Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Where Will You Be In One Million Years?


Where Will You Be In One Million Years?
Do we spend a lot of time thinking about that? Or, are we *too busy?* Too busy with *more important* matters? Too busy fretting over our declining standard of living? Too obsessed with our neighbors' husband/wife and/or son/daughter? Too frightened by the *terror* threat? *Global warming?* *Illegal* immigration? Bird flu? Disappearing honeybees? The latest celebrity breakdown? Just too depressed because we only have 3 Facebook*friends?*

What a blessing, if we were to be locked alone in an empty room for three days with a loudspeaker quietly transmitting the following question every fifteen minutes:

Where will you be in one million years?

Nothing else matters.

Everything else is distraction.

No matter our varying frames of reference, one truth holds for all:

We will be dead for infinitely longer than we are alive.

Thus, this world is a triviality.

But it has snared most. The masses are so lost in the trivial pursuit, their own eternal nature eludes them.

The Spirit of this Letter is obvious.

But only those who are to be quickened by the Spirit of God will recognize its truth.

The rest remain dead. The Walking Dead, following the Fashion of the Age. . .the Walking Dead, that mass of humanity which is but a Pyre, burning on the Lusts of the Age. . .

The Dead are most welcome to remain. . .as it is written:

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.

No offense is taken from the Dead who remain to be amused by the perceived foolishness of the Letter. . .if in their State of Limbo on this Earth, the perceived foolishness of the Letter comforts their deceit, it is not begrudged. . .it is their narcotic which allows brief moments of pleasure.

If we use the abstraction of one million years to peer into Eternity, and see the Dead in the Torments of the Lake of Fire, their artificial pleasures in this World, which in the temporal appear gross and disturbing, can be viewed almost as a merciful Stay of Execution. . .not a Last Supper, but a Last Meal. So all are welcome to stay and enjoy the remainder. . .

The Eternal Question:

Who am I?

Why can't it be answered? Because man is a creature. . .the offspring of the creation of an Infinitely Superior Being. Man can no more tell you who he is than a chair can tell you what it is.

Man does not know where he came from, nor does he know where he is going.

Man's *great achievement,* that which is called *Civilization* (defined as man's attempt to organize himself into the appearance of meaningful purpose), is but the blind stumblings of the ignorant. *Civilization* is x number of thousands of years old. . .it began as a pathetic shack in the plains of Shinar, and all of human history can be seen as just a series of shoddy, tacky add-ons. . .
*Civilization* is the make-work project of humanity. . .the busy work which the Dead occupy themselves until their flesh-and-blood bodies perish.

To what can we liken *Civilization?*

*Civilization* is like unto the baskets weaved by defectives in mental hospitals. . .

Who am I?

We do not understand our own behavior, our own motivations, our own desires.

It is written:

O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

We imagine we are the Masters of our own Lives. . .we have ambitions, goals, we aspire to *Self-Actualize*. . .but it is written:

A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Who am I?

We are the offspring of the creation of the Infinitely Superior Being.

The History of the Creation:

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. He set them in an Earthly Paradise (Eden). Immortality in their flesh-and-blood bodies would be granted, if they could follow His few simple rules. Satan, that old serpent, captured Eve's mind, and she did that which her Creator forbid her to do. Adam followed Eve in her disobedience. This was the End of Paradise on Earth. Exile, Misery and Death have reigned through the Ages. . .

The vast majority of human lives have been short and ugly. Miscarriages, stillbirths, abortions, puerperal fever, etc., etc.

And what of those who managed to survive more than a handful of years? Brutal, futile existences scarred by poverty, disease and violence.

It is written of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World who upholds the universe by the word of His power, once fed the multitudes from five loaves and two fishes. . .He produced enough bread and fish to feed thousands, and after the people had eaten, there was still much food. Jesus said to His disciples:

Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

Our Lord was not a wastrel. Gather up the food, keep it, it will provide many more meals. Do not let it remain on the ground, to rot under the sun and turn to garbage.

But what is the History of the Creation, but a garbage heap of wasted humanity? Jesus ordered the loaves and fishes to be saved. . .but the mass of humanity?

One could accuse God through a thousand questions. This is the pastime of infidels. Through arrogance and pride, they deny the Creator with their accusations. But it is written:


Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?

