How God Shows Love

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A Bible believing seminary student attended a postmodern church service one Sunday. The pastor announced his sermon theme that all religious beliefs are true. He assured the congregation it was quite true. The Bible believing student squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. After service, he tried to slip out of church unnoticed. But the heavy-set robed pastor waited at the door bear hugging everybody. He shook the student’s hand and asked where he was from.

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“I’m a seminary student visiting here from Bowling Green,” the student replied. “Wonderful” the pastor responded. “And what do you believe young man?” “I’d rather not say sir,” said the student. “Oh it’s alright son” assured the pastor. “I believe all the doctrines are true. Tell me what you believe son.” Leaning over toward the pastor, the student whispered, “I believe sir that you’re going to Hell.” Surprised with face red as a tomato the pastor said, “Well, I guess I don’t believe every doctrine is true after all.”

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Many people claim Hell is a torture chamber and the very opposite of a loving God. Even schools, churches and Christians who claim to believe and teach the Bible are afraid or ashamed to mention Hell. They fear non-Christians might think the doctrine incredible, irrational or cruel. It would scare persons away from church. Let me give you six reasons that show how Hell actually proves God’s love.

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God Shows Love by Punishing Human Abuse and Injustice

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Unjudged sin would show a God indifferent to human abuses and injustices. Does God not notice our misery, feel our pain, hear our cries, or see our tears? Then He’s not even as compassionate as persons are. Does He care about us—are we not worth His time? An indifferent uncaring God is not the God of the Bible. At Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus wept. And God weeps at all our agony and adversity. Civilized nations protect their citizens--they justly put criminals in jail. Why then wouldn’t a caring God do the same? Lofty mountains of human abuse go unpunished and no punishment of injustice condones and encourages further injustice.

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Unjudged sin would mean our defiance defeats God. Who’s in charge God or man? If it’s man, then God’s defeated and evil terrorizes us. But if God’s in charge, then He’ll judge and punish evil doers confining evil to Hell. The Almighty can never be defeated. Unjust kings and heartless conquers bring untold devastation and misery to human lives and lands. But God will right all wrongs when sinners come before the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Mighty Satan and his followers have no power to stand before the Lord Jesus. Paul told the Philippians

“At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow . . . and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. Phil. 2:10.          

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Unjudged sin would mean God is not even as just as man is just. Unlike prejudiced fallible man, God knows the whole truth making Him alone the only perfectly just judge. And God judges each sinner according to their own knowledge and works—that means different degrees of punishment in each case. Serial killers will be more severely punished than liars will be. Thus, in these three ways God punishing sin demonstrates his love.

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God Shows Love through His Word Warning Us of Hell

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A loving parent will warn their child to look both ways for oncoming traffic to avoid disaster or not to play with fire. So God’s Word gives us metaphors or pictures to describe Hell’s nature and warn us of it. Hell is like outer darkness (Matt. 8:12), a wandering star (Jude 13), a waterless cloud (Jude 12), burning in a city dump (Mark 9:44-48), a bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3), an everlasting prison (1 Peter 3:19) a place of torment (Luke 16:28), a lake of fire (Rev. 21:8), and God’s abiding wrath (John 3:36). It’s our responsibility to heed the warning.  

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“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God”.

1 Cor. 6:9-10.

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God’s Shows Love by Giving us a Conscience to Discern Good and Evil.

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Everyone has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, a feeling of what behavior is fair and unfair, good and bad. But we can choose to make our conscience insensitive, oversensitive or irrational. We can suppress our natural feelings of compassion for others like ourselves. We can learn to hate and to twist things believing evil is good and good evil. See Jer. 17:9-10; Isa. 5:20.

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We may overlook evils when others are mistreated. We may excuse ourselves saying it is not my business, or I don’t know the circumstances, or maybe even that they deserve it. But how quick we are to protest and scream unfair when someone abuses us. We have no difficulty of discernment then. We don’t suppress our conscience or make excuses then. The reality of good and evil is deeply impressed upon us then.

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Our conscience is not imaginary—it’s real. But it makes no ultimate sense unless there be a standard to which we are accountable. We can’t be accountable to the energy of the universe as pantheist religions suppose. Universal energy can neither know nor care anything about us or can be a standard of good and evil. We can’t be accountable to an uncaring God who abandoned us as deists suppose. And the ignorant dependent God evolving with the world that process theologians imagine can’t hold us accountable either.

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Jesus, however, confirmed our accountability as he fulfilled ancient prophecies, performed many miracles and plainly told us he is our God. And his death for our sins and bodily resurrection demonstrated both God’s justice and love. No world religion or dead religious philosopher has anything to match that.

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Our conscience and ethics makes no ultimate sense unless there’s an Absolute Moral Lawgiver who holds us accountable. That infinite, personal ethical God revealed Himself in biblical history. God’s Word is true and dependable and there’s no law that God must excuse religions contrary to his Word no matter how sincere their devoted followers. The Bible’s God is our Creator, Owner, Life-giver, Judge, and his will not ours is the law.

