MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM. Kenneth B. Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ for the entire previous year. In that case the sin was transferred onto a goat by the High Priest and the goat was led away out of the camp, never to be seen again.

      However, these sacrifices were never permanent and had to be performed continually in order to temporarily atone for the continuous problem of repeated sin. During times when Israel was apostate, worshiping gods other than the one God, there was not even temporary provision for sin in the land. When God’s nation would abandon Him completely, He would bring great judgments on the nation as a whole. Many times in its history Israel was conquered and or enslaved for their sin by other nations. They were eventually completely destroyed by the Roman Empire.

      But even in their darkest times of apostasy God still promised a day would come when His people would live in the land without sin, in the blessing of the Lord. All that He required was that Israel turn their hearts back to Him and love and obey Him only. But He ultimately had to send part of Himself, His only Son Christ, to accomplish this.

      After the coming of Christ many would look back and see that God had a purpose in bringing the Law and proving that man could not fulfill it in himself. The Law actually became a tutor or teacher to bring us to something better. That something better was initiated by Christ by His New Covenant. Galatians 3:23-25 explains: “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor”.

      Realizing that man could never fulfill God’s Laws, however hard he tried, Jesus did for him when He came with a New Covenant of spirit and faith. After Christ, righteousness was not measured by obedience to a law but was determined by faith in Christ who fulfilled the Law for us in His flesh. Thereafter righteousness was reckoned by faith, not by works of the law. Christ came to “write the laws on people’s hearts”, tablets of flesh not of stone (Jeremiah 31:33-34; Hebrews 8:8-12).

      The entire New Covenant is worth duplicating here: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says,

      “BEHOLD, days are coming, says the Lord,

      When I will effect a new covenant

      With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

      Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

      On the day when I took them by the hand

      To lead them out of the land of Egypt;

      For they did not continue in My covenant,

      And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

      “FOR this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

      After those days, says the Lord:

      I will put My laws into their minds,

      And I will write them on their hearts.

      And I will be their God,

      And they shall be My people.

      “AND they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,

      And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

      For all will know Me,

      From the least to the greatest of them.

      “FOR I will be merciful to their iniquities,

       And I will remember their sins no more.”

       When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. (Hebrews 8:7-13).

      The Jews felt threatened by this for not only did they see the New Covenant as a false doctrine against the Law of Moses, but as a threat to their way of living, preaching and enforcing the law. Surprisingly many religions today still hold to codes of moral conduct as a way to measure righteousness and maintain control of a congregation. Most of the so-called “Christian church” preaches adherence to doctrines of good works and obedience to sets of rules of morality as the way to please God. God is not pleased with the righteousness that is born of good works designed to please Him and secure the doer a place in “heaven”. He is only interested in granting us grace, unmerited favor, by faith, that His Son won for us on the cross.

      Church Fathers Augustine and Lactantius use the Greek word “religare” which means to "bind back" thus representing religion as a form of obligation (Unger's Bible Dictionary, p. 1072). This means religion has an element of control, “binding people back” to their way of interrupting Christ’s message. As many as the number of churches are the number of different doctrines of each church, preaching each its particular brand of Christianity. However these various doctrines or codes of morality are not based on the spiritual teaching of Christ. God is Spirit and the only way to receive the true “doctrine” is through spiritual communication with God. John said: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24).

      Jesus opposed the hypocrisy and legalism of the Pharisees, as we should oppose the legalism of today’s religions. In Matthew 23:13-36 Jesus says (in partial part): “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

      “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness”. So in one sweeping accusation, Jesus accuses them of robbery, self indulgence, uncleanness, hypocrisy, lawlessness and full of dead men’s bones. He is describing religion.

      At one point Jesus even accuses the Pharisees, the preeminent religious leaders of the time, that they were originated from their true Father the devil. The leaders clung to the fact that they were Abraham’s children by lineage and so justified in their religion. Jesus said:“If you were Abraham’s [the Father of faith] children, you would do the works of Abraham. Abraham was found to be righteous by faith, not works to earn salvation. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it: (John 8:39-44).

      Satan’s Angelic name is Lucifer which means “light bearer” and he is referred to as "the bright star of the morning”. He is the father of religion according to Christ. Paul says: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Today we have many such “apostles of righteousness” who are no more than ministers of Satan. They do not preach Christ; СКАЧАТЬ