Are you saved?

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart," (Hebrews 4:12)

"Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:9)

The reason I want you to read this is because I want to see you succeed in your walk with God. I don’t want you to just fail and fade away, ending up in hell and missing the Gift that God offers to us all.

God does exist, and He came as a man here on earth to pay for all your sins. By sins I mean breaking the Ten Commandments which are God’s law. The law was made as a mirror for us. In the same way, we don’t realize what a bad state we are in until we look into the "mirror" of the Ten Commandments. Have you stolen, lied, dishonored your mother and father etc. then you broke His laws, and the penalty is death. Revelation 21:8 says all liars have their part in the lake of fire. But God doesn't want that to happen to you, nor do I. I don't want you to drink and drive, but if you do, then you will go to jail; and if you have lied, stolen or lusted after anyone then you will spend eternity in hell.

Now, someone came to pay your fine so you wouldn't have to spend time in jail. God came as a man to take the punishment for your sins; sins are transgression or breaking God’s law. Jesus died on the cross so that he took the punishment for the sins of this world for your sins and my sins; he was being bruised for our iniquity, the Bible says. He was paying our fines in His life’s blood so we can leave the courtroom on the Day of Judgment. He rose from the grave and defeated death. What we have to do is repent, which is turn away from sinning and trust in Jesus, that He died on that Cross for your sins and put your faith in him. Let him lead your life, then you will be forgiven of all your sins and have eternal life. Isn’t that great news! Pray to God, repent ask for His forgiveness and He will give you a life without death and you will not spend forever in hell. God created a jail for sinners and that place is called Hell. Jesus said in Matthew 22 the first commandment is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" Have you broken even the first commandment?

Now on the subject of Religion: Most religions like Catholicism, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Muslims are all false religions. God says that there is nothing that we can do to earn our way to heaven and that is what all these religions are about, that if you follow that 5 pillars or confess your sins to a man or if you say hail to Mary, fast, meditate and do good works enough that it will get you to heaven. Nothing can be further from the truth. The only thing we can do (not works) to be saved is described in Acts 2:38 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized (act of obedience, or Trust) every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Certain religions believe they can do something to earn salvation, it is a gift from God, nothing you do will earn your way to heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 “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.” Works count after salvation to show gratefulness, but will not get you to heaven. That is why they drove the planes into the towers, because they believed they could "do something to earn" heaven, but they were wrong and most all religions are wrong. Jesus even had the harshest words for the scribes and Pharisees. The mere fact there are different denominations negates the one true way as talked about in Jeremiah 32:38-40.

I had a hang up about the word "religion", how we were linked with all the false religions out there. I said The Greek suffix “ism” means “the theory of” and “ity” on the other hand means “state or quality of being”. I believe religion destroys and keeps people away from God; I hated to be called religious, then someone wrote to me, which summed it up perhaps better then I could of said.

"That is, our religion is from the Creator. It is a result of our hope and trust in God. It is the natural fruit. False religions have stolen from God and not the other way around. False religions have a common denominator and that is there assault on the term "Justification." They are working toward their salvation. We are working as a result of our salvation.

We have to separate the biblical Jews from religious Jews. One had hope in the Messiah's coming. They acted as a result of this promise. King David loved God because of the promise given to him by faith. The religious Jew (Judaism), as in the case today, denies Jesus and attempts to bring to God their religious efforts.

A religion that is pure in the sight of God is a "discipline" which results and originates, from God. We do these things as a result of being justified. We do these things because God has declared us "not guilty" because of the passive/active obedience of the Messiah being given to us as a gift. His works are what save us. In contrast, the religions of the world who deny justification seek to bring their "religious" efforts to God to "save" them.

Don't let that word religion, be a hindrance. We as believers have a beautiful religion because it is a fruit which comes from God. It starts with him and ends with him. Like I said; the religion we show is a result of what God did. It is an external response. For example, we love because he first loved us right? The false religions out there have a completely different gospel. As a result they bring their filthy rags and present then to God thinking they are working their way to God. We have been made clean by the word. The false religions make themselves clean." (Moshe, carm.org)

We must be careful of our theology. In 2 John the 7th verse it is clear "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." We are to look to Jesus for leadership not man, John 5:39-47. The Bible says to evaluate everything to see if it is of God by its fruit, good tree = good fruit; a bad tree can never bear good fruit. We don’t even have to address the Catholic Church and the mass pedophiles, and the crusades to determine the fruit, it is obvious. The Bible never even has the word "church' in it at all, ever. Ekklesia translates to assembly, not even "the assembly" either. Greek word "kyridakon" which means religious meeting place is not even in the Bible.