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God Shows Love by Bearing our Punishment on the Cross

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Jesus did only good and delivered oppressed persons from the devil. But, he was ridiculed, spit on, falsely accused, condemned as a common criminal, merciless beaten, nailed to a cross, exposed naked to gazing eyes, and forsaken by the Father. He took our sins upon himself—it was the just willingly bearing the punishment of the unjust. This is the greatest expression of love known to man. A God of love was unthinkable before Christ’s cross and remains so today among peoples who have never heard of the Savior.  

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 As selfish, self-centered persons, we don’t see ourselves as immoral or filthy sinners that need cleansing and saving. What God calls sin we think is fun and a good time. God seems like a tyrant trying to impose impossible rules upon us and spoil our fun. We generally feel this way until God opens our spiritually blind eyes, softens our hard heart and floods our soul with his love, peace and purity.

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God Shows Love by Letting Us Choose Our Own Destiny

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God can’t force us to accept Him—forced love is rape. Forced love would dishonor God saying his abundant blessings and Christ’s death in our place is of no avail. Anyone—the worst sinner—may come and millions have. Heaven or Hell then is our choice. The Bible’s unmistakable that without Christ unbelievers will dwell in outer darkness in tears and torments forever.   

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There is no second chance, neither annihilation nor reincarnation. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27).” God must keep his promise to provide a perfect home for believers (John 14:1-3). So we read, “There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 22:11)”.

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God Shows Love by His Patience with Our Excuses

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 Procrastination and good intentions have sent many persons to Hell. Don’t let them send you. Now is the time to be saved. Evolution is no excuse to deny God’s providence and judgment—it’s only a lie. Problems with the Bible have solutions if you’re willing to take the time to look for them. Hypocrites inside or outside the church are a poor excuse to go to Hell. Don’t take the most serious risk of your life. The grim reaper may be knocking on your door. God gave his Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life with him in paradise. Delay may prove fatal! Humbly trust the Savior of sinners. Then get with God’s Bible believing people and serve the Lord. Let the goodness and love of God lead you to faith and repentance. Then link this blog with yours & tell others about it so they can trust the Savior & go to heaven. God bless your ministry.

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Why Forbidden Fruit in Paradise?

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This account of our first parents in the Garden of Eden has always intrigued and fascinated us (Genesis 2-3). Some have claimed the whole problem was the apple on the tree while others said no it was the PARE on the ground. Ignorance misrepresents the text that never mentions any apple. Since Adam and Eve made aprons of fig leaves to cover their nakedness, more likely the forbidden fruit was figs. And the sin of the PARE on the ground was not sex as some imagine, but disobedience to God. But all this is only a sidelight.

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Now some persons think the account a fictitious story or myth since it seems utterly fantastic for trees to have properties to give eternal life or knowledge of good and evil and a talking snake is impossible. But we don’t have to understand the account that way.

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The trees didn’t have to have such properties but only to represent such properties and to provide mankind the choice of a beautiful and completely good world in fellowship with God or a world mixed with good and evil. And the serpent the Bible explains is a fallen angel or spirit called Satan. Spirit beings can inhabit persons and animals and speak through them as we see when Jesus caste the demons out of Legion and they went into the pigs causing them to wildly jump into water and drown. Persons today who have witnessed demon possession know it’s real. I’m one such witness.

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It’s crucial that we take the account as historical fact in a prescientific setting that peoples everywhere and all times can understand. The rest of the Bible takes the temptation account as historical fact (Gen. 5:1; 1 Chron. 1:1; Luke 3:38; Rom. 5:12-21). Jesus Christ, the God-man who lived in our world took it as fact (Mark 10:6; John 8:44). Paul, his inspired apostle, took it as fact (1 Cor. 15:39, 45; 1 Tim. 2:13).

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If the account’s fiction, then there’s no sin, no need of a Savior, no Heaven or Hell, no need even for God. In fact, the whole world and life becomes nonsensical—absolute truth, human dignity and rights, ethics, justice, purpose in life, life after death--all become baseless hopeless futility. Everything is accident and chance. Think about it.

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The real problem is why Adam and Eve who lived in a perfect world, decided to ignore God’s warning and disobey God. Had they not sinned we would not have inherited our sinful nature or tendency to be self-centered caring little for God and our fellowman. Had they not sinned the world would not be such a mess of good and evil, joy and sorrow. Had they not sinned they could have lived eternally with God and maybe our exploding population could inhabit other planets. Could that be why other planets exist, or is there another reason? And wouldn't we have not sinned in our parent’s place?

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Why then did God allow evil in to corrupt his paradise? God cursed Adam, Eve, the serpent, even the ground. Why did he do that? He even expelled our first parents from paradise. Was he just being mean? The Bible says God is holy and can’t sin but he sure can allow us to do it.

