Notice BoardArchive
Judging
One may see clear evidence the Lord presents, yet deny
its veracity, thus calling Him a liar. As an example, the Pharisees refused
to believe the works of the Lord as from Heaven.
On the other hand, one
can believe what appears to be true, but isn’t, thus also calling
God a liar, Who commands us not to judge after the appearance. Victor Hafichuk
- May 10, 2012
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Our Beliefs
We got this note from Betty:
I would like to know if your Beliefs has a name. I was
in the Pentecostal Holiness Church. I find your site very interesting.
Paul's reply:
Hi Betty,
Our belief does have a Name - the Lord
Jesus Christ – all praise
to Him!
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who of God is
made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
so that, according as
it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’” (1
Corinthians 1:30-31 MKJV).
That’s the way it should be, you know.
It’s not what we believe
so much as WHOM we believe. Believing
the Lord, we know the truth, and knowing the truth, we are set
free.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
seeks such to worship
Him. God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in
spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24 MKJV).
Have you seen our Statement
of Doctrine? The Lord has given us
these beliefs. Though we have benefitted from the teachings
of many, the
essential truth is always given by God. Knowledge without His
revelation, faith,
and obedience is dead.
The Pentecostal Holiness Church, as with all
manmade religious organizations, mixes the truth with deadly manmade
beliefs.
See The True
Marks of a Cult and Diabolical
Doctrines.
Paul Cohen
- April 18, 2012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exposed by Self-Righteousness
When certain religious people hear us preaching Jesus Christ
will reconcile all people
to God, in the fullness of times, they wax
indignant in their self-righteousness and often protest like Paul
Carrington did in his recent letter: “So,
live life as if there's no God, and in the end I'll be redeemed because,
after all, there's no
eternal
punishment.” We asked Paul (and all who leap to such unfounded and reckless conclusions), “Because
there is no such thing as punishment that never ends, why do you presume
there is no punishment?”
We look forward to the answer, but won't hold our breath. What answer
is there to “checkmate”?
Paul Cohen - February 29, 2012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlearned Saying & Objection - “Who
are you to judge?”
A reader sent us this note:
who has made a judge over this people? don't u know satan is the accuser
of brethren? There even a ???????? about u.
Our reply:
We know Satan is the accuser of the brethren, but apparently you don’t,
Satan. That means your day of judgment is here.
As for those we expose, they aren’t brethren. They are your sons
and brothers, not ours or Christ’s.
Paul Cohen and Victor Hafichuk
Victor’s comments:
I considered that there can be some we’ve posted who are brethren
in need of correction, but then I recalled the words of the Lord, “Who
are My brothers and sisters and mother? They who do the will of My Father” (Matthew
12:47-50). All the people involved in men’s works and preaching
false doctrine aren’t doing His will.
If God has given us to take the beam out of our eye, don’t we
see clearly to remove the sliver in our brother’s eye, if he is
a brother?
But countless professing believers condemn us as if we accuse brethren
rather than judge them and expose the wicked. That’s because they’re
doing the very thing they accuse us of doing – accusing those who
truly are Christ’s brethren, doing the will of God. Jude wrote
of these, and of our calling to declare their true state of enmity with
God:
Jude 1:14-16 MKJV
(14) And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied to these, saying,
Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints,
(15) to do judgment against all, and to rebuke all the ungodly of them
concerning all their ungodly works which they ungodly did, and concerning
all the hard things ungodly sinners spoke against Him.
(16) These are murmurers, complainers, leading lives according to their
lusts. And their mouth speaks proud things, admiring faces for the sake
of gain.
Now, 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 says that God judges those that are without.
So Jonah shouldn’t have gone to Nineveh? Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
other prophets shouldn’t have prophesied against other nations?
John the Baptist shouldn’t have said anything against Herod?
“Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John
7:24 HNV).
Some more materials covering righteous judgment:
Disdaining None, Judging All, for Good
Does God Speak
Only Gentle Words?
Dividing the Wheat from the Chaff
“Judge
Righteous Judgment”
“Are
You He that Troubles Israel?”
- February 8, 2012
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Who Is a True Jew?
We received this question:
... Please
could you explain something to me, if possible?
