What we believe and teach

- Exposed very briefly -

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THE BIBLE

The Bible is the Word of God. It is composed of sixty-six holy books whose names are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (or The Song of Solomon), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation. All these books are holy – that’s why they are called ‘Holy Scriptures’ or ‘Holy Scripture’ – because they are God-breathed (that is, they are given by inspiration of God), for they were not written by the will of man but holy men of God wrote them as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Therefore whatever these books say and teach is true because it comes from God, who cannot lie. Therefore we trust in the Bible with all our heart. The Bible does not contain errors or contradictions.

The Holy Scriptures are complete because they contain all the things those who live far from God need to know to be saved from their sins and be reconciled to God, as well as all the things we Christians need to know to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel (that is to say, to live righteously, godly and soberly), while we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Holy Scriptures are the final and absolute authority in faith, conduct and morals. All teachings, all revelations, and all prophecies, must be examined carefully in the light of the Holy Scriptures to see if they are sound (in this case they must be accepted) or wrong (in this case they must be rejected). Any earthly authority that expressly commands us to break the Word of God must not be obeyed. Therefore, for instance, if the governing authorities command us not to pray God in the name of Jesus Christ or they command us not to preach the Gospel of the grace of God, we must disobey them.

By the Holy Scriptures we are comforted, encouraged, taught, corrected and rebuked, led in the paths of righteousness, and made wise for salvation through our faith in Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore we exhort the saints to meditate on the Word of God continually, to put it into their heart, and to have it ready on their lips, so that they may comfort one another with it and may teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. Furthermore we exhort them to divide the Word of God rightly, that is to say, to interpret it correctly, lest they give place to false doctrines and be put to shame.

GOD

There is one God, whose name is YHWH (Yahweh), which means ‘I am who I am’. He is the first and the last, and apart from Him there is no God. God is a living and intelligent Being, with a will, reasoning ability, and emotions. God is spirit, no one has ever seen God or can see Him. He is the Everlasting because He had no beginning and He will have no ending. He inhabits eternity. God is holy, righteous, wise, good, slow to anger, merciful, faithful and truthful. God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

God is the Creator of all things. He created them through His beloved Son, and for Him. In wisdom God made them all and He upholds them by the word of His power. He is the Ruler of the universe, and nothing happens in the whole universe apart from His will. The heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them were made by God in six days (one day = 24 hours). We reject the evolution theory and the gap-theory. God is Omnipotent because He can do anything. He is Omniscient because He knows all things; and He is Omnipresent because He is everywhere, even though His throne is in heaven. Furthermore, God is unchanging: He has always been the same, and He will be always the same.

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the city of David (which is in Judea), about two thousand years ago. He was born of a virgin called Mary, who was the wife of Joseph who was of the house and lineage of David. Mary conceived in her womb Jesus through the Holy Spirit (before she and Joseph came together), therefore Jesus was born without sin. The birth of Jesus took place in the days of the emperor Caesar Augustus. On the eighth day Jesus was circumcised according to the law of Moses, and when the days of the purification of Mary were completed, his parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.

Jesus was brought up in Nazareth of Galilee, that’s why He is called the Nazarene. When Jesus was about 30 years old, He came from Galilee to John the Baptist at the Jordan River to be baptized by him. John was the man whom God sent before Jesus to prepare His way.

After Jesus was baptized, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and then He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and when those days had ended, the devil came to Him and tempted Him in order to cause Jesus to sin, but Jesus firmly resisted the devil, who (when he had ended every temptation) departed from Him until an opportune time. Then Jesus began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in the cities and villages of Galilee (He said: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the Gospel’). He began also to heal the sick and to cast out demons. He went also throughout Judea preaching the Gospel, and healing the sick and casting out demons. Jesus healed the sick by the power of the Lord which was present for Him to heal the sick, and He cast out demons by the Spirit of God. He preached to men the salvation which God had promised, which could be obtained only by faith in Him. From His disciples He chose twelve, whom He also named apostles and whom He sent forth to preach the Kingdom, to heal the sick and to cast out demons. Jesus Christ committed no sin nor was any deceit in His mouth. He did only good, yet He was hated, reviled and despised by many in Israel. Several times they sought to kill Him, but they did not manage to kill Him, because His hour had not yet come. The world hated Him because He testified of it that its works were evil. The Pharisees, the scribes and the chief priests, and many Jews hated Him and persecuted Him because He said that God was His Father, and also because He healed the sick on the Sabbath, the day of rest which is holy according to the law of Moses and on which, according to the Jewish tradition, it was not lawful to heal the sick. Then one day Satan entered Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty silver coins, and handed Him over to the Pharisees, the scribes and the priests, who had Jesus brought before the Sanhedrin and condemned Him as worthy of death.

