The Path of Truth Forum

you wrote

If the Lord is present with us, having delivered us from hell into His Kingdom, why would He speak to us of awaiting His return?

The Bible has many verses about His return...He said Himself I will send the Comforter after He said it is expedient that I go away. Another passage we read Why do you look up into the clouds, He will return in like manner.

And what of the parable of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and the rich man tormented and there was a great chasm and no one could cross to help the rich man? And the sermon on the Mount where Jesus said it is better to go to heaven with a hand missing (if your hand causes you to sin cut it off) than to be thrown in hell fire having both hands? Of course He is saying do all to stop sinning, not to actually cut your hand off...but He does say you would be thrown into hell fire.

And demons do hate us and want to do to us what is depicted by Mary Baxter. True God is in charge so that He cannot stop the demons seems hard to believe. But I was always taught that repentance is here and now and there is no repentance after death, this is the only chance we get so if I die tomorrow the fact I smoke cigarettes can land me in hell.
Seems it isn't enough to get me to quit which is puzzling I have done other things He wanted with ease. Anyways there are many people who have had visions of hell even that Jesus came to hug them and heal the wounds inflicted by the demons and carry them out in His arms as if they were a child and not a grown man. These are near death experiences. What of those? Is everyone a liar? And if Mary Baxter believes what happened then it can be demonic but why would demons want to deceive that way? She did not turn away from Christ but seems to love Him even more. I want to understand.
I am not being argumentative but really want to know God and understand Him.

I have to stop smoking, easier said than done. And what of the goats on His left He tells them to depart into everlasting punishment other verses say everlasting damnation. What of those verses? and eternal punishment eternal is the same word used for eternal life so some get eternal life, I pray I do and some get eternal punishment. It is the same word used.

And what of those that hate Him, what of those that deny Him and even write Jesus Christ should burn forever in excrement?
How can God forgive that and what good can be in them? I want to be in God's family but I don't want to live eternally with those that curse Jesus and hate Him!!! What of the verses that list all the types that cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven...so they can't enter in but will then be saved in the lake of fire? It does not make sense to me. There are people doing child sacrifices, doing unspeakable things with animals. They will not go to hell? How can that be? Does the Bible not say that if you believe not on the Son of God Jesus Christ you are condemned. So what is being condemned?
Nothing to be concerned about?

I suppose I need to read why then did Jesus die on the cross. I agree I must be foolish. But if there is no hell to save us from why indeed did He die on the Cross? I have made the rounds of the preachers on the internet and Wow! each and every time they expose themselves as deceivers, I used to love Derek Prince but when he called John Hagee his friend that was the end of that. Then I came to your site and I am reading things I have never read before and I am intrigued especially that there is no hell. I know I have been chosen yet I am seeing perhaps I did not come to the Cross, so many things have changed about me and I am not conformed to this world in many ways - it is the cigarettes that are stopping me from growing. I have a hard time with that, if I go without too long I have such a brain fog I can't think and that is what I can't handle, I keep saying I will pray but when I am in that state I forget to pray and just want to be able to function and think so I light up again. I am tired of it.

It is written those in God do not sin, I know I am not of the devil yet I sin. I know all the wonderful things He has done for me.
And I love Jesus. So what I am delusional? I don't think so! I know who I follow, I don't follow after satan! It is God I want to please.

Confused yes.

Adelaide

Only God is immortal, and those to whom He grants it.

I was stunned by this statement (Are Eternal Hell and God's Love Compatible?)

If there is no hell as you teach and all are saved then we are all given eternal life. That is why Jesus died on the Cross.

Is our spirit not immortal and we shall be like Him?

So there is no hell but to those God does not grant immortality they die? Makes no sense since the last enemy that is defeated is death.

I do not understand the statement: only God is immortal and those to whom He grants it.

