judgment day is
Fast Approaching
     The Day of Judgment is coming. Let the mocking movie, the scoffing co-worker, the doubtful religious man, and the ambitious political leader continue to walk in darkness; the day of coming judgment is drawing nearer as we draw each breath. God has promised that His only Son will return with armies of saints from heaven to purge the earth of corruption, injustice, and sin. We who know and believe the words of the Bible take to heart this passage which Peter wrote telling fellow Christians not to be ignorant.

    "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thou­sand years as one day.
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3.7-10)

    The Holy Ghost has taught The Church in these past 40 years and continues to bear witness in our hearts that the judgment of the world is necessary if God's promise of a righteous rule of Christ on earth is to be fulfilled. If heaven and earth are not purged then the new heaven and new earth promised in the last two chapters of the Bible would have no chance to exist. The Scriptures are explicit, the world is going to be burned up in fiery judgment. Revelation tells the story. Peter prophesied in His second epistle:

"... that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
  "And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
   "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
   "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
"But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Peter 3.3-7)
    The world and its faithful followers believe that their governments, institu­tions and glorious ideas will all last forever. And though there is no reconciling the Spirit of God with the spir­it of the world, many Christians have figured that God wants to save the "world". But James declares: "... know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4.4)

   And John exhorted the Church in this fashion:
   "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (1 John 2.15-17)

      We can be sure that if the world is going to pass away then they who love the things of the world will also pass away.

A fiery judgment is
coming on the Earth
     Christ first came in meekness, lowly, riding a colt, not a warhorse, and gave Himself into the hands of the world so that some would receive salvation, but that will not be His mission at His second coming. He will return with fire in His eyes and a sword of judgment in His mouth; an unusual way to express His appearance if it were not so spiritually perfect. Christ will burn everything that cannot stand up to the gaze of God and will cut to ribbons anything that does not measure up to His word.  The world will melt and tremble at His presence. According to the prophecies written in Revelation, Christ and His saints (all true and faithful believers) will begin a thousand year reign, ruling with a rod of iron.
    As the day of God’s terrible judgment draws closer and closer; God's warnings echo louder and louder. Crime, corruption, sexual perversion, hypocrisy in government and religion, and lusts of all sort are rampant, false prophets are seducing the Church., lying spirits are working every kind of deceit inside and outside the confines of believers. Not even judgment like AIDS, war, or financial ruin can convince people to do the right thing. The cup of iniquity is filling and the signs of the time are shining brighter and brighter in every newspaper headline and on every 7 o'clock news broadcast. As prophesied in 1 & 2 Timothy, seducing spirits are selling the doctrines of devils. Sin is said to be good; doing your own thing is righteous - indeed we live in the perilous times of the last days. Everything points to the soon return of Jesus.
     Two thousand years, or just two days on the Lord's heavenly calendar, have passed since Jesus departed to be with the Father and it is very, very likely that Jesus will reappear on the dawn of the "third day", just as he reappeared on the dawn of the third day after His crucifixion. To escape the judgment that is coming upon all the earth, members of the Body of Christ must be willing and ready to receive judgment now, in their personal lives and in their hearts, as well. There is no escape from God's judgment, neither should there be. Sacraments, tithing, good works; none of these can deliver us from our ultimate destiny. We must all face our maker. Either we can submit to His merciful and delivering judgment and let it produce love and freedom in us, or we can stubbornly hold out and fall victim to His terrible judgment. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.", as it says in Hebrews. Instead we are taught by the Bible that, "if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged, but when we are chastened we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be judged with the world."
(1 Cor. 11.3­1,32)

     Many aspects of our walk involve a process of being delivered from evil into goodness, of being brought from darkness into light; departing and fleeing and being changed into His likeness. If those things are to happen to us we must invite the judgment of the Holy Ghost. His judgment must win out over ours. Without accepting God's judgment in our walk we will remain in the world no matter how godly or pious we appear to be.