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But don’t we have several ways to justify our sins? We say it’s not my fault since God made me. Or, the devil makes me to it. Or, I was raised--actually lowered--by a bad environment and deserve to compensate my loss. Or, my genes have programmed me this way and I can’t help it. They are all lies of course, but we try not to feel guilty. Could our guilt feelings be telling us something? Does real guilt make any sense without a perfect standard of righteousness and a moral Lawgiver who can know and judge our actions?

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God certainly could have prevented Adam’s sin; he prevented sin many times as Pharaoh’s sin of taking Abraham’s wife Sarah into his harem (Gen. 12:17-20). A sovereign God upholds the existence of every atom in the universe. But in God’s mind, Jesus was the Lamb slain before He created the world—it was part of His perfect plan (Rev. 13:8). Everything falls out according to God’s plan, “Known to God from eternity are all His works” and God’s works and ours are interrelated (Acts 15:18; Luck 19:10). Jesus described the details of his death before hand even telling Judas to do his part (John13:26-27). Every fulfilled Bible prophecy demonstrates God knows all and is in control.

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Here is the answer to the great mystery so few people can understand, accept and value. The Fall of man and the most heinous things men can conceive and do throughout history is worth it for two momentous reasons. And I feel so inadequate at this point.

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God’s promises of the new paradise right here on our renewed earth will be far more glorious than the Garden of Eden. This isn’t the best world but the necessary way to the best world. And Jesus is its Door.

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“Eye has not seen, no ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which  God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9

“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which  hall    be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

 “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2 Cor. 6:17

 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. 1  Cor. 10:31.

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What Value Is the Blood of Jesus Christ?

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On a farm, I once saw a hog killed for food. The farmer jumped into the hog pin, hit the hog in the head with an axe, and slit its throat. To see the hog helplessly lying there with blood spurting from its neck was repulsive and made me feel weak and faint. Until Christ died and God tore the thick temple veil in two from top to bottom, Jewish priests slit the throats of thousands of innocent unblemished lambs upon sacrificial alters. Critics decry Judaism calling it a slaughterhouse religion. One Protestant denomination thought the blood songs in their hymnal so repulsive they omitted them.

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In town, I sometimes went to the bus station to give out gospel tracks and tell of my Christian faith. But on one occasion when I was merely passing by I heard a man shouting profanities walking back and forth in front of the bus station. He turned and looked directly at me watching him. If ever a human face could express evil, it was that man’s face. And most unusual and surprising, he screamed out the words “And the blood of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean a thing.” Knowing what the Bible said about demons, I wondered if this man was possessed.

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According to the Bible, all the slain lambs pictured the one final sacrifice to come in the death of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:29). The Jews rejected Jesus as the suffering servant and Messiah because they were looking for a political king.What does the blood of Jesus Christ mean according to the Bible?

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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Was His Suffering the Punishment Our Sins Deserved

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He (God) made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21

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Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. . .For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18

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Not Jesus’ deity, but his humanity died as our substitute bearing our sin and punishment. All sin is ultimately against God. Jesus’ death exhibited both God’s justice and love—it was the world’s worst evil to bring about humanity’s greatest good. Jesus’ death satisfied God’s justice, demonstrated his love, and sealed our pardon. See also Isaiah 53:11; 1 John 2:2.

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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Frees Us from Slavery to Sin and Condemnation

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In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Ephesians. 1:7.

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Redemption is Christ’s death paying the penalty to free us from slavery to sin (1 Pet. 1:18; Rev. 1:5-6). Not just sins committed before salvation, nor only sins confessed since salvation, but all sins past, present, and future. Unless that’s true, Christ could not be our true and sufficient Savior. Believers are no longer judged for sins condemned and paid for at the cross (Rom. 8:1; John 5:24), but judged as God’s fellow workers on the foundation of Christ to receive their rewards for service at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:9-15; Rev. 22:12).  

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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Empowers Us to Overcome Sin Daily

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If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-9.

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While we are free from slavery to sin and its penalty of Hell, we never become perfect in this world. We still struggle with sin in our daily lives. First John 3:9 is in the present continuous tense and can better translated habitual sin. The new birth in God’s Spirit makes us new persons with a new sensitivity to wrongdoing. Paul explains the way to victory in the struggle with sin is to yield ourselves to God as his instruments of righteousness and not to sin which leads to death (Rom. 6). A pig and a lamb may fall into mud. The pig enjoys it but the lamb struggles to get free.

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The Lord’s Resurrection Visibly Established the Value of His Shed Blood

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If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 1 Corinthians 15:17.

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If Jesus’ body had not risen from the dead, Christian faith would never have come into being. Jesus would be seen as a false prophet. His death would mean nothing. We would have no proof of life beyond the grave. And human beings have no reason to believe we’re anything more than perishing animals--atheism, or recycled energy--pantheist religions, meaning utter extinction and futility of life.

