his Heavenly Father for wisdom and strength to resist and overcome the tempter. The Spirit of his Heavenly Father animated and regulated his life. He was sinless. Virtue and purity characterized his life.” 172 “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. Luke 13:24. A strait gate means a gate difficult to enter. By this illustration Christ showed how hard it is for men and women to leave the world and the attractions it holds, and heartily and lovingly obey the commandments of God. The wide gate is easy to enter. Entrance through it does not call for the restrictions which are painful to the human heart. Self-denial and self-sacrifice are not seen in the broad way. There depraved appetite and natural inclinations find abundant room. There may be seen self-indulgence, pride, envy, evil surmisings, love of money, self-exaltation. Said Christ, “Strive”—agonize—“to enter in....” We must feel our continual dependence upon God and the great weakness of our own wisdom and our own judgment and strength, and then depend wholly upon Him who has conquered the foe in our behalf, because He pitied our weakness and knew we should be overcome and perish if He did not come to our help.... Think not that by any easy or common effort you can win the eternal reward. You have a wily foe upon your track. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21). Here is the battle to overcome as Christ has overcome. His life of temptation, of trial, of toil and conflict, is before us for us to imitate. We may make efforts in our own strength, but not succeed. But when we fall all helpless and suffering and needy upon the Rock of Christ, feeling in our inmost soul that our victory depends upon His merits, that all our efforts of themselves without the special help of the great Conqueror will be without avail, then Christ would send every angel out of glory to rescue us from the power of the enemy rather than that we should fall. We need to see that the way is narrow, and the gate strait.

171

White, Review and Herald, Christ’s Attitude Toward the Law, November 15, 1898, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1898&month=November&d ay=15&m=1.

172

White, The Youth’s Instructor, February 1, 1873. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/ro/book/469.2000279#284.

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But as we pass through the strait gate, the wideness is without limit.” 173“God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Half-hearted, sinful Christians can never enter heaven. There they would find no happiness; for they know nothing of the high, holy principles that govern the members of the royal family. The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of Christ. His highest desire is to become more and more Christlike.... Earnestly and untiringly we are to strive to reach God's ideal for us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who are striving to overcome. Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not strive to be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be—Christians in deed and in truth—that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school. While here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. Continually the enemy of God will seek to draw us away from our allegiance. But while we cleave to Him who gave Himself for us, we are safe. The whole world was gathered into the embrace of Christ. He died on the cross to destroy him who had the power of death, and to take away the sin of every believing soul. He calls upon us to offer ourselves on the altar of service, a living, consuming sacrifice. We are to make an unreserved consecration to God of all that we have and are. In this lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His Word. Shall we not, in the few days of probation remaining to us, act like men and women who are seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss?174 “Some few in every generation from Adam resisted his every artifice and stood forth as noble representatives of what it was in the power of man to do and to be—Christ working with human efforts, helping man in overcoming the power of Satan. Enoch and Elijah are the correct representatives of what the race might be through faith in Jesus Christ if they chose to be.Satan was greatly disturbed because these noble, holy men stood untainted amid the moral pollution surrounding them, perfected righteous characters, and were accounted worthy for translation to Heaven. As they had stood forth in moral power in noble uprightness, overcoming Satan's temptations, he could not bring them under the dominion of death.”175“The Prince of Life and the prince of darkness were in conflict. The Prince of Life prevailed, but at an infinite cost. His triumph is our salvation. He is our Substitute and Surety, and what He says to him that overcometh tells whether man has anything to do or not. How? “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne” (Revelation 3:21).He keep up the battle with the prince of darkness until He was a victor on every point? Then He left the work right in the hands of His followers. We have something to do. Have we not the overcomers’ portion, to work out and gain the victory? Have we not to follow on step by step to know the Lord until we shall know His goings forth are prepared as the morning? Their light will shine forth until we come to the brighter light. You will grasp it and go on and gather brighter light from the oracles of God as you supplicate the God of heaven.”176“This strength it is the privilege of all the tempted ones of earth to have. Christ's experience is for our benefit. His example in overcoming appetite points out the way for those to overcome who would be his 173

White, That I May Know Him. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&lang=en&pagenumber=304&m=1.