Adelaide

PS in another document you wrote that royalty concluded the rumours about Solomon's wisdom were exaggerted in 1 Kings 10 but when reading 1 Kings 10 the Queen exclaimed Solomon's wisdom exceeded her expectations. It is the exact opposite of what you wrote.

You write we have no free will.

Well it does seem that way at times when I do the things I ought not to when I want to not do them.

But the Bible is full of verses about choosing. Prophets said choose God said choose.

For if we have no free will we are puppets that means that all those that do evil and commit horrific acts are doing the Will of God which would make Him a monster. As well if we are chosen then we would be perfect because it is His will be done and yet we struggle.

Yes He chose us first He knew us first He loved us first...but it seems that predestination and free will are both true they go hand in hand, if one is predestined it is because He already knew what we would choose since He knows all things.

Are you sure you're not Calvinists?

Adelaide

you wrote

Yes, I'm spirit, soul, and body, but I'm one person, not three.

That is correct for you are made in His image God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

And Jesus said anything you ask the Father in my name that I will do.

So we pray to the Father and if we have a petition we ask in the name of Jesus.

I pray the Father it works for me and even if I don't ask in Jesus' name I have had immediate intervention, the answer to my prayer that saved someone from dying.

We all know to pray the Father because Jesus said we should. And we all know God is the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Father and I are one. And Jesus said it is expedient I go away so I can send you the Holy Ghost.

If Jesus was alive in the flesh now I would have to quit my job and follow Him around all day but with the Holy Ghost we can have communion with God 24/7 and He can be with His people all at once.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

We are three He is three, we are one person He is one God.

Jesus prayed to the Father, was He praying to Himself or is he schizophrenic?

As well it is written
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Why?

So it can be said that if ye have not the Son ye have not the Father. So it can be said No one comes to the Father but by me (Jesus' words).

David knew this. He knew God would send the Messiah.
Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Jesus Himself brought this up. Matthew 22 verses 41 to 46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

The Pharisees could not answer. They could not admit that Jesus was the in the lineage for the Throne of David and was the Messiah everyone awaited and that Jesus was the Son of God. When a Muslim girl said to me We have the same God. I said No we don't, for Jesus said no one comes to the Father except by Me, she couldn't answer a word and her jaw dropped.

There is God and there is the Son and there is the Holy Spirit (the Comforter)?
Yet there are One. Everyone knows they are One. There is but One God. The Bible is clear there is one God.

For this document meant to dispel confusion is categorized under diabolic doctrine header and this in itself brings confusion instead to the people who come to your site seeking to know God. It should not be under diabolic doctrine because anyone coming to your site will think oh no they don't believe Godhead is three and Jesus is God! Lots of people might get turned off and not read anything else on your site because of this.

You inserted in your document
Philippians 2:9-11 MKJV
(9) Therefore God has highly exalted Him, and has given Him a Name which is above every name,
(10) that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones, and of ones under the earth;
(11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So there you go Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, there is two mentioned. Yet there is but one God. I don't even understand why this document where is the confusion? There isn't any confusion, God is a triune God. What's the problem? There is none. God is one and there is no god beside Him.

Nothing diabolic about the Godhead! These documents to refute the Trinitarians just seems confusing. Who cares about the Trinitarians? No one coming to your site cares about them I am sure. Anyone coming to your site already knows God is one God and yet there is the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and we can pray directly to the Father.

And if someone is guided by the Holy Ghost and can tell the difference between the voice of Jesus and the voice of the Holy Ghost, well good for them, that is wonderful. I can't but I don't worry about it because the Holy Ghost will never speak contrary to God. He is my guide and Comforter so if He speaks it is as God or Jesus speaking to me. When you praise Jesus all the angels are joyful He is joyful the Father is joyful and the Holy Ghost is joyful.

Jesus is God, who the heck doesn't know this! Pages and pages because Trinitarians are confused. So much so I thought you did not believe God is triune! Just because the word trinity does not appear in Scriptures doesn't mean there is not a triune Godhead yet one God. And it's clear Jesus is God He said Himself before Abraham was I AM. Jesus said this in the flesh while on earth to the Pharisees and of course they wanted to kill Him.

