Tuesday, February 7, 2012

If the new heavens and earth are already here what does that mean?


I have used a lot of key stokes this far, a lot of jots and tittle’s so to speak, in showing that evangelical’s should have a paradigm shift in their doctrine and dogma. It should be a much more inclusive doctrine that portrays God as truly love. We need to shake forever the concept of “Sinners in the hands of an angry God,” and instead look to Papa.

Here is what I have shown so far:
  • Jesus and his followers redefined the term word of God to mean either the gospel, or Jesus the living gospel.
  • He taught his followers a redemptive hermeneutic that saw him as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, the Old Testament.
  • Jesus usage of gehenna, translated hell in the KJV, was prophetic aimed at the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
  • In the new covenant, obedience is the obedience of faith, and it is obeying the gospel which is equal to believing the gospel.
  • Transformation comes automatically as the result of believing that God is not counting sin against us, in fact God remembers sin no more. This comes from believing in the gospel.
  • The New Testament writings are transitional looking forward to the final judgment of the Jews under the Old Covenant.
  • God made Jesus’ enemies his footstool in 70AD with the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and he vindicated the believing Jews at the same time.
  • We have been restored to a twenty-four seven relationship with the Father in the last Adam.

How then should we live? We should live in love. First, love for Father God and his glorious grace, and then, love for one another. We should rest in the security of the finished work of Jesus, and encourage each other to trust him, rest in him, and grow in the grace and the knowledge of our loving God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We should proclaim to the world that God reigns; He has a kingdom, we are all in it, and encourage all to be reconciled to God. If Paul had the ministry of reconciliation in the transition period, how much more do we have the ministry of reconciliation today? We should be reconciling the world in love. This is the way to be the body of Christ. The world needs to be convinced that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting sin against anyone. That is why he made the one who didn’t even know the concept of sin to be made sin for all of us so that we could be confident that we are the sons and daughters of God.

There is no room for negativity… no room for judgment… no room for greed… no room for condemnation.  If our goal is to be pleasing to God we must remember Hebrews 11:6. Our faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that pleases God. He takes pleasure in nothing else.

4 comments:

  1. As believers your correct to say that we should definitely walk in the spirit of adoption, but for those who have not accepted the gift of Gods grace. They will eventually find themselves in the hands of an angry God, so we can't only present God as a God of "love". Also, we have to be careful to confuse Agape (pure love) with Phileo (human love). Far too often, love is dwelt upon as the chief attribute of God, but it is degraded to a weak sentimentalism that makes no distinction between good and evil.

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    1. Hi there 4 Liberty Sake... Thanks, for reading so many posts. Did you read the commentary on Isaiah post that shows Jesus use of gehenna as a midrashic reference to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and not a reference to eternal punishment and torment? I think that within the posts of this blog is an equally valid hermeneutic that does not do violence to the bible that supports the idea that sinners in the hands of an angry God is not the legitimate view.

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  2. If we would truly love God like we say we do, then we would love one another like He asked us to. This is the second greatest commandment: to love one another as I have loved you. If we put our agape love where our mouth is maybe we would be able to be obedient to His command. In other words stop talking love and start showing it, from the heart.

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Paul the Mystic, Paul the Rabbi: A confusing dichotomy that is detrimental to the mystical message.

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