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Jesus gave his life voluntary and had power to take it up again (John 10:18; Acts 2:23). Arrogant persons brag about their greatness and despise, offend, and degrade others as unworthy of their time and attention. In contrast, Jesus’ greatness is that he left Heaven’s glories, came into our sin cursed world, took the form of a servant, suffered all the indignities men could heap upon him, and died a criminal’s death for us despicable sinners. That’s love! There’s no greater love--and when it touches us, it can melt our hard sinful hearts and fill us with love, gratitude and joy.

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“I will sing of my Redeemer and His wondrous love to me;

On the cruel cross He suffered from the curse to set me free.

I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant power I’ll tell,

Of the victory He gives over sin and death and hell.”

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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Enables Us to Live for Him and Not Just Ourselves

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He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:15.

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Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 There certainly are many such thieves in the world today—but not Jesus, nor his true followers.

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“Living for Jesus a life that is true, Striving to please Him in all that I do,

Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free, This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Living for Jesus who died in my place, Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace,

Such love constrains me to answer His call, Follow His leading and give Him my all.

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O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to You;

For You in Your atonement, did gave Yourself for me;

I own no other Master, My heart shall be Your throne;

My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ for You alone.”
                                       ---Hymn by Thomas O. Chisholm

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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Has Broken Down the Hate Walls Between Peoples

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He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. Acts 17:26.

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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28.

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In Jesus time, Jews hated Gentiles and Gentiles hated Jews; women and slaves were less valued. People hate and devalued each other the world over. And whoever gets the upper hand dominates and enslaves the others. But Christ came to break down these hate walls of separation between races and peoples. Paul rebuked Peter’s separating from the Gentiles saying it was not according to the gospel (Gal. 2:14). Peter by example was building walls between people instead of tearing them down.

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All persons are in God’s image, descended from Adam and Eve and of one blood. Different genes give us different characteristics but we’re a common humanity deserving the same respect. God’s church is one body and he loves us all. We’ll all be together in either Heaven or Hell. So everybody is entitled to the same respect and concern. Christian tear down those hate walls--only the practice of true biblical Christianity can do it.

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 Hymns about the blood are most precious to the true believer.

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“There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains;

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood Shall never lose its power

Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.”
                                                       ---Hymn by William Cowper

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Many fine scholarly books are written about Jesus’ cross or atonement. I think the little 127-page book, The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper is best for the average person. It briefly and clearly discusses 50 reasons why Christ died. Jesus' death & resurrection is humanity's only hope & salvation. Do U have a love-trust relationship with the Savior issuing in obedience?

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            The Death of Beloved Mr. Happy Goodman

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The people of Littletown were shocked at what they saw in the alleyway’s filthy slime, between the general store and the post office was the bruised, bloody body of poor old Mr. Happy Goodman, our town’s most loved citizen. Mr. Happy was always smiling, always helping anyone in need. Horrified crowds gathered and stared in unbelief. Some shook their heads and turned away in utter disgust. How could anyone brutally murder our Mr. Happy of all persons? That’s pure evil defeating good.

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Tight-lipped, clinched fist, and shaking, I screamed, “that evil murdering monster deserves Hell!”My angry response shocked me. I’m a liberal minded Christian. I don’t believe in Hell. It seems heartlessly cruel and contradictory if there’s a loving God. Yes, we make mistakes, nobody’s perfect? But even the worst sinner shouldn’t be tortured forever. Besides, Hell’s scary! People don’t like to hear about it. I can’t justify Mr. Happy’s murder, but the idea of Hell seems unjust, unbearable, unreasonable even unchristian, but it is in the Bible. Maybe I need to think through the consequences. Maybe my theology destroys my Christianity.

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Denying Hell Results in a Self-destructive Theology

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We should base theology upon what our Creator and all-knowing Lord has made known to us, never upon our finite, fickle feelings, opinions, preferences and guesses. If human limitations and ignorance decide Christian doctrine, we can never have any doctrinal consensus or authority. If what the Bible says, God says, then that’s authority and a standard for Christian faith. Pick this and not that, or cafeteria-style theology self-destructs. It undermines authority even of the teachings we like.

The Bible’s Teachings Are a Logical Unity

To deny one Bible teaching leads to the denial and dismissal of all. Notice how this works when we want a God of permissive love and Heaven without a Hell of unending torments. A God who never punishes sin sanctions evil and cares nothing about our sufferings, screams, tears, bloodshed. That’s not love. The Bible’s God warns sinners of judgment, promises blessings for obedience, pleads with us to trust his way, and is heartbroken to have to punish us. That’s love. Justice and love are two sides of the same coin. It’s like the compassionate doctor who warns persons of disease, offers the remedy, but the patient ignores it.

So, logically, no Hell means God approves of evil and cares nothing about hurting humanity. Sin doesn’t matter. Christ was no Savior of sinners but a deceived fool who died for nothing. His disciples were duped followers of a senseless lie. His church is not a special called out body but just another good-will social club. Evangelism is a pointless waste of time. And missions are an expensive waste of money. Each doctrine implies the one following and they all stand or fall together.

