WHAT IS TRUTH RADIO SHOW

 

Day / Time: Sundays @ 4:00 - 5:00 PM (CST)

Category: Religion

Call-in Number: (347) 945-6567  

Are you a Believer and how sure are you (answer all questions as a comment)?

A.  Are you a Believer?

1. Yes
2. No (if no is your answer, indicate that and then skip to question E.)

B.  If you answered yes to question A and are assured of your salvation, then what are you depending on to get you (or to have gotten you) into God’s Family/Kingdom?

1. Church Membership
2. Church Attendance
3. Good Works/Deeds (IE. helping others in times of need, volunteerism and/or giving to Charities)
4. your good outweighing your bad
5. your high standards and morals
6. your mere belief that God exists
7. All of the above
8. None of the above, then write in your own answer (as a comment)

C.  If you are a Believer, and you were to die right now, how sure are you that you would be with God in His Kingdom?

1. 100% sure
2. 90% sure
3. 60% sure
4. 50% sure
5. less than 50% sure
6. not sure at all
7. ‘I believe that no one can be sure’, and here’s why (write your answer as a comment)

D.  If you were to die right now and God asked you why He should take you into His Kingdom, what would you say?

1. I deserve to be taken in based on a reason(s) in question B.
2. I deserve to be taken in because I believe everyone will go to Heaven
3. I do not deserve to be taken in because I have failed in one or more of the things in question B.
4. I do not deserve to be taken in because I have done wrong and do not deserve God’s forgiveness

E.  If you are an Unbeliever, and you were to die right now, what do you believe would happen to you?

1. you would go to some form of Heaven
2. you would cease to exist
3. you would go to Hell
4. you believe you would be reincarnated
5. you would just transfer to the spirit/ghost world
6. None of the above, then write your own answer (as a comment)

F.  If there were definite answers to the above questions and those answers were different from yours… would you want to know what they are?

1. yes
2. no
3. any answers different from mine are wrong, then write why that is (as a comment)

WHAT IS SIN, TODAY? (Part 1)

Sin… what a relatively dynamic subject! There are a lot of ways to approach this subject, yet no matter how you approach it everyone should end up at the same place. The real question of anything should start with its origin… genesis so to speak. For man, sin’s origin began with Adam. A perusal of the account in Genesis introduces a problem with trying to discover where sin actually began for the man (Adam). Did it start when he actually committed the act or was something already afoot or budding in Adam that created a fertile ground for the later sinful act? The key to answering this question lies in a closer examination into what type of tree it was that God told Adam not to eat of. It was the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’. Now before we examine what the significance of this tree was, let’s take a look at why God didn’t endow Adam with the ‘Knowledge of Good and Evil’ within him. Didn’t God give Adam some of His attributes and traits? Why not supply Him with a knowledge of distinguishing between good and evil? Or do you believe that Adam did have that ability?

Obviously, it is clear from the text that Adam could not have already had this quality. Otherwise there would be no reason for God to embody the knowledge of good and evil within a tree! The reason God withheld this trait or quality from Adam is so that Adam (and subsequently, Eve) would live in total dependency upon God to say what was good and evil… right and wrong! So then, why would God expect ‘man’ (Adam) to depend totally on Him, yet fashion a tree that encompassed the very opposite of what He wanted out of ‘man’? Within the reason lies the significance of the Tree’s existence. How could ‘man’ ever come to truly appreciate being dependent upon God for life and godliness if there was no physical counter to the wonders that God was providing? God’s aim was to show forth His wonderful love, mercy and benevolence. To make it obvious that He desired ‘man’ to completely depend on Him and obvious that He fully loved ‘man’. He desires for us to always be mindful, conscious and focused on Him. The moment we turn our eyes from Him in dependency on something/someone else (or even ourselves), we are then dead to Him (or even more appropriate He is dead to us). So death is the result of being cut off from God due to our transfer of dependency from Him and His removal of His Spirit from us.

