Dig Deeper: Multiple Purposes for Christ's Suffering

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Multiple Purposes for Christ's Suffering

"Experiences in Christ's life:

as He sweat blood in His life and death struggle to surrender His will to His Father
as He was abandoned and left alone by those closest to Him
as He was betrayed by someone close to Him, when Judas sold Him for the price of a slave
as He was stripped naked, physically violated, shamed, humiliated, verbally and mentally abused in public by those in authority over Him
as He was attacked and assaulted by Satan, the ‘father of lies’
as He was tempted to numb His pain when they offered Him wine on the cross, when His nerves were on fire and He had lost blood and water after being beaten and nailed to the cross
as He cried out, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46

Jesus went through all these experiences of suffering, and many others, so:

He could connect His story with our story in a very specific, personal way
We would discover that He knows what we’ve gone through, identifying with us in all our struggles with sin and suffering in a very specific, personal way
We would allow His suffering to soften our hearts, so we would trust Him with our sins, wounds and brokenness in our lives in a very specific, personal way
He can fulfill His mission statement to share His gospel with us, (Luke 4:18):
1. healing the broken hearted
2. setting the captives free
3. walking us out of our prisons of darkness or blindness

“The Christ who must suffer,” who chose to connect His story with our story, to heal our hearts and set us free is the hidden half of the gospel, (Luke 9:22; 17:25; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:3; Hebrews 2:10; 4:14-16).
When someone who has been abandoned, abused or rejected sees how Jesus was abandoned, abused and rejected, the Holy Spirit can begin softening her heart through the power of identification. When she knows that Christ knows what she has gone through, because He has gone through it Himself, she can invite Him into these areas of her heart carrying all the pain from the ways she has been hurt in life." Straight2TheHeart

What We BELIEVE

* And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE. 1 Corinthians 13:13

* Genesis 1-11 is actual HISTORY

* The 10 Commandments WAS - IS - & WILL BE the LAW of GOD

* REVELATION is written in symbols for actual end time events

* The SANCTUARY lays out the Plan of Salvation (Justification / Outer Court + Sanctification / Inner Court = preparation for your Judgment / Most Holy Place)

* The solemnity of the 7th day SABBATH (Saturday) was NEVER transferred to the 1st day of the week (Sunday) by God

* The modern charismatic movement is a counterfeit Latter Rain

* The Mark-of-the-beast will involve some sort of counterfeit Sabbath

* "Soul Sleep" for the State of the Dead (dead until the resurrection)

* The Godhead (Trinity) are 3 separate beings who work together in unity

* The GODHEAD's Existence is ETERNAL (in other words-The arrow of time stretching for Infinity in both directions)

* The GREEN RELIGION (modern environmental movement) is a cleverly cloaked spiritualism for the "sophisticated" modern world

* The Little Horn of Daniel & the Beast of Revelation (a.k.a. the anti-christ to some) is one & the same institution - the same institution the Reformers declared it to be during the Reformation

* Marriage is between ONE man & ONE woman

* The Emerging Church movement -- & spiritual formation are modern day GNOSTICISM & have NO place within Christendom

* Women Ordination is an ASSAULT on the foundation of the Godhead (as God is the head of Christ in an ecclesiastical setting - so too was the man placed as the head of the woman in an ecclesiastical setting -- outside this setting they are equal as Christ is with the Father)

* Baptism is by Immersion at an age of consent

* Justification + Sanctification = TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH....(Justification) Neither do I condemn thee: (Sanctification) go, and sin no more. John 8:11

* God is NOT homophobic -- rather He is sexual immorality phobic (HE places adultery, fornication, rape, bestiality, cross dressing AND homosexuality ALL in the same category)

* "HELL" is NOT an eternally burning place -- rather it is the Lake of Fire where the wicked will be destroyed together once & for all when this Great Controversy between God & His opponent comes to an end....God does NOT torment people for eternity