174

White, This Day with God, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TDG&lang=en&collection=2&section=all&pagenumb er=145&UIlang=ru&t=1&paragraphReferences=1.

175

White, Review and Herald, March 3, 1874, par 12. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1874&month=March&day= 3&m=1&paragraphReferences=1.

176

White, Faith and Works, p. 74. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=FW&lang=en&pagenumber=74&QUERY=and+angel s&resultId=8128&paragraphReferences=1.

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followers. Christ was suffering as the members of the human family suffer under temptation; but it was not the will of God that he should exercise his divine power in his own behalf. Had he not stood as our representative, Christ's innocence would have exempted him from all this anguish; but it was because of his innocence that he felt so keenly the assaults of Satan. All the suffering that is the result of sin was poured into the bosom of the sinless Son of God. Satan was bruising the heel of Christ; but every pang endured by Christ, every grief, every disquietude, was fulfilling the great plan of man's redemption. Every blow inflicted by the enemy was rebounding on himself. Christ was bruising the serpent's head.” 177 “Christ's overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. His imputed grace and power He gives to all who receive Him by faith. The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan's temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ; He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God's Holy Law, and in this way He is our example. The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man could do, through faith in God's power to help in every emergency. Man is, through faith, to be a partaker in the divine nature, and to overcome every temptation wherewith he is beset. The Lord now demands that every son and daughter of Adam, through faith in Jesus Christ, serve Him in human nature which we now have. The Lord Jesus has bridged the gulf that sin has made. He has connected earth with heaven, and finite man with the infinite God. Jesus, the world's Redeemer, could only keep the commandments of God in the same way that humanity can keep them. We are not to serve God as if we were not human, but we are to serve Him in the nature we have, that has been redeemed by the Son of God; through the righteousness of Christ we shall stand before God pardoned, and as though we had never sinned. The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us.

It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God.”178 "Our entire life is God's, and must be used to his glory. His grace will consecrate and improve every faculty. Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character; for if you come to this decision, you will certainly fail to obtain everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you cannot overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of unsanctified hearts, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God."179 "Christ knew that man could not overcome without His help. Therefore He consented to lay off His royal robes and clothe His divinity with humanity that we might be rich. He came to this earth, suffered, and knows just how to sympathize with us and to assist us in overcoming. He came to bring man moral power, and He would not have man to understand that he has nothing to do, for every one has a work to do for himself, and through the merits of Jesus we can overcome sin and the devil." 180 "In things spiritual as well as natural this work must be done. Often severity is needed to bring in the spiritual harvest. It is God's great law that without the proper sowing of seed and the tillage there will be no harvest in sheaves. An experience is lacking. Divine blessings wait only for human spiritual working of the soil of the heart and the industry to care for the soil while the Lord is sowing His seed. As a man soweth he shall also reap. All who study the Word with full 177

White, Youth’s Instructor, December 21, 1899, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=YI&lang=en&year=1899&month=December&da y=21&m=1&paragraphReferences=1.

178

White, Our High Calling, p. 48, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=OHC&pagenumber=48.

179

White, The Youth's Instructor, January 28, 1897, Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=YI&lang=en&year=1897&month=January&day =28.

180

White, Manuscript 46, 1886 in Selected Messages, Vol. 3. p. 153. Public domain: https://m.egwwritings.org/pt/book/100.874#908.