I didn't even know there were people who believe God is three distinct persons and not three offices in one and now that I do I'm not edified by it. I really don't care. Can't you put this rebuke to the Trinitarians under a heading like Spirit of Error.

Diabolical Doctrine: The Trinity (God Is Three Persons) seems so wrong. Sure there are titles on that page that might offend some or make them think What? but people will read, but the Trinity on this page really jumps at you and causes minor panic. The God I love has always been the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost call it what you want, trinity is good enough and to see Trinity on this page under Diabolic Doctrines is really upsetting.

There is the Jesus only crowd just as bad just as lost with no understanding of the Godhead. Satan has a lot of tricks.

Now Jesus Only on this page would be appropriate. But then again those people wouldn't come to this site so who cares!

I know the spirit of error and the spirit of antichrist are the same but some errors can be called just that...people who believe things because they are taught by those that are in error and they will repent and learn the Truth. I could still be stuck on Francis Chan or Derek Prince or Thomas Terry or others but the Holy Spirit teaches me and opens my eyes and I see what these people are about and even if they mean well they are in error so guess what I don't watch those videos anymore and the Holy Spirit saves me money not buying their books! The Holy Spirit will not let me be deceived. Being deceived is the norm these days but diabolic seems very strong word to use. More people would read the articles under a heading like Spirit of Error or Erroneous Teachings.

Easier to guide people to see perhaps they have been misled without calling them of the devil straight out you know?

Adelaide

Hi Adelaide,

You've written us three emails with questions about three different doctrinal teachings on our site that troubled you. We would say you haven't heard us correctly, which is a spiritual matter and not strictly the result of not paying attention to the full text of our writings, although that plays a part. You need to read ALL our writings on the subjects you've raised, ALL the way through and more than once.

In the first letter you say you were stunned by the following statement from Are Eternal Hell and God's Love Compatible?:

“Only God is immortal, and those to whom He grants it.”

You write:

“If there is no hell as you teach and all are saved then we are all given eternal life. That is why Jesus died on the Cross.”

We don't teach there is no hell:

The State and Fate of Hell
The True, Scriptural Meanings of “Forever,” “Everlasting,” and “Hell”

We agree that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save all men - to give us eternal life.

The Most Foolish of Questions The Good News

You continue:

“Is our spirit not immortal and we shall be like Him?”

Yes, we shall be like Him, but before regenerated by Him, we were dead spiritually.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV).

The day he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam didn't die physically- he died spiritually. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22 MKJV).

“I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 MKJV).

“So there is no hell but to those God does not grant immortality they die? Makes no sense since the last enemy that is defeated is death.”

It makes no sense, but neither have we said that. Those who don't have God's life are dead already - “But Jesus said to him, Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead” (Matthew 8:22 MKJV). That doesn't mean the dead won't be reconciled to God, “every man in his own order” (1 Corinthians 15:23).

The next subject you wrote about is “free will.” You object to the Scriptural teaching that mankind doesn't have free will:

“But the Bible is full of verses about choosing. Prophets said choose God said choose.”

In the paper entitled Whose Will Is Free? we say - “Many confuse having and making choices with having a free will. The two are not the same thing….”

Read all the papers in Free Will, but above all, seek the Lord for His will in the matter. You're walking in your own understanding and righteousness. That's why you think you have free will.

Are we Calvinists? Read The Fruit of Cain Multiplied: The Murderer John Calvin and True Hope for Reform Church Members and All Calvin Doctrine Victims

The third problem you have is with us calling “The Trinity” a diabolical doctrine. This concern is entirely misplaced. While we know of those who have been liberated from falsehood and darkness by our teaching, and greatly thankful for it, we haven't seen a single believer offended by our calling the trinity “diabolical,” not if they hear us out.

