I am not speaking on my own; it is the truth that is speaking.
Because this does not come from me, what you are calling 'silly, ignorant tripe' is actually the truth.
How do we distinguish false Christ & false Prophets according to Our Lord?
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Because this does not come from me, what you are calling 'silly, ignorant tripe' is actually the truth.
At a time when my knowledge of the Lord Jesus came only from my preacher or that is, from other people, whenever I read the Holy Scriptures, I understood them only in their literal sense. I believed that there is only one God, and that belief became the very point at which the Lord God tested me to see whether I truly knew the one true God.
When that test came, my answer to myself was, "Yes, I know Him."
Then one day I read Revelation 4:2, which speaks of a single throne in heaven with the one God seated upon it. Since I had been claiming that I knew the one true God, I felt as though the Lord was asking me, "Who is this one God seated on the throne in heaven?"
At first, I avoided answering the question because I kept insisting to myself that I already knew the one true God. But eventually, there came a moment when I surrendered and confessed before the Lord God that I did not truly know Him after all.
That, I realized, was the humility God had been waiting to see in me, the willingness to admit before Him that I did not really know Him. My understanding of God had come from other people rather than from God Himself.
Because God saw that humility in me, He personally revealed Himself to me. The Lord made Himself known through a few verses in the Holy Scriptures.
Through that experience, I became convinced that it is God who reveals Himself to people, not people who reveal God to one another.
After that, I have come to accept that God speaks in parables. And whenever I opened the Scriptures, I began to see a different kind of understanding. I realized that God Himself was enabling me to understand His word because I had come to know Him (Proverbs 2:6).
One thing I can honestly say is that I have not even read one-fourth of the entire Bible. Yet because the Lord God is the one who gives me understanding, the relatively small portion that I have read has been sufficient for me to share the truth with others.
So if the Lord Jesus were to appear and ask me about his given test in 1 John 4:2–3 regarding who the Jesus Christ who came in the flesh is, I would be able to answer Him with confidence and humility. I would know that my answer is the truth, because it does not come from me or from any other person, but from the Lord God Himself, who gives understanding of the truth in His Word.
1 JOHN 4:2-3
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
You truly cannot see, for any person who does not know the one true God is blind before God.
JOHN 8:54-55
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:
55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
JOHN 9:40-41
40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
Your constant insistence that I do not know God is insipid and asinine. You have no evidence for your assertion.
: In the verses immediately following, Paul explains exactly what this bondage means: "if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law" (Galatians 5:2-3). Trying to keep parts of the law binds a person to perfect compliance with all of it.
Gak 2 Paul is writing to the Galatians because false teachers had convinced them that believing in Jesus was not enough—they claimed the men also needed to undergo the Jewish rite of circumcision to be saved.
Paul strongly corrects this by explaining that if you try to use a physical ritual of the Law for your salvation, you are obligated to keep all 613 commandments perfectly, which is impossible.
It's certainly correct that we're to ask God with a humble heart for wisdom and understanding. This should be common practice in believers and I've no issue with it. Praise God for any wisdom you've received.
Much of the Bible is literal though; God's word has parables and plain speech. I mean, "Thou shalt not steal" means just that, doesn't it? Whichever kind of stealing we refer to...
Would you share your vision of fasting as something parabolic? Thank you.
Much of the Bible is literal though; God's word has parables and plain speech. I mean, "Thou shalt not steal" means just that, doesn't it? Whichever kind of stealing we refer to...
Would you share your vision of fasting as something parabolic? Thank you.
The only evidence I have is what God has revealed to me about you.
And the Lord God has revealed that you did not pass the test set forth in 1 John 4:2–3.
It is not surprising that those who do not know the one true God would say such things. For if the Lord Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6), then they regard Him as a liar.
JOHN 2:19-20
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
MATTHEW 27:40
40 And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
However, the truth is that those who do not know the one true God are the ones who are truly considered liars before the Lord.
This comes straight from the Lord Jesus Himself.
JOHN 8:54-55
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:
55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
And because they do not know the God they worship, their father is the devil, the father of lies.
JOHN 8:44
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
REAL PROPHETS:
The Lord Jesus, in His role as the Son of the Living God, demonstrated through His example how to fast, as He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. When He said to the devil that man does not live by literal bread alone, He also taught that man must be nourished by the Word of God.
