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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Make man in our image Make man in our image Pretty clear statement. Maybe. Why maybe? Because Almighty God has no corporal body, such as we do and always will have; the resurrection that is spoken of in the Bible is a resurrection of our bodies to reside here on this earth forevermore. Therefore, what image are we talking about? I have mentioned many times that the Bible is a witness to itself, so, perhaps we can find an answer in the Bible to this riddle. Ephesians 4:22, 24; and you should put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; 23 but that you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, 24 and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty. Ok, but can we make it clearer? Romans 6:6; because we know that our old personality was impaled with (him), that our sinful body might be made inactive, that we should no longer go on being slaves to sin. Impaled with him. Ok, got it; I remember that Jesus Christ was impaled as a ransom for our sins. Is there more? Colossians 3:5-10; Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of those things the wrath of God is coming. 7 In those very things you, too, once walked when you used to live in them. 8 But now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, badness, abusive speech, and obscene talk out of your mouth. 9 Do not be lying to one another. Strip off the old personality with its practices, 10 and clothe yourselves with the new (personality), which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it. … according to the image of the One who created it; it being the new personality. I think I finally understand 'make man in our image.' That had nothing to do with our bodies, but with our spirits, and our ability to use our free will to change – old personality, i.e., the personality of sin, to the new personality of Jehovah God. Just what are the attributes of the personality of Jehovah God that we are to apply to ourselves as a new personality? Love. That is first. We are taught in the Bible that Jehovah IS love. Patience. Mercy. Peace. Righteousness. Loyalty. Compassion. Kindness. Mildness. Long-suffering. Forgiveness. Wisdom. Justice. There are more, but all of them are GOOD for us. Nothing in this list is BAD for us. Amazing, isn’t it. My. This changes everything about the Bible! It turns out, the Bible is a workbook on how to apply the new personality to ourselves, and live in a manner pleasing to Almighty God! And to think that this understanding came because we finally understand that image thing in the first book of the Bible! Wow! So what else does this mean? Well, to begin with, it means that theology is what man thinks about God, which is not important in the least. The Bible is what Almighty God thinks about, and expects from, man. For this reason, we now know that the Bible is NOT about religion; it is about a way of life. A way of life that is mandated for us IF we wish to avail ourselves of the many promises made to us by Jehovah God. 1 John 4:20; If anyone makes the statement: “I love God,” and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen. Lots of lessons in the Bible, all of which are designed and intended to change our old personalities. The above is one of the most telling; how does a Christian go to a foreign land and kill other Christians (or anyone else for that matter), and claim to be a loving Christian?! Perhaps there is a lesson in that verse that we should investigate, each of us. John 15:19; If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you. Another lesson. Everyone of the world listens to the Pope. Ever wonder why? John 18:36; Jesus answered: "My kingdom is no part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source." And yet another lesson. Jesus Christ DID NOT resist the authorities of this world. Why? Romans 13:1; Let every soul (Or, ‘every living person’) be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. Because those authorities are not to be resisted. They are seeking their own judgment. And if you resist them, you to are seeking judgment, first, from them, and later, from Jehovah God. But please note that not being in subjection to them DOES NOT mean serving them! Or, participating in their sins. We are ordered to first obey Jehovah God, and when the rules of the world conflict with Jehovah God, THEN we resist the worldly authorities. Romans 13:2-10; Therefore he who opposes the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God; those who have taken a stand against it will receive judgment to themselves. 3 For those ruling are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad. Do you, then, want to have no fear of the authority? Keep doing good, and you will have praise from it; 4 for it is God’s minister to you for your good. Bit if you are doing what is bad, be in fear: for it for it is not without purpose that it bears the sword; for it is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad. It is truly amazing how easy it is to live according to the rules laid down in the Bible by Jehovah God, when we permit Him to guide our steps. How many people are in prison today, are dead, or have lost everything they owned because they did not heed this advice? The next paragraph is really important for those who wish to live peacefully in this world. 5 There is therefore compelling reason for you people to be in subjection, not only on account of that wrath but also on account of (your) conscience. 6 For that is why you are also paying taxes; for they are God’s public servants constantly serving this very purpose. 7 Render to all their dues, to him who (calls for) the tax, the tax; to him who (calls for) the tribute, the tribute; to him who (calls for) fear, such fear; to him who (calls for) honor, such honor. 8 Do not you people be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another; for he that loves his fellowman has fulfilled (the) law. 9 For the (law code), “You must not commit adultery; You must not murder; You must not steal, You must not covet,” and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this word, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore love is the law’s fulfillment. What are we told about man guiding his own steps? Jeremiah 10:23; I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step. If we but look about us at the world and at the condition of that world and the people in it, we understand, instantly, the Truth in the verse above. Yet how many of you are willing to surrender your will to Jehovah God? John 5:30; I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative; just as I hear, I judge: and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek, not my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Amazing. Jesus Christ himself does not do anything of his own will, but only does the will of his Father; so, what exactly, is it that makes you better than Jesus Christ?! John 5:41; I do not accept glory from men, Is that hard to understand? Jesus Christ said that. Think about it. John 