WHY DIDN'T ADAM DIE THAT DAY?

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:17).

Well, they did eat of it and they didn't die that day! Theologians for centuries have gotten around this one by stating that Adam and Eve died spiritually the moment they ate the forbidden fruit; but could there be another simpler, more elegant explanation? "The wages of sin is death;" and we understand that to mean physical death, do we not? My sister in Christ, De Trefethen, has posted an article on her Departure Ready Forum (a truly interesting one to join, btw!) that offers a different solution to the dilemma that may sound an inner chord in your spirit as it did in mine! She also offers an opportunity to explore the subject of soul-spirit-body and to join the discussion.

Here's that link once again. I hope you'll take a look; you will be prompted to look at this scripture (and others) in a fresh, perhaps more literal light.

TRADITIONS OF MEN

Fellow grace believer Rita Bauschard of Bible Ambassadors shares her insights on how easily the errors of religionists can creep into the thinking of even genuine believers who seek to honor the word of God in all they do, say, and write. Thank you, Rita, for this and everything else you do so tirelessly for the gospel of Christ.

Here's Rita's post:

"Satan (diabolos, devil) means "something that is thrown between." He is a separator; He is an adversary; He’s someone who tries to separate you from God."

The above quote is another example of something that editing has helped me learn. But not only editing. Learning where various Bible translations come from impacted me so much that I CANNOT simply ignore capitalization of every pronoun that may refer to our Lord Jesus Christ or God in the writings of men. Why? Re-read the above sentence and notice that doing so becomes such a habit we do not even notice when we have attributed the "honorary" (religious type honor) capitalization to Satan.

At first I merely looked up the verses in question, or the words in question, and learned that the King James Version (the Bible we claim to be our authority) had no such capitalization.

Then I decided to look further into this and found that the 'tradition' seems to have embedded itself into our minds before we adopted the KJV as our only trustworthy authority. Are we hanging on to a 'religious tradition' that came to us through the Roman influence in modern translations?

Col. 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Read Chapter 7 of Mark's gospel to learn how God feels about the "traditions of men." These of course refer to 'religious' kinds of traditions which become rituals. It seems very definitely to have become a ritual to use capitalization of all pronouns when writing of God or his Christ.

But, praise be to God, we can change it! It was easy for me to make the decision to stop giving honor to Satan by following a tradition passed on in apostate writings. How about you?

Think about it.

Additional comments from Rita (2/14/11):

Some have read my "rantings" on over-capitalization of pronouns as dictates against grace and as establishing law in writing. They were not intended in that way, but as an encouragement for each to examine his own heart motives when about to capitalize the pronouns "he, his and him," etc. believed to refer to God or the Lord Jesus Christ mid-sentence or mid-paragraph.

In our human wisdom and human good, we think we shall honor God if we capitalize these words. Or we may think it will clarify of whom we write. I am not against honoring my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and Jehovah God. Regardless of which reason, what I have endeavored to point out is a recognition that this act of human good leads to HABIT and habit leads to error, as demonstrated previously in several paragraphs quoted from non-secular writings.

I am presently reading a secular book that attempts to educate the un-educated (which is why I am reading it ) about the Muslim world. And again, I have come across a sentence that demonstrates my point about our "human good" habits.

The following is from the book, The Grand Jihad by Andrew C. McCarthy:

"Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor (sic) evaded. Allah has ascribed great importance to Jihad and has made the reward of the martyrs and fighters in His way a splendid one. ... "

I am willing to bet the author did not intend to honor "Allah" by capitalizing "his" in that sentence as it is a book exposing the errors of Islam.

GRACE ON WHEELS

When I first met Allen Bradley, we were both just kids. My family was moving into my Grandma's house after she passed away. Allen's cerebral palsy and extreme poverty forced him to have to scoot himself along the sidewalk on the seat of his pants using only his very strong arms and understandably dirty hands. We didn't have much money ourselves, but my parents immediately took up a collection around the neighborhood and bought Allen a little red wagon at cost from my Uncle Bob's hardware store. That sure saved wear and tear on the little guy's pants!

My own brother, Dick, had recently died also, from the Muscular Dystrophy that had put him first in a wheelchair and then in a hospital bed; so to me, it was almost like God gave us Allen to love and protect in Dick's place. Coincidentally or not, as I grew up and moved to different parts of the city, Allen never lived far from me, although he also moved.

When I married my husband John three and a half years ago, I didn't realize it, but I was giving Allen the best friend he ever had! John is retired and it is truly his pleasure to drive Allen to the doctor, grocery store, bank, do his laundry, and even take him with us to our grace church followed by lunch at a restaurant. The two of them have an almost Laurel and Hardy (or Abbott and Costello) comedy act going on all of the time!

Al, who has the IQ of maybe a twelve-year-old, may not know a lot about theology or right division, but he does treasure having God's word in his lap in his big old King James Bible with extra-large print. During the message at church, he does his best to flip to the right passages and sometimes cheers when he finds one. He especially loves fellow-shipping with the saints, holding his large hand out and saying in his falsetto voice, "Hi, I'm Al! What's your name?" And he more often than not will remember it! (Which is more than I can say!)