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purpose to cleanse away from the life all sin, and who search the Scriptures to learn what is truth, will welcome the truth of the Word as a Thus saith the Lord. They will repent under the sharp reproofs of Bible truth.... If a man sow true repentance he will reap the reward of sound good works. If he continues in the faith he reaps peace. If he becomes sanctified and cleansed from his appetite for cheapness and folly he shall ... reap righteousness and perfect love.... A continuance in the well doing in overcoming makes him a daily victor because he keeps the mark of Christ's perfection ever before him." 181 "Our Saviour himself, bearing the test for humanity, acknowledged that of himself He could do nothing. We must also learn that there is no strength in humanity alone. Man becomes efficient only by becoming a partaker of the divine nature." 182 "Satan thought that by his temptations he could delude the world's Redeemer, to make one bold move in manifesting his divine power, to create a sensation, and to surprise all by the wonderful display of the power of his Father in preserving him from injury. He suggested that Christ should appear in his real character, and by this masterpiece of power, establish his right to the confidence and faith of the people, that he was indeed the Saviour of the world. If Christ had been deceived by Satan's temptations, and had exercised his miraculous power to relieve himself from difficulty, he would have broken the contract made with his Father, to be a probationer in behalf of the race. It was a difficult task for the Prince of Life to carry out the plan which he had undertaken for the salvation of man, in clothing his divinity with humanity. He had received honor in the heavenly courts, and was familiar with absolute power. It was as difficult for him to keep the level of humanity as it is for men to rise above the low level of their depraved natures, and be partakers of the divine nature. Christ was put to the closest test, requiring the strength of all his faculties to resist the inclination when in danger, to use his power to deliver himself from peril, and triumph over the power of the prince of darkness. Satan showed his knowledge of the weak points of the human heart, and put forth his utmost power to take advantage of the weakness of the humanity which Christ had assumed in order to overcome his temptations on man's account."183 "We need not place the obedience of Christ by itself as something for which He was particularly adapted, by His particular divine nature, for He stood before God as man's representative and tempted as man's substitute and surety. If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter. The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man, and he could do this only in the way that He came—a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man."184 THE WRONG REPENTANCE: The repentance of Pharaoh, Judas, and Esau was that they sorrow for the result of sin, and not the sin itself.

They were cut to the heart because they felt their sins exposed, and they are defeated by the Almighty. Judas hanged himself because of fear of future retribution but felt no sorrow for the wickedness of his sin in betraying Christ. Esau felt remorse because in the birthright, along with spiritual heirship was the material blessings attached to it. Men mourn for the evils of sin, but not the sin itself. There is no change of principles, the life remains the same. True repentance must have fruits that proves that it is genuine, like what Zacchaeus 181

White, That I May Know Him, p. 281. Public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&pagenumber=281&paragraphReferences=0.

182

White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 346. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=FE&lang=en&pagenumber=347&UIlang=de&t=1&pa ragraphReferences=1 183

White, The Review and Herald, April 1, 1875, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1875&month=April&day=1 &m=1&paragraphReferences=1 184

White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 6. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=6MR&lang=en&pagenumber=340&paragraphReferen ces=1

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did (Lk. 19.8; See Lk. 3.8-9; Deut. 20.20; Lk. 13.6-9; Jn. 15.2, 6), and like David who acknowledge his sin (Ps. 51). The righteous may fall many times, but he rises up again (Prov. 24.16). The point is, he does not want to remain in sin, unlike the wicked who wants to remain in sin.

The valid repentance and steadfastness in Ezek. 33.14-16 means “without committing iniquity” –v.15, from that time forward. And one must be steadfast so that God can trust him/her as His faithful children on earth despite the sinful condition and severest temptations. To retrograde is not allowable. We remain sober and in constant vigilance (Mtt. 26.41; Mk. 14.38; Lk. 12.37-40; Mtt. 24.42-47; Mk. 13.33-37; 1Pet. 4.7; 1Cor. 16.13; 1Thess. 5.6-8; 1Pet. 5.8; Lk. 21.34-36), allowing nothing to come between us and the Saviour such as in Mk. 4.18, 19.

IGNOBLE EXCUSES: "Many seem to think that it is impossible not to fall under temptation, that they have no power to overcome, and they sin against God with their lips, talking discouragement and doubt, instead of faith and courage. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” What does this mean? It means that the prince of evil could find no vantage ground in Christ for his temptation; and so it may be with us." 185 "Will not those to whom have been committed the treasures of truth, consider the superior advantages of light and privilege that have been purchased for us by the sacrifice of the Son of God on Calvary's cross? We are to be judged by the light that has been given us, and we can find no excuse by which to extenuate our course. The Way, the Truth, and the Life has been set before us. Many seek to excuse themselves by saying, “You must not judge me by some weak trait of character, but consider my character as a whole.” We always feel deep pain at heart when the sinner seeks to apologize for his sin, to smooth it over, and fails to realize the danger of cherishing one un-Christlike attribute of character. We are to place our will on the side of the Lord's will, and firmly determine that by his grace we will be free from sin. Sin is the transgression of the law, and it is not the magnitude of the action in iniquity that stamps it as sin. Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating of the tree of good and evil. The test was a slight one, but the act of disobedience to God was the transgression of his law. The little sins that men think are of so trivial a character that on their account they will not be brought into condemnation, are very offensive in the sight of God. Says one, “You are too severe, a man must be allowed these little defects of character.” Let us hear the words of Christ. He says, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” People venture to commit sins that are grievous in the sight of God, and think that they are not to be called to task for them, because they say they are due to nervousness, to a peculiar temperament; but this is simply soothing the conscience, and crying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