5:44; How can you believe, when you are accepting glory from one another and you are not seeking the glory that is from the only God? Would anyone think that, just possibly, this has some bearing on politics? And on why no matter who gets elected, nothing changes? Of the many, many things that we are told in the Bible, the following is perhaps the most telling; John 17:3; This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. That is a pretty clear statement, but in case you are confused, it means that simply calling on the name of Jesus Christ is not sufficient for salvation, irregardless of what some smooth tongued minister has told you. I have also been told that the Bible is really not necessary as His Word is written in our hearts, and, that is enough. Is it? Jeremiah 17:9, 10; “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it? 10 I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the kidneys, even to give to each one according to his ways, according to the fruitage of his dealings. We are told to enlighten the eyes of our hearts; Ephesians 1:17, 18; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit or wisdom and of revelation in the accurate knowledge of him; 18 the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he called you, what the glorious riches are which he holds as an inheritance for the holy ones. Everything in the Bible comes back to knowledge, gained from the Bible. And that knowledge is directed at how we live, and, the choices we make. Galatians 5:13-24;You were, of course, called for freedom, brothers; only do not use this freedom as an inducement for the flesh, but through love slave for one another. 14 For the entire Law stands fulfilled in one saying, namely: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If, though, you keep on biting and devouring one another, look out that you do not get annihilated by one another. 16 But I say, Keep walking by spirit and you will carry out no fleshly desire at all. 17 for the flesh is against the spirit in its desires, and the spirit again the flesh: for these are opposed to each other, so that the very things that you would like to do you do not do. 18 Furthermore, if you are being led by spirit, you are not under law. 19 Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, and they are fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct, 20 idolatry, practice of spiritism, enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, 21 envies, drunken bouts, revelries, and things like these. As to these things I am forewarning you, the same way as I did forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s kingdom. TIME OUT. You should take just a moment and read the above again. Now, tell me, does it sound to you that just anyone calling on the name of Jesus Christ and claiming to accept him as their Savior, will automatically be saved?! 22 On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 23, mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Moreover, those who belong to Christ Jesus impaled the flesh together with its passions and desires. What is so bad about this fruitage that you would reject them?: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. But how do you gain them? Are they being taught to you in your ‘church?’ Or do you get them from the Bible? BUT, are you even reading the Bible? From everything that I have heard from people, the main thing that comes from those ‘churches’ revolves around tradition. Any number of people are willing to argue with me about how important tradition is….. to whom? To you….. or to Jehovah God? Mark 7:13; (Jesus Christ speaking) and thus you make the word of God invalid by your tradition which you handed down. And many things similar to this you do. Colossians 2:8; Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ; Matthew 15:2; (Pharisees and scribes speaking to Jesus Christ) “Why is it your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times? 3 In reply he said to them: “Why is it you also overstep the commandment of God because of your tradition?” That is the view of the Bible, and of the Christ Jesus, on tradition. Does it need to be any clearer?! Here is the promise; John 11:25; Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life, and everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” Daniel 12:2; And there will be many of those asleep in the ground of dust who will wake up, these to indefinitely lasting life and those to reproaches (and) to indefinitely lasting abhorrence. John 3:16; “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. There is a lot of information in the three verses above, if you take the time to read them and understand. And each of those verses have witnesses in the Bible, to prove that they are correct. This is the choice you make; believe man and his tradition, or, take the time to study the Bible and learn His Truth. I mean, after all, only eternal life is at stake, right? It is much more important that we spend our pitiful little amount of time who have right now on this earth on non-sense, rather than on study, right? Just remember what we are told in the Bible; John 17:3; This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. There is one more thing that needs to be covered, for full understanding, and that is the nature of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:14, 15; by means of whom we have our release by ransom, the forgiveness of our sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; Proverbs 8:22; “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. I have said this before, the meaning of the name, Jesus, in the original Hebrew; Jehovah is salvation. Jehovah God glorified His first creation by giving to that being His Own Holy Name, Jehovah. And I repeat something else that I have said before; I do not ask you to believe me, for that is the road to foolishness. It is your obligation to do your own studies, and learn the Truth of Jehovah God for yourself. I will further witness to you that reading the Bible on your own is not sufficient; I did that for more than 20 years, and I did not begin to truly understand until I began to study in a group. Matthew 18:20; For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst. It works. We open with a prayer asking for guidance and knowledge, and, it comes, steadily. That only happens because we are willing to ask, and, willing to do as the Bible commands as a congregation; study His Word. Your choice. Believe in men, or, believe in Jehovah God and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
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#1. To: Old Friend, Phant2000, Red Jones, lodwick, Original_Intent, buckeye, Itisa1mosttoolate, IndieTX, all, *CAFR* (#0)
If anyone has any questions, please ask. Privately if you wish. For those of you who do not believe in God, and have no desire for eternal life, don't bother.
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
Well done. Thanks for this post.
My pleasure, my friend.
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
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