MATTHEW 4:3-4
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The Word of God that the Lord Jesus speaks of as food is not simply the literal Word of God, but rather God’s revelation of truth within His Word, which the Lord God provides as nourishment for His chosen people.
For eating the truth in the Word of God is the nourishment of the soul, because it is the soul that will be with Him in eternal life.
This is what the prophet Jeremiah, a prophet of God, partook of.
JEREMIAH 15:16
16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
Which was also what the Apostle John, as one chosen by the Lord Jesus, partook of.
REVELATION 10:9
9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
In God’s revelation, it is clear that the book referred to by the Apostle John is the Holy Book where the words of God are read.
Let us remember that eating the Word of God does not come from human understanding (Jeremiah 17:5) or from our own understanding (Pro 3:5), but from God’s revelation of the truth in His Word (Mark 4:34).
It has been revealed to us that fasting, in which a person becomes hungry, is meant to show that a person should hunger for the truth in the Word of God. And for God to feed a person with the truth in His Word, humility is required. Therefore, fasting is the act of humbling oneself before God.”
2 CHRONICLES 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Asking God with an humble heart, He will reveal the truth.
2 CHRONICLES 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
To take the word of God in literal meaning as basis of Salvation is not the truth.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:6
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
For the benefit of taking the literal meaning of the Word of God is only for the flesh or the body, which ultimately temporal and ends in the cemetery.
While the benefit of the spiritual meaning of the Word of God is eternal, it is for the soul, which will dwell with God in eternal life
2 CORINTHINAS 4:18
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Could you say that before the Lord who spoke in Psalm 78:2, Ezekiel 20:49, and Mark 4:34?
You are like the Scribes and Pharisees who refuse to believe that the Lord speaks in parables. And that is not from me; it is what the Lord has spoken, and I am simply sharing it here.
JOHN 2:19-20
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
How? By loving truth (2Thes. 2:10-3) and testing all things, keeping what harmonizes (1Thes. 5:21).
That is idiotic. I have made clear my certainty that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. If you think I have said otherwise, then quote me.
I suppose that the only possible way is to be affected by the truth for the sake of truth and good of others, (thus, also, if only possible, being loyal to the Lord jesus Christ and life according to His commandments above all,), for otherwise how can be a follower of a false prophet, thus of any tradition, positioning itself as the true one, see the truth for what it is, or sees the truth as differentiated from falsity, thus, will see it from the Lord and not from the false authorities of his own tradition/family/community/church/society?
Human understanding is often very far from the truth revealed in God's Word.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Every group in Christianity today claims that Jesus has come in the flesh. However, the truth is evident that there are four different understandings of who Jesus has come in the flesh is. As a result, they have different doctrines and different teachings regarding salvation.
This is strong evidence that not everyone who says "Jesus has come in the flesh" passes the test given by the Lord Jesus (1 John 4:2-3).
Rather, the real test is: WHO is Jesus who has come in the flesh? The answer to that question determines whether one's confession is true or false.
The truth is never foolish. Instead, those who are merely natural-minded (People who have not come to know the one true God) consider the truth to be foolishness.
1 CORINTHIANS 2:14
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
However, according to the truth revealed by the Lord God, those who do not know the one true God are regarded as foolish before God.
They are people who speak from the Word of God, yet they do not know the one true God.
As a result, they do not recognize who Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh, really is.
JEREMIAH 4:22
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Because your interpretation of the test in 1 John 4:2–3 is that it is sufficient merely to confess that Jesus has come in the flesh, rather than to know WHO Jesus who has come in the flesh truly is. Once again, God has revealed that you are a natural man.
Yes, being faithful or loyal to Jesus is a great matter when it comes to salvation.
To remain faithful or loyal to Jesus, one must accept His statement that He speaks in parables.
MARK 4:34
34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
When you accept this, you are essentially entrusting everything for salvation to Jesus. Thus, He becomes the one who reveals truth to you through the Word of God, as He works in those He has chosen.
MATTHEW 13:10-11
10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Remember, the Lord Jesus only grants what is heavenly, or the truth in the Word of God, which benefits the soul, for it is the soul that He will reap. This is what should be requested from Jesus.
I hope you will also remain faithful or loyal to what Jesus said, that things which benefit the flesh or the body should not be asked of Him.
JOHN 6:63
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.