July 25, 2007

PLAINER WORDS … BELIEVE ONLY GOD AND HIS TRUTH

Chapter One

Who and What We Believe Is The Question

The lamentable truth is that those who profess to be Christians have chosen to believe what some man says, or teaches. Their theology is based upon the creed of their church, or based upon hymns, or their pastors, or teachers. Do they really know, for sure, that the creeds, or church doctrines, or statements of faith are trustworthy? When one places his confidence in the flesh, he is, in reality, staking his eternal future on the fallibility of men.

It has been said, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” Likewise, to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free means responsibility. Most Christians will not accept their responsibilities for the liberty given them. Liberty in Christ is maintained by continuing in His Word. To continue in the liberty of Christ, we are to be workmen whose work is studying the Word of Truth for ourselves. We are not to be ashamed of what we learn from our study, even if it is not in harmony with what we have been taught by man.

In fact, the last command in the Bible is not found in the book of Revelation. Revelation was not the last inspired writings. The last inspired writing was from the pen of the Apostle Paul when he wrote his second letter to Timothy. The last divinely-given command is 2 Timothy 2:15. It reads, “Study”—now that's a command—“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”

Do you see the personal responsibility to study for yourself? God will hold each of us accountable for what we believe. Some Christians rationalize that since no one can understand the Scriptures except the Church, whatever that expression means, “Why should I try to?” Then, they seek to shelter themselves by shifting their responsibility of believing God, from themselves, to the Church. Thereby, while refusing to believe God, they believe man, and they swallow, with credulity, all that man may say.

In my judgment, a believer will fare better before the Righteous Judge, in “that day,” if he has erred in his own understanding as he endeavored to show himself approved unto God as an unashamed workman, attempting to rightly divide the word of Truth. To err, by refusing to exercise your own responsibility in studying for yourself, you are made twofold more the child of hell than the one who taught you wrongly.

The thing that matters to God is WHO and WHAT we believe. In the spiritual realm, safety is found in believing only God and His Truth—not man and his imaginings.
If God says that the hope of the Church, which is His Body, is “the Appearing (Epiphaneia) of the Glory of God” (Titus 2:13), and man says it is either the Pre-Tribulation rapture, or it is the 2nd Coming (Parousia) of Christ, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says the Kingdom begins when Christ begins to “judge the quick and the dead at His Appearing (Epiphaneia) and His Kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:1), and man says the Kingdom begins when Christ returns to be Personally present on the earth, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says that the “hope of Israel,” during the Acts Period, was the coming Kingdom of God, and man says it was the 2nd Coming (Parousia) of Christ, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe?

If God says, in His Word, that no man hath immortality except Christ, and man says we have an immortal soul, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe?

If God says that there is One mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, and man says there are other mediators, chiefly Mary, “the mother of God,” WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says no one can come to the Father but through Jesus Christ, and man says there are many ways to the Father, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says, without faith, it’s impossible to please Him, and man says it does not matter what a man’s faith is, as long as he is sincere, WHO are we to believe and WHAT are we to believe?

If God says the dead know not anything, and man says the dead know either heavenly bliss, or hell’s torments, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says the inspired Scripture is what perfects the man of God, and man says university degrees prepare the man of God, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says that in the Person of Christ, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, and man says, “That’s not necessary, Lord, for I will die and come to You,” WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe? If God says that death is an enemy, and man says it is just a transition, WHO are we to believe, and WHAT are we to believe?

Mountaineers, the more we sincerely believe a lie, the worse it will be for us; whether it be an investor who believes a fraudulent balance-sheet, or a woman who believes the promise of a lying philanderer. They both suffer loss for believing the lie.

Sincerity is of no avail. The greater the sincerity with which we believe what is untrue, the more certain, and real, will be our ruin.

It is WHO and WHAT we believe that matters and in the spiritual realm, safety is found in only believing God and His truth. Those who continue in their refusal to believe what is the truth must not be surprised if they are left to believe the lie.
We are in a fight! In the arena of truth; it is Light against darkness; it is Truth against the lie. The Bible says, “The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” The Bible also declares that we are to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).