Sin is sin, and it is the delusion of Satan to look upon it in any other light than that it is grievous. We may flatter ourselves that we are free from many things of which others are guilty; but if we have some strong points of character, and but one weak point, there is yet a communion between sin and the soul. The heart is divided in its service, and says, “Some of self and some of thee.” The child of God must search out the sin which he has petted and indulged himself in, and permit God to cut it out of his heart. He must overcome that one sin; for it is not a trifling matter in the sight of God. One says, “I am not the least jealous, but then I do get provoked and say mean things, although I am always sorry after giving way to temper.” Another says, “I have this fault or that, but then I just despise such and such meanness as is manifested by a certain person of my acquaintance.” The Lord has not given us a list of graded sins, so that we may reckon some as of little consequence, and say that they will do but little harm, while others are of greater magnitude and will do much harm. A chain is no stronger than is its weakest link. We might pronounce such a chain good on the whole, but if one link is weak, the chain cannot be depended on. The work of overcoming is to be the study of every soul who enters the kingdom of God. That impatient word quivering on your lips must be left unspoken. That thought that your character is not rightly estimated must be put from you; for it weakens your influence, and

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White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1891 (Selected Messages, Vol. 3, p. 192). Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=3SM&pagenumber=192&paragraphReferences=1

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works out the sure result, making you of light estimation in the minds of others. You should overcome the idea that you are a martyr, and lay claim to the promise of Christ, who says, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 186 Conclusion: Pervaded throughout this paper are is the idea that tells one thing: That the perfect character such as God expects from all His children is attainable in this lifetime, and that many had attained it, and that there is no excuse for any imperfection of character in whatever circumstances. As what a famous quote said that a chain is no stronger than is its weakest link, so any imperfect or sinful trait unovercome is enough to ruin the power of the gospel in the soul. We are proved truly steadfast if we, under the most severe temptation we remain strong in resisting it, and not succumb to it. Sure in such a character God can trust us. Just as God is the God of precise order and perfection, His children on earth should manifest the same, exactly the same godlike qualities, or else they are not His children at all. Order and perfection should be seen in all aspects of their life under all and any circumstance just as Daniel and Joseph had perfectly represented God in an idolatrous and sinful heathen nation. His children hate sin as God hates it, and they love purity as God loves it. There is no difference of character between their character and God’s. Both they and God are in perfect harmony in principles and in perfection because here and now they have been partakers of His divine nature before they were to be transformed in bodies.

The only barriers or stumbling blocks to moral excellence is the Papal-Calvinist thought of the Total Depravity (Total Mediocrity), along its inseparable connecting teachings. These doctrines present disobedience as lawful, and sinful depravity as norm. But both disobedience and depravity are sins. These doctrines use grace as patchwork righteousness in order to continue living in sin and remain imperfect, and use the Messiah’s sacrifice on the cross to keep them in sin, and not from sin. It produces an unwillingness to separate from sin and a reluctance of obey God’s Laws. It provides a thought climate that it is a not really harmful to be saved at last while having bad unchristian traits still uncorrected and unovercome. “But God takes none to heaven but those who are first made saints in this world through the grace of Christ, those in whom he can see Christ exemplified.”187“The work of overcoming is not restricted to the age of the martyrs. The conflict is before us, in these days of subtle temptation to worldliness, to self-security, to indulgence of pride, covetousness, false doctrines, and immortality of life.”188 Let us not listen to theologians who invalidate the Ten Commandments and falsify God’s Law with their lying pens! (Jer. 8.8; Mtt. 15.12-14; Mtt. 5.19; Mk. 7.9, 13; Ezek. 22.26). Let us avoid looking at our pastors, priests, professors of theology for our spiritual guidance, and stop that constricted, denominational, Creedbound mentality. Rather, let’s look unto Jesus alone, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12.1-4). He alone is the “head of every man” (1Cor.11.3). We ought to learn to distrust theologies that do not proceed from the plain “Thus saith the Lord”, “to the law and the testimony” (Isa. 8.20), “the law and the prophets”, and “what is written in the law.” Furthermore, we must distrust those who assume religious titles as if giving them authority to dictate unto our consciences what to think and what to believe (Mtt.23.8-12), because Jesus alone is our Head. God’s name is called “Holy and Reverend” (Ps. 111.9). To what human being is such a title befitting? Calling any one “Reverend” is blasphemy and inappropriate. God alone is “Holy” and “Reverend.”