Then they handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, who, even though at first he wanted to release Jesus because he found no reason for death in Him, eventually gave sentence that it should be as the Jews requested, that is to say, He gave sentence that Jesus should be crucified. The soldiers of the governor led Him away to be crucified. They brought Him to a place called ‘Golgotha’, which is in Jerusalem, and they crucified Him. Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. He died for our sins. After Jesus breathed His last, He was buried. His body was placed in a tomb where no one had ever lain before.

But the third day God raised Him from the dead for our justification, and He appeared to His witnesses; He ate and drank with them and talked with them after He arose from the dead. Between His death and His resurrection, Jesus, by the Spirit, went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a bodily resurrection, which means that He took back His body with which He had died, for when Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection the body with which He appeared to them had the nail marks in the hands and in the feet. However that body was immortal, glorious and powerful. Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Forty days later Jesus was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father. He is still there, where He makes intercession for us because He has become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

The Christ of God

Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, that is, the Anointed One of God, of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote, who was to come into this world to die for our sins and to rise for our justification. Here are some of the biblical predictions, concerning the Christ of God, which were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

He was born in Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, just as the prophet Micah had said; He was born of a virgin, just as the prophet Isaiah had said; he grew up and was brought up in Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets ‘he will be called a Nazarene’; when he was about thirty years old He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and began to preach the Gospel and to heal the sick so that the words of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled; He spoke to the crowds in parables that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Asaph; He committed no sin nor any deceit was in His mouth, just as the prophet Isaiah had said; He was hated without reason and He was betrayed by one of His disciples, just as it was written in the Psalms; two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled; not one of His bones was broken so that the words of David might be fulfilled; the roman soldiers divided His garments among them and cast lots for His tunic, so that the words of David might be fulfilled. He bore our sins, just as the prophet Isaiah had said. His body was placed in a tomb which belonged to a rich man, just as the prophet Isaiah had said; but the third day He rose from the dead and a few weeks later He ascended to heaven at the right hand of the Father, so that the words of David might be fulfilled.

The Son of God

Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who, before He took the form of a bondservant and came in the likeness of men, existed from all eternity in the form of God with God the Father in heaven. Therefore when we say that Jesus is the Son of God we don’t mean that there was a time when He did not exist and then God created Him. Jesus was God before He came down from heaven, and He remained God in the days of His flesh, for He forgave people of their sins and He was worshipped. On several occasions He confirmed that He was God, on one of them He said: “Before Abraham was born, I AM”. It pleased the Father that in Jesus Christ all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell.

The Son is at the right hand of the Father and all the angels of God, as well as all the saints who are in heaven, worship Him. This confirms that He is God and He will be God forever. Therefore He is worthy to be worshiped like the Father, and we who are His disciples worship Him. To Him be the glory now and forever. Amen.

The Son of Man

Jesus of Nazareth was a real man. However He was born without sin that He might die on the cross for our sins. Being a real man, He needed to eat, to drink, and to rest. He needed also to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Being a real man, He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. He rejoiced in the Spirit, but He was also exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Jesus Christ felt pain in His body when He was scourged, when He was struck on the head and in the face, and when He was nailed to the cross. While He was hanging on the cross, blood and water came out of His body.

The Lord

God made Jesus of Nazareth not only Christ but also Lord. Therefore He is Lord of all. Because He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The prophet

Jesus of Nazareth is the prophet about whom Moses spoke to the Israelites, saying: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people”. He, being the prophet of God, spoke the words of God, no man ever spoke like Him. He predicted many things, among which there are many events which will happen before His second coming.

Jesus Christ, therefore, is the prophet raised up by God in the last days and in Whom a man must believe to be rescued from the coming wrath of God.

