Brother of Yeshua

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The time will come -- the event is imminent -- regardless of what you do, you cannot evade your destiny -- everyone must come to terms with the question that this man asked the Lord. If you have listened to the wrong people or religious authority -- believed the wrong doctrine -- or squandered your opportunity in life -- then everything that you have labored to acquire and achieve will be forever lost. Regardless of how religious you are -- how often you attend church -- how much money you donate to the church -- if you fail to answer this single question correctly, the result of your life could be as spiritually stagnant as the Sadducees and Pharisees who worshiped the Lord in vain!

From the perspective of the Gospel message, it is of the greatest importance that we understand what is being presented here. Moreover, it is important to recognize that from our modern day perception of the Gospel message, we would conclude that the person who approached Jesus would be saved, and he would be counted as being faithful by todays concepts of New Covenant teachings. In fact, by todays standards, this man could be a pillar of the church. He came to Jesus -- falling on his knees -- declaring his faith -- calling upon the name of the good master -- desiring to be saved.

Yet, in total opposition to our understanding of what we believe is the preaching of Paul and the doctrine of the modern church, Jesus replied that the man has to do more than believe and have faith, fall on his knees to Jesus, and acknowledge him as the good master. Not only did the man have to observe the Commandments of God, but he had to relinquish all that he owned in this world, and follow the Lord: Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me (Matt 19:21 KJV).

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If our modern-day perception of the gospel was correct, and the good news that is presently being preached from the pulpits of our churches represents the true revelation of the Lord to mankind, then Jesus would have told the man that his faith (in Jesus) has saved him. In opposition to what is commonly believed today, we can see clearly demonstrated here that belief and faith in Jesus, without the observance of the Commandments as found in the Law, and without the relinquishing of the things of this world, cannot save us -- as expressed in the words of the Matthew Henrys Commentary which concludes: Though many that call themselves Christians, do not act as if they believed it; it is certain, that, when we embrace Christ, we must let go the world, for we cannot serve God and mammon... we must devote ourselves entirely to the conduct and government of our Lord Jesus; Come, and follow me. It seems here to be meant of a close and constant attendance upon his person, such as the selling of what he had in the world was as necessary as it was to the other disciples to quit their callings; but of us it is required that we follow Christ, that we duly attend upon his ordinances, strictly conform to his pattern, and cheerfully submit to his disposals, and by upright and universal obedience observe his statutes, and keep his laws, and all this from a principle of love to him, and dependence on him, and with a holy contempt of every thing else in comparison of him, and much more in competition with him. This is to follow Christ fully.

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What was the fate of this man? When he asked about eternal life, Jesus did not tell him to believe and be saved -- but rather, Jesus told him to go and keep the commandments. How can one be saved by keeping the commandments? And when the man stated that he had kept the commandments, and he desired to become a follower, Jesus would not find him acceptable unless he gave up all his worldly possessions. Further, another element of this biblical account that the modern believer must seriously consider is the rebuke of Jesus when the man called him good master . In our churches today we can observe people who feel they are right with the Lord by praising His name. What Jesus said to the man is that what you say with your lips means absolutely nothing -- and it is what you do with your life with respect to fulfilling the Commandments, and being in the world and not of it, that will save you. And i t is important that we be continually cognizant of the words of the Lord when he warned: For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14 KJV)! And when we ask who are those who are called? The answer can only be: Those who have had the Gospel preached to them -- and those who are complacent or lukewarm, will clearly receive the greater judgment than those who are not even believers. Yet, by today's doctrinal teachings, Christians simply have no means to answer the many questions that these many ignored verses of the New Testament raise? And when it is realized that the true test of belief is to the degree that each person picks up their own cross and imitates the pattern of the life of Jesus, then a great number of Christians today will despise those who call themselves teachers and shepherds today. Thus, the words of the Brother of Jesus: "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1 NIV).