You don't understand the word “Godhead.” It simply means “that which is divine.” We're not calling God or His divinity “diabolical.” We're also not making the mistake that His divinity in any way implies that He is more than one entity. You, however, despite all your protests that there is “but one God,” speak of Him as multiple beings:

“And if someone is guided by the Holy Ghost and can tell the difference between the voice of Jesus and the voice of the Holy Ghost, well good for them, that is wonderful. I can't but I don't worry about it because the Holy Ghost will never speak contrary to God. He is my guide and Comforter so if He speaks it is as God or Jesus speaking to me. When you praise Jesus all the angels are joyful He is joyful [1] the Father is joyful [2] and the Holy Ghost is joyful [3].”

There's that diabolical, confounding trinity.

Read The Gospel According to Trinitarians

An example of why you need to read carefully and repeatedly what we write:

“PS in another document you wrote that royalty concluded the rumours about Solomon's wisdom were exaggerted in 1 Kings 10 but when reading 1 Kings 10 the Queen exclaimed Solomon's wisdom exceeded her expectations. It is the exact opposite of what you wrote.”

Could you show us exactly where we wrote that, with the context in which it was written?

Paul Cohen
www.ThePathofTruth.com

Hello,

Thank you for writing. You are correct it takes reading the whole site to get a grasp of the statements of belief and to know if you want to go back or not. I did not do this but just fired off questions. That was the wrong thing to do.

But please do not make statements like this: You're walking in your own understanding and righteousness. That's why you think you have free will. Because you do not know me...I am not righteous but the righteous I have is of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour and I always seek to learn and grow, of myself I do not understand but pray for understanding and He reveals much to me. No one has the whole enchilada as you know some things very well that I do not I am sure I know some things of God very well shown to me personally perhaps not shown to you. We are all members of the body of Christ. He teaches individually and we are all different and only God knows us completely.

A note on free will, starting to see it is limited, we are not sovereign that's for sure, also I believe it goes hand in hand with predestination...only God knows the end from the beginning and so if someone is not called they would not have answered anyway so they are not called or were and ignore the calling. He is ultimately in charge, as the Bible says man makes his plans but God directs his steps. And good thing too! But the Bible does say choose, choose, choose.
Hm...perhaps it is meant as repent, change and this said to believers not unbelievers. I certainly don't have all the answers but I will go to your links and the website and learn. I am looking forward to reading about the difference about making choices and free will in your document on your website. This should make things clearer, I should have read it first!

I am sorry I fired off all those questions without reading things carefully and going through at least a good part of your documents on your site. I won't do that again.

But I am glad you wrote. I will be visiting the site on weekends, workdays are so long and traveling too...and I will answer the question about the last statement regarding King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba's visit and where it appears on your site. Re bottom of email.
"PS in another document you wrote that royalty concluded the
>rumours about
>Solomon's wisdom were exaggerated

This I can answer on Saturday am....just now I cannot access the website from work comp....just came to pick up urgent message during break time and I saw your email! Well have to get back to work. Will visit your website this weekend reread your responses to me, go to the links you sent me.

Thank you again, God Bless and have a great day!

Adelaide

Hello there,

http://www.thepathoftruth.com/teachings/lazarus-rich-man-pagan-parable.htm

God gave Solomon wisdom above all men and rulers, so that even royalty traveled from afar to hear it, discovering that the report of it (which is usually greater than the reality) was less than the reality (1 Kings 10). Satan corrupted Solomon.

I stand corrected.

I had written:

in another document you wrote that royalty concluded the rumours about Solomon's wisdom were exaggerated in 1 Kings 10 but when reading 1 Kings 10 the Queen exclaimed Solomon's wisdom exceeded her expectations. It is the exact opposite of what you wrote."


You asked:

Could you show us exactly where we wrote that, with the context in
which it was written?

Well I found it and I stand corrected. I apologize.

Adelaide