The Essential Atonement

#5 of New Covenant series

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GOOD NEWS

TRANS WORLD RADIO

SURPASSES 200-LANGUAGE MARK

Listeners in the Philippines, Russia and East Africa are among the beneficiaries of the expanded ministry by international Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio (TWR). With these additions, TWR now proclaims the gospel worldwide in more than 200 languages and dialects.

Programs air from more than 2,700 broadcasting outlets, including 14 international transmitting sites, satellite, cable, Internet and local AM and FM stations. Broadcasting since 1954, TWR took 41 years to reach the 100-language plateau, then just 10 years to reach the 200 mark.

“Expanding the number of languages that we air undoubtedly broadens our opportunity to reach even more people with the gospel message,” said TWR President David Tucker.  Amen!

ECUMENISM

ANTI-TERROR SPIRITUAL SUMMIT

CALLS FOR UNITED RELIGION

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, took center stage at an historic religious summit on April 15, in San Francisco that called for a “United Nations of Religion” with a goal of countering extremist violence around the world.”

A prominent California Imam, Seyed Mehdi Khorasani, said the idea to arrange the summit came after he met Dalai Lama in the US state of Idaho late last year.

The audience of around 750 invitees was made up primarily of Muslims and Buddhists, but it included Hindus, Jews, Christians and leaders from numerous faiths and roughly 30 countries.

The Dalai Lama opened the session with words of gratefulness to the various faiths and cultures gathered together, noting that this conference was only the beginning of many more gatherings “where we may find a gathering of hearts to bring peace to our world.” He defended Islam, saying suicide bombings were a tragic “mischief” that could plague any religion.

After the Dalai Lama a variety of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian and Buddhist speakers addressed the conference. The last speaker, Tim Timmons, summed up the day with, “I bring you greetings in the name of Jesus … Since Jesus is not owned by Christians or Christianity, not bound by any system of do’s and don’ts, and not exclusive but all-inclusive in his approach to people everywhere, then it is appropriate to bring greetings in his name at this event.”

Timmons went on to shock the assembly with; “In following Jesus I have come to realize that what the world needs now is not more love.” After a pause, he continued, “… but more lovers - love in action.”

Timmons challenged the conference participants to be contagious in spreading peace, love and compassion. He praised the Dalai Lama and the Imam for their courage in forging a personal relationship of peace and understanding, and challenged the audience to follow their example.  He ended his words with an unusual blessing; “May Jesus fill your hearts and minds with His peace, His joy, His love and His compassion…and may He bind us together in such a way that we might be contagious.”

Organizers heralded the assembly as the establishment of a multi-religious body that will work to quell violence and promote harmony between people of different faiths.

Imam Khorasani said the summit is the first assembly of a “religious parliament” that will meet once or twice annually in countries throughout the world. The intent is for “religious leaders to unite in dispelling misunderstanding and injustice that breed extremism,” he said.  - Source: www.assistnews.net / 2 May 06

“Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, exhort, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine; but to suit their own desires, they will gather more and more teachers around them who will tickle their ears.”  (2 Timothy 4:2-3)

 APOSTASY

Turning away from the Truth

“Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless

the apostasy, (the predicted falling away from the faith), comes first.”

(2 Thessalonians 2:3)

My dear Reader, it is quite alarming - the extent of the apostasy in the church today. On one side there is the denial of fundamental Biblical truths, and on the other side, the bringing in of damnable doctrines.

All types of heresies, deceptions, distortions and lopsided teachings are flooding the church today.

A great 19th c. Bible teacher said: “For men to cover their hatred of God and His truth with the drapery of a false, one-sided theology, is the very highest character of wickedness ... The devil is never more diabolical than when he appears with the Bible in his hand.”           

Following are just a few examples of current apostasy:

USA:   TWO  THIRDS  OF  EVANGELICALS

DOUBT  JESUS  IS  THE  ONLY  WAY    

For centuries most evangelical Christians have been taught and have fully accepted the words of Jesus in John 14:6: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through Me.”

But now a Newsweek/Beliefnet poll shows a shocking number of people who call themselves evangelical and born-again, have come to reject those words.

The question in the poll read: “Can a good person who isn’t of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?”

According to the poll results of more than 1,000 adults 18 years of age and older, 68% of evangelical Christians believe “good” people of other faiths can also go to heaven.

A Beliefnet spokesman called the results ‘pretty amazing.’ “Evangelicals are among the most church-going and religiously attentive people in the US,” he said, “and one of the ideas they’re most likely to hear from the minister at church on a given Sunday is that the path to salvation is through Jesus.”