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The Void In Modern Church Doctrine: Using the Bible I have demonstrated a great void in modern Church dogma that is the result of the doctrines of Constantine and other emperors imposing their will upon the Church when a body of carnal Christians entered into a covenant with Rome. In their typical pagan mindset, they promoted a doctrine and lifestyle where Jesus was used as a perpetual sacrifice and crucified daily, so that people who called themselves believers could live in accord with the way of the heathen. And to insure compliance with their form of Christian Paganism, these emperors and their armies then murdered all believers who refused to accept the approved doctrines of the religion of the Roman Empire. Yet, contrary to Church doctrine, in the above it has been demonstrated that the fate of a complacent lukewarm believer, is worse off and brings greater judgment than that received by those who were never at all believers. And if we add into the equation the clearly defined biblical doctrine of predestination and Divine Providence, the void very quickly becomes an expansive abyss of unanswered questions that inhibits all thought and reasoning beyond a very limited certain doctrinal point. And when Martin Luther was confronted by this abyss of doctrinal limitations and ignorance, he simply condemned the use of the mind and the God-Given Gift of reason that sets man apart from the beasts and brutes of the earth -- i.e., Reason , writes Luther, is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but - more frequently than not - struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God (Quoted in: The Great Thoughts; compiled by George Seldes). From a strictly dogmatic perspective, the only option open to modern believers is to embrace what has been called blind faith and belief. Regardless of the facts and realities that are presented to the faithful flock of believers, they perceive it as necessary to as Luther states, reject both reason and the use of man's intellectual facilities of mind.

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History easily demonstrates that under the rule of Roman Authority, the church fell into such carnal degeneracy that it embraced every sort of political and materialistic corruption -- a corruption that brought the level of the church so low, that it even ordained sexual orgies for the priests. This morally bankrupt lifestyle was justified under their doctrine that, by nature, man is incapable of doing good, and he is saved by virtue of his membership in the church. Because Constantine was not only carnal, but in every way a ruthless conscienceless despot who embraced evil in everything he did, the church that he formed was born in the image of its creator. The question that every believer must ask today is how corrupted and contaminated has the message of Christ become after it had been placed in the hands of mankind? In a letter to Pope Leo X on September 6th, 1520, Martin Luther wrote of the Christianity of his day, that the church, once the holiest of all, has become the most licentious den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the kingdom of sin, death, and hell. It is so bad that even Antichrist himself, if he should come, could think of nothing to add to its wickedness (Quoted in: The Great Thoughts; compiled by George Seldes).

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In total disregard of the admonition of the scriptures themselves, the greater majority of Christians believe that the church is beyond the reach of Satan -- that God somehow drew a line that Satan cannot cross over -- that God intervened when man by virtue of his gift of freewill, chose evil over the good. And while God did not in any manner save the Jews from their own iniquity, Christians arrogantly believe that they are exempt from the judgment. Thus, Christians totally reject the warning of Paul who stated: Do not be arrogant, but be afraid (Rom 11:20 NIV) -- stating that if they failed to keep the foundational requirements of the Covenant, that they would be cast away in the manner of the Jews -- i.e., For if God did not spare the natural Jewish branches, he will not spare you either Otherwise, you also will be cut off (Rom 11:21-22 NIV). And naively, Christians choose to ignore the most important lessons of both history and the Bible, and they reason that because of this force of Divine protection, Satan has not immersed himself in every aspect of their lives! Yet, to their own detriment, the leaders of the modern church ignore the warning of the Apostle: let no man beguile you in any wise: for (it will not be,) except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God (2 Thes 2:3-4 ASV).

What the Apostle is herein very clearly predicting is that there would come a time when the god of the Christian Church will be a false god. Historically speaking, it has been almost universally recognized that the period in time that the Apostle could have been referring to was in the fourth century when the church made a covenant with the Roman Emperor Constantine. With regard to this falling away, the Adam Clark Commentary writes of this passage of Paul's Epistle: [Except there come a falling away first] We have the original word apostasia in our word apostasy; and by this term we understand a dereliction of the essential principles of religious truth, either a total abandonment of Christianity itself, or such a corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system completely inefficient to salvation. But what this apostasy means is a question which has not yet, and perhaps never will be, answered to general satisfaction (from the Adam Clarke Commentary).