I use an Exegesis method of interpretation instead of an eisegesis method. Does this mean that eisegesis is wrong, I would say yes because it is a capricious attitude. It may even be breaking the 2nd Commandment and making a god to suite yourself. The Bible was written by God and it was penned by man. Does one say "wow that pen wrote a good book”? The Bible has some 300 prophecies that came true that are provable by history. 135 prophecies came true in Daniel alone. Read Isaiah 53 1-12 and you will see that it was written about Jesus and was written almost 700 years before Christ was even born. Not the Koran or any other book in the world can prophecy even once like the Bible did 300 times and that is evidence that it was written by God.

Acts 17:30-31 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Philippians 2:10-11 “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"

JESUS said in JOHN 8:24 “I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.” Jesus also said in John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.”

Think of it this way... Imagine you're in a courtroom; you're guilty of many serious crimes. The judge says, "It's a fine of $500,000, or prison." You don't have anywhere near that amount of money, so the bailiff begins to walk you out of the courtroom when someone you don't even know appears. He runs up to the judge with a check and says, "I've paid the fine for you." Now that the fine has been paid, the law no longer has any hold on you. You're free -- because of the gift you were given. Wouldn't you feel grateful for that kind of kindness? It was a legal transaction. You broke God's Law (the Ten Commandments), and Jesus paid your fine. That means that God can legally dismiss your case. You can leave the courtroom on the Day of Judgment because another paid your fine. Does that make sense?

I want to help you understand that your sins are not finite. God's Holiness is infinite, any offense against Him continues indefinitely, there is no end of that sin because He never ceases to be Holy. It took something quite drastic (the death of His Son) to remove it. Do we not recognize that a murder, that may take 20 seconds to commit, deserves a MUCH greater punishment, in length of time, then a mere corresponding 20 seconds? Any offense to God is the ultimate crime. It is impossible for our finite limited and flawed-by-sin minds to comprehend the sheer magnitude of what it means to sin against an infinitely Holy God.

If you will repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus, God says he will forgive all your sins and grant you the gift of everlasting life. Just like the court case, if you repent (that means to confess and forsake your sins) and put your trust in Jesus, then you will not have to suffer God's justice in Hell because the payment for your crimes was made by Jesus on the cross.

"Two men were offered a parachute while seated in a plane. The first man was told it would improve his flight, but the second man was informed he had to make a 25,000 foot jump. when the flight struck severe turbulence the first man took his parachute off because as far as he was concerned it didn't improve the flight. but during the same violent turbulence, the second man clung tighter to his parachute. Each man's motive for putting the parachute on determined whether or not they would keep it on.

In the same way, the reason you should "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" shouldn't be to find peace, joy, true happiness, to have your marriage healed or your problems fixed, etc. (to have your flight improved), but it should be to escape the jump to come-because of the fact that you have to pass through the door of death. Then, when the flight gets bumpy (when problems come) you won't fall away from the faith. What should you then do? Simply repent, and put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Don't put it off until tomorrow." Ray Comfort

I pray that God sparks your heart and you will get it and know why we are all here. We are to simply glorify God and that is our purpose in life. A wonderful teaching called Hell’s Best Kept Secret made me think how we need to get right with God. A lot of people I know think that being a Christian means having everything that they want because God gives it to them and that isn’t true. In fact, the only guarantees for us here on earth according to the Bible are persecution, temptations and tribulations. I also came across other teachings by the same man called “True and False Conversion” and it also is very good and sound teachings.

(tinyurl.com/romans120)

Again, Do not be deceived!!

2 Thessalonians 2:8-11 and Romans 1:18-32 talks about how God reveals the wicked and creation, if you choose to ignore the gospel and reject Jesus as Lord then He will harden your heart you will easily believe in satan’s lies and will have a reprobate mind such as Richard Dawkin, Dan Barker and all atheists alike do.

If you are a Christian don't forget about The Great Commission. Don’t trust what I am saying, read the Bible and search for yourself. The Bible is the best resource for salvation because it is God’s Word and our spiritual food. Be hungry and seek God for the correct path. If you want to just debate this issue then please leave an email and I will be more then happy to discuss it in an email instead of here. There is nothing more important then where you will spend eternity! May God bless you.

For Him,
Dan +†+