Chapter 15Faith
Click image above to watch video
PLEASE SHARE
THE SALVATION EQUATION
We now KNOW — from the true meaning (revealed in chapters 9 & 10) behind God’s creation of an “Israelite Bondage-to-Promise-Land” story — the Biblical path to salvation (or obtaining eternal life in the Kingdom of God) is an A + B = C equation:
(A) Mankind’s Repentance
+ (B) God’s Forgiveness of Sin
= (C) Eternal Life
In other words, for a soul to obtain eternal life it MUST REPENT of SIN — which is totally and completely defined by a soul making a choice to turn from willful disobedience to willful obedience of God’s 10 Love Commandments. When a soul chooses to live its daily life on Earth in this manner, God will choose (on the Day of Atonement) to apply Christ’s “sinless sacrificial spiritual death” as full payment (or ransom) for the sins that soul committed on Earth. And when THIS happens, it means that soul has officially been “forgiven of its sin”, because the “spiritual death penalty” for the “wages of sin” no longer applies to it, which automatically returns the soul to perfect spiritual union with God, which means eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Now, please understand term “B” in the salvation equation is a fact for EVERY single soul on planet Earth, no matter when or where they lived, or if they ever heard about the story of Jesus or not! In other words, “forgiveness for sins” is available to ALL mankind because Jesus died for EVERYONE! Do you understand? See, millions of people have lived and died on Earth having never heard of him or his story, but did that matter towards the eternal destiny of their soul? NO!!! Nor do your thoughts on the matter. Truth is truth! It cannot be changed. No matter what you think (or don’t think) about the “earthly story of Jesus”, it will not change the fact that “B” still sits there available to you.
“He (Jesus Christ) died for ALL so that all who live … might live no longer for themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them” (II Corinthians 5:15, Living Bible).
Many people today (mostly in Churchianity) think ALL they have to DO to obtain eternal life is hear the story of Jesus (born of a virgin, died on a cross, rose again, etc.) and then make a mental acknowledgment that that story is true (meaning he did those things for them). Then, they sit and foolishly wonder what happens to all the people who never hear the story of Jesus? Friend, this is ALL a satanic LIE!!! Again, your thoughts (or lack of thoughts) concerning “B” in the salvation equation will NOT change the fact that God’s “forgiveness of sin” (through Jesus) is available to you, nor will they obtain your soul eternal life. The ONLY thing that will is YOUR REPENTANCE.
So, knowing all of this, it is profitable that we take a long look at ALL the Bible has to say about REPENTANCE. And there is a lot! This chapter will focus on “Faith” and how it relates to “repentance”.
FAITH IN GOD (LOVE)
An extremely dangerous doctrine has evolved in Churchianity over a misconception of the Biblical word “faith”. (Note, the words “faith” and “believe” in the Bible are identical in meaning.) The false doctrine is this; if you believe (mentally acknowledge) God exists and you believe (mentally acknowledge) Jesus Christ died for your sins … you are on your way to heaven. REPENTANCE (turning from one’s sins) is then treated as some side act that isn’t really necessary. It’s ok if you are still caught up in willful sins (non-loving thoughts, words, and deeds of disobeying the 10 Love Commandments) because your ticket to heaven is punched because you believe Jesus died for you.
Come on folks, you must be able to see through this satanic lie! These churches foolishly want you to think the eternal destiny of your soul was/is based on the lucky chance that you lived in a time and place on Earth to have been able to hear the story of Jesus! Are you kidding me? Just “believe in him” they say, just believe his story is true, for THAT is what they incorrectly interpret the Biblical phrase “believeth in him (Jesus)” to mean! But to think this is the WAY (what must be done) to obtain eternal life, you must discount almost EVERYTHING Jesus preached! You must make the whole Bible out to be a lie! But since most churchgoers don’t read their Bibles anyway, they swallow this lie hook, line, and sinker and happily continue on in their willful sin (disobeying of the 10 Love Commandments) while unknowingly marching towards the eternal destruction of their soul in the lake of fire.
But the correct interpretation of the phrase “believeth in him (Jesus)” means to “believe in LOVE” because God is Love, and since Jesus came from God and never sinned … he was/is love too! In other words, to “believe in Jesus” means to believe in how he lived and what he stood for, expressed in his words (his message of love)!!! Yes, having FAITH in God means to have FAITH in Love, which is only proved by willingly thinking, speaking, and doing the deeds of the 10 Love Commandments.