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Not to depreciate or make less the significance of any one of the individual statements presented in the above words, what the modern believer must recognized is the far-reaching totality of the statement: But what this apostasy means is a question which has not yet, and perhaps never will be, answered to general satisfaction . Ultimately, what this means to the modern believer is that each and every church authority from the fourth-century to the present, as well as every single preacher of the gospel, speaks from the position of concession -- which concession is that there is a great void in their knowledge of the truth. Thus, one of the core presumptions upon which our present-day doctrine of faith is based, is that these words of the Apostle Paul are not true. One of the major causes of the present state of doctrinal chaos is the failure of modern pastors and church authorities to recognize that the key to their dilemma is found in the prediction of the Apostle that there would come a time of total abandonment of the Gospel with respect to the desolation of all genuine spiritual Christian ideas and concepts.

What this means is that the Apostle predicts that in the near future, the true religion of Jesus would cease to exist in this world. In this respect, the words of the Apostle are quite clear in their assertion -- i.e., from the time period of the first century of our Common Era when it was written by the hand of Paul, it prophetically speaks of a time in the near future when the teachings that Jesus placed in the hands of mankind would cease to exist -- and it is the correct assertion of many Christians that this in fact took place in the establishment of an institutionalized church under the control of Pagan Rome in the fourth century. What the modern Christian fails to realize is that the total corruption of the doctrine of the church which the Apostle speaks of was in fact brought about by the adoption of the AntiChrist of Constantine, which resulted in the rejection of the Messiah Yeshua/Jesus of Nazareth. While it is true that believers use the name Jesus, and call themselves his followers, what Christians have lost sight of is that the essence of the religion of the New Covenant is spiritual -- and where the physical body of Messiah/Christ was crucified by the carnal Jews in the first century, the spiritual body of Messiah/Christ was crucified by those who called themselves Christians in the fourth century.

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In further explanation with regard to this crucial prediction of the Apostle, the Adam Clark Commentary then goes on to provide us a vivid description of Constantine and the formation of his new church: [Who opposeth and exalteth] He stands against and exalts himself above all divine authority, and above every object of adoration, and every institution, relative to divine worship, sebasma, himself being the source, whence must originate all the doctrines of religion, and all its rites and ceremonies; so that sitting in the temple of God -- having the highest place and authority in the Christian church, he acts as God -- taking upon himself God's titles and attributes, and arrogating to himself the authority that belongs to the Most High (from the Adam Clarke Commentary). That these events came to pass is well documented from a historical perspective -- i.e., the church was ruled by Satanic forces that dictated every aspect of Christian doctrine. And while it is true that many faithful believers, clergy, pastors and religious authorities today have recognized the defilement of the church that took place beginning in the fourth century, what could not be revealed until now was the absolute certainty that, because the Church has never fully recovered from the darkness and corruption that was imposed upon the teachings of the church by the ruthless political despots of the past, essential foundational principles, as well as indispensable elements of New Covenant knowledge of what is constantly referred to in the Bible as the Mysteries of God, is presently absent from the thinking of the body of the faithful believers to this very day.

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Many Protestants -- or non-Roman Catholics -- will readily admit that the Church had become thoroughly corrupted during its long residence upon the earth. One of the problems is that, even though Luther and the reformers knew this fact, this knowledge alone did not mean they possessed a clear and pure vision of the essence of the original teachings of Jesus. In fact, it can easily be demonstrated that they did not, and this was the true reason why Luther rejected over half the New Testament as being inferior and even spurious. For Luther to call the Epistle of James -- the Brother of Jesus who was the first leader of the New Covenant Congregation -- a man who was known as the James the Just -- the Righteous one who communed with the Holy Spirit in all matters -- who Luther condemned his Epistle as one of straw -- demonstrates Luther's inability to even understand the First Principles of the teachings of Jesus and TheWay. Moreover, every quotation in the above by both Peter and Paul, confirms the position of James who Luther rejected.

