ENEMIES OF THE CROSS DOCTRINE

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Sep 3, 2016
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#1
Philippians 3:17-21 King James Version (KJV)

ENEMIES OF THE CROSS

[SUP]17 [/SUP]Brethren, be followers together of me (be "Fellow-imitators"), and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample (observe intently).

[SUP]18[/SUP](For many walk (speaks of those attempting to live for God outside of the victory and rudiments of the Cross of Christ), of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping (this is a most serious matter), that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ (those who do not look exclusively to the Cross of Christ must be labeled "enemies"):

[SUP]19[/SUP]Whose end is destruction (if the Cross is ignored, and continues to be ignored, the loss of the soul is the only ultimate conclusion), whose God is their belly (refers to those who attempt to pervert the Gospel for their own personal gain), and whose glory is in their shame (the material things they seek, God labels as "shame"), who mind earthly things.) (This means they have no interest in Heavenly things, which signifies they are using the Lord for their own personal gain.)

[SUP]20 [/SUP]For our conversation (citizenship) is in Heaven (meaning the other ways will have no place in Heaven); from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (the Rapture):

[SUP]21 [/SUP]Who (the Lord) shall change our vile body (the Resurrection), that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious body (every Saint will have a Glorified Body), according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. ("All things" are done through the Cross.)
 
Dec 12, 2013
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#2
Paul said that if he was going to glory he would glory in the cross of Christ....
 
Sep 3, 2016
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#3
Paul said that if he was going to glory he would glory in the cross of Christ....
"All things" are done through the Cross.
If you leave the Cross, you enter death!
Do you believe this?
 
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Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
24,167
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#4
Philippians 3:17-21 King James Version (KJV) ENEMIES OF THE CROSS


Christians need to be extremely careful to interpret the Word of God properly. Which also means to take the full context of a passage and then rightly divide it.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3 as to who are the enemies of the Cross. They are NOT other born again believers at all. But they are (1) dogs, (2) evil workers, and (3) the concision (those who mutilate the flesh in a false circumcision).

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. (Phil 3:2)

Who was Paul referring to? The Judaizers who had come into the churches and were preaching and teaching that unless Christians were circumcised and kept the whole Law of Moses, they could not be saved. That is why they were enemies of the Cross, since the finished work of Christ made the Old Covenant null and void, and no man could be saved "by the works of the Law". All must be justified by grace through faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Thus:

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (Phil 3:9)

Paul further describes these false teachers as follows, which is definitely not about genuine believers:

Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. (Phil 3:19).

Whose end is destruction = they are on their way to Hell

Whose God is their belly = self-indulgent and gluttonous people

Whose glory is their shame = circumcised in order to be saved

Who mind earthly things = they do not possess the Holy Spirit but walk in the flesh

So it
is extremely dangerous to misinterpret or misrepresent the Word of God. This should also be a warning to Sabbatarians who continue to mock the Lord's Day and believe that their Sabbatarianism makes them more holy.
 
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gb9

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
11,641
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#5
"All things" are done through the Cross.
If you leave the Cross, you enter death!
Do you believe this?
you are sitting under the teaching of a man who, while preaching the Gospel on t.v. , to millions of people, slept with prostitutes. not had to much to drink, not cuss someone out in a moment of anger, but went through the process of doing what he did.

now, I believe he can ( and maybe ) was forgiven by the Lord, but that does not make his teaching or ministry credible .
 
U

UnderGrace

Guest
#6
I really do not understand this :confused:, the cross is not an ongoing event for Jesus nor for us.


"All things" are done through the Cross.
If you leave the Cross, you enter death!
Do you believe this?
 
Sep 3, 2016
6,337
527
113
#7


Christians need to be extremely careful to interpret the Word of God properly. Which also means to take the full context of a passage and then rightly divide it.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3 as to who are the enemies of the Cross. They are NOT other born again believers at all. But they are (1) dogs, (2) evil workers, and (3) the concision (those who mutilate the flesh in a false circumcision).

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. (Phil 3:2)

Who was Paul referring to? The Judaizers who had come into the churches and were preaching and teaching that unless Christians were circumcised and kept the whole Law of Moses, they could not be saved. That is why they were enemies of the Cross, since the finished work of Christ made the Old Covenant null and void, and no man could be saved "by the works of the Law". All must be justified by grace through faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Thus:

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (Phil 3:9)

Paul further describes these false teachers as follows, which is definitely not about genuine believers:

Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. (Phil 3:19).

Whose end is destruction = they are on their way to Hell

Whose God is their belly = self-indulgent and gluttonous people

Whose glory is their shame = circumcised in order to be saved

Who mind earthly things = they do not possess the Holy Spirit but walk in the flesh

So it
is extremely dangerous to misinterpret or misrepresent the Word of God. This should also be a warning to Sabbatarians who continue to mock the Lord's Day and believe that their Sabbatarianism makes them more holy.

Now you are preaching! Beware of these modern day Judaizers who believe the message of the cross is foolish; by applying the Cross of Christ, i.e., The Finished work, i.e., The Blood of Jesus, to all problems.
 