What horrible practice our religious leaders are doing today with their appellations! It results in their church 186

White, Review and Herald, August 1, 1893, public domain: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1893&month=August&day =1&paragraphReferences=0.

187

White, The Review and Herald, August 24, 1897, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&QUERY=Jesus&resultId=39102& year=1897&month=August&day=24.

188

White, Review and Herald, July 24, 1888, quoted in Magdadaro, p. 116-117.

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members looking to them like brute beasts, following their every guidance, and their wrong, ungodly interpretations of Scriptures. But we ought to discover the truth with our own eyes and “search the Scriptures,” verifying whether what was preached in the pulpits are from Scriptures or not (Acts 17.11) and to be fully persuaded by our own judgements (Rom.14.5), and not to decide using the judgement of some great religious leaders or church pastors, but direct from what “thus saith the LORD”, and not what “thus saith the church,” is or what “thus saith the creed” says. Ecclesiastical pronouncements, church decisions, dogma, doctrines, and theology that contradict God’s plain statement are nothing but human opinions and a corrupting of God’s Laws. This is always the universal and perpetual sin of the theologians. They falsify God’s Commandments to mean what He did not mean. Rome is responsible for most of the errors in Christendom. But the Evangelicals who accepted Romish errors are not guiltless. It pays to stand in our own individual liberties in Christ, and in His strength alone, and not by the opinions of learned scholars who had the bad habit of poisoning God’s words with their mediocre concepts and their love of the imperfect and the unJewish.

We could have learned a lot from God’s word, such wonderful truths that is life for the soul and brings joy to our dead senses had not the theologians interposed with their gross errors. Calvin was poisoned by philosophies, and Luther too, to some extent. Our theologians of today would not see further truths beyond what their pioneers had saw. Their beliefs were limited in creeds, papers, and ecclesiastical pronouncements with ecclesiastical sanctions. But God’s word is not to be confined in creeds and ecclesiastical set of definitions. Nor it is discovered by the learned scholars alone. Rather, God choses the theologically untrained prophets, the peasants and common workers like Christ, and the prophets of old, and the apostles who are mostly fishermen because they are not self-conceited about their learning, and God can easily teach them His grand truths in life and salvation. Paul was a trained theologian, but he had to become foolish in Christ and unlearn many errors in order to learn God’s way which is simple and true. When we accept the Scriptures as our guide, church doctrines and creeds must give way. Now the Papacy sets pace when it comes to teaching a lot of errors. The Protestants should accept only what the Scripture says, and not mere inferences nor suppositions. They must go back to Jerusalem from the darkness of Babylon. A lot of our theologies sound like philosophies. The revelation God gave to Israel was plain, clear, and simple, adaptable to man’s fallen condition, and fitted to perfectly restore him to divine perfection. Jesus, Paul, the prophets and apostles made the Law clearer. Let us not do something that darkens the brightness of that Law as it is in Jesus, for without this light, we would be groping in darkness, confused with our definitions of what salvation is all about. The safest ground is to reject whatever is false in Calvinism and accept what is true in it, and reject what is false in Arminianism, and accept what is true in it. If we read to Bible carefully, hyper-calvinism is spurious and truly heretical, and so with extreme Arminianism. What I have expounded with the use of Ellen G. White statements in point number 5 under “How to Treat Sin Abnormalities” is the correct one because it is Biblically substantiated, compared to what Evangelical theologians have done. Those who dare say that it is inappropriate for one to assail time-honoured theology should better read their Bibles once more. We cannot afford God’s intentions for our complete and perfect restoration to be blurred with the cobwebs of wrong theology, -especially by those whom we esteem for a long time as our spiritual guides. “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” (Jer. 17.5). Christians whose heart are now very far from God depend on human opinions, and will greedily read the works of the theologians instead of reading God’s words. Instead of admiring the words and saying of Jesus, they read systematic theology, and appreciates the works of the theologians than the plain life-giving words of Christ. To them, the words of Jesus were tasteless and boring. The natural result of this feeling is to direct the sentiments into the realm of what is sophistical and man-made novelties of the various works of the contradicting theologians. Why should I appreciate the writings of the apostle Paul, Augustine, Calvin, and Luther when Jesus has the best thoughts and best utterances my soul needs? “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.” (Jn. 14.23, 24) “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.” (Jn. 8.31)“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.” (Lk. 9.26) “But whoso keepeth His word, in Page 163 of 174