The spirit of the age cries out that we need fearless and passionate defenders of the faith in all walks of life. As Bible Mountaineers, we ought to be those defenders, standing in the gap, holding forth the Word of Life.

As defenders of the faith, we need to recognize that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

The truth is not the subject of popular appeal. It never has been. It never will be. Multitudes will never flock to a stadium to hear the truth. Truth divides.
It is better to be divided by truth than united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts, and then heals, than falsehood that comforts, then kills. It is not love, and it is not friendship if we fail to declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling the lie. It is impossible to find, in the Bible, anyone who stood with God and His truth who did not have enemies and was not hated. It is better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with the multitude. It is better to succeed, ultimately, with the truth than to succeed, temporarily, with the lie.

The seducing spirits and their doctrines, today, emulate the original lie perpetrated on Eve. The serpent said to Eve, “Ye shall not surely die. Ye shall be like the gods.”
One of the dominant views of Christianity is its doctrine of immortality of the soul. It is not the doctrine of the inspired Word of God. It was not the doctrine of Moses, the prophets, or the psalmists. It was not the doctrine of the Son of God, nor his apostles, or prophets. It was, and still is, the devil's doctrine!

Immortality ─ it is satanic in origin. Immortality can be traced through muddy channels of a corrupted Christianity, a perverted Judaism, a pagan philosophy, and a superstitious idolatry to the great instigator of mischief in the Garden of Eden. The Protestants borrowed the notion of immortality and immediate consciousness, at death, in heaven or hell, from the Roman Church. The Roman Church got it from Greek philosophers, and the Sadducees got it from the Pagans, and the Pagans from that Old Serpent who first seduced our original parents amid the splendors of Paradise.

This doctrine was the “New Theology” of the Garden of Eden. “New Theology,” today, is the same as it was in the Garden. It’s the theology of not believing God. Satan added to this theology by inventing a double-entity theory that man is a dual being with a material body and an immaterial soul, consisting of the real man whose soul leaves his body at death and continues to exist as a conscious personality, either in conscious bliss, forever, or conscious misery, forever.
Most all of church-going-Christianity believes in what is called “the immortality of the soul.” This is the Doctrine of the god of this world. All pagan societies subscribe to this satanic doctrine. It is sad to say, but Christianity leads the way in promoting this damnable lie!


Tom L. Ballinger

ENDNOTE:

Note: The phrase I used, “Who and What we believe” in this study, was an idea I picked up from Dr E. W. Bullinger in his book, “The Great Cloud of Witnesses.”


August 1, 2007

PLAINER WORDS … BELIEVE ONLY GOD AND HIS TRUTH

Chapter Two

The Enemy Is Not Yet Destroyed

Every main-line Christian denomination has embraced the Satanic lie that man possesses an immortal soul. Dr. E. W. Bullinger denounced this idea, even though he was a Bishop in the Church of England. He referred to this figment of man’s imagination as—SUDDEN DEATH, INSTANT GLORY. The moment a person dies, he is either ushered into heaven, or he descends into a “devil’s hell.” If we were to really think, seriously, about this preposterous idea, we would have to conclude that a major tenant of Biblical Truth ─ RESURRECTION ─ is scuttled, swept under the rug, and discarded. Using the words of Peter, it could be said that to believe in the immortality of the soul is “a damnable heresy,” and, on this matter, “the way of truth is evil spoken of” by misguided, deluded, and “ignorant brethren.”

The Bible states that death is our enemy. It is not our friend. Many adversaries fall by the wayside as times and dispensations march onward. Not until “the end” (telos) is reached, is death destroyed. Dear Mountaineers, we must believe only God and His truth. Is it right to tell grieving loved ones that their dear departed ones are in a “much better place.” As “they look down from heaven,” they wouldn’t like to see sorrow on the faces of those “left behind.” “Cheer up, for they are with their Dear Savior and are reunited with their family who have gone on before!” Lies! Lies! And, more Lies!

The ONLY hope we have of our deceased loved ones is that THEY WILL LIVE AGAIN IN RESURRECTION!

God’s Truth says that the last enemy to be destroyed is DEATH.