Sep 3, 2016
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#8
you are sitting under the teaching of a man who, while preaching the Gospel on t.v. , to millions of people, slept with prostitutes. not had to much to drink, not cuss someone out in a moment of anger, but went through the process of doing what he did.

now, I believe he can ( and maybe ) was forgiven by the Lord, but that does not make his teaching or ministry credible .
​You believe this because you have fallen from grace. You are being oppressed by Satan (controlled).
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#9
It must be very discouraging to think of yourself as the one and only believer.

When I was just starting on my own, I was flat broke. The Lord took care of me by having his people come along and invite me to eat when I couldn't afford food. He just brought along people to feed me.

When hubby broke his back, (but was not paralyzed), the Lord took care of us, but we didn't know what to do. What do you do when you're the stay-at-home wife, and the single-income from husband suddenly stops while he's in a back brace? Of course I looked for and got jobs, but jobs picked up in an I'll-do-anything-as-long-as-it's-legal usually pay minimum wages or a little better, and hubby was a skilled mechanic, so made good money. The Lord gave us comfort and guidance through other Christians.

Two years later, we were coming out of all that, with debt upon debt. Not credit card debt, because if we had credit cards back then, (and I honestly don't remember if we did), we couldn't afford to use them. The kind of debt incurred simply from needing an apartment, food on the table, and some way to get to and from work. Add to that, we owed the IRS from the year before. It was tax season. And, because the year before that, we hadn't worked, we had to explain to the IRS why we didn't fill out a form to declare nothing. So, we told what happened, and suddenly they wanted proof of the seven years fore that. In those seven years, hubby and I didn't even know each other, met each other, fell in love, got married, and he broke his back two years and two days into that marriage. One thing we did through all that moving was lost our records, so we ended up paying taxes we already paid on a schedule created after I got proof of everything by going to every single town both of us had lived in in those seven years to ask for those records from every single employer. (Two places he worked before we met closed.)

We had no problems with the IRS taking years of our lives to pay back those taxes that were already paid, until one night -- Friday night at 8:58, two minutes before the IRS computer system went down -- I got a call telling me the IRS wanted $10,000 by Monday at 9 AM. This was the days when banks weren't open on weekends. And, we had just climbed out of a hole of debt to not have any savings, but no debt either, except to the IRS.

I freaked. I am glad I am not the one and only Christian, because I needed someone to freak to. Someone who would remind me to trust God, because hubby was just as freaked as I was and we both forgot to trust the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord gave us other believers to remind us not to freak. And by the following Tuesday, we still both had our jobs and our home, and a senator went to bat for us with the IRS, so everything stayed the same as far as paying them back went.

My grandmother died, and good thing we knew there were other believers who could give me words of comfort, that God gives us through others.

By now, I've battled my own sudden disability, and my husband has battled all three of the scariest ailments -- Hepatitis C, Kidney cancer, and a heart attack so bad it took him seven months to get to the point of finally coming home. For that last one, the Lord gave me people on this site to talk me down off the freak-ledge, and continue to remind me God has a handle on even that too.

I cannot imagine how hard it is to think you alone are the one and only believer. I have absolutely no idea how you survive during the hard times. How lonely that must be to think it is only God and you. And the rest of the world is just a bunch of ignorant, evil, hopeless people who need your form of education! How lonely you must be thinking you are the one and only.

I'm not even sure God is with you. I'm not sure you give him enough room to be with you.
 
Sep 3, 2016
6,337
527
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#10
It must be very discouraging to think of yourself as the one and only believer.

When I was just starting on my own, I was flat broke. The Lord took care of me by having his people come along and invite me to eat when I couldn't afford food. He just brought along people to feed me.

When hubby broke his back, (but was not paralyzed), the Lord took care of us, but we didn't know what to do. What do you do when you're the stay-at-home wife, and the single-income from husband suddenly stops while he's in a back brace? Of course I looked for and got jobs, but jobs picked up in an I'll-do-anything-as-long-as-it's-legal usually pay minimum wages or a little better, and hubby was a skilled mechanic, so made good money. The Lord gave us comfort and guidance through other Christians.

Two years later, we were coming out of all that, with debt upon debt. Not credit card debt, because if we had credit cards back then, (and I honestly don't remember if we did), we couldn't afford to use them. The kind of debt incurred simply from needing an apartment, food on the table, and some way to get to and from work. Add to that, we owed the IRS from the year before. It was tax season. And, because the year before that, we hadn't worked, we had to explain to the IRS why we didn't fill out a form to declare nothing. So, we told what happened, and suddenly they wanted proof of the seven years fore that. In those seven years, hubby and I didn't even know each other, met each other, fell in love, got married, and he broke his back two years and two days into that marriage. One thing we did through all that moving was lost our records, so we ended up paying taxes we already paid on a schedule created after I got proof of everything by going to every single town both of us had lived in in those seven years to ask for those records from every single employer. (Two places he worked before we met closed.)