him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.” (1Jn. 2.5). Yet how many of us have cherished and memorized the words, sayings, and emphasis of Jesus, our precious best Friend? He is the Person that filled Paul’s heart with admiration, and the One whose existence on earth the prophets and kings desired to look into, -“For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” (Lk. 10.24; Jn. 8.56). The Spirit wrote through Paul, therefore it is necessary to read Paul’s letters. But theology did not begun with Paul, but with Messiah Himself as the Word of God, the LOGOS –God’s immaterial Intelligence who afterward became material, and holds the existence of everything in systematic order.

Concerning Jesus, The Law and the Prophets points to Him, and Paul and the Apostles pointed to Him. Therefore our appreciation of Christ’s words should be greater than our appreciation for Paul’s letters because the words of Christ mean eternal life, while the Spirit through Paul is but a theology and understanding about Christ and His Person.. And verily, Paul's letters obliged us about overcoming sin in the sinful flesh more than any writer, fully instructing us to perfectly obey as Christ obeyed, and to cease from sin, as Christ in the sinful flesh did. He did not give us an easy view of salvation by talking only about receiving grace and doing nothing. His theology about Christ is that we ought to do as Christ did in that sinful flesh. Therefore, the Commandments of Christ matters to Paul. Christ’s Commandments are God’s Commandments and are still valid until today, and is more authoritative than all the writings of any apostle, prophet, and theologian.

Instead of making Paul, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, look big, we ought to make Jesus and His testimony bigger. The testimony of Jesus is the prophetic inspiration that exists in the remnant movement (Revelation 12:17; Revelation 19:10). That testimony makes Jesus great, because by now the greatness of His person was eclipsed by that “man of lawlessness” the papacy, and its minions, the Evangelicals who teach similar things like what the Papacy teaches. It obstructs the glory of Christ’s perfect humanity, our Example so we cannot view the beauty and power of the humanity of Christ how He overcame as a man and be our perfect Example to be followed by all who call Himself His followers, because of the too many wrong considerations (wrong theologies) brought in to the world by these Papal churches.

