Tag: covenant

Predestination and Grace

January 31st, 2024

I have been writing blog posts for more than a year. I tried to point out the significant flaws in the Reformed theology concerning the covenants. I believe that God is displeased with the Covenant Theology and the Active Obedience of Christ. That does not mean that God approves Dispensationalism. All of them are bad theories. At present, there is no theology that accurately explains the covenants. Understanding the covenants is important because they explain God’s will in creation, which is the kingdom of God.

When I started this blog, I believed that God would bring people to my blog. I did not seek money or fame. I did not use social media to promote my blog. My job was to tell people that the third reformation has started. The church era is ending because churches have been treacherous and rebellious. Theologians and ministers take people back to slavery. And I found the cause in the Covenant Theology and the Active Obedience of Christ. With my limited English, I tried to explain why they were wrong and what went wrong after the Reformation.

God gives wisdom to His people. Regardless of our backgrounds, we understand God as the God of the Bible. The Bible explains who God is. But those who do not know God understand Him as an idol. They use the Bible to explain their gods. But their gods are no better than the golden calf that the Israelites made in the wilderness. They think that they must do something to receive blessings. They invent ways to please their gods. They convince others that they must do something to receive God’s grace. They put much emphasis on the law but they do not keep the law. They do not understand the law as self-sacrificing love. Almost all theologians and ministers preach that the law as the written code gives eternal life. They say that Christ had to keep the law perfectly to earn eternal life. With their theories, the saints are tied to the written code. They are wrong. On the outside, they appear to preach TULIP. But their wrong understanding of the covenants and Adam lead people back to slavery. Eventually, they deny predestination. Predestination is directly linked to God’s total grace. It is not strange that most Protestant churches hate predestination at present.

Predestination does not make God cruel. Without predestination, we must work to receive God’s grace. Many Christians think that they can earn grace. They do not know God. They have not received the Holy Spirit.

Predestination explains that God has chosen some to be saved and others to be eternally punished before they were born. God can do anything He pleases. We must not judge God by our understanding of righteousness or the law. But rebellious people do. Only God is righteous. Being God is righteousness. Everything He does is righteous. Only those who have His Spirit understand Him. He wants to train His people through suffering and make them into His kingdom. Who can say to Him that He is wrong? We are nothing but dust. The world we live in is only a prelude to the real world that is coming. The world is not about me or you but about God. God does not exist for your or my salvation.

Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them—the one who also had leaned back on His chest at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who is betraying You?” So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” (John 21:20-22)
John 21 (1) A hundred and fifty-three

January 13th, 2024

So Simon Peter went up and hauled the net to land, full of large fish, 153; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. (v.11)

The water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. (Genesis 7:24)

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19)

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. (1 Peter 3:18-22)

When we read John 21:1-11, we often focus on the fact that the disciples caught so many fish that they were not able to haul the net. Many fish may indicate that the disciple would save many people and fulfill God’s command/prophesy.

And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will have you become fishers of people.” (Mark 1:17)

John wanted to draw our attention to the number of the fish God made them catch. The end of the world will be like the day when the great flood came in Noah’s time. The world’s end is symbolized by the number 150. But the children of God are given the number 153. We all know where the number 3 came from. Christ’s death and resurrection save us. The church died and was resurrected with Christ. When Peter talked about baptism in 1 Peter 3:18-22, he did not refer to the ceremonial baptism. Peter knew it very well that the ceremonial baptism was only a shadow. It was one of the ordinances given to visible churches by God for the church era. Ceremonial baptism is only a shadow of the real baptism just as the visible church is a shadow of the invisible true church. Peter warned others of false teachers within churches. These false teachers received ceremonial baptism but did evil and enticed others.

It is by faith in God we are justified. But faith is not a condition. It is a feature of the children of God who are anointed with the Holy Spirit. Paul knew this very well. The kingdom’s foundation is love which God has given us through Jesus Christ. That is why Paul wrote 1 John 13.

If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)

Peter, John, Paul and other disciples focus on agape. It appears that many Christians think faith is the new condition for salvation. They think that the law was the condition in the OT and the faith is the new condition in the NT era. Unless we are born again in the Holy Spirit, we cannot be the children of God. Without the Spirit, God’s love is not applied to us and we cannot love Him back.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19)

Those who think they know the Reformed theology rarely talk about love, the kingdom of God, or the Holy Spirit. I know that many heretics have been misusing these words. Some people try to avoid using the words because heretics often use them. Still, it is strange that these words are rarely talked about in the Reformed denominations. The Reformed theologians and ministers focus on the law and punishment instead. This tells us that their theology is strange. And I find the issue in their understanding of the covenants and Adam. The nature of the kingdom is not forensic. The saints keep the true law of God, which is the law of liberty that came from God’s love shown on the cross of Christ.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
John 20 The meaning of the Tabernacle

January 10th, 2024

You shall make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the atoning cover. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the atoning cover at its two ends. And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the atoning cover with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the atoning cover. Then you shall put the atoning cover on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you. There I will meet with you; and from above the atoning cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about every commandment that I will give you for the sons of Israel. (Exodus 25:18-22)

But Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping; so as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. (vv. 11-12)

And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

We often think that the Book of Exodus is about the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and the Ten Commandments. The most of the Book is about the law and the Tabernacle. The laws to govern the Israelites may have some similarities to the laws of other nations. If we focus on the law, Christianity is not different from other religions or nations. The Israel nation in the OT was a visible church where their king was God. The nation’s failure as we read the latter part of the OT tells us that the kingdom of God is not on earth. And this truth was made clear when Jesus Christ came. However, many Christians do not understand the difference between the OT and the NT and still seek a ruler who can make God’s kingdom on the earth. Their kingdom’s end is total destruction.

God gave the Israelites the law so that they would eagerly wait for the Son of God to free them from the conditional covenant. Slavery to sin is the curse of the conditional covenant. The Son replaced the old covenant with the new. Christ is the new Tabernacle. This was what Stephen preached before his death as we read Acts 7. The new covenant is not the extension of the old covenant. Rather, the old covenant was a shadow of the new. Therefore, we reject Dispensationalism and the Covenant Theology. Only through the Son, God dwells with His people. We will see Him face to face.

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:8-9)

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

Tag: covenant

Predestination and Grace

John 21 (1) A hundred and fifty-three

John 20 The meaning of the Tabernacle