What/who
is ...
a Gentile
a Christian
a Jew
a Hebrew
a Spiritual Israelite
a Child of God?
Thanks
so much.
Warm regards
Beryl Victor’s reply:
Hi Beryl,
A Gentile in the flesh is one, such as I, who was not born
by blood into the lineage of Abraham through Isaac. I believe I came
through
Japheth, son of Noah, according to historical records.
A Gentile in
the spirit is one who doesn’t believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am not one of those, though I was one, until the
Lord apprehended me and gave me His Spirit.
A Christian in the Biblical
definition is one who has genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
one who has repented of his or her sins
and counts Jesus Christ as the One True God worthy of worship.
A Christian
is one born by the will of God:
“But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become
the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were
born, not
of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but were born of God” (John 1:12-13 MKJV).
Then there are many
other definitions of Christian, partly by denominations,
partly by doctrine, partly by religious affiliation,
partly by
simply professing to be Christian or believing in God or
Jesus Christ, partly
by purely imagined and irrelevant means altogether, but none
of these is a Christian.
A Jew in the flesh is one who
is born into the lineage of Isaac.
Romans 9:6-9 MKJV
(6) Not however that the Word of God has failed, for not
all those of Israel are Israel;
(7) nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children. But, “In Isaac shall your Seed be called”
(8) That is, not the children of the flesh are children
of God; but the children of the promise are counted for
a seed.
(9) For this is the word of promise: “At this time
I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
There are
those who will argue that Jews only come from the tribe
of Judah, one of Isaac’s grandsons. Jacob,
Isaac’s son, had
twelve sons, each becoming a tribe of Israel. While it
is true that descendants of Judah are a certain Jew in
the flesh, named after their
father, Judah, the Bible and general history of the world
are full of references to all tribes of Israel as Jews
or Hebrews.
For a time, after Solomon, Israel was divided
into two parts, Israel with ten or more tribes, and Judah,
with
two or more. Yet, as
you read the Scriptures in both Old and New Testaments,
you will find
that both were known as Israelites, Hebrews, and Jews.
So
a Hebrew is a member of the nation of Israel, otherwise known as a
Jew, in the flesh.
But being a Hebrew didn’t begin with Jacob or
Israel. Abram (Abraham) was a Hebrew, a descendant of Eber, descended
from Shem (Genesis 10:21),
son of Noah:
“And there came one who had escaped. And he told Abram the Hebrew,
for he lived in the plains of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and
brother of Aner. And these had a covenant with Abram” (Genesis
14:13 MKJV).
In Egyptian bondage, centuries after Abraham, as well as
throughout all their history, the children of Israel, or Jews, were
known as Hebrews:
“Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom
was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you serve as midwife
to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a
son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live’” (Exodus
1:15-16 ESV).
The apostle Paul said he was an Israelite and a Hebrew,
as well as a Jew:
“Are they Hebrews? I also! Are they Israelites? I also! Are they
the seed of Abraham? I also!” (2 Corinthians 11:22 MKJV)
He was born into the tribe of Benjamin, one of Jacob’s sons by
Rachel.
A spiritual Jew is one who is a true Biblical Christian, one who
has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or if you will, Yeshua HaMashiach,
Son of YHWH. I am now a spiritual Jew and have been for nearly 40
years, ever since Jesus Christ revealed Himself to me. So, in the flesh,
I am a Gentile, but in the spirit, a Jew. God looks on the heart – recognizing
only the new creation; the flesh means nothing to Him in terms of the
Kingdom of God.
Paul Cohen was born a Jew in the flesh, but because
he was in unbelief concerning the Messiah Yeshua, which almost all
physical Jews have
been, he was a Gentile in the spirit. In 1978, Paul became what
has been called, rightly or wrongly, a completed Jew, in that
Jesus Christ
made Himself known to Paul, and Paul became a Jew in
spirit.
Then he was a Jew in both flesh and spirit, that is, descended from
Abraham both physically and spiritually.
The apostle Paul declares
that insofar as God is concerned, the true descendants of Abraham are
not the physical, but the spiritual,
Jews.
Romans 2:25-29 MKJV
(25) For circumcision [being a physical Jew] truly profits
if you keep the Law, but if you are a transgressor of the
Law, circumcision
becomes
uncircumcision [a Gentile].