A warning

If anyone comes to you and tells you that Jesus Christ did not exist before He was conceived in the womb of his mother, or that He was not born of a virgin (because God the Father united Himself with Mary), or that He did not come in the flesh, or that Jesus also sinned sometimes, or that He got married, or that He was not the Christ, or that He was not God, or that He was the Son of God by adoption, or that He took on the nature of Satan, or that He was born again, or that He is at once the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; or that He did not feel pain when He was flogged and crucified, beware of such a person and avoid him, for he is a deceiver.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, said to His disciples that after His departure He would send the Holy Spirit to them from the Father. The Holy Spirit would abide with them forever, He would guide them into all truth, He would tell them things to come, He would teach them all things and bring to their remembrance all things that He had said to them, and He would convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. And shortly before He was received up into heaven, Jesus said to them: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”. That is what happened a few days after His ascension, for Jesus, having received from the Father the promised Spirit, poured out the Spirit of God on His disciples. On that day (the day of Pentecost) the promise which the Father had made through the prophets of old and confirmed through Jesus Christ was fulfilled.

The Holy Spirit is a person and not a force, for He speaks, He teaches, He guides, He reveals hidden things, He can be grieved and resisted. He is eternal, good, righteous, and holy. He knows everything, He can do anything, and He is everywhere, therefore He is God. The Spirit gives His gifts to each one individually as He wills. We can call God ‘Father’ because the Holy Spirit, whom God sent forth into our hearts, cries out, ‘Abba, Father’. The Holy Spirit does another very important thing, that is to say, He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. In addition to this, He transforms us into the likeness of Christ because we who are sons of God were predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, he is guilty of an eternal sin. The Holy Spirit is called also Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of grace, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of adoption. We do not pray nor sing to the Holy Spirit, for we don’t want to go beyond what is written.

THE TRINITY

God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are one God. Therefore the Godhead consists of Three Divine Persons who are distinct yet, at the same time, united. This does not affect at all the oneness of God because the oneness of God, of which the Scripture speaks, is a composite oneness (or compound unity).

Even though the word ‘Trinity’ is not written in the Bible, the concept of Trinity, that is, the concept according to which God is ONE and TRIUNE, is widely confirmed by the Scripture. The divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (that is to say, the fact that each one of them is God) shows clearly that besides being ONE, God is also TRIUNE. Jesus said to His disciples that He would pray the Father and He (the Father) would give them another Comforter, that is, the Holy Spirit; and He commanded them to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit dwell in all those who are sons of God.

Therefore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three titles of the only true God, or three manifestations of the only true God, but THREE DISTINCT PERSONS who have their own personality and individuality.

Whoever denies the Trinity is an idle talker and a deceiver, whose mouth must be stopped and of whom we must beware.

ANGELOLOGY

Angels are heavenly beings who were created by God. They are holy and powerful and they obey His word. Angels exist in exceeding great number; they worship God and the Lamb who is at the right hand of God. They are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation, for God uses angels to keep the saints, to guide them, to supply their needs, to bring them some special messages, to encourage them and to comfort them, and to deliver them from all kinds of dangers, etc. However we must not worship nor invoke angels; we must worship and invoke God. The angels of God may appear to men. Some people, by entertaining strangers, have entertained angels without knowing it.

God created also cherubim and seraphim. The Scripture speaks also of an archangel called Michael.

DEMONOLOGY

Satan (that is, the devil) is a wicked spiritual being which keeps all the world under his power. He is served by wicked spiritual beings, which are these: the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Satan is a liar and the father of lies; he is a murderer; he hates mankind and he always pursues what is evil for mankind deceiving men into breaking the commandments of God (that’s why he is called the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience).

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through His death, destroyed Satan; He triumphed over Satan and all his ministers (the above mentioned spiritual beings) by the cross. Therefore, by faith in the name of Jesus Christ, men can be delivered from the power of Satan.

There are many people who are possessed by demons, that is, evil spirits. Evil spirits cause demon-possessed people to act wickedly against their own bodies and against the other human beings. Demons give supernatural powers to some people, so that they may perform signs and wonders. In the name of Jesus Christ we can cast out evil spirits. Evil spirits know that when they are rebuked and ordered in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of the bodies where they dwell, they must obey. There are some evil spirits that do not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Satan tempts us and he fights against us in order to lead us astray and to cause us to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. In order not to fall victim to the devices of Satan, we must watch and pray without ceasing and we must submit to God and resist Satan; if we do these things, Satan’s devices against us will be unsuccessful. We must not make fun of Satan.