God Didn’t Program Us to be Mechanical Robots



God made us persons able to respond to Him with hearts of gratitude, trust, and love who accept His way as best. And God is patient—He doesn’t beat us in the ground for every sin and mistake. In addition to a conscience to discern right from wrong, God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers to comfort, guide, and empower us. Free will honors God and dignifies us made in His likeness (Genesis 1:27; Joshua 24:15).

Some Persons Are Incorrigible and Unredeemable

Some persons reject God and his ways to the death. Unfit for God’s service, dangerous and corrupting of society, they must be contained in their own kind of place. This earthly life is our testing ground and our only opportunity for life with God (Hebrews 9:27). Our conscience is the light of moral law and of its Lawgiver. But our daily choices can suppress that light. Inexcusable self-centered rebellion earns us the loneliness, outer darkness, torments, and God’s fiery wrath of Hell forever (Gal. 6:7; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

Heaven Can’t Exist Without Hell

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God does not annihilate persons made in His image. Persons who prefer self to God get their choice. They are forever in Hell separated from God and His blessings while saints enjoy the Heavenly home Jesus promised and prepared for them (John 14:1-4). Sin and sinners won’t corrupt God’s perfect Heaven (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rev. 21:27; 22:15).

The wicked will be like despicable worms experiencing God’s fiery wrath in outer darkness, torment, weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; John 3:36; Luck 16:25-26). Sinners will be punished exactly in accord with each one’s sin, some more, some less (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 12:47: Rom. 2:5; Heb. 10:29). 

Hell Makes Moral Sense and Gives Life Purpose

Without Hell, moral choices have no ultimate consequences. If the grave ends all, then we’re ultimately responsible to nobody and nothing. Accumulated wealth, fame, thrills lose their luster. But if a holy God watches and knows our every thought, word and deed, and rewards or punishes us eternally, then we will fear or reverence the Lord. We will use His name only in thanksgiving and praise.

We reverence or fear a holy God who watches our behavior whether good or bad and gives us our just due--that makes life meaningful. Things we do really matter. Without this fear of the Lord, society becomes sick, tired, bored, destructive, and suicidal. Increasingly, it’s happening today.

How it Applies to Life

Christians cannot reject Hell since it undermines other Bible teachings and destroys biblical authority. Non-Christians should seriously consider this crucial teaching. For without Hell, we have no hope of Heaven, no ultimate purpose for life, and no final judgment of evil. It really condones and encourages a wicked, insane, insecure world. Further, mere claims about life after death carry no authority.

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Christians, however, have certain hope of Heaven since our Savior is the resurrected God-man from Heaven sent to save the lost. In His death on the cross, Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us, demonstrated His love, and arose from the grave to prove His teachings true and our hope of eternal life certain. Jesus will never leave those who put their trust in him. And believing in him includes believing all he taught is God’s truth including Hell.



Nature Could Never Design Man

Scientists tell us a living cell has enough genetic information to fill a set of encyclopedias—it’s a virtual city of compact complex machines working in harmony. And molecules would have a number of impossibly difficult hurtles to even form a cell. But we don’t have to take the scientists word for it. Just perceptive observation can show how utterly impossible this is for unconscious mindless nature to create man in any amount of time. Take the human body as an example.

Consider the external design shown only in a person’s head. Eyes in the head on top of the body give maximum distance of vision—why aren’t they at the waist or feet? Eyes are recessed and proper distance apart for depth of vision and protection with eyebrows to obstruct drips, eyelashes to retard dust, tears to clarify vision. Ears located on sides of the head for expanded range of sound and shaped to trap sound. Nose juts out with double nostrils to insure breathing if a nostril is clogged. Mouth is in the head for food intake designed to take food downward and out of the body. It has biting teeth in front where needed to bite and  teeth behind to crush what’s bit, a tongue to move food around and internal acids to digest food. Can we suppose blind nature knew how to fix things this way even in billions of years?

Eyes, ears, nose, mouth all have many essential functioning parts to carry messages to the brain. Man’s brain is encased in a hard protective shell surrounded by hair to keep in warmth. The human brain is so compact and so complex with connections sending chemical and electrical messages in a split second and it would take a large library to match the information it can contain. Further, it’s believed we use only a small part of our brain capacity. Doesn’t all this suggest fiat creation rather than evolutionary process?

Science knows nothing can’t produce something and life doesn’t come from nonlife--that suggests an eternal self-existing living cause, namely God. Further, life forms show specified complexity not found in nature—compare arrowheads with creek stones, sand castles with sand dunes, the four known presidents faces of Mount Rushmore with natural mountains. Further, life forms are irreducibly complete and functional at the outset—no partially developed heart or reproductive system can survive.

Evolutionists make counter claims. They say human embryos go through animal stages such as a worm and fish, and the fetus’ backbone looks like an animal’s tail—they even base abortion on it. But life forms are programmed at the outset. They say bodily appendages such as tonsils, appendix and thymus gland are useless evolutionary carryovers. Over a hundred such vestigial organs were once claimed, but uses are now known for all but a disputed few. It’s said both animal and human genetic material are composed of four letters and 99% identical. But it’s not identical material but different arrangement that counts.