(26) If then the uncircumcision [a
Gentile] keeps the ordinances
of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision
[being
a true Jew in God’s sight]?
(27) And the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills
the Law, shall it not judge you, who through letter and circumcision
become transgressors of the Law?
(28) For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision
that outwardly in flesh;
(29) but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision
is of the heart; in spirit and not in letter; whose praise
is not
from
men, but
from God.
Apostle Paul points out that it was not circumcision
or bloodline, but faith, that was counted to Abraham for
righteousness:
Romans 4:1-13 ESV
(1) What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather
according to the flesh?
(2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something
to boast about, but not before God.
(3) For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and
it was counted to him as righteousness.”
(4) Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted
as a gift but as his due.
(5) And to the one who does not work but trusts Him Who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
(6) just as David also speaks of the blessing of the
one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
(7) “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered;
(8) blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not
count his sin.”
(9) Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or
also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted
to Abraham
as
righteousness.
(10) How then was it counted to him? Was it before or
after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but
before he
was circumcised.
(11) He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of
the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still
uncircumcised.
The purpose
was to make him the father of all who believe without
being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted
to
them as well,
(12) and to make him the father of the circumcised who
are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the
footsteps of the
faith that
our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
(13) For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that
he would be heir of the world did not come through the
Law,
but through
the righteousness
of faith.
Those who enter into the faith of the Messiah
are the true descendants of Abraham. This fact annoys many
Jews
of the
flesh to no end.
Why? Flesh is proud and haughty, thinking to have virtue
in itself and
especially if it “worships” God. But God
cares nothing for these things, nothing at all. Faith
makes all the difference. To the unbelieving
flesh and blood (Gentile) Jews, Jesus said:
John 8:37-59
MKJV
(37) I know that you are Abraham's seed, but you seek
to kill Me because My Word has no place in you.
(38) I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you,
then, do what you have seen with your father.
(39) They answered and said to Him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus answered them, If you were Abraham's children,
you would do the
works of Abraham.
(40) But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has told
you the truth which I have heard beside God; this Abraham
did
not do.
(41) You do the deeds of your father. Then they said
to Him, We are not born of fornication; we have one father,
even
God.
(42) Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you
would love Me, for I went forth and came from God; for
I did
not come of
Myself, but
He sent Me.
(43) Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot
hear My Word.
(44) You are of the Devil as father, and the lusts of
your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and did not
abide in
the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the
father
of
it.
(45) And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe
Me.
(46) Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I say the
truth, why do you not believe Me?
(47) He who is of God hears God's Words. Therefore you
do not hear them because you are not of God.
(48) Then the Jews answered and said to Him, Do we not
say well that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?
(49) Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor
My Father, and you dishonor Me.
(50) And I do not seek My own glory, but there is One
Who seeks and judges.
(51) Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man keeps My Word,
he shall never see death.
(52) Then the Jews said to Him, Now we know that you
have a demon. Abraham and the prophets are dead, and
you say,
If a
man keeps
my word, he shall never taste of death.
(53) Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
And the prophets are dead; whom do you make yourself?
(54) Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is
nothing; it is My Father Who glorifies Me, of Whom you
say that
He is your God.
(55) Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And
if I should say I do not know Him, I would be a liar
like
you.
But I know
Him and I
keep His Word.
(56) Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and
He saw and was glad.
(57) Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty
years old, and have you seen Abraham?
(58) Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you,
Before Abraham came into being, I AM!
(59) Then they took up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus
hid Himself and went forth out of the temple, going through
the
midst of them,
and passed on by.
A spiritual Israelite is a true Christian,
a Jew circumcised in the heart, a true descendant of Abraham,
a child of
God. Such are
Paul
and I and those with us. A child of God is a descendant
of Abraham by faith, a true Christian, which is a true Jew, a member
of the
Kingdom
of God – “an
Israelite indeed,” as Jesus referred to Nathanael,
who spoke truth. Such are Paul and I and those with us.
We are Hebrews, Jews, Israelites, Christians, children of Abraham, children
of God, by faith, which is the true essence of the Nature and Character
of God, made only possible through Jesus Christ, Lord of lords and King
of kings.
Victor Hafichuk
- January 11, 2011
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