Jesus Minus the Cross
One can readily ditch conventional religion while claiming to be following “Jesus Plus Nothing.” That’s easy. Taking up the cross is hard, even impossible except by God’s grace. And without taking up the cross and dying to self, the corruption within will continue to manifest and devastate the deluded soul.
Jason wrote us, from jesusplusnothing.org:
Jesus please give Paul eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen
Paul’s reply:
Jason, why don’t you spell out what you see as a problem, rather than taking the religious stance of praying for me because you disagree with what you see on our site (which the Lord Jesus Christ has given us)?
Are you afraid to be honest, or can you not back up your disagreement with substance? Have you considered you aren’t seeing properly? And eyes to see and ears to hear mean nothing without a heart to obey. How about coming clean?
I red on the site about the leader of jesusplusnothing.org, Tim Timmons. I see boasting of worldly accomplishment and skill, but nothing of the crucified life in Christ. It is said of Tim’s presentations at seminars (which he calls “mass therapy”), “While you’re laughing, he slips you the raw truth about yourself and you end up loving it.”
Is that how it works with God’s servants? Is that what happened with Stephen (Acts 7) or with John the Baptist (Luke 3)? The crowds really loved hearing the truth about themselves there, didn’t they? What diabolical worldly claptrap you people are peddling! How grievous to the Spirit of Truth!
Show us in the Scriptures where people loved it when they were told the raw truth about themselves and their sins, Jason. Show us where the prophets slipped in the truth while they had the people laughing. Show us where they presented themselves as great speakers and dropped their names around for the sake of publicity.
What was the report Paul the apostle gave of what others were saying of him?
“For indeed they say, the letters are weighty and powerful, but the bodily presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10 MKJV).
And what did he say of himself?
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 MKJV
(1) And I, brothers, when I came to you, did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.
(2) For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
(3) And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling.
(4) And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
(5) so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
“Jesus Plus Nothing” is nothing more than the spiritual gimmickry and showboating of Tim Timmons and his associates, another crossless, self-glorifying work of men that amounts to nothing with God except to incur His wrath. You people are taking the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain, thereby causing others to blaspheme. For this He doesn’t hold you guiltless. You damn yourselves in all your ways.
“You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain” (Exodus 20:7 HNV).
When will your eyes be opened, Jason? You need to repent in dust and ashes, abhorring yourself and the abominable works of fleshly pride. You have a long way to come down before that happens, but praise God, He is able to abase those who are proud.
Jason responded:
Whoa, I was just praying for you Brother Paul. As I hope you would pray for me.
Your brother in Jesus,
Jason
Victor’s reply:
Jason,
You prayed a prayer for someone who had already been granted eyes to see and ears to hear, enabling him to speak in the Lord that which he speaks, so that you also may have eyes to see and ears to hear, which you don’t at present. Your prayer is not one inspired by the Holy Spirit, but by your carnality, as you judge after the appearance. Paul is in the right, and you are in error.
Read, heed, and learn at our site, for your soul’s sake.
Victor
Jason’s response:
I will read from the Bible, heed the words of Jesus and learn from the Holy Spirit, not your “site”. I suggest you try the same.
Your brother in Jesus,
Jason
Paul’s reply:
You’re not our brother, Jason, because you’re not born of God’s Spirit. Reading the Bible won’t do you any good because, not only is Christ not with you, but you’re at enmity with Him, which is the way it’s always been and will forever be with religious phonies. Now you’re exposed.
“Behold, your house is left to you desolate. And truly I say to you, You will not see Me until it come when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35 MKJV).
Paul
Addendum:
For those who need the record set straight, our site constantly refers to Jesus’ words recorded in the Scriptures, whether spoken in the days of His flesh or as the prophets were inspired from the beginning. Jason doesn’t believe the Lord’s Words, whether He said them before or we say them now.
John 8:43-45 MKJV
(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.”
Tim Timmons is right that the Jesus of nominal Christianity isn’t the Jesus of the Bible, but he’s wrong that his Jesus is the Right One. Timmons’ Jesus may be minus some of the “Christian verbiage” found in churches, as Tim puts it, but his Jesus represents only a different flavor of the self-righteousness he attributes to other religious. It’s not “Jesus Plus Nothing,” but “Jesus Minus the Cross and the Righteousness of God.”
Timmons says: “As Jesus walked the fragrant shores of Galilee, people came and saw, came and listened, came and followed. There were no conditions to follow him.”
Here’s what the Real Jesus said of the conditions to follow Him:
“And He said to all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever will lose his life for My sake, he shall save it’” (Luke 9:23-24 MKJV).
Timmons’ Jesus promotes the broad path to destruction. Timmons is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Matthew 7:13-16 MKJV
(13) “Go in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in through it.
(14) Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
(15) Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
(16) You shall know them by their fruits.”
Here’s a case where the disciple (Jason) reflects his master (Tim), an empty vessel producing fruit of the same tree.