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In acknowledgement of the massive corruption of the Church under Pagan Rome, many church authorities today will counter that these things do not really matter, because they have the Bible -- God's Word -- as a foundation for their beliefs. Fundamentally, their doctrine is that, even though God did not protect the Church from becoming corrupt, He somehow stood vigilant guard over the scriptures in order to insure their purity. Yet, in contradistinction to what Christians want to believe by virtue of blind faith and the suspension of reason, w hat we must also recognize is the fact that the Bible also flowed down into our present time through the same cultural streams and byways as did the doctrines of the Church itself. Thus, none of the present-day religious authorities who proclaim the purity of the Bible have the slightest idea as to what the scriptures looked like in their original form. They have never seen the original scriptures, and they reject many of the oldest copies of the scriptures that we possess today. What they say, then, must be understood as a profession of faith -- blind faith -- rather than what is factual. As a statement of faith, they confess to us that they believe God stood sentinel over the scriptures in order to safeguard them from the most corrupt church known to modern man. It is a statement of faith when they affirm that this church which Luther calls the church of the antichrist, did not also defile the written word in the manner that it corrupted every other aspect of Jesus teachings. What they fail to tell you is that in making this profession of faith, they ignore the warning of many biblical scholars who openly claim that the original text of the Bible was lost in what appears to be a conspiracy which coincidently took place in the fourth century -- which is the era in history when the Church became institutionalized, and came under the direct control of the Roman Imperial Government.

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Is it true that God stood sentinel over the scriptures? Based upon what we do know regarding the purity of the Bible, Christians today should be greatly alarmed. Quoting Prof. Millar Burrows in More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Prof. Burrows writes: There are those who believe or assume that the Greek and Hebrew texts from which our translations are made are infallible. No person who has studied textual criticism at all could believe that. The most conservative scholars in the most conservative churches recognize that the text has become corrupt at many points in the course of its transmission. If that were not already well known and universally admitted, the Dead Sea Scrolls would demonstrate it conclusively. And to take this rather profound statement one step further, these same Dead Sea Scrolls have forced many biblical scholars to totally re-examine what they at one time accepted as factual and historical truths. Thus the of biblical scholar A. Powell Davies takes on a whole new meaning when we begin to understand what truly happened: Biblical scholars were not disturbed by what they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls because they had known all along that the origin of Christianity was not what was commonly supposed to have been.

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If our scriptures that we depend upon as the foundation of our beliefs have many points where they are corrupt, -- and the origin of Christianity is "...not what was commonly supposed to have been -- then we had better be concerned! Why? Because if the Bible has been altered from its original form, then it was altered to support the tenets of belief of a very Pagan and corrupt Roman Church. What this means is the most essential points of the scripture that support the foundation of a Spiritual Church, rather than a secular institutionalized church under Roman pagan rule, were the first to be removed or edited out of the scriptures we possess today. Moreover, the implications from a religious perspective are horrific -- i.e., if this is true, then the Jesus that we believe in today might not be the same Jesus whose revealed teaching of The Way could save the soul of man. The Answer To The Doctrinal Dilemma: If the Lord was to raise up a prophet in our time and send him forth to speak to the people, and this prophet attempted to convey to believers what biblical scholars already know -- i.e., that the text has become corrupt at many points in the course of its transmission -- and that "...the origin of Christianity was not what was commonly supposed to have been -- his message would be rejected and condemned by the greater number of believers today. Why? Because such a thing would be incomprehensible to them. They would reason that God would never permit this to happen to them! After all, from their very limited three-dimensional perception of life, if God permitted both the Church and then the scriptures to become corrupt, then man would have no means of knowing the truth. They would then reason that mankind would therefore not know what to believe, and he would possess no means of salvation. From their very limited perspective of both the Gospel and the higher reality of man's soul and spiritual natures, they of course have a valid argument -- but this is only because they lack a fundamental understanding of the spiritual reality beyond our three-dimensional limitations. Yet, the answer to their spiritual and doctrinal dilemma, is found in the very biblical verses which they ignore -- biblical verses some of which are explored above.

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When the man approached Jesus and asked him about eternal life, Jesus replied that he should keep the Commandments -- and if the modern believer would begin to keep the Commandments and observe the Royal Spiritual Law throughout every aspect of their lives, they would begin to find their way out of the abyss of the doctrinal quagmire within which they are presently immersed. If these same people were to in fact totally surrender to the Word in all its fullness, and pick up their own cross and travail in TheWay as Jesus Commanded, they would know by virtue of their own experiences that their reasoning and rational is in grave error.