Could evolutionist arguments be based upon ignorance or just blind prejudice? Does true investigative science have to exempt God at the outset? Do we know so much as to say no God exists? Aren’t we supposed to follow the evidence wherever it leads? Doesn’t experimental science have its limits? Could the “gaps” in our knowledge be filled in by a naturalistic bias? Weren’t modern experimental scientists’ believers in God, creation and many even Christians? Aren’t many scientists’ Christian believers even today? And isn’t it the rational order of the Christian worldview that is the very basis for experimental science? All these questions deserve honest answers from honest open-minded people.

Inherited adaptability to environment does occur such as the changing length of the finches’ beak. But mutations are usually destructive, not passed on, and millions are required in conjunction to make a significant change—it’s not a sufficient mechanism to change one life form into another. The universe is running down, not building up as evolution suggests. A genetic plan must come from an informer, a mind. Randomness never arranges itself into order—red, white and blue confetti dropped from an airplane doesn’t form itself into the American flag on the ground. Life forms look designed simply because they really are designed by their great Designer.

The probably of this all coming together by unconscious mindless nature in an evolution of time and chance is infinitely improbable, not even in 15 billion years. Consult a textbook explaining the complexity, intricacy and compatibility of the human body. Surely, common sense compels us to admit all this marvelous design cannot be due to a common ancestor but attributed only to a common intelligent self-existing Designer or God. A love-trust relationship with our Maker may be the plan and purpose of life. We won’t know until we sinners trust in the loving Savior who died to pay for our sins.

Maybe it’s Darwinists’ and not the Bible that’s in denial—see Psalms 14:1; 19:1-2; 139:14; Romans 1:20-21. Rose Publishing puts out pamphlets with much good easy to understand information. For college students the 5 Minute Apologist, by Dr. Rick Cornish gives maximum answers in minimum time. It’s covers most subjects at a reasonably price. See book list below.

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Ape-man or God-man?

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#Science   #Naturalism   #God-man

Two opposing worldviews compete for the lives and souls of men. One is naturalistic science. Evolutionists claim man is purely a product of nature, claimed up from the clime, is dispensable, and will become food for worms. The other is biblical Christianity. Bible believers affirm Jesus is the God-man who taught God created us and we’re responsible to choose eternal life with God.     

Darwin’s followers, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, believed God a hindrance and man only a more evolved animal. They murdered their countrymen and millions of others they claimed inferior or who disagreed with them. Their ‘survival of the fittest mentality’ justified their actions.   

Evolutionists destroy everything Christians uphold. Evolutionists kill human dignity and human rights saying we’re just dispensable animals. Evolutionists deny the world has meaning and life ultimate purpose. Evolutionists disaffirm absolute truth and ethics. Evolutionists bury hope of life beyond the grave. Secular humanist countries demonstrate this: “those who hate him (God), love death”. Proverbs 8:36.

Christians uphold Creation and Christ as our loving Lord and Savior. This inspires us to found great universities, create great literature and art, established science on an experimental basis, build hospitals, and establish humane organizations. Believing the world created by a rational God who loves us, we’re assured it’s a rational world to be nurtured and developed. The Christian church is imperfect, yet provides the basis for everything good evolution destroys.

To decide which worldview is the truth two questions require our utmost attention. One, is Darwin right that we evolved from the apes or something lower? The other question, could Jesus be the God-man and only hope of the world?  

First, Question: Is Man Just an Animal Ascended from Slime?      

 Consider these three lines of argument. First, in science observable, repeatable experiments are what establish a theory as fact. And it’s believed that given enough time unconscious nature can arrange mindless molecules into men.

Evolutionists made this experiment with fruit flies. Since they have a short lifespan, many generations can be examined. Radiation experiments conducted on multiple generations showed they can develop long or short legs or wings and various deformities. As England became industrialized, black smoke covered the trees. People noticed black moths replaced white moths birds could see to eat. Darwin observed birds called Finches had longer beaks in the dry season.
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Now fruit flies were the only experiment and it clearly showed they don’t evolve into anything else. The moths and Finches were observations, but not experiments. And they proved only that creatures can adapt to their environments. No experiments establish evolution.

 We know various kinds of dogs, horses, monkeys, and men exist. But we don’t know that dogs can change into horses or monkeys evolve into men. That’s theory, not fact. Furthermore, we know animals and plants have a genetically programmed limit that they cannot pass. The fossil record confirms the Bible that plants and animals reproduce only their own kind (Gen.1:21-25). And God made man in his image--a rational, moral, immortal person like himself (Gen. 1:27; Psalm 8:5; Ephesians 4:23-24).

Second, evolutionists argue transitional forms or bones called fossils can demonstrate evolution to be fact. Fossils showing transitional steps from ameba to Adam would without doubt show evolution is fact. Museums overflow with fossils. Some show unusual characteristics of animals that died out such as the duckbilled platypus. But no bones discovered show one animal evolved into another.