Since Adam was far more intelligent than anyone today and we assume able to perfectly comprehend God’s Word, then what would ever make Him disobey God’s command? Disbelief! Apparently Adam did not believe God’s Word when God said that ‘the moment you eat, you shall surely die.’ (St. Joseph’s Version). For instance, if you tell your child, ‘Do not touch the stove, for the moment you do, I will surely spank you.’ If your child touches it, then you can only come to two conclusions. One: he did not understand you. Or two: he did not believe you would spank him. Assuming that your child is not mentally disabled or the like, we know that they understand. We are only left to conclude that they did not believe you were going to spank them. Well similarly, Adam did not believe God about dying and ate. The Bible tells us that Adam was not deceived but sinned. So, what was his sin? Again it was unbelief. (This is the end of part 1 on discovering ‘What Is Sin, Today’. Tell me what you think. Agree, disagree or unsure? If you would like to debate please let’s do one topic at a time. You can use as much Scripture as you like, but please let’s resolve things one topic at a time. Things can get confusing otherwise!) Thank you.

WHAT IS SIN, TODAY? (Part 2)

Now that we’ve discovered that the original sin is unbelief, let’s take a look at how sin has evolved throughout history. A proper approach and a good premise for sin lies in realizing that sin is the opposite of God’s command or law. If God’s command or law is to not lie, then sinning would be to lie. Whatever the law says not to do, doing the opposite is sin. That seems to make sense, yet there are those (myself included at one time) who get very confused. Sin has in one sense never change, yet in another sense it has morphed also. I guess this is where the confusion has set in. However in striving to be clear I think you will begin to have a break through of understanding if your ears are open to the truth. While keeping in mind that the original sin is unbelief, we also need to consider that our nature became defined by our unbelief. Not trusting or believing God’s Word became natural to us. We began leaning on our own understanding and acting and reacting according to what we judged as right and wrong, good and evil. Our behavior became indicative of our unbelief (distrust of God to provide). As we relied more and more on ourselves we simultaneously needed God less and less. Mankind began a quick descent into degradation and wickedness. It all came to a head in Noah’s time and God couldn’t stand it anymore. He destroyed all of Earth’s inhabitants, save 8 (Noah and his family) so man could start over. Sin may have seemed to have taken on many forms, but it was still rooted in unbelief. When Noah tried to warn those of his time and preach to them, they did not believe. Despite whatever they were doing, if they would have heeded the warning they would have been saved. Yet no one listened and all, save the 8, perished. All God desires is our faith… that’s the only thing that can please Him (Hebrews 11:6). So in summary, unbelief leads to behavioral disobedience.

If you can understand the connection between what you believe and your behavior, then you should be able to follow this post. Our sinful behavior comes from a sinful nature and until you are disconnected from that nature or your nature is changed you won’t experience any relief from sin. You may be asking what role the 10 Commandments play if sin is really just unbelief. In other words, what was the purpose of the Mosaic Law (aka the law of Moses or the 10 Commandments)? Before we delve into that question let’s make sure we understand the difference between the sin of unbelief and behavioral sin.

Behavioral sin comes from having an unbelieving, hard, disobedient, rebellious heart. Unbelief will always make you turn away from God. When, by nature, you don’t trust or believe God you will always do the opposite of what He asks. We gained this nature from Adam. Once he disobeyed he forever changed our nature. I know some of you will contend that you were created in the image of God, so you believe you have the ability to be obedient, but that is the very sin of Adam at it’s most clear… exchanging our dependency on Him for the illusion of independence! What we fail to realize is that Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, but after ‘the Fall’ Seth was created in Adam’s fallen image and likeness (Genesis 5). Genetically we’ve all inherited Adam’s nature. A nature of behavior bent on doing the opposite of God’s will (without failure). Any time we hear God’s Word, by nature we can not obey it. It has been called the Law Principle. For instance, have you ever experienced or witnessed a child in a room by themselves and an adult comes in and, out a room full of toys and items, tells them not to touch one thing (that they were not even interested in) and now it has consumed their every thought and desire? They won’t be satisfied until they have touched the very thing you told them not to. As adults we are not that different, as it is apart of our nature. We are slaves to sin and the law working in consort with each other. The sinful passions of our sinful nature are stirred up and aroused by the law. So understanding the distinction between our sinful passions and our sinful nature is the key to breaking sin’s grip. Behavioral sins are our sinful passions which are aroused by the law. The law affords sin the opportunity to spring to life. In other words, the law is sin’s power. Sin has no power in the absence of the law. If you remove the law from the equation, then you will have no sin (nothing to stir up our sinful passions/desires). Again the passion of sin and the sinful nature are two different issues, two different problems if you will. In order to get released from the hold of the sinful nature we need to die to it. Unbelief is natural to us due to our inheritance from Adam, so we first must reverse the curse by believing (trusting God’s Word). John 1:1-14 reveal God’s Word as Jesus the Christ. His coming has been promised since ‘the Fall’ in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15-the protoevangelion). He has always been our hope (even throughout the Mosaic Law) of salvation to deal with Original Sin (unbelief). He took on Himself the job and mission of doing what we were incapable of… fulfilling the Law (Mosaic). Yet after fulfilling it He essentially abolished it, insofar as He completed what God desired. So what then was the purpose of the law, since God obviously knew we could not keep it. Well the purpose of the law was similar to the purpose of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; to show God’s goodness, love, mercy and grace. We need a counter of contrast to cause us to totally depend on God for everything we need for life and godliness. The law’s purpose was to cause man to realize his inability and turn to God (eventually in time… to Jesus) for life. The law was never intended to bring righteousness, it was to make sin utterly sinful. After coming in contact with the law our only response should be one of realizing our failure and turning to God for Salvation. If you look at the law and arrogantly think that you can do it, then you’ve missed the point, and all you’ll find is more of the very thing you were trying to stop… sin. In other words if you use the law to try and restrain sin, you will find that it does just the opposite… the law stirs up/arouses sin! You see man has two problems:
1. Spiritual Death
2. Sin/Unbelief