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From the perspective of life itself, it is also easily confirmed that in the greater vision of man's existence upon this earth it can be demonstrated that God ordains a life that is rarely fair from our point of view. When we ask why God permits bad things to happen to good and faithful believers, and our clergy can only answer with the words: You have to have faith -- this is an acknowledgement that the Church does not understand the manner in which God moves. Yet, the truth lies in the fact that part of our inability to understand why God would permit such horrendous things as is commonplace in our world today to happen, lies in the differences in the core beliefs and perceptions of life that we presently hold, in relation to the spiritual foundational environmental thinking from which our New Testament scriptures originally emerged. Yet, like the prodigal son, anytime that we desire truth over accepted doctrines of belief -- and we are willing to re-examine our dogmatic positions in light of the biblical verses that are presented in the above -- then we will begin to find the answer to the dilemma of blind faith in mysteries we do not understand, and the suspension of reason when we are confronted by the facts which the vast majority of modern Christians simply refuse to examine and seek the truth.

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The Spiritual Church vs The Institutionalized Shadow Church: It was a promise of the Lord regarding the New Covenant Church: And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt 16:18 KJV). Is the promise of Jesus correct? In view of the fact that the church became one of the most corrupt institutions known to man -- and in the words of Luther "...It is so bad that even Antichrist himself, if he should come, could think of nothing to add to its wickedness -- and those men known as priests and bishops were seen in the role of apostles of the Devil, rather than Christ, we would be forced to acknowledge the fact that the gates of hell did indeed prevail against it ! We must then conclude that either Jesus was wrong, or the fault is our own vision of the Church. This would indicate the existence of still another possibility that few people today would understand -- i.e., the first century vision of the Church of Christ was very different than our idea of a church today. If this is true, then Jesus was not wrong, and the genuine Church remained pure throughout all time regardless of the corruption that the church of this world was immersed in. Moreover, this same reality also applies to the scriptures -- and while the Bible that was given to the modern believer by the hands of the Roman Church has been corrupted, it is also true that pure scriptures do exist, and they can only be accessed by believers who embrace the teachings of Jesus and TheWay in the purity that was intended.

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A great truth we must come to terms with is the fact that because man says a certain thing, that does not make his assertion valid. In the same way that anyone can proclaim they are followers of Christ, and claim to be Christian -- unless Christ is in agreement, our assertion is invalid. We can call ourselves the people of the New Covenant, but if in our application of the Word it is found that we have rejected the very essence of New Covenant thought, then our assertion is again invalid. In this respect, the first century followers of Jesus were of Christ, and a New Covenant Church unto themselves, because the Lord himself affirmed these things to be true, and they maintained the spiritual essence of the teachings of TheWay. The very fact that later Pagan Christians of the fourth century condemned the Church that Jesus himself ordained -- and the fact that our thinking is alien to the original Disciples of Christ, while we hold many beliefs in common with the fourth century Church of Pagan Rome, should be sufficient reason for us to question many of our own foundational concepts of religion which we have received directly from the hands of the fourth century church.

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The Church that Jesus Ordained and stated that "...the gates of hell shall not prevail against it -- is not of this world, and can only be accessed through the inner "narrow gate" within us. As the prodigal sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, the vast majority of mankind dwells in the "far country" which Jesus portrayed as being controled by the "citizen" of this world -- i.e., the fallen angel we call Lucifer. The Book of the Revelation when properly understood, portrays the Kingdom coming within the body, mind and life of the Disciple of TheWay. And only those who live in the manner that Jesus taught and ordained, can enter therein -- i.e., "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful" (Rev 21:27 NIV). This same truth was expressed by Isaiah where it is written: "And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it" (Isa 35:8 NIV). And this same truth is expressed in the words of Yeshua/Jesus when he warned: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matt 7:13-14 NIV). The "narrow gate" that Jesus speaks that we must open in order for us to be born into the Kingdom, has its parallels in the birth canal that serves as the gate that each of us has emerged through when we physically entered into this present world. That the next stage of birth has its similarities, is merely the result that all realities are designed in accordance with the same Divine Pattern of Creation.