One day Satan and all the spiritual beings which serve him will be cast into the everlasting fire, where they will be tormented forever.

MAN AND SIN

Man was made by God on the sixth day. God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. God made man in His image and likeness. After God made man (Adam), He made a woman (Eve) from a rib He had taken out of the man and He brought her to the man. God put man in the Garden of Eden, which was in the East. In that Garden were all kinds of trees, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food, but God commanded man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he would eat of it he would surely die. But Adam disobeyed God, for he ate from that tree, and in that day he died spiritually, just as God had said to him. By that disobedience sin entered the world and spread to all men, who are therefore sinners, slaves of various lusts and pleasures. Men give themselves over to evil, and the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. There is no one who does good, no, not one; there is no one who seeks after God, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Therefore men are under God’s condemnation. They are on the way which leads to destruction.

SALVATION

Men, being sinners, are slaves of sin (which is the transgression of the law), therefore they need to be saved (or to be set free) from their sins, which are like invisible but powerful chains which hinder them from pleasing God. Being sinners, men are dead in their sins and trespasses, so they need to be regenerated spiritually, so that they may have fellowship with God. Being sinners, men are in debt to God, who is angry with them because they have broken His Word, and therefore their debts need to be remitted so that they may be reconciled to God. Being sinners, men deserve to be punished with everlasting torment, and therefore they need to be justified so that they may escape the everlasting torment, for when one is justified he receives eternal life.

Salvation from the bondage of sin, spiritual regeneration, remission of debts and justification, can be experienced by men only through repentance and faith, that is to say, only if they repent of their sins and believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and was raised to life the third day for our justification. Good works, sacrifices, and mortifications, cannot save man from his sins, nor can they regenerate him, nor can they remit his debts, nor can they save him from the everlasting torment, nor can they reconcile him to God. If these things could save man, then Jesus Christ would have died in vain and grace would be set aside by the law of works. Furthermore, if these things could save man, man could boast before God saying that he deserved or gained salvation. Therefore we preach that salvation is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ apart from the works of the law. And we urge both small and great, wise and unwise, Jews and Gentiles, to repent before God and to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and to do works befitting repentance.

THE NEW BIRTH

Man is dead in his sins and he is on the way that leads to destruction, and therefore he needs to be regenerated spiritually to enter the Kingdom of God. This spiritual regeneration is called new birth. Jesus spoke about it to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, when He said to him that unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. The new birth is experienced by a man when he repents of his sins and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say, when he believes that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and was raised the third day for our justification. A person who has been born again feels forgiven by God and reconciled to God; he is sure he has become a son of God because the Spirit of God bears witness with his spirit that he is a child of God; and he is absolutely sure he has eternal life, and therefore he is no longer afraid of death, knowing that when he dies he will depart from this world and enter the paradise of God in heaven. Furthermore, he perceives that he has become a new person inwardly, with new wishes and new thoughts. This change is clearly noticed by those who know what kind of person he was prior to his new birth. He has a peace and a joy which he did not have before; this peace and this joy are the fruit of the Spirit that God has put into his heart. By the new birth man becomes a member of the Body of Christ, that is, the Church of God, for he is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ; and a new life begins, a life full of divine blessings, but also full of sufferings, through which his faith will be tested. Therefore whoever is born again must stand firm in the faith, being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, in order to stand the various tests and to receive in that day the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

THE ATONEMENT MADE BY JESUS CHRIST

In the fullness of the time Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, He bore our sins in His own body on the cross, so that our sins might be forgiven and we might be reconciled to God the Father through His precious blood.

Therefore Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, by faith in His blood we have received the remission of sins. His atoning sacrifice was foreshadowed by the law of Moses, for according to the law of Moses the priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins and for the sins of the people. However while the blood of those sacrifices could not take away sins from the conscience of the worshipers, the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience of the man who repents and believes in Jesus and thus it makes him perfect in regard to the conscience.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary for a man to accept by faith the atoning sacrifice of Christ in order to be saved. Any personal sacrifice and mortification and any good work done with the intention of buying or meriting salvation is useless and also blasphemous for it pretends to replace the sacrifice of Christ and thus it sets aside the grace of God, on which the Gospel of God is based. If salvation were by works, grace would no longer be grace. But we preach that salvation is obtained by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus, and not by works of righteousness. All those who rely on the works of the law for their salvation are under the curse of the law, for it is written that everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them, is cursed. On the contrary, those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are blessed with believing Abraham because their faith was accounted to them for righteousness (that is to say, they were justified by faith) and they have nothing to boast about before God, just as our father Abraham had nothing to boast about. That’s why we declare to small and great alike that they must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, because salvation can be obtained only through faith and therefore by grace; through faith in the Gospel, which is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