Sin leads to spiritual death, just like terminal cancer leads to physical death. If you die of cancer and I wanted to help you by healing your cancer, then I would have accomplished nothing (cause I may heal your cancer, but you are still dead). If you die of cancer and I want to help you by raising you from the dead, then still I have accomplished nothing (cause you still have cancer and you will just die again). Similarly if you are dead because of sin/unbelief and Jesus only deals with sin (by dying on the Cross) then He has done nothing (cause you are still dead). If He only makes you alive, yet does nothing about sin, then once again He has done nothing (cause you’ll just die again when you sin next). So Jesus has to deal with both problems in order for us to get truly delivered from sin and death’s grip. The sin problem is taken care through our belief. Not just some generic belief either, but a specific belief in His work (at the Cross). We have to trust that what Christ accomplished at the Cross was enough to assuage or completely satisfy God’s wrath against sin. Herein lies the problem: if we attempt to use the Mosaic Law to try and be righteous before God, then we are in essence saying that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough to set aside God’s anger towards us. That is unbelief at its most base level. That means that we have not believed that Jesus paid for all our sins and so we are still in our sins and no other sacrifice for sin is left (if Jesus’ sacrifice was not enough, then nothing is or will ever be). We cannot even deal with the second problem of death if we can’t accept/believe/trust/have faith in Christ’s finished work on the Cross.

So in conclusion, behavioral sin comes from the law stirring up and arousing sinful passions so that we bare fruit for death. Christ through His death has released us from the law and freed us from the tag team tyranny of our sinful passions and the law. We have to believe that, and He then grants us life through His resurrection. All of the behaviors that have been understood as sin come from our nature of unbelief and is stirred by the law. Trust Christ that His sacrifice for our sins was enough and then He will restore life to us (as the one raised from the dead… meaning He has the answers to life and death and life again, forevermore).

That is all for Part 2 of the blog on ‘What Is Sin, Today?’ Please remember if you want to debate this blog, limit your debate topics to one at a time. You can use as much Scripture as you like, but just one topic of disagreement at a time (as it can be confusing to me and other readers). If you desire for me to back any of my statements up with Scripture just ask and I will oblige. Otherwise see you in Part 3.

WHAT IS SIN, TODAY? (Part 3)

DISCLAIMER:
YOU REALLY NEED TO READ THIS WHOLE POST! IT CANNOT BE JUDGED BY A SIMPLE PERUSAL, BUT MUST BE READ IN ITS ENTIRETY BEFORE YOU KNOW ITS CONTENTS. YOU MAY THINK IT’S SAYING ONE THING, BUT YOU’LL BE SURPRISED BY ITS END!!!!

Sin cannot ever be in the presence of God! Nor can God be in the presence of sin. If you have sin in you, then you absolutely cannot be simultaneously indwelt by God. I think I John 3 says it best:‘1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Love one another

11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.‘

If you look at verses 4-9, specifically verses 3 & 9, you will see that you cannot continue to sin. Now, dependent on what meanings you pour into words like ’sin’ and ‘righteousness’ will determine what these passages mean to you. If ’sin’ is behavior and ‘righteousness’ is perfect behavior, then I could not say how anyone is going to make it to Heaven/God’s Kingdom. Another verse that stands out is in Hebrews 10:

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’ ” 8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16″This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.” 17Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.” 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.” 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.In verse 26 above it says that if you keep on sinning after you have received the knowledge of the truth, then there is no sacrifice for sins left. What is the knowledge of the truth? Why is there no sacrifice for sins left? Could there be a connection between having a knowledge of the truth and the sacrifice for our sins? These are the kinds of questions we need to know the answer to, because if we don’t we risk being considered an enemy of God. Some people think having a proper understanding of sin does not affect their salvation, one way or the other, however it does (at least according to these passages). If you can really read from verses 26-31 above and you cannot understand that sin is unbelief, then how can any of us make it?

