LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS

Life on other planets in other Solar Systems and Galaxies??? Maybe, Maybe not.
While no one can be totally demonstrative on this subject, we can make a few observations with some degree of intelligence.

Hebrews expressly tell us that Jesus is the complete atonement for ALL sin. He has reconciled the entire cosmos back to God. He is the complete Atonement for EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. With this in mind let's discuss life on other planets.

It is possible that God created life , just like life we have here on this earth, on other planets in other galaxies in other solar systems. Possible.

( Aliens from outer Space is a totally different subject.)

IF, and this is a big if, God created life as we know it on this earth on other planets, I believe He did so AFTER Adam and Eve's creation on this earth.

After the "fall". After the "original" sin.. After the atonement. After the salvation of the entire cosmos.

If this is so, then these people would have no need for 'another' atonement since Jesus' life, death, resurrection and asension covered ALL things. Those people too.

They could be living out what God intended for Adam and Eve to accept originally.

The Tree of life. Life. Eternal life.

Again, if this is possibly true, then I believe it would have occurred AFTER Adams's sin and After Jesus life , death, and resurrection and ascension to the Father.

So, there are many philosophyical and Theological implications to this question and I do NOT pretend to know the answer.

What do you think. Post your comments. If you wish.

Paul

DO YOU ACCEPT "FALSE" TEACHINGS?

This CAN'T be right! This probably will be many, if not most's reaction to this blog." I never heard it this way and I don't believe it!" Rather than ask you to just believe me here, I do ask that you do your OWN research into this subject as there is much information concerning this topic. More info at the end of this blog.

Churches which have come from the Roman Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church as well, have adopted and preached a wrong concept of salvation along with a false and pagan Platonic concept of HELL which originated with the Greek philosopher Plato in the 400's B.C. ( Just Google search for yourself, " PLATO'S HELL.") This false doctrine was incorporated into the Catholic Church by St. Augustine of Hippo in the
5th Century A.D. Augustine was an avid reader of Plato and saw that by putting this philosophy of eternal torture and punishment into church doctrine it would keep members "in line" and paying their money and through FEAR obedient to the teachings of the church.

Many churches today do NOT teach such torture in any "hell fire", but for the lost SEPARATION from God. But this is ALSO a false teaching as well. Humans can no more be separated from God than they can be separated from their own shadow.

So what is hell then? To make a long story short, hell is simply living one's life making one's own decisions based upon one's own thinking coming from a darkened mind with a fallen sinful nature which we all have inherited from the first Adam. This
"eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" leads only to a life of sin, strife, misery, suffering, angst, unhappiness, war, divorce, addictions and every other evil existence man experiences described in scripture as...HELL. AND, this suffering can last FOREVER if one never comes to see WHO he or she is IN Jesus Christ. Even at the 'Final Judgement' before the Throne of God one can STILL refuse to accept and believe that God LOVES them and that they have forgiveness and salvation and eternal life GIVEN to them IN Jesus Christ. They can Continue in HEll.

The Good News is that The Father does not give up!!! Just like the father in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the Father continues to seek for the older son to come into the party.

The GOOD NEWS is simply this: Salvation has been given to EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER LIVED. Universal redemption and reconciliation has been extended to ALL. ( I Cor.15:22). All died in Adam and the same ALL have been made alive in Jesus, the Second Adam.) We do not try to 'get someone saved', they ALREADY ARE SAVED IN JESUS. Sharing the GOSPEL then is INFORMING someone that they ARE saved and loved and adopted and included in the life of the Triune God all made to happen to them by the life, death, resurreciton and ascension of Jesus Christ. Then it is up to them with the help of the Holy Spirit to accept it and believe it and then EXPERIENCE IT.
Sadly, scripture allows for some to not accept it and believe it even forever. They would then simply exist OUTSIDE the party not enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and not experiencing the 'pleasures at the right hand of God.' ( See Psalms 16:11).