Where will we be in one million years? The Lord Jesus Christ told a very simple parable with which we can answer this question:

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Where will we be in one million years? Will we be with Jesus and the just in New Jerusalem? Or with the wicked in the Lake of Fire?

How will the angels know the wicked from the just? Is it based on how well we live our lives?

No, for it is written:

There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. . .For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Who are the Just?

The Just are the ones who know the answer to the question:

Who am I?

Let us not answer with our *pet peeves* or our favorite flavor of ice cream or our sexual preference.

When the question *Who am I?* is asked, it does not matter who WE are. We? Who are we?

We are the offspring of sin. We are the end of the long line of corruption, which stretches back to the mortified Adam and Eve, as they stood staring at each other's nakedness in the Garden of Eden. That's who we are. We shall die in our sins unless we can answer the question:

Who am I?

It is written:

Jesus went out, and His disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

The Lord Jesus Christ asks:

Who am I?

The Just are the ones who know the answer.

Who is Jesus?


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. . .But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God. . .all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The History of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Jesus is God. Without beginning, without end. All things were created by Him. All things were created for Him. His creation followed the way of Satan. He left eternity and entered His creation. He was rejected by His creation. He tolerated His creation's abuse of Him. He tolerated His creation's crucifixion of Him. He died for His creation, leaving their sins nailed to His cross. He rose from the dead--as the proof of His claims and as His creation's hope.

Who am I?

We are the creation. We were created for Him.

The way of the world:

The spirit of the false religions creates gods for every man. For every man there is a religion that suits his corruption. For every man, there is a god who is created in that man's image. All paths lead to God? No, all paths lead to man.

Only one path leads to God. The path laid out by Jesus Christ, of Whom it is written:

But was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God.

We can only believe in the one true God by Jesus Christ.

The spirit of ecumenicism:

Man tries to topple God from His throne.

The folly of unmerited arrogance:

We offend God with our self-serving religions, and then imagine He will welcome us into eternity with open arms.

Who are the Just?

God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son (the faith God placed in us removes the stumbling blocks from the Trinity), to earth to restore man to his prelapsarian condition. The Just are the ones who understand God the Father will only welcome into eternity those who enter by the Door of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the Just. . .the Justified.

As our Lord Jesus Christ spoke:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. . .I am the good shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. . .Therefore doth my Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.

How can a man know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life?

Christianity is the dominant *religion* in the United States. But when we survey the landscape, we see no evidence of the faith. It is written:

And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

But in America, the vast majority of *Christians* continue to walk according to the course of this world. Christians live just like infidels. . .the only difference is they futilely try to serve two Masters.

A fundamental problem with contemporary American *Christianity* is the cult's answer to the question:

How can a man know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life?


Here is the typical American Christian response (this was taken from an actual American Christian website. . .you can find similar all over the internet, and in countless little paper tracts littering the American landscape):

Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible tells us that Jesus is God in the flesh, God become a human being (see John 1:1,14). God came to earth to teach us, heal us, correct us, forgive us - and die for us! Jesus Christ is God, the Creator, the sovereign Lord. Have you accepted this Jesus?

What is a Savior and why do we need a Savior? The Bible tells us that we have all sinned, we have all committed evil acts (Romans 3:10-18). As a result of our sin, we are worthy of God's anger and judgment. The only just punishment for sins committed against an infinite and eternal God is an infinite punishment (Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:11-15). That is why we need a Savior!

Jesus Christ came to earth and died in our place. Jesus' death, as God in the flesh, was an infinite payment for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins (Romans 5:8). Jesus paid the price so that we would not have to. Jesus' resurrection from the dead proved that His death was sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins. That is why Jesus is the one and only Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)! Are you trusting in Jesus as your Savior?

Is Jesus your "personal" Savior? Many people view Christianity as attending church, performing rituals, not committing certain sins. That is not Christianity. True Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Accepting Jesus as your personal Savior means placing your own personal faith and trust in Him. No one is saved by the faith of others. No one is forgiven by doing certain deeds. The only way to be saved is to personally accept Jesus as your Savior, trusting His death as the payment for your sins, and His resurrection as your guarantee of eternal life (John 3:16). Is Jesus personally your Savior?