In light of that, he asks, how could so many Americans toss aside such a central element of theology?

The best explanation, the spokesman said, is found in a Newsweek cover story that grew out of the survey. Its conclusion is that Americans have become so focused on a very personal style of spiritual experience and this supplants teaching based on the authority of the Bible.   - Source:  AgapePress / 23 Aug 23, 05

DOCTRINE OF HELL DISAPPEARING

Belief in hell is fast disappearing in Scotland. According to The Guardian (London), one third of Scottish clergy “still believe in the existence of hell.” Of course, that means that the other two-thirds don’t believe in hell.

Dr Eric Stoddart, a lecturer in practical theology at St Andrews University, surveyed 750 randomly selected clergy and found that 37% believed in hell.

“The doctrine of hell is downplayed by most of today’s churches even by those who still believe in it. It isn’t viewed as very “politically correct” even by a new generation of more theologically conservative ministers,” said Dr Stoddart, who also commented that there was a conspiracy of silence on the subject.

1 The TV is my shepherd, I shall want.

2 It makes me lie down on the sofa. It leads me away from the Scriptures. It destroys my soul.

3 It leads me in the path of sex and violence, for the sponsor’s sake. 

4 Yea, though I walk in the shadow of my Christian responsibilities, there will be no interruption, for the TV is with me;  it’s cable and remote, they control me. 

5 It prepares a commercial before me in the presence of worldliness; it anoints my head with Humanism, my coveting runneth over.

6 Surely laziness and ignorance shall follow me all days of my life: and I shall dwell in the house watching TV forever.      

-  Author unknown

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY:

“STOP TEACHING CREATIONISM”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools.

The archbishop was emphatic in his criticism of creationism being taught in the classroom, as is happening in two city academies founded by the evangelical Christian businessman Sir Peter Vardy and several other schools.

“I think creationism is ... a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories ... if creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories I think there’s just been a jarring of categories ... My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it,” he said.

The debate over creationism, or its more recent offshoot, “Intelligent Design” (ID) which argues that creation is so complex that an intelligent - spiritual - force must have directed it, has provoked divisions in Britain but nothing like the vehemence or politicisation of the debate in the U.S.

DOMINION “KINGDOM NOW” THEOLOGY

This false modern teaching has the idea that it is the duty of the church to build the kingdom of God by taking back from Satan, man’s lost dominion (authority) over God’s creation.  The idea is that the Messiah will return only after “we” have established the kingdom. It’s something like, “We will build the throne and then He will come.” Dominion theology despises the imminent Rapture of the church.

A new, radical and unorthodox twist seeks to justify “dominion theology” by reinterpreting the Master's words in Luke 19:10:

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

In the past, evangelicals have believed that Jesus was saying He came ‘to seek and to save the lost.’ Consequently, they have applied it to saving souls.

But an exponent of dominion teaching says we should take Jesus’ statement at face value, namely, “He came to save that which was lost.”

What is it that was lost and that Jesus came to save? Dominion advocates say the answer is in the first chapter of Genesis. “God’s original design was that Adam and Eve should have dominion over all of God’s creation (Genesis 1:28). But they disobeyed God, and they lost their authority; Satan usurped it and became the god of this age. Satan’s kingdom encompassed all of the human kingdoms of the earth (Luke 4:5-6).  So Jesus came to save man’s lost dominion over creation.”

 “DUEL COVENANT” -  A FALSE TEACHING

There are many Liberals and Modernists who hold the false teaching of “dual covenant,” which says that Jews are saved through a special relationship with God and so they do not need Jesus to get to Heaven.

Dual covenant theology maintains the Old Covenant has never been replaced by Christianity.” And it is still valid for Jews, while the New Covenant is for Gentiles.

A true Bible student, however, knows very well that the Old Covenant has been invalid as a way to God since the moment Y’shua died on the cross. The tearing of the veil in the temple from top to bottom on that crucifixion day signified the end of the system of atonement under the Old Covenant. (Matthew 27:51)

If the Old Covenant was valid for Jews today, then we would have to say that God has left His people without a sacrifice, without a Holy of Holies, and without the means of atonement.  Religious Jews today are trusting in their devotion and works to receive the mercy of God.

What is valid today are the words of Y’shua Messiah:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life;

no-one comes to the Father, except through Me.”

(John 14:6).

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE OF MHG#27

Chapter 9 of Studies in the Book of Daniel

THE “ 70 WEEKS” PROPHECY

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