Paleontologists dig up bones and announce to the world they have found the missing link. So we’ve told about the missing link called Piltdown Man, Java Man, Peking Man, Lucy and Nebraska Man.  Neanderthal Man was a real robust person who may have had a much longer lifespan than people today. All supposed extinct races of people that turn out to be hoaxes, just lies.

The famous Tennessee Scopes trial convinced America science discovered the missing link, Nebraska Man. Science proved man evolved from the monkey. Science then is fact, religion mere faith. Textbooks should teach science, not religion. Scientists are learned authorities, Christian’s ignorant dummies. Nebraska Man, however, turned out to be an extinct pig’s tooth. Who then is the real dummies?
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Don’t believe the sensational artist’s drawings, journalist’s articles and cave man models shown in newspapers and science textbooks. All are reconstructions not based upon proof but upon evolutionist bias.
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Third, evolutionists argue that similarities between man and animals prove evolution. Both man and animals have similar limb structure, organs, bodily fluids, and DNA. They classify animal complexity in an ascending order then say this confirms man and the animals evolved from a common ancestor.
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But there’s no rule God has to make life forms of entirely different patterns. Life and mobility require similar legs, arms, organs, fluids, DNA. The differences are more significant. Besides, creatures can’t live with partially developed digestive or reproductive systems or heart, eyes, ears, legs, arms. Built-in genetic limitations allow varieties within kinds but not change to a different kind of creature. Similarities don’t prove a common ancestor—more likely, they show a Common Designer. But couldn’t the Bible account of man’s creation be myth or fable to allow for evolution as naturalistic science claims?
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No! The text is clear that God created animals to reproduce after their own kinds. But God made man directly from the ground in his image and dominant over animals. With no suitable helpmate among animals, God made Eve (mother of all living) from Adam. These first people had intelligent speech, named the animals, kept sheep, farmed the ground, make offerings to God, and build cities.

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Further, the Bible always assumes the creation account is literal history. Jesus affirmed God made man beginning at creation (Mark 10:6). Paul said God made man’s flesh different from animals, that Adam  was made direct from dirt and formed before Eve (1 Cor. 15:39, 48; 1Tim. 2:13). All this precludes both naturalistic evolution and theistic evolution as God’s means of creation. Moreover, unless the Fall is literal, the Bible becomes nonsense and there’s no need of a Savior (Gen. 3; John 3:16; Rom. 5:12-21). It all boils down to belief or unbelief in the Bible’s God.
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The sacred writer’s intent was not an imaginative entertaining story but a historical account to show our origin in God’s image. Moreover, because archaeologists have no collaborative data and aren’t likely to find any doesn’t mean it can’t be true. Critics are wrong multiple times.
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Second question: Could Jesus be the God-man and Only Way to Heaven?
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Do we know God is required to have many ways to heaven? Could there be something about God or about us that we haven’t considered? Do we know God must follow our thinking and we can’t be wrong? How can we even know there is a heaven or what it’s like?

Would the mere word of Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster, Hindus, Mohammad, or Jesus prove their religion to be true? Don’t crazy persons claim to be God or talk with God? How can we know God is more than just a thought in their head, their imagination, invention, or philosophy? What would demonstrate their God is real and acts in our material world?
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As we mentioned, true science confirms or discredits their theories by repeated empirical tests and observations. So which of the just mentioned religions exceeds mere words with repeatable public proofs?
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Consider this. I announce that this year the snow will melt off Mt Everest and the volcano in Yellowstone National Park will erupt and it occurred. Wouldn’t that get attention and suggest I have super human knowledge? And what if I could do incredible things like walk on water, heal open sores immediately, and ascend into the sky? Wouldn’t that suggest I have greater knowledge than men ordinarily have?
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Well, Jewish prophets made hundreds of specific predictions about their Messiah that only Jesus Christ could fulfil. Consider these: claimed  be God, virgin born, in Bethlehem, live without sin, fulfill prophecies, perform miracles, die for people’s sins and rise from the dead. Also, over three years before astonished disciples and hostile critics in open daylight wherever he went, Jesus performed miracles, probably hundreds. Moreover, Jesus’ life doesn’t need repeating for every generation since greater historical evidence exists for Jesus than for Aristotle or Julius Caesar. Check it out -The Historical Jesus by Gary R. Habermas.

What can we conclude with regard to world religions? Jesus gave us repeated, public, eyewitness, evidences confirming his claims to be God. Founders of non-Christian religions give only teachings, no objective visible evidence of God. Can’t we then conclude, based upon good evidence, that Jesus is God?
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What can we conclude with regard to the naturalist’s claim that mindless molecules arranged themselves into men? No experiment has shown this. A Common Designer explains arguments of similarities better than a common ancestor does. Bones showing each transitional step would conclusively demonstrate evolution. But all we have are a few supposed missing links exposed as hoaxes. Can’t we also conclude that the repeated, eyewitness evidence Jesus gave to show he is God is far more scientific than all the missing links and hoaxes that fail to demonstrate evolution? Aren’t we wise to trust Jesus to save us sinners when our eternal well-being is at stake? A naturalist assumption may send us to the eternal darkness, torment and weeping of Hell.