If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, say the following words to God. Remember, saying this prayer or any other prayer will not save you. It is only trusting in Christ that can save you from sin. This prayer is simply a way to express to God your faith in Him and thank Him for providing for your salvation. "God, I know that I have sinned against you and deserve punishment. But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in Him I could be forgiven. I receive your offer of forgiveness and place my trust in You for salvation. I accept Jesus as my personal Savior! Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness - the gift of eternal life! Amen!"

Have you made a decision for Christ because of what you have read here? If so, please click on the "I have accepted Christ today" button below.

It is true Jesus is God. It is true we all are sinners. It is true Jesus was our substitute on the Cross, and His shed blood cleanses from sin. It is true we must have faith to be saved.

What's the problem?

The problem is:

According to the Standard American Evangelism *plan of salvation,* WE ACCEPT JESUSWE determine, through our own reasoning, that Jesus is the Savior, and WE decide we will accept Him.

The Billy Graham-type of crusade, the TV preachers weeping every Sunday morning, the literature of the tracts, etc., present Jesus as an unfulfilled Savior who needs His self-esteem boosted by having lots and lots of *friends* who love Him.

I died for you, now please accept Me, they have Him beg. . .

Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus tells us He came to earth not to beg us to love Him, but:

I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father.

When Jesus stood among the unbelieving Jews in the temple, He didn't beg them to *accept* Him:

If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My word. 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. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not. Which of you convinceth Me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

Jesus came to do the will of His Father, not to beg us to accept Him.

JESUS IS NOT SOME LONELY NERD, ROAMING THE STREETS LOOKING FOR FRIENDS!

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SITS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER! FAR ABOVE ALL PRINCIPALITY, POWER AND MIGHT! FAR ABOVE EVERY NAME THAT IS NAMED! THE ANGELS IN HEAVEN SING HIS PRAISES!

And American Christianity presents Him as knocking on hearts, hat in hand, asking for reprobates to *accept* Him?

The arrogance to think we can *accept* Christ and *allow* Him to be our Savior!!!

Jesus Christ is KING OF KINGS!! Do we really think He frets over our opinion of Him? Let us get over ourselves and recognize what He said:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one.

God the Father gave God the Son x number of sheep. . .OUR OPINION DOES NOT MATTER. God's will over-rules.

It is written:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Those who claim they *accepted* Jesus claim responsibility for their faith. In essence, they boast they saved themselves, through their own intellect. They decided Jesus was the Savior, and so they give their faith to Him. They invert the scripture. . .they claim they are saved by their faith which they give to Jesus.

How can a man know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life?

Our Lord and Savior plainly declared:

No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.

We cannot *accept* Jesus. . .

Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.

Who am I?

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.

Flesh and blood cannot reveal Christ.

It is written:

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

Man on his own cannot *accept* Jesus Christ. . .God must reveal it to him by the Spirit.

It may seem a trivial matter of semantics. . .but when we survey the *Christian* landscape of America, and see it differs little from the rest of the world, let us understand the mind of the Christian. In his mind, he has *accepted* Jesus Christ. He evaluated the claims made by and about Christ, and decided with his own intelligence the claims were true.

Or, to put it in the American fashion, he shopped for a god, and decided Christ was the best model. These *Christians* will tell us in all sincerity that Jesus died for their sins. . .that their faith is in Jesus. . .but in reality, their faith is in themselves.

The proof is all around us. When trouble comes, they rush to a doctor or a psychiatrist for a pill. . .they rush to a lawyer for blood money or to escape their responsibilities. . .when confronted, they use their fists. . .when trouble comes to their nation, they call on the military. . .when trouble comes, they solve their own problems, shopping for the best solution. . .they NEVER rely on the Lord. Every solution they embrace contradicts the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How is it American Christians can support a criminal war after criminal in the Middle East? How can they claim to follow the Way of Christ, when Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to love your enemies, and then the Christians pray for their Presidents and support them in their ghoulish wars on terror?

The Way, the faith of Christ, cannot be reconciled with the way of the world. . .

The Lord Jesus Christ asked:

And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

The Way, the faith of Christ, cannot be reconciled with the way of the world. . .

It is written:

Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

The typical American Christian *accepts* Christ, he decides Christ is savior. . .it's on his terms. . .he's the one who has made the deal. Therefore, it is a little thing if he discards the gospel. Some of Jesus' teachings don't fit his mind set? Disregard them. It's all about his decision.