Circumcision is not that of the flesh, but that of the heart which is done by Christ Jesus when a man repents and believes in the Gospel. Therefore it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship God by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross we have been set free from sin for we died with Christ to sin. Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with. However that does not mean we have no sin, or we have not sinned, for we all stumble in many things. Nevertheless, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness through the blood of Christ.

THE GOSPEL OF GOD

Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again the third day for our justification according to the Scriptures, and after He was raised from the dead God caused Him to be seen by witnesses chosen before by God.

That is the Gospel, that is, the Good News, we have accepted by faith, in which we stand, by which we are saved and which we preach to all men imploring them on Christ’s behalf to repent and to believe in it, that they might be saved. That is the Gospel in which man must believe to be saved and reconciled to God, for it is the word of our salvation Paul and the other apostles of the Lord (as well as all the other servants of Christ) preached during the first century after Christ and by which many Jews and Gentiles were set free from their sins. Whoever says that it is not complete or it is not sufficient for salvation because God, after the death of the apostles, revealed the fullness of the Gospel (which is, as a matter of fact, another Gospel) to Tom or Dick or Harry, is a deceiver, an idle talker, a man disapproved concerning the faith whose end is destruction; such a person is an accursed child. He is a poisonous snake and a ravenous wolf of whom we must beware. We must also beware of all those who after beginning with the Spirit are now trying to reach perfection by the flesh, that is to say, after they believed in the Gospel of grace they began to follow Jewish customs and to force others to do the same, so they began to impose circumcision, the Sabbath day, the Jewish feasts, and precepts about foods written in the law of Moses (to mention just some of the Jewish customs), which are all a shadow of the things that were to come, because the law has a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things. These people set aside the grace of God and make void the faith in Christ, and therefore they must be rebuked sharply.

LAW AND GRACE

The law was given through Moses on Mount Sinai. The law was given so that sin might abound and man might become conscious of sin. The law was not given in order to justify man, therefore by the works of the law a man can’t be justified in the sight of God. There is certainly a righteousness which is of the law and which says that the man who does those things will live by them, therefore it is a righteousness which is based on the works of the law, but all those who rely on the works of the law are cursed, for it is written that cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been made known; that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe; so, as many as believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses, and therefore they have peace with God. Therefore a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. All those who think that they can be justified by the works of the law set aside the grace of God and declare implicitly that Christ died in vain. Those who preach that a man is justified by observing the law (or even just a part of it) want us, who were redeemed from the curse of the law (through the sacrifice of Christ, who became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law), to fall under the curse of the law again.

Therefore, let both the Jews and those who are not Jews by birth who think that they can be justified by the law of Moses know assuredly that they are greatly mistaken. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Therefore a man is justified in the sight of God by the law of faith and not by the law of works. What’s the law of faith? The law of faith is this: if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says that whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s the Good News of the grace of the blessed God.

THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS

After God brought the Jews out of Egypt, He made a covenant with them in the wilderness of Sinai. That covenant had ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary which was made by Moses at God’s command, according to the pattern shown him on Mount Sinai. That sanctuary was divided into two parts: the first part was called the Holy Place and the second the Most Holy Place. The levitical priests entered regularly into the Holy Place to carry on their ministry, but only the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place, and that only once a year, with the blood of certain animals which the High Priest offered every year for himself and for the people’s sins. Therefore that sanctuary was just a shadow of the true sanctuary which is in heaven and which is not a man-made sanctuary, and those sacrifices were a shadow of the true sacrifice Christ would offer in the fullness of the time. They were a shadow because that blood could not blot out sins from the worshipers’ conscience. Therefore the Old Covenant was based on imperfect sacrifices which could not cleanse man’s conscience from dead works, and in fact in those sacrifices there was a reminder of sins every year. But God promised through the prophets that one day He would make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant He made with their fathers when He brought them out of Egypt, for He would be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins He would remember no more. God made this covenant in the fullness of the time through Jesus Christ His Son, who sanctified us through the sacrificial offering of His body; that is to say, by His precious blood Jesus cleansed our conscience from dead works, which could not be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats. God, because of the blood of Jesus, was merciful to our unrighteousness and our sins He will remember no more. Therefore Jesus dedicated the New Covenant with His blood which He shed for the remission of our sins. And with that blood He entered – the same day on which the disciples saw Him go into heaven – the heavenly sanctuary, and not a man-made sanctuary like that into which the high priest entered once a year with blood that was not his own, to appear for us in God’s presence and to intercede for us always. Therefore we were reconciled to God by that blood, which is the blood of the New Covenant which God predicted He would make with us. I said before that both the earthly sanctuary and the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were just shadows and not the realities themselves; however the High Priest also was a shadow, for he symbolized the High Priest of the good things to come, that is, Jesus Christ. He was a shadow because he himself was also subject to weakness and because of this he had to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people, whereas Jesus Christ was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, and thus He could bear our sins and offer Himself for our sins. Under the Old Covenant there were many of those priests since death prevented them from continuing in office, but because Jesus lives forever He has a permanent priesthood, therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. In addition to this, the high priests under the Old Covenant became priests without an oath, but Christ became High Priest with an oath by God, so that God might show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel.

Therefore the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant because it was established on better promises. The New Covenant is much more glorious than the Old Covenant; the Old Covenant is ready to vanish away, while the New Covenant is an everlasting Covenant and through the blood of this Covenant God brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of sheep. To Him be the glory now and forever. Amen.

THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION

We were predestined by God before the foundation of the world to obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. So we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ because in His own time God enabled us to repent and to believe (that is to say, because God gave us both repentance and faith), so that it might be fulfilled His purpose, that is, the purpose of God according to election, which does not depend on works but on the will of the One who calls. Is it not written that of His own will God brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures, and that we did not choose the Lord but the Lord chose us? Therefore it does not depend on him who wills, nor on him who runs, but on God, who has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy. However God not only has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, but He also hardens whom He wants to harden. And who are they whom He hardens? They are those He predestined to go to perdition.

Therefore there are vessels of mercy, which God prepared beforehand for glory, and vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. The antichrist, who is coming, is one of the vessels of wrath, for the Scripture says that he is going to perdition. There is no unrighteousness with God, for God does whatever pleases Him and He has the right to do what He wishes with His own things. Who then can say to Him, ‘What are you doing?’’ or ‘You have done wrong’? Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? The purpose of God according to election is of fundamental importance in order to understand what it means to be saved by grace, but also to understand why not all men are saved by God.

THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

We who are Gentiles by birth, and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men), were formerly without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, far from God and without God in the world. But it pleased God to bring us near to Him through the death of Jesus Christ. For through the death of Jesus Christ the middle wall which separated us from God and the Jews by birth was destroyed, because Jesus abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Therefore, by His death on the cross, Jesus reconciled us both (Gentiles and Jews) to God in one body. We were reconciled to God by the grace of God through faith in Christ. Now, therefore, we who are Gentiles in Christ are fellow heirs with those Jews who are in Christ, we are members together of one body, that is, the Church, and partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, that is, the promise of eternal life. We are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone of this spiritual building which is a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. This mystery was kept hidden in God for ages past, but in the fullness of the time it was revealed to the saints of God, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

Let us bear in mind this: it was necessary that most of the Jews should disobey God, so that we who are Gentiles might be forgiven by God (that is to say, so that God might have mercy on us) and we might become His people; so we received mercy through the disobedience of the Jews. As we know, in the days of Jesus and in the days of the apostles, most of the Jews refused to accept Jesus as the promised Messiah and thus they disobeyed God (most of the Jews all over the world still refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah). Then God, disgusted for their disobedience, had the Gospel of grace preached to the Gentiles as well, so that they might believe and obey Him; so that, through the believing Gentiles, He might provoke the disobedient Jews to jealousy. The disobedience of the Jews was predicted by God through His prophets of old, for God said in various ways that He would harden the Jews to cause them to stumble. Therefore they were predestined to stumble; on the contrary, we were predestined to accept the Word of God. Therefore the hardening in part which Israel has experienced is God’s work. However this hardening is temporary because one day, that is, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, God will have mercy on all the Jews, for He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob and will take away their sins.