It may take another Millennium for a deceived Christian world to come to see these truths. Until then all may know that they are loved by God and that their eternal life is secure in Jesus Christ.

I know I shall get raked over the coals for this post, but I ask you to do your homework on the subject. Much information exist on this topic. Check out the Blog Roll on this site. Go to www.Newlifewcg.org for more information. Go to www.gci.org.
Go to PERICHORESIS.ORG. And these are just for starters. So much is available to lift us out of the darkness and into the light of Jesus. (John 8:12.) God bless you in your studies.

Paul

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YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE !!!

When The Triune God decided to make mankind, see Genesis 1:26-27, He determined that He would have man live inside of His life forever. He wanted humans inside of His Triune life upon whom He would lavish His love. Ephesians Chapter one is about how God chose humanity IN Jesus to be Adopted and Included in His life forever. You and I were included in that decision at that time. You had NO CHOICE. All humans were included and none had a choice either. God simply did this for His good pleasure and in His will.

When Adam and Eve sinned by taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which brought misery, suffering and DEATH on them and their human family--see I Cor.15:22, now not only did Jesus have to come to create UNION between the human family and the Triune God, He had to now come to provide ATONEMENT, forgiveness and sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and all humans, AND, even the entire Cosmos was redeemed and reconciled in the blood of Jesus. ( See Colosians 1:19-20).
The entire Cosmos and humanity had become lost through sin. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost and He did. ( Luke 19:10). And, yes mankind was lost and dead in the first Adam, but in Jesus Christ the same mankind was made ALIVE! (I Cor.15.22)

We simply did not have a vote. We had no choice in the matter. God loved us all to much to allow us to have a choice. Salvation is His idea, not ours. It is because of His great love for us His children that He devised this plan in the first place.

So, we ALL are bought by God with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus saved all of humanity 2000 years ago and in His resurrection and ascension took all of us to the right hand of the Father in Heaven. ( See Ephesians 2:6). Again, you nor I had a choice in the matter. The blessings and joy in this eternal relationship with the Triune God will be beyond our wildest dreams. We will inherit ALL things including the entire Cosmos/Universe.(Hebrews 2:5-8). Life will never end. The abundant life Jesus brought will continue on forever. God is Good. So Good in fact we can not fathom His Goodness.

There is one caveat to all of this. You nor I had a choice in this matter, but in order for us to experience this inheritance we MUST BELIEVE who we are IN Jesus and what He has done TO, FOR, IN and THROUGH all of humanity. If we refuse to believe it thus denying our position in the Father's plan there is no way we can experience "Heaven" and only then a 'hellish' existence of being outside the party in Heaven will be one's lot.

Again, you have no choice as to whether or not this is so, it is so! But you do have the option of believing it or not. I pray you will BELIEVE.

For more information on this subject, go to WWW.GCI.ORG.

Blessings to all,

Paul Kurts

CAN'T OVERCOME SIN, IT'S O.K.

To start this blog post, please read my last one to set this one up. We still often see things in our life from a past paradigm of Western Theological philosophy in a rewards and punishment perspective. One which we in Western Christianity have inhereited from Plato and St. Augustine of Hippo. With this warning in mind let's proceed to this present blog post.

In our humanity we all live in the fallenness we received from the first Adam and with a darkened mind also received from him. Just because we acknowledge who we are in Jesus Christ and believe what He says applies to us does not mean that we all check our humanness, weaknesses, lusts, carnality, vanity, greed, jealousies and all other fleshly human foibles at the door of the Church of Jesus Christ. We all too often walk in and after the flesh and not as often do we walk in and after the Spirit. And what I am telling all of us is this. " THIS IS O.K. "

Jesus did not come to stop humans from sinning. He came to FORGIVE SIN and become sin, all sin for all of us His children. Paul says it this way in Romans 5:18, "...the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life ( eternal life) for ALL men " Jesus simply makes us righteous by His declaration as an act of God made possible by His perfect life.