If you haven't met him here on earth, don't worry, you'll meet him in heaven; for, since he was a little boy on the sidewalk, he's been waiting for the Lord Jesus to come and get him, transform his weak and wasted body into a glorious body like unto his own, and show him the beauties of the universe. He's known since then that the Lord Jesus Christ died for his sins and rose again just for him. When he sees injustice or unkindness in his fellow men, Allen likes to say, "They don't know the Lord Jesus!" Well, Allen sure knows him and trusts him with his life with a childlike faith that comes straight from his heart...and he's not afraid to make him known!

Whether he gets there first, or you get there first, there will come a day when he'll say to you, "Hi, I'm Al! What's your name?"

TONGUES, HEALINGS & PROPHECIES -- WHEN AND WHY DID THE GIFTS CEASE?

I've been remiss in the fact that I've never posted anything on the controversial subject of the gifts of the Spirit such as were exhibited by the grace churches such as at Corinth. Paul wrote about these gifts and the assemblies he established did exhibit them, so are they still for us today or did they cease at some point? If they ceased, why did they cease?

Here I'm going to defer to Pastor Dennis Kiszonas of Grace for Today Ministries who wrote an article on the subject for the Berean Bible Society's Searchlight Magazine a few years back. There's simply no way that I can improve on his logical and simple explanation regarding this divisive subject. Here's the link:

When Did the Gift of Tongues Cease?

Read, learn, and enjoy!

SOMEONE NEEDS YOUR TESTIMONY!

We who've been saved by simply trusting that the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation love to share that news with those who so desperately need to hear it! So, here's a great way to get your testimony down pat in your own mind and put it somewhere where somebody who needs it can find it: my new Grace Testimony Site!

Please consider sending me a couple of paragraphs (or more) sharing under what circumstances you got saved by Paul's gospel of the grace of God, and how and when you became aware of the need to rightly divide that gospel from the gospel God had for his covenant nation of Israel. For some grace saints, the two things happened simultaneously; for others, it took years to recognize the divine boundaries in God's word.

My own testimony will go on the site shortly, but I hope you will visit and take time to read through the testimony of a man who recently contacted me to share with me his joy in finally understanding the true mechanics of his eternal salvation in Christ.

Please help me put together a source of encouragement for seekers on the Internet to access when they search for the truth of which gospel we're saved by today: Peter's...or Paul's?

Send your grace testimony to me at deborah.kuzenski@gmail.com, and I'll publish it to the site after checking for spelling, etc., if you'd like. Also, please feel free to provide a link to your own site and/or your church's site.

Thank you for taking the time to be an encouragement to someone who needs it!

TO FATHER MIKE, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Dear Father Mike,

I was very sorry to hear of your death this past week. I realize that you probably won't be reading this where you are right now, but thinking of you has brought back so many memories from when I was a member of the Roman Catholic Church that you pastored that I thought I would write.

You were a good and gentle man, Father Mike. You always had a smile for everyone, and you were there to lend a helping hand. When I asked for a discount on my kids' Catholic education, you agreed to it in a heartbeat. Several years later, after first communions and confirmations for the kids, as well as a conversion to Catholicism by my then-husband, you agreed to see me on short notice when I came to your office and told you that I had placed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, based on what I had read in the Letter to the Romans, and that I could no longer remain a member of a church that did not preach the simple gospel of salvation as a free gift for simply believing that Christ died for the world's sins, was buried, and rose again. I was hoping that you would see this great truth as well, and the light would dawn in your eyes; and you would follow me in trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, and stop trusting the teachings of your church. But it was not to be.

As a brand new believer, I was no match for the sophistry of a priest who had been thoroughly schooled in the works of Augustine, Aquinas, and Ignatius of Loyola; and you had me weeping with frustration in no time. You, of course, went back to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, and reminded me that Jesus said, “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:18-19). “Which of the thousands of Protestant denominations was this church,” you asked me, “if not the Roman Catholic Church founded nearly two thousand years ago?” She may make some mistakes but she's the only church with the successors of Peter, and see how she has endured the test of time?

I had no good answers for you that day, Father Mike. I gathered up my husband's King James Bible and my other books and papers and thanked you for your time; but despite my feeling that I'd been bested by the best, I never again set foot in your church to worship, but only to attend a funeral or two. Your advice that I should perhaps consult a psychiatrist to help me deal with my “obsession” still stings after all these years.

Seventeen years and much study of God's word later, I've come to realize that the words of Christ in the four gospels are addressed exclusively to the nation of Israel, as the Lord himself proclaimed, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24). Our own apostle to the Body of Christ, Paul, wrote, “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [Israel] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” (Rom. 15:8). The church that Christ founded upon the rock of Peter's confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah sent to save Israel was set aside following that chosen nation's rejection of him and his kingdom. (Acts 28:28). The Roman Catholic religion, based on these interrupted promises and doctrines, was on a mistaken path from its inception, leading countless souls from the truth of the no-strings-attached gospel given to Paul. The church which is his body,” has an inheritance in the heavenly places in Christ according to the revelation of the mystery the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ from heaven gave exclusively to Paul for us today found in his post-Acts period epistles.