ISRAEL

The Jews (or Israelites) are descendants of Abraham and are the people whom God foreknew and to whom were committed the oracles of God and with whom God made a covenant after He brought them out of Egypt. However the wrath of God came upon them many times because of the stubbornness of their heart. We can see this very clearly in the Bible. While they were in the wilderness on their way to the land of Canaan, and after they entered the promised land (during the period of the Judges) they broke the commandments of God and God punished them for their transgressions. Even after the Kingdom of Israel was divided in two kingdoms, that is, the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel, the people rebelled against God many times giving themselves over to idolatry and to many other sins. God sent His prophets to them to warn them to forsake their evil works and to return to His Word, but they refused to listen to the prophets. Therefore God punished them by sending foreign armies against them, and many of them were killed and many others were carried away captive (to Assyria end to Babylon). But God in His mercy and in His faithfulness did not forsake the Israelites, for He caused them to return to the promised land. Afterward, in the fullness of the time God sent Jesus, the Messiah, to Israel to save His people from their sins, but the Jews (or rather most of the Jews) did not recognize Him as the Messiah that God had promised through His prophets of old and they killed Him by the Romans, who at the time were ruling over their country. The people of Israel and the Gentiles did whatever His hand and His purpose determined before to be done. Only a small number of Jews accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Most of the Jews who live in Israel (as well as outside Israel) still don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah; only a small number of Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they are the remnant according to the election of grace whom God appointed to eternal life; the other Jews were hardened by God so that they might stumble over the stumbling stone. However this hardening in part one day will have an end, for the apostle Paul states that a hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Therefore, even though God has hardened many Jews, He has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for our sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Therefore let us see that we do not say, ‘God has rejected Israel’. And let us not boast against the unbelieving Jews. Let us remember the following things: first, we who are Gentiles by birth were once excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise; second, we were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree through faith in Christ by the mercy of God, who decided to save us; third, the root of this olive tree is a Jewish root. Some branches were undoubtedly broken off because of their unbelief, and we were grafted in by our faith, but let us take heed to ourselves because if we don’t continue in the goodness of God we also will be cut off.

We reject Anglo-Israelism.

HOLINESS (SANCTIFICATION)

We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ were sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, that’s why the Scripture calls us ‘the saints’. So, as is fitting for saints, we must perfect holiness in the fear of God hating and fleeing what is evil and clinging to what is good. In other words, just as we presented our members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now we must present our members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. And since we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, which calls evil good, and good evil, we must take heed to ourselves and test all things to understand what pleases the Lord and what does not please Him. We must test all things through the Scripture; the Spirit of God, who dwells in our hearts, guides us into all truth.

As He who called us to His eternal glory is holy, we also must be holy in all our conduct. Therefore we must abstain from the lusts of the flesh and the worldly lusts of this evil age. Fornication, uncleanness, revelries, drunkenness, lewdness, envy, debaucheries, sorcery, jealousies, covetousness (which is idolatry), malice, hatred, murders, contentions, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, slander, and the like, are all works of the flesh from which we must abstain (we must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother, but is a fornicator or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler; with such a man we must not even eat). Those who live according to the flesh are dead even while they live, and from the flesh they will reap corruption. Going to the cinema, to the theatre, to the circus, to the amusement parks, going to the beach to put oneself half-naked in order to get sun tanned or to bathe, going to a soccer match (as well as to a basketball match, a baseball match, etc.), listening to the worldly music, watching television, wearing indecent clothes or costly clothes, to mention just some of the worldly lusts, are all things which are not fitting for the saints, so we warn believers against these things (as far as the television set is concerned, we exhort the saints not to buy it nor to place it in their houses). Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

We must be humble, good, meek, righteous, merciful, patient with all, temperate in all things, hospitable to one another, full of brotherly love (Jesus said that by this all will know that we are His disciples, if we have love for one another), ready to confess our trespasses to one another and ready to forgive as Christ forgave us, and ready to do all kinds of good works as we have opportunity.

Without holiness no one will see the Lord. Fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, effeminate, thieves, covetous, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, idolaters, liars, murderers, sorcerers, the cowardly, the abominable, and the unrighteous, will not inherit the kingdom of God.<