Consequently, ONLY when a person REPENTS of sin (willingly changes their non-loving thoughts, words, and deeds of disobeying the 10 Love Commandments to the loving thoughts, words, and deeds of obeying them) do they prove they BELIEVE IN JESUS (or “believeth in him”). Please, please understand this truth! THAT is why Jesus said we must REPENT or we will perish!
Jesus would say things like:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, IF a man KEEP my SAYING (words admonishing us to obey the 10 Love Commandments), he shall never see (the 2nd spiritual) death” (John 8:51).
And Paul wrote:
“faith worketh by love (obeying the 10 Love Commandments)” (Galatians 5:6)
See, you can have faith (or belief) in almost anything, but the Biblical term “faith” is a unique kind of faith meaning you “believe in Love”. Therefore, as Paul says above, “faith in God” only works (or is proved) by someone who “thinks, speaks, and does the deeds of LOVE”.
James knew this truth, too:
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath FAITH, and have not works? … If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; WHAT DOTH IT PROFIT? Even so FAITH, if it hath not works, is DEAD” (James 2:14-17).
Do you see? Here James uses the “do side” of the 8th Love Commandment “thou shalt not steal, but THOU SHALT GIVE” as one of the WORKS that demonstrates a person’s faith (or belief) in LOVE. In other words, it is exactly as Paul said, Faith ONLY works (or is proven to exist in a person’s heart) by them thinking, speaking, and doing the deeds of love!!! And it is only THIS kind of “faith in love (God)” that will land a person inside the Pearly Gates.
BELIEVE MEANS OBEY
So, truth be told, the phrases “faith in God” or “faith in Jesus” and “believing in God” or “believing in him (Jesus)” are much better served if you understand them to mean a person who “OBEYS GOD”! And by “obey” I mean to “obey the 10 Love Commandments”. And in fact, the Bible actually declares this very thing about what a person MUST DO to obtain eternal life:
“And being made perfect, he (Jesus) became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that OBEY him”(Hebrews 5:9).
See, you cannot discredit (or sweep under a rug) this Bible verse just to hold on to your erroneous belief that all you think you need to DO to obtain eternal life is hear the story of Jesus and then believe it is true. Do you understand? If you do, then you are calling God’s Word a lie. And that is a dangerous thing to do!
John the Baptist also uttered words proving the phrase “believeth in him (Jesus)” means to “obey him”:
“He that believeth on the Son (Jesus) hath everlasting life: and he that BELIEVETH NOT the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
The English words “believeth not” in this verse were translated from a single Greek word “apeitheo” meaning: to disobey, be disobedient. Wow, do you see? By simple reasoning then “believeth on the Son” means the exact opposite … to OBEY Him, his words (message) of love.
Now you can rightly discern the true Biblical meaning when you come across the plethora of Scriptures verses containing the phrase “believeth in him”, like the famous words almost everyone can quote:
“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” (John 3:16).
THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY
Amazingly, in the New Testament, God also confirmed the true meaning of the word “believe” is “obey” by going back to the wilderness portion of His grand, all-encompassing, Israelite “salvation story (message)” and revealing the Israelites disobedience to the 10 Love Commandments was PROOF of their UNBELIEF! Remember "in the wilderness" is where God verified mankind’s duty in obtaining eternal life was/is “to obey the 10 Love Commandments” so they can go in and possess the Promise Land, but if they will not willingly obey them they will perish in the wilderness and NEVER enter into God’s rest in the Promise Land (obtain eternal life)! Listen now with your spiritual mind to these powerful, sobering words:
“But with whom was he (God) grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had SINNED (disobeyed the 10 Love Commandments), whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should NOT enter into his rest, but to them that BELIEVED NOT? So we see that they could not enter in because of UNBELIEF” (Hebrews 3:17-19).
"Remember this fact — which you know already — that the Lord SAVED a whole nation of people out of the land of Egypt, and then killed every one of them who did NOT TRUST and OBEY Him" (Jude 1:5, Living Bible).
See, friend the stunning truth is God SAVED everyone on Earth from the bondage of sin, meaning He made "forgiveness for sins" available to everyone through Jesus Christ’s sinless, sacrificial, spiritual death; yet because of unbelief willful disobedience to God’s 10 Love Commandments) a person’s soul will perish in hell and never obtain eternal life in God’s Kingdom of Heaven. THAT is why God has me here now on Earth, lifting my voice up like a trumpet, shouting … YOU MUST REPENT of your sins to prove you BELIEVE (have faith) IN HIM! Don’t let ANY VOICE ever convince you otherwise.
Click Book
To Read Chapter 15