“For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

Again, the question must be asked; “It’s a question of WHO we believe, and WHAT we believe?” As for me and my house, we have chosen to believe God and His Truth! If we die before His Appearing and His Kingdom, we believe we will not live, again, until our Savior, Jesus Christ …

“… shall change our vile body [in resurrection], that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:21).

Sadly, we must conclude that when the theory of sudden death and instant glory is accepted, God is discredited, and Satan is believed. This is the standard belief of millions-upon-millions of churchgoers. This is the insidious paganization of original Christianity.

Satan's cunning craftiness was adopted by the pagans down through the annals of time. It was popular in Egypt and led to the concept of transmigration of souls. The Greek concept of “natural immortality” became a philosophy. Plato was its chief proponent, and he coupled it with preexistence. The mingling together of Christianity and Platonic philosophy permeated the church in the First Century and has become one of the most “holy doctrines” of the church, today. This unholy leaven has worked to such an extent that, almost, the whole lump has become defiled, to wit, the church.

Pope Leo X (1475-1521) affirmed that the soul was immortal and decreed that those who asserted, otherwise, were “heretics.” And, dear hearts, amazingly, most of the Protestant reformers sided with the Pope in this matter. These are the imaginations and reasonings of men under the guidance of the Prince of Darkness.
Look at 2 Timothy 2:1–2, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Notice, Paul said, in plainer words, the things that you have learned from me, commit it to faithful men. A faithful man is one who believes what God says, even if it cuts across the grain of orthodoxy. He doesn't say to pass on the traditions you have learned from men who, in reality, are the ministers of Satan and have transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness.

That which we have learned from God, Paul says, we are to commit it to faithful men who shall be able to teach others, also. Would a “faithful” teacher of the Word transmit the doctrines of devils as if they were the Truth of God? Of course not! When a preacher, or teacher is finally weighed in the balances, will he be “found wanting?”

The idea of never-ending existence is the doctrine of demons. It is satanic in origin. 1 Timothy 6:16 emphatically declares that, currently, only Jesus Christ has immortality.

“Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who [Jesus Christ] only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:15-16).

2 Corinthians 15:53-54 tells us that immortality will be put on in resurrection. But now, most of Christendom proclaims that dead folks are really alive somewhere, either in heaven, or hell.

Think of it. In Christian churches, the preachers announce with all sincerity that when a believer dies, he is ushered into the presence of Christ, or he has graduated to heaven. Or, he descends into a devil’s hell. This doctrine in the Christian church amounts to the virtual denial that immortality is the gift of Christ, alone, for those who are found in Him, not having their own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith.

Now, what I am going to say is a “hard saying.” Very few can receive it. If Christian creeds, or church doctrines embrace the noxious doctrine of the immortality of the soul, we must conclude that those who teach and preach such doctrine are heathen teachers and preachers of paganism.

We cannot reform the churches, or the denominations. Don't waste your time, or your energy, trying to change their systems. Well, you may ask, “What should I do?” I'll let the Apostle Paul answer that.

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temples of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14–18).

In our closing remarks, we’ll digress from the subject of “immortality”and say, many folks try to keep one foot in the church-world and the other foot “outside- the- camp.” Our opinion is that as long as someone is trying to live in both worlds, he will never experience the joy of being, totally, set-free. As long as one is trying to synthesize the Acts Period Truth with Present Truth, thus forming a “new and complex” hypothesis, Present Truth will be obscured and shrouded from the Light which the Spirit of Truth desires to shed abroad in the hearts of the saints.

The Apostle Paul experienced this in his ministry to the Corinthians. The majority of his converts were synagogue attending Jews. They went, Sabbath after Sabbath, to the synagogue where Moses (i.e., the Old Covenant) was read and studied. This mixture of Moses, the Old Covenant with the New Covenant of Christ Jesus caused the veil to remain over their hearts (2 Cor. 3:13-18). Therefore, they could not clearly see New Testament Hope.

Spiritually, the Veil Principle is at work, today, when believers try to mix Present Truth with Acts Period Truth. The result is being unable to distinguish between two Hopes—the Hope of the “Church of God” and the Hope of the “Church of The Mystery.” The veil over their hearts prevents them from SEEING THE FULNESS OF THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY IN ALL OF ITS GLORY.

Tom L. Ballinger