Jesus Is The Only Way to Heaven!

Jesus Is The Only Way to Heaven!

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Does everything begun require a beginner? Can time backtrack eternally? Can nothing explode into everything? Can molecules arrange themselves into men? Can we even be rational if all is chance?
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Christians believe it’s most reasonable that a Creator sustains and explains every particle of matter. There’s no rational basis to deny an intelligent God, creation, miracles, divine revelation, and that the Creator can take on a human nature, body, and tell us all we need to know. Skeptics can only make negative assumptions and derogatory accusations--they are just as dogmatic and exclusivist as anyone else. If there’s any possibility of Heaven, it’s terribly foolish to ignore that possibility. There may even be a Hell—skeptics can only hope there isn’t! And anyone arguing there’s no absolute truth assumes his argument true—thus his arguments mean nothing. Now consider arguments for entrance into Heaven.  

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Only God Can Set the Entrance Requirements to His Heaven.

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Ancient peoples believed in some ideal form of life after death. American Indians have their happy hunting grounds. Vikings dying with sword in hand have their Valhalla. Greeks have their Elysian Fields. Egyptians believed that at least their Pharaohs would have an ideal life after death. Of course, we can have different opinions as to what Heaven is like, who can enter Heaven and under what conditions. We all have a right to our own opinions and we have them regardless of what others may think or say. But apart from logical factual evidence, claims about God and the afterlife are mere opinions and guesses unworthy of belief.   

If God were the Creator of Heaven, that would make him its Owner, Lawgiver and Judge. Ownership conveys rights and excludes other opinions and claims. God alone then has the right to say what his Heaven must be like, and what its entrance requirements must be. And if God created man in his image for relationship with him, then it’s reasonable that Heaven exists. So then, no person has any right to tell God he can’t have just one way to enter his Heaven.

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Only God Can Tell Us His Entrance Requirements to His Heaven.

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If we can be opened-minded, there’s biblical evidence a God-man walked among us and told us about the afterlife and Heaven. Since I’ve discussed this evidence in other articles, I won’t discuss it here. It includes fulfillment of hundreds of ancient promises and prophecies about individuals, Israel and other nations. It records supernatural occurrences through angels, miracles, and most specifically the Lord Jesus Christ. Honest examination will show there’s simply nothing like these historical events in other sacred literature. Further, the Bible with all its diversity written over fifteen centuries shows an amazing unity of teaching from creation to recreation not found in other secret literature. Without such actions of God, we have no visible assurance and authority about Heaven, its rightful occupants, and entrance requirements.

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God Has Told Us Moral Perfection Is Required to Enter His Perfect Heaven.

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Almighty God was under no obligation to create a universe but did create one good for his purposes (Gen. 1:1, 4, 10, 12, 18, 25, 31). God made a paradise for man meeting man’s every need. God gave man the choice of eternal life in a love-trust relationship with him in paradise or of a world of good and evil. Man chose to eat from the tree representing a world of good and evil. Thus, all persons are born with a natural tendency to put self above all else including their Lifegiver.
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God expelling man from paradise showed mercy to keep man from eating from the tree of life and being eternally condemned in sin (selfishness, rebellion and eternal loss). Man’s choice brought the consequences of a cursed world and sinful posterity. Theologians call it the Fall of man. Even then, God gave humanity the promise of redemption (Gen. 3:15; 1 Jn. 3:8). Reason then requires that a morally perfect God find corrupt rebellious persons unfit and unacceptable to enter and maintain his perfect Heaven.

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Jesus, the God-man said, “You shall be perfect, just as you Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

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“Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). See also Rev. 21:27.

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God’s Entrance Requirement Is Trust in the Lamb Slain as a Substitute for Our Sin.

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Only God’s way is acceptable to him and can maintain a 100% perfect Heaven. It must be a humble trust in God’s gift of salvation since we can never achieve perfection or cleanse past sins. It is the greatest expression of love known to man, as the just (Christ) died for the unjust (us sinners). Only the sinless Christ could be the perfect sacrifice for sin and satisfy God’s justice. We can never understand it all; we can only trust God’s way is right and the only way.

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“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

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“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten (unique) Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:16-17).

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Now back to First Corinthians 6:11 speaking to believers, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified (set apart for God’s service), but you were justified (declared just) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

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Jesus death and resurrection proved he is Lord over death; he is God as he claimed, all he said is God’s absolute truth, and we are not just soulless dirt but created in God’s image with dignity, rights, freedom and responsibility. Will you trust him now for forgiveness of sin and eternal service with and for him who gave his life to save you? Pray, Lord I trust You now to forgive my sin, and make me Your child now  and forever. Thank You Lord.
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