The argument that God’s Commandments is still viable is good, but the additional poison that adds that you can't keep it is false and irrational. Of course, in our own strength we cannot. But Christ always strengthens our choices when we put our will to do God's will. Those who have no experience of God’s salvation and love as revealed in the slain Lamb has no reason to keep God’s Law, and will not be able to keep any of it. But those who realized that AGAPE, and yet persist in the reason that they cannot obey the Law are confused in their own theology. How can one realize God’s deep love and yet such realization does nothing within his/her life? The following stumbling blocks as what I have enumerated must be removed and thoroughly rejected because those doctrines by the Papacy and Evangelicals laid too deep in the moral consciousness of many people making it hard for them to see the other way. Salvation, complete and perfect moral restoration is what God intends for the lost race, and because He gave all of Himself, He expects us all to be saved, and be wholly His in soul, spirit, and our physical bodies. Because we are bought with a price, we are obliged to render Him our service. Our salvation is obligatory. God expects us to be saved, and treats us as though we are already restored to Him. Yet many refuse. Our part is to let Him save us, and live in His love, and that’s easy because that is what He expects from us. Verily we have a part to act, and the part is very, very simple, yet He requires it. He wants to be our Lord and Saviour. Why don’t we let Him? And after we let Him, why grow weary and turn out of the way? Why? Because the responsibility to be careful with our choices lies in our hands. It is left with us to take care of our own salvation. It is true that God holds us with the hand that will not let go. But the reality in Mk. 4.18, 19 should not be missed. He keeps on holding us by His providences. With regards to salvific providences, God lacked nothing. He did all for our development and salvation, with all incentives and providences and holding of our hands. (Isa. 5.4) We have the tendency to forget and grow careless, and to deliberately slip from His hands. God will not do the remembering for us, or the careful cherishing of His love for us. That is our act. He loved us, but He expects to be equally loved in return. This is not a one-way covenant where the creature is passively admitted to heaven as if they are inanimate objects who cannot realize what love is. It is always a two-way communication, a two-way mode: God saving us in Christ & man lives by being steadfast to that salvific reality: NOT that God saves us & man has no part but to passively Page 164 of 174

accept the gift without any warmth of affection, no AGAPE response TOWARD GOD. God’s loves man with faithfulness and steadfastness. But man must equally respond with exactly the same trustworthy steadfastness and fire of love, such as He can be pleased and satisfied. Or else, He might have come down to earth and receive only an ungrateful response from His creatures who do not value His great sacrifices. Man’s response is necessary and required. But there is no reason to brag for it after we accomplished our part (Lk. 17.7-10 – this text is very important). When God commands us to REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY, He will not do the remembering of the Sabbath for us, nor the keeping holy of that Sabbath. He commands us to obey, but He will not do the obeying for us, it is us who must obey, and prove ourselves obedient and faithful to His every command. He does not command and He obeys what He commands. That’s nonsense. (Mura Syag amahan na nag sugo sa iyang bata na mag hugas plato, taz Cya ra gyapun mutuman sa Iyang sariling sugo = That’s the same thing like a Father who instructs his child to wash the dishes, and the father himself obeys his own instruction, while the child does nothing. Such theology is crazy. God will not do the obeying for us. He strengthens us to obey, but we are the ones who must obey through the power He gave us.).

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Graham Maxwell, Morris D. Lewis, F.T. Wright, Gary Hullquist, “The Loving Wrath of God The Compatibility Between God’s Love and His Wrath” file:///C:/Users/PC/Downloads/LovingWrathHullquist.pdf, “How The Sabbath was changed”: http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath-history/how-the-sabbath-waschanged; John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible: Matthew 18: http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/matthew-18.html.

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Russell, Bertrand https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/whynot.html Thinkexist.com Finding Quotations was never this Easy http://thinkexist.com/quotation/beethoven_can_write_music-thank_god-but_he_can_do/294977.html Thomas Paine, Public domain: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/37343-it-is-from-the-bible-that-man-haslearned-cruelty.

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White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1891 (Selected Messages, Vol. 3: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=3SM&pagenumber=192&paragraphR eferences=1 White, Review and Herald, Nov. 21, 1882 (Temperance, p. 111), in Magdadaro, p. 113.

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White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1BC&pagenumber=1105).

White, Selected Messages Vol. 3: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/100.1131#1132.

White, Selected Messages, Vol. 3: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/100.1131#1132.

White, Signs of the Times, April 13, 1888: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/820.8768#8776 White, Signs of the Times, January 16, 1896: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=ST&lang=en&year=1896&mont h=January&day=16&paragraphReferences=0.

White, Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897, par. 8, quoted in Magdadaro, White, Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church (1898).

White, Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church, (1898) White, Steps to Christ, [1892, 1893]: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=SC&lang=en&pagenumber=101&pa ragraphReferences=1 White, Steps to Christ: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=SC&lang=en&pagenumber=32&para graphReferences=0.

White, Temperance: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=Te&pagenumber=111.

White, Testimonies for the church Vol. 1: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1T&pagenumber=187.