Father Mike, wherever you find yourself this day, do you remember, either with thanks or with regret, that tearful housewife armed with the simple gospel of faith for salvation? I came to see you that day, not just to tell you that I quit your church and all its man-made traditions and commands, but to give you the key to escape from it yourself. Only God knows your heart, Michael; but the fact that you said the Sacrifice of the Mass and administered the Catholic sacraments to the “faithful” every day since that time speaks volumes about whether you ever used that key. Like the rich man in Hades, do you now long to send a message to those who wrongly trusted in the doctrines you taught? Abraham's declaration still holds true today, that if men don't heed the scriptures, "neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Jesus Christ told Israel, “the truth shall make you free,” and that's a truth for all ages, but only for those who are alive when they hear it, and not for those whose fate is now sealed.

Farewell, Father Mike, wherever you are.

Here's the whole story of my conversion.

Related posts: There's No Such Thing as a Catholic Christian!

Catholic Church Gloats When We Use Her Bibles

Ex-Catholic's Worst Nightmare!

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM NAILED BY A SINGLE SCRIPTURE

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities
and powers,
he made a shew of them openly;
triumphing over them in it. Let no man
therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday,
or of the new moon,
or of the sabbath days;
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
(Colossians 2:14-17)

I've had the opportunity to explore the doctrines of Seventh-Day Adventism through several personal relationships with those who adhere to it and from visits to Seventh-Day Adventist gatherings. Seventh-Day Adventists with whom I've had contact have been invariably friendly and generous people who obviously love the Lord but have wandered into legalism in their zeal to serve him. Many Adventists are saved and sealed saints who were later led astray by the movement to observe the Sabbath and are like the believers to which Paul wrote, "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Gal. 4:9-11). Others are longtime Adventists who, in their study of the Scriptures, are confronted with the gospel of grace and believe it but continue to observe the Sabbath. Then there are those Adventists who still need to hear and believe the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 3:28).

Recently, I ran across a manuscript written by Kerry B. Wynne, a former third generation Adventist, in association with William H. Hohmann, a former Worldwide Church of God (also Sabbatarean) member, "Sabbath Impossibilities: History of Adventism's Long War Against Truth, etc." In their compelling document, they present evidence for the fact that Seventh-Day Adventist leaders knew at least 40 years before 1888 that weekly Sabbath-keeping was one of the "ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us," that has been taken out of the way by Christ, who nailed it to his cross, completely blotting it out. They were also aware that contrary to their teaching, worship by Christians on a day other than the Sabbath began hundreds of years earlier than the formal establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, at whose door they lay blame for changing "times and seasons." Since that time, the authors insist, an ongoing effort has been made by Adventist leaders to prevent their members from learning this scriptural truth. Why? Money, for one thing. Adventism is an international, multi-million dollar industry. But can't they just give up the idea of Sabbath-keeping but still hold to their other doctrines? All of their distinctive doctrines regarding Bible prophecy and their central pillar doctrine of "the investigative judgment" are based on visions and messages reportedly received from the Lord by their founding prophetess, Ellen G. White, in the mid-1800's. If the legitimacy of her vision regarding the necessity for today's church to observe the weekly Sabbath is shattered, the rest of their peculiar doctrines will also fall like dominoes behind it!

It's been a source of wonder to me how the SDA church has existed for so long despite the fact that it's been proven that Mrs. White plagiarized much of the content of works she published, which number well over 5,000 items. Also, the number of failed prophecies which she made would certainly qualify her, according to God's test for a false prophet in Deuteronomy 18:20-22, as someone "deceiving and being deceived." (2 Tim. 3:13). Adventists, when confronted with these truths, will quickly insist that they don't consider White to be a prophet but that by using the Holy Scriptures, she pointed the church back to honoring the Lord by keeping his commandments.

As in all cases of cultish works-salvation doctrines being promulgated by various "Christian" groups, the answer lies in their failure to recognize which section of God's word is addressed specifically to the body of Christ today. Under God's grace, made known through his apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, we enjoy the liberty that only adult sons thoroughly equipped with grace doctrine have the authority to exercise. To return to Israel's law covenants with God is to foolishly bind ourselves with the cords of a performance system by which even Israel could not win God's approval. When we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only person to ever win God's complete approval, and that by trusting in his shed blood, burial, and resurrection we are imputed with his perfect righteousness that cannot be improved upon by our own efforts, then we become truly free to serve him as ambassadors of his grace.

Seventh-Day Adventists and others who seek to serve God by keeping ordinances which have now been blotted out: you will find complete rest from all your labors in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has done it all for us.

P. S. Here's an interesting article refuting SDA's investigative judgment doctrine with Scripture.