We had no problems with the IRS taking years of our lives to pay back those taxes that were already paid, until one night -- Friday night at 8:58, two minutes before the IRS computer system went down -- I got a call telling me the IRS wanted $10,000 by Monday at 9 AM. This was the days when banks weren't open on weekends. And, we had just climbed out of a hole of debt to not have any savings, but no debt either, except to the IRS.

I freaked. I am glad I am not the one and only Christian, because I needed someone to freak to. Someone who would remind me to trust God, because hubby was just as freaked as I was and we both forgot to trust the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord gave us other believers to remind us not to freak. And by the following Tuesday, we still both had our jobs and our home, and a senator went to bat for us with the IRS, so everything stayed the same as far as paying them back went.

My grandmother died, and good thing we knew there were other believers who could give me words of comfort, that God gives us through others.

By now, I've battled my own sudden disability, and my husband has battled all three of the scariest ailments -- Hepatitis C, Kidney cancer, and a heart attack so bad it took him seven months to get to the point of finally coming home. For that last one, the Lord gave me people on this site to talk me down off the freak-ledge, and continue to remind me God has a handle on even that too.

I cannot imagine how hard it is to think you alone are the one and only believer. I have absolutely no idea how you survive during the hard times. How lonely that must be to think it is only God and you. And the rest of the world is just a bunch of ignorant, evil, hopeless people who need your form of education! How lonely you must be thinking you are the one and only.

I'm not even sure God is with you. I'm not sure you give him enough room to be with you.
​Apply the Cross to the problem and receive grace!!!!!!!
 

gb9

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
11,641
6,276
113
#11
​You believe this because you have fallen from grace. You are being oppressed by Satan (controlled).
sooo, I am oppressed by satan because your pastor confessed ( on T.V. ) to having a fling with a prostitute ?? o.k.
 
U

UnderGrace

Guest
#13
Hmm...the consummation of Jesus picking up His cross was to be nailed to it and then He died on it and then He rose from the dead.

The message of the cross is only half the story (truth).

So I understand picking up my cross...... I also understand living on the the other side of the cross, in Victory, over the power of sin and death.


What part of "Pick up your cross and follow me" don't you understand?
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
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#14

Now you are preaching! Beware of these modern day Judaizers who believe the message of the cross is foolish; by applying the Cross of Christ, i.e., The Finished work, i.e., The Blood of Jesus, to all problems.
Your "modern-day Judaizers" idea is hogwash. It completely obfuscates who the Judaizers were and what they attempted to achieve.

Instead of mixing truth with error, try reading the Bible without someone's commentary on it. Get back to the plain truth.
 
Sep 3, 2016
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#15
Hmm...the consummation of Jesus picking up His cross was to be nailed to it and then He died on it and then He rose from the dead.

The message of the cross is only half the story (truth).

So I understand picking up my cross...... I also understand living on the the other side of the cross, in Victory, over the power of sin and death.
Please study this and never forget this:

Jesus Explains the Purpose of Speaking in Parables

Matthew 13:10-14

10 And the Disciples came, and said unto Him
(seems to pertain to a later time when they were alone), Why do you speak to them in Parables? (This portrays consternation on their part!)

11 He answered and said unto them
(concerns the Lord's method of dealing with two different classes of people, those who really wanted to know God's way and those who were merely curious), Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given (two categories are here presented; in which category are you?).

12 For whosoever has
(and wants more), to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance (if one wills Righteousness, the Lord wills more Righteousness to them): but whosoever has not (no interest for more), from him shall be taken away even that he has (he not only loses what he could have had, but even that which he has; to those who accept the Cross, they will have even more, and to those who reject the Cross, they will lose everything, even that which they previously had).

13 Therefore speak I to them in Parables
(in order to separate those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness from those who don't): because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand (that is, they do not wish to see or hear or understand; and hence by a just judgment they lose this triple moral ability).

14 And in them
(those who reject the Cross [1 Cor. 1:23]) is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive (a willing deafness, a willful blindness, and a willful dullness; this Passage is quoted in one form or the other some seven times in the New Testament [Mat. 13:14-15; Mk. 4:12; LK. 8:10; Jn. 12:39-40; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8]):

JSM
 
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Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,395
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#16
"All things" are done through the Cross.
If you leave the Cross, you enter death!
Do you believe this?
if your asking me if salvation can be lost or forfeit.....no I do not believe that in any way, shape or form
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,395
113
#17
Hmm...the consummation of Jesus picking up His cross was to be nailed to it and then He died on it and then He rose from the dead.

The message of the cross is only half the story (truth).

So I understand picking up my cross...... I also understand living on the the other side of the cross, in Victory, over the power of sin and death.
Catholics have Jesus permanently nailed to the cross........
 
U

UnderGrace

Guest
#20
Yes, I remember seeing a carving of Jesus on the crucifix stare down at me in Church when I was little.

That image made Jesus seem to me permanently powerless or permanently suffering, I think thankfully it is not as common in North America as it was.

Catholics have Jesus permanently nailed to the cross........