White, Testimonies for the Church Vol. 4: https://m.egwwritings.org/de/book/114.163#193.

White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/119.2286.

White, Testimonies for the church, vol. 3: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=3T&pagenumber=538 White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 8, p. 312 (quoted in Magdadaro, Ronnie C., What Did They Say About The Faith of Jesus, Unity in Present Truth Personal Ministries (2012)

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White, That I May Know Him: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&lang=en&pagenumber=304& m=1.

White, That I May Know Him: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&lang=en&pagenumber=256.

White, That I May Know Him: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TMK&pagenumber=281&paragraph References=0.

White, The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, Page 534. Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=1888&lang=en&pagenumber=534&m =1&paragraphReferences=1.

White, The Desire of Ages, (1898): https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=466.

White, The Desire of Ages: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&collection=2&section= all&pagenumber=409&UIlang=fr&t=1&paragraphReferences=1.

White, The Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da48.html) White, The Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da9.html.

White, The Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da26.html.

White, The Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da22.html.

White, The Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da48.html.

White, the Desire of Ages: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/da/da62.html.

White, The Desire of Ages: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=egqBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=god+did+not+ordain+that+sin+should+exist+but+he+foresaw&s ource=bl&ots=p_Cw1B05Yd&sig=xdNPf3KeQqLPZNNiD8ys5gh5qmw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjONnYld3QAhXJTrwKHRH0BdIQ6AEIJzAD#v=onepage&q=god%20did%20not%20ordain%20that%20sin% 20should%20exist%20but%20he%20foresaw&f=false.

White, The Desire of Ages: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&lang=en&pagenumber=74&par agraphReferences=0.

White, The Desire of Ages: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=588.

White, The Desire of Ages: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=DA&pagenumber=480.

White, The Great Controversy [1911]: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc30.html Page 172 of 174

White, The Ministry of Healing (1905): https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=MH&lang=en&pagenumber=364.

White, The Review and Herald, August 24, 1897: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&QUERY=Jesus&r esultId=39102&year=1897&month=August&day=24.

White, The Review and Herald, April 1, 1875: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1875&mont h=April&day=1&m=1&paragraphReferences=1 White, Review and Herald, "The Renewing of the Mind" , June 12, 1888, Public domain: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&QUERY=spirit+ %21evil&resultId=30070&year=1888&month=June&day=12.

White, The Review and Herald, Dec. 4, 1900: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=RH&lang=en&year=1900&mon th=December&day=4.

White, The Signs of the Times, September 7, 1891, quoted in Ye Shall Receive Power: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/153.2213#2217.

White, The Spirit of Prophecy Volume Four [1884]: http://www.lightministries.com/SDA/id632.htm White, The Story of the Patriarchs and Prophets (1890): https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=PP&lang=en&pagenumber=60.

White, The Upward Look: https://m.egwwritings.org/ro/book/147.2405#2411.

White, The Youth’s Instructor, February 1, 1873: https://m.egwwritings.org/ro/book/469.2000279#284.

White, The Youth's Instructor, January 28, 1897: https://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=YI&lang=en&year=1897&mont h=January&day=28.

White, This Day with God: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Book&bookCode=TDG&lang=en&collection=2&sectio n=all&pagenumber=145&UIlang=ru&t=1&paragraphReferences=1.

White, To Brother and Sister Roth, Nov. 9, 1911: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/10854.2000001#13.

White, Upward Look: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=LY9NAR8u4S0C&pg=PA298&lpg=PA298&dq=All+who+desire+to+ be+among+the+number+who+will+stand+before+God+without+fault+must+begin+without+delay&source=b l&ots=Wl1Grn4Irq&sig=-kVWDByfbkUKmD9y4rXg7z6K0Cs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTvK3qN_QAhUEebwKHe_dAKsQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=All%20who%20desire%20to%20be%20among%2 0the%20number%20who%20will%20stand%20before%20God%20without%20fault%20must%20begin%20w ithout%20delay&f=false.

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White, Youth’s Instructor, December 21, 1899: http://text.egwwritings.org/publication.php?pubtype=Periodical&bookCode=YI&lang=en&year=1899&month =December&day=21&m=1&paragraphReferences=1.

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