Some teach a watered-down version of sin and claim that when Jesus commands us to ‘48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.‘ (Matthew 5), they think it means perfection as a ‘work in progress’, or be as close to perfect as you can. No, I assure you that is not the case, that command compares our perfection to matching that of the Father’s… who can claim that? Who can say that they are as perfect as the Father, besides Jesus? Which brings me to the point of Part 3. Whose perfection are you relying on (Hebrews 10:14)? Whose purity are you relying on (I John 3:3)? Whose righteousness are you relying on (I John 2:29 and chapter 3 verse 7)? Whose holiness are you relying on (Hebrews 10:10)? Whose memory of sin are you relying on (Hebrews 10:17)? What I mean is… if you believe that when God looks at you He sees your sin and therefore you have to do something in order to correct or make up for the sin that you believe that God sees (while looking at you), then, you are committing sin at that moment (purely by thinking that there is something you can do to get right before God)! In other words you’re saying that Jesus left Heaven, came to earth as 100% man and 100% God, in full obedience to the Father (endured unimaginable pain, heartache and bloodshed) gave up His life as a fragrant offering for our sins and rose from the dead in victory over death in order to offer us life… and you still have to do what? What was all that for if not to make you clean, sterilized and presentable to the Father?

I’ve read before some author compare what Christ did for us, to the process of canning fruit. You first have to sterilize the jars before you put the fruit preserves in. The purpose of sterilizing the jars is so when you put the fruit in and then seal the jars, no bacteria can get in and spoil the fruit preserves. Well Christ must first sterilize us by washing us with His shed blood on the Cross; and then we are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption.  God is no longer counting men’s sins against them! Why? Because of what Jesus did. Not because of what you have done or will do. Jesus already took care of our sin’s 2000 years ago. The slate is clean! There is no longer a barrier of sin between us and God. Go to Him with confidence and boldness in your greatest time of need. I know my greatest time of need is when my behavior is not appropriate. Instead of asking Him for something He has already given me (forgiveness), I instead thank Him for what He has already done and realize that if it were not for Christ I would not stand a chance in Hell (pun intended).

If you desire to stand on the right side of truth, then we need to be careful of the meanings that we pour into these Bible words that we use everyday. Being righteous is having faith in God. So is being holy, perfect and obedient. Yes, we need to be Christ-like. He said he does nothing unless the Father tells Him to… that is a life of complete dependency on God (the Father). That’s what Christ came here to ultimately show us. We already knew He was perfect… He did not have to come here to prove that to us (that He could fulfill the law). He came to demonstrate what a life that is totally dependant on God looks like. One of faith (moment by moment dependency)! His fulfilling of the law was in order that He might satisfy God’s commands (something that no one had ever done before) and then transfer that satisfaction of the law onto us, so that we could be saved.

‘1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.‘ (Romans 8:1-4)  However Christ demonstrated (in His earthly life) something far greater than instructions on how to keep the law… He taught us how even He, being the second person of the Trinity (God), lived in dependency on God the Father. Yet we somehow miss that point and look at Matthew chapter 5 and think we are supposed to be able to keep those standards (where it says that if you get angry with your brother and simply call him a fool then you’re going to Hell). Any other interpretation of Matthew 5 that says that you have time to mess up and try again is blasphemous. In other words, according to Christ’s words in Matthew 5:19 if you break the least of those commands you’re going to Hell. Jesus does not mention a grace period being given for you to ‘become’ perfect, He says ‘be‘ perfect and that if you break the least of these… if there is a grace period, it would be His work on the cross and not so you can try and clean yourself up, but so that you can trust in Him and His finished, completed work and rest from yours. In conclusion, if you will let Christ speak then let’s end with His words:Jesus the Bread of Life
‘25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”‘

and then He also says,

‘30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34″Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’

and then He also says,

‘36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”‘