* The "Great Controversy" theme is the prism to make sense of this universal conflict between God & His opponent, of which we play a part on this space fabric of time as a "spectacle" (as Paul calls it) before all watching

* Biblical "speaking in tongues" was a GIFT of known foreign languages for Evangelization (not the gibberish "tongues" uttered in churches today)

* Historicism is the way to interpret eschatology from the view of the prophetic porch (NOT preterism, futurism or idealisim)

* The 3 Angel's Message (of Rev.14) is the central Mission of the SDA Church & the Sanctuary Doctrine (& it's sub-doctrine of the Investigative Judgment) is the Cornerstone Doctrine of the Denomination

* The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a SYMBOLIC Remembrance

* The 2nd Advent of Christ will be a literal, visible, physical return where EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM & that is when the dead will rise & the living be caught up-- Not at some sort of a "secret rapture" before His return...

* On the Nature of Christ - He was born with our sinful fallen nature / propensities--yet did NOT sin - hence His ability to be the spotless Lamb of God - the Lamb without blemish to cover ours

* 7th Day Adventism did not rise up at the end of the time-frame of Daniel 8:14 to be just another denomination to hang upon the wall of Christendom...

* The Dispensations around the Cross are 1) Before the Cross the Plan of Redemption laid out in the earthly Sanctuary in Types & Symbols patterned after the Heavenly Sanctuary {from the Altar of Sacrifice to the Mercy Seat} 2) After the Cross shifts to the REALITY of the Heavenly Sanctuary {from the Cross to the Judgment Seat}. ---- We REJECT the Dispensationalism that says "before the cross we were saved by the Law & after the Cross by Grace" ---- (the reason is because on BOTH SIDES OF THE CROSS we were never saved by the Law and always saved by Grace)

* We REJECT the DISGUSTING "Prosperity Gospel" as many see TV (so-called) Evangelists preach today

* Justification & Sanctification Simplified - God draws the BOUNDARIES with His LAW. When we step outside of them it's called SIN. (He offers JUSTIFICATION to remedy it). But afterwards He expects us to step back within those Boundaries (called SANCTIFICATION ).

* EndTime "BABYLON" - Confederacy of the Counterfeit Trinity of the "Dragon", "Beast" & "False Prophet" of Rev.16:13. (Also a term of Reference for the Fallen Condition of Christendom)

*The OLD TESTAMENT is simply the NEW TESTAMENT in Types & Symbols- therefore both are valid for Study & Doctrine.

* "A Minister's words are only of Value as long as his word's are an Echo of the Word's of God." {Dwayne Lemon}

* We REJECT the Church being involved with the ECUMENICAL movement....where do you see in Scripture God's people ever being told to be Ecumenical with neighboring religions?.. Nowhere....

*We believe in "Replacement Theology", that "Israel" in prophetic terms and spiritually is God's people...NOT Literal, Modern Day Israel in the Middle East.

* Tithing is Biblical: MONEY (1/10 to God) TIME (1/7 to God- the 7th day of the week, called the SABBATH)

* Soteriology: We believe in total FREE WILL as a component. - Therefore we Reject Sacramentalism, Predestination, Once-Saved-Always-Saved, Universalism & Pluralism.

* The HEALTH MESSAGE-Live it as best you can. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest....be in health... 3 John 1:2

* And always remember - "If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Savior. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Savior; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." Ellen White {JUSTIFICATION}

* "God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be obeyed." Ellen White {SANCTIFICATION}

* SUMMARY: "Every chapter and every verse of the Bible is a communication from God to men." Ellen White

* WARNING: "...by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence." Ellen White

Are Ashes Upon Your Lips?

The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back to the Father's house.
--Have you, reader, chosen your own way?
--Have you wandered far from God?
--Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips?
Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart but to which you would not listen comes to you distinct and clear, Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. Micah 2:10. Return to your Father's house. He invites you, saying, Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. Isa. 44:22.
E.G.W.