As it is written:

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. . .

It may seem a small matter of semantics, this issue of *accepting Christ*. . .but if one can choose to accept Christ, can't one also then choose to accept only those parts of Christ's gospel that do not threaten their friendship with the world?

When a *Christian* accepts Jesus, he is not accepting the real Jesus, he is accepting another Jesus, a Jesus who is a creation of his own mind. Not surprisingly, the pseudo-Jesus has no problem with the pseudo-Christian following the course of the world.

The awful truth:

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.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said:

No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. . .

The Father must *draw* you to Christ. . .the Greek word which is translated in the King James Bible as "draw" is helkuo, defined as:

to draw, drag off

metaphor: to draw by inward power, lead, impel

Remember what was quoted before:

There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

THERE IS NONE THAT SEEKETH AFTER GOD. All these people who *accept* Jesus, and all the people in the world with their cults, religions, sects, are not seeking after God. . .they are seeking after a ritual after their own heart.

Man is such a depraved, corrupt sinner, so totally cut-off from the true God, God must literally drag him to Christ, by a powerful supernatural force. . .

We do not *accept* Christ. . .God drags us to Him. . .and inside of us, before the creation of the world (According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world), God has already placed the measure of faith (according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith). . .that faith is activated when we hear the gospel (so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God), and if we are Christ's, if Christ has *accepted* us, we cannot deny it.

The Sum of Human History:

God created Adam and Eve, and they turned to Satanism. . .unseen forces, good and bad, have battled to influence the world down through the ages. . .

Yet even before the foundation of the world, an unknown number of men and women were conceived with the faith of Christ. . .no man can explain the mystery of salvation. . .all we know are the brief lines recorded in the Scriptures (My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me).

We can offer an analogy:

Let us say all men and women are born with a superheterodyne receiver, which they can tune to the world frequency of their choice. . .pornography, *sports,* yoga, whatever. . .but there is that unknown number of men and women who come into this world also equipped with a tuned frequency receiver. . .a receiver that will only receive the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. . .they may wander through the wilderness for ten, twenty, thirty years, a lifetime, tuning in and out the frequencies of the world. . .and then one moment of one day, they are dragged by God Almighty to the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. . .it may only be two simple words, Jesus Saves, but those words, those gospel words will be received on the gospel frequency receiver, and then faith cometh. . .

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. . .

And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? 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.

We can say Jesus spoke in a *frequency* only believers could receive.

To those implanted with the tuned frequency receiver, the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are given. The rest follow the noise of the world, barred from the Kingdom. Just as we do not *accept* Jesus, we do not put OUR faith in Christ. God Almighty puts the faith of Christ in us.

As it is written:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Those who claim they *accept* Christ stink of the sin of pride, for they claim ownership of their salvation. "I accepted Jesus!"

Similarly, those who claim they put their faith in Christ also stink of pride. They gift their faith to Christ!

God Almighty puts the faith of Christ in the saved and then, at some point in their lives, drags the saved to the Lord Jesus Christ and they hear the gospel of Jesus, they receive the gospel of Jesus-and they are born again, a new creature in Christ, adopted by God Almighty through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, these are not semantic trivialities. . .if one believes one accepts Christ, or gives their faith to Christ, at the very least they have a subconscious pride, which will taint their soul with mere religion. . .they become the author and finisher of their faith, and thus they feel free to follow the course of the world, whenever the course of the world suits their fancy. . .their conscience does not burn when they wave their flag in support of their nation's anti-Christ wars, or when they buy Wal-Mart merchandise manufactured by exploited laborers, or when they isolate homosexual sin from sexual sin.

It is written plainly:

Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. . .

We, who deserve nothing, begin the Way with the following attitude:

Christ has given us everything.

After that, then what? What is our responsibility with the faith that has been given us? One can ask countless questions regarding free will, predestination, eternal security, etc., etc. We will not know all of the mysteries of salvation. All we can know is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. . .as for what is in between, perhaps the best that can be offered is the paradoxical advice the apostle Paul gave the Philippians:

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.

Where will you be in one million years?

1 comment:

Lyn said...

AlterEGO is the perfect name for this blog. And I doubt that anyone would ever accuse you of "divine revelation" or "scholarship". God is Love. Try that shoe on for size.