   "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con­versation and godliness,
   "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
   "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
   "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." (2 Peter 3.11-14)

   This is the only way to be spared the fiery judgment coming on the earth. If we live spotless and blameless lives for Christ, a spiritual perfection before Christ, then we can look forward to the judgment of the world and the second coming. We can hope in the rapture, which will likely come before the great tribulation that is to come on all the world according to Revelation. (Rev. 3.10) To use the words of Peter, we can make our calling and election sure. (2 Peter 1.10) This perfection spoken of is not a carnal or intellectual perfection. It does not mean we will never make a wrong judgment or a mistake. It is a perfection achieved by obedience of faith. It can be detected by the faithful eyes of other disciples of Christ because the fruit of our actions is the evidence of our obedience. Our perfection hinges entirely on hearing the Word of God and doing it. It is important here to realize, however, that God does not want us to fear His judgment; in fact He wants us to invite it. Beautifully, this passage of Peter's which exhorts us to not be ignorant, this pillar of knowledge in the Church, is the only one of the seven pillars which is addressed to the "beloved" instead of simply, the "brethren". Being addressed to the beloved reassures the faithful that God's love is with them always even in judgment. For it is for our sakes that the world will be judged.




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ETERNAL JUDGMENT INTRO
THERE STILL IS A HELL
JUDGMENT DAY IS FAST APPROACHING

Should We Believe Salvation is like Money In The Bank?

Once Saved
Always Saved???

by Eloise Gardenier

      

Flowchart: Document: “Peter shows us that we would have been better off not to have known the Lord at all than to have first known Him, forsaken Him, and gone astray. If that wasn't a possible reality, would Peter have made an issue of it? 'For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Pe. 2:20-22     
 




































    There is an abundance of false teaching in the church today concerning Hebrews 13:5 which says “...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". This false doctrine has become known as the "once saved always saved" doctrine, stemming from early Calvinism and his doctrines of predestination. The true interpretation of the scripture is often misunderstood and taken out of context, leading to confusion which, in turn, may cause serious harm to those who accept this misuse of its meaning. I have come to believe it is bordering on, if not actually, heretical. Every time I have heard this teaching given the "teacher" insists on using only half of the verse. The other half isn't even mentioned, never mind the entire context of the chapter. Chapter thirteen of Hebrews is filled with exhortations on how to "strive toward perfection", that we might be "pleasing in the sight of Jesus Christ". v. 21 Before going any further let me establish that this part of verse five of Hebrews 13 is only spoken once in the entire Bible. When this often quoted part is used to back this teaching up, the first part of the verse is ignored. It often leaves the impression that we can do anything we want because He will never leave us or forsake us. The first verse starts with conditions as all of God's promises to us do. That first part of the verse reads: "Let your conversation be without covetousness: and be content with such things as ye have...“ Chapter thirteen closes the book of Hebrews, the book which tells us who God is, who Jesus is, and who we can be. Throughout the entire book, we are exhorted about what we must do and warned about what not to do. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end". Heb. 3:12-14 In chapter four we are warned not to fall into unbelief; "let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." And this from Paul, of all people, says; "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Cor. 9:27