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What is truly important for us to see in these solemn words spoken by the Lord, is that only those who "enter through the narrow gate" will enter into Life -- i.e., it is not those who believe, but those who follow in the footsteps who are the Genuine Christians. In order to enter into the Kingdom, the disciple must be bathed in the healing waters of consecration that cleanses them of all defilements of this world. Thus, there are countless commandments in the New Testament that Christians close a blind eye to and ignore. Jesus said: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matt 12:36 KJV). And what words are not considered idle? Paul tells us to "Pray without ceasing" (1Thes 5:17 KJV).

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Why? Why would Jesus warn us that we will be judged for merely speaking an "idle word" ? It must be understood that to be consciously aware of "every idle word" requires one to be in total control of their mind. That this total control of ones words begins with a total control of ones mind can further be seen in the commandment of the Apostle to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5 NIV). Moreover, how can the same Apostle who states that we are saved by faith, rather than works, expect those who call themselves Christians to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" ? Thus, we begin to see that in the religion that was preached by both Jesus and Paul, there can be no meaningless idle expressions that are easily seen plaguing the lives of the modern Christian.

As Jacob/James, the brother of Yeshua/Jesus, the man who was the first leader of the New Covenant Church and was known as a true holy man, wrote that in order to fulfill the vision of the Gospel, one had to " bridle the whole body" (James 3:2 KJV). While this may appear totally alien from the perspective of the modern Christian who fully indulges in the unbounded excesses of our present-day cultural lifestyle, the Apostle Paul confirmed the validity of these words from a New Covenant perspective when he wrote of the necessity to "beat my body and make it my slave..." (1 Cor 9:27 NIV). Moreover, that faith meant an entirely different thing to the Apostle Paul than what is being preached from our pulpits today, can be seen in Pauls commandment to all who would call themselves a Christian to " Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (Col 3:5 NIV). To the degree that Paul warned: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Rom 8:13 KJV). To mortify the deeds of the body takes work -- a great amount of work -- and this work cannot be accomplished through a static faith. The problem is that these biblical commandments have absolutely nothing in common with the doctrine of faith that was developed by Martin Luther in the Middle-ages.

These biblical verses are rarely used today because they represent concepts that would be considered extreme and fanatical from the perspective of both believers and non-believers in our modern-day culture. In fact, everything in our present-day society has been engineered by what the Apostle calls the god of this world, to inhibit the fulfilling of these necessary ingredients in the process of the next stage of birth that the Bible states is absolutely necessary if we are to enter into Life.

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Therefore, the people who embrace the culture and thinking of this world, even when they call themselves Christian, are those who walk the "broad road that leads to destruction" . What Jesus warns us is that we cannot walk two paths -- it is either the one or the other -- and philosophical complacent Christians will neither go to Heaven, to Glory, or inherit eternal life -- without entering through the narrow gate that is the entrance to the Kingdom. Moreover, if this is not accomplished while we are alive in the physical body in which we presently dwell, then we will have failed.

The Bible continually warns us that the path or the second birth and entrance into the Kingdom is not easy. The strife of the inner war within ourselves as embodied in the symbols of Armageddon is seen in the words: "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22 NKJ). Thus, in the same way that a woman travails in labor to bring a child into this world, we must ourselves endure the "many tribulations" of spiritual labor to be born into the Kingdom of God. Since the Kingdom is within us, and Armageddon is therefore not an historical event -- but more factually, a spiritual event in the life of the disciple in search of Truth -- we must then totally re-evaluate everything we think we know about both the Gospel Message, and the life we are presently living. In fully comprehending these biblical statements in relation to the whole purpose of the teachings of The Way, let us again examine the definitive statement which conveys to us the very essence of the Gospel -- and especially the Revelation of John: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie" (Rev 22:14-15 NKJ).

If the text of the Revelation represented the end of the world, as is commonly believed by the majority of Christians today, then why are those who remain outside the city portrayed as "dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie" ? Armageddon, then, indicates the disciples personal tribulation described as the "pangs of birth", as he endeavors to overcome his own lower carnal nature through the crucifixion of what is symbolized by the flesh, in order that he can possess the Knowledge of the fruit of the Tree of Life, transcend the natural barriers of this world, and "enter through the gates into the city" .