Let's refer back to the Old Testament…
      Second Chronicles shows that God was the same in both epochs, old and new, that he is the same yesterday today and forever. "... thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken you." vs 24:20 This quote is a preview or a pageant, if you will, of when the Lord would ‘forsake’ His people. The key words here are; "because ye have forsaken the Lord, He hath also forsaken you." Saints, don't kid yourselves, or allow Satan to deceive you. There are many subtle ways to forsake the Lord. Many they are who have, and others who yet will. In Hebrews thirteen we find a list of exhortations that work toward our perfection and His "never leaving us nor forsaking us". Verses one through four gives us the following: "let brotherly love continue, be not forgetful to entertain strangers, remember them that are in bonds, them which suffer adversity, the marriage bed is honorable, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Verse five has already been covered. We must trust the Lord to be our helper and not fear what man can do to us. Three times we are told to respect those who have the rule over us. The first time, in verse seven, we are exhorted to follow their faith. In verse 17 we are told to obey them that have the rule over us, and verse 24 admonishes us to salute all them that have rule over us and, all the saints.
       After verse seven we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever. (I believe this is an exhortation that we should strive to be the same.) We are warned about strange doctrines and exhorted to establish our hearts with grace. Verses nine through thirteen warn us not to get entangled with "religion"! We should seek (or have faith in) no continuing city (worldly city) but one to come (heavenly city.) We are to offer praise to God continually with the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. We are told to do good, to communicate forget not: with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Paul says, "Pray for us (one another), and be willing to live honestly". Then his prayer for us is; "May God make you perfect in every good work to do his will (not your own). Let Him work in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." The promise of "I will never leave thee not forsake thee" is given with the condition that we do our part by having assurance this promise will take place in our lives. We might make the case that it can be expressed this way: God will not forsake us, but we can betray him and forsake his mercy by turning away from him or blaspheming the Holy Ghost. Blaspheming the Holy Ghost is saying in our hearts: “I have seen the works of God and tasted them and I do not like them.” Knowing God and not approving or liking him is forsaking God.    And in His great mercy He has left us with the things we must not do, as well. Again, how could one twist and pervert the Scriptures by saying that just by having accepted Jesus as Saviour and walking in it to some small degree, we are saved for all eternity, no matter how we live this life on earth? (Example: Invention of Purgatory) That oft used excuse for sin and shortcoming, "I'm only human", won't cut it when we stand in the presence of the Son of God. He has laid out certain things that won't be overlooked. We must want to be with Him and truly love him. No pretext or excuses can be made for anything other than this. It behooves us all to never forsake God, for in effect will will have left him, then what can he do? That is one of the main reasons I became compelled to write about this. In these past 24 years I have seen this shallow and erroneous doctrine spread and I felt a need to show the reality of its absurdity, by the Word of God, to those who have ears to hear.
       In the verse from Chronicles in the Old Testament, referred to earlier, we see that God does, in fact, forsake his people when they forsake Him. Not only do we have other examples in the Old Testament of the truth about this, but He has warned us by His servants through His Word. Through Paul, Peter, John and Jesus, Himself, we are shown if we do not meet God's requirements there is a high price to pay. These things are boldly laid out in Scripture. Even though we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and walked with Him for some time and in some measure of faith, there are some things God will not tolerate! Let's go back to Hebrews once more. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." This is such a frightening thing, I can't even comment on it, except to say if it weren't possible it wouldn't be in God's Word. The sobering horrors continue: "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:26-31) Verse 38 of chapter 10 also gives a sobering message. "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man drawback, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."
      Peter also shows us that we would have been better off not to have known the Lord at all than to have first known Him, forsaken Him, and gone astray. If that wasn't a possible reality, would Peter have made an issue of it? "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
      For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20-22 And the argument that there is only one lonely verse to support this truth cannot be made by any stretch for there are many statements in both the New and Old Testaments supporting the matter that once saved always saved is a dangerous fallacy flirting with idolatry even; far too numerous are they to even mention. 
      Through John we are told there is a certain segment that Jesus will spew out of His mouth. "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Rev. 3:15&16 Again, in Revelation, the Lord reveals to John that some will have their names removed from the Book of Life for tampering with the Book of Revelation. "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Rev. 22:19)
       The clearest instructions of all in this matter are given us by Jesus, himself, in Matthew. "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come!" Matt. 12:31 & 32 God forbid that anyone reading these words will ever do this!! Perhaps these are the most sobering and frightening words of all from Jesus Christ Himself. "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. Many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:20-23 (Dear Lord please never let that happen to me. Search me and chastise me, that I may never hear those words" in that day"!!!) Praise God though, He has shown us through His Word, how to avoid ever hearing those words!!
        Not only will He not leave us nor forsake us, if we are obedient to His will, but He also has rewards for us besides. Starting with Revelation 2:11 we find; "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." " ... To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Rev. 2:17 In Rev. 2:26 & 27 we read this "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron..." We have this wonderful time to look forward to written in Revelation 22:14; "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." But remember what we are told in Rev. 22:19!
       These promises are only the tip of the iceberg concerning the things God hath prepared for those that love Him. I will close with Revelation 1:3 a favorite of The Christian Spirit's Open Door Fellowship. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophesy (Book of Revelation) and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand" Just to know and believe in Him is not enough, we must keep His Word as well.