Jesus is not going to let our sins slip under the door and miss some of them and thereby we find sins in our life that go unforgiven. Silly I know, Jesus "has our back" as the terminology of the day goes.

Paul speaks to this dual life we lead, one in the flesh and the other in the Spirit , in Romans 7. Paul illustrates that we as humans will always have the two sides of our life warring against each other. But , in Jesus, we have the victory in that war because He says SO! Then Paul says in Romans 8:1, "...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." All actually are, they all just do not know it yet. And they will.

( Again, if you have not read my last blog post, please take the time to do so now.)

Jesus even said himself in John 5:24, that we have passed from death into life through faith and belief in Him. In Matt.11:28, Jesus speaks to all of us trying to become perfect in the flesh by doing this that or the other thing or NOT doing this that or the other thing. He simply says REST. Come to Him and Rest. I will give you rest, He says.

To illustrate the continuing corruption we all are in the flesh, Paul says it this way in ICor.15:53 (OKJ), " This corruptible must put on incorruption." What Paul is saying that even until the day we die or are resurrected we are still sinners and we are still corruption or corruptible. We NEVER attain perfection of the flesh in this life. We can improve but only in Jesus Can we be PERFECT. And we ARE!!!

We all too often go around beating ourselves up over weaknesses and sins or lusts which we may NEVER humanly conquer in this physical life. Alcoholism. Drug addiction. Pornography addiction. Sex addiction. Tobacco addiction. You name it and someone has it. But we all have victory in Jesus Christ who Gives us the Victory. ICor.15:57. We simply win because declares us winners.

I love the verse in Romans 14:22 which says, " blessed is the man who does not condemn himself in what he approves." Jesus says to quit judging each other and rest. Rejoice. Celebrate what He has done to us and for us. He loves us unconditionally which I have been describing here.

We are ALL weak sinners. We all live in a body of sin and death. We all have a darkened mind. We all live in the fallenness of the first Adam. And it is while we are YET sinners Christ died for us the ungodly. Thank you Jesus. Eternity with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit awaits all of us who believe.

SIN IS OVER- YOU ARE FOREVER FORGIVEN AND CLEAN

Luke 7:40-50, speaks of those who are forgiven much ( us ) who love much and those who are forgiven little, loving little.

Romans 5:20 speaks of Grace always outrunning our sin. "You can't outsin Grace," as I put it.

Romans 5:1-7, speaks of while we all are yet and still sinners, Christ died for us.

I John 1:7, speaks that the blood of Christ cleanses/purifies us of all sin.

Even when John first laid eyes on Jesus, his comment was, "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Foolish John, he actually thought that Jesus took away the sin of the world. Either he did or He did not.

In Heb.9:26, we see that Jesus did away with the sin of the world.

And, In I John 3;5, we see that in Jesus, Us being in Jesus, there is NO Sin.

Jesus became sin for us. See IICor.5:19-20. Why? So that we can be called the Righeousness of God.

Where do you stand on the sin question in your life? Are you feeling shame? Do you feel guilt? Do you "want to do better"? Why?

Did Jesus pay it all or did he not?

Let's just cut to the chase:

We are unconditionally loved by the Father.
Jesus' blood forgave us of all sin, past, present, and future.

God has forgotten all of our sin.

If He does, why do we still remember it?

We stand ever present in God's eyes , loved, forgiven, clean, righteous, holy, without spot or blemish, and INSIDE of God's life forever by Jesus declaration.

Can it get any better than that?

What does God think when we sin? Answer: NOTHING. Why? because He has forgotten it. It is covered, forgiven in the Blood of Christ.

We are great sinners. Always in the falleness of Adam. But in Jesus Christ, we are the recipients of Great forgiveness and adoption.

Jesus simply undid or overturned what Adam did and Jesus makes it all right before God the Father. You are in there someplace.

Whatever question you may have, Jesus is the Answer, as Billy Graham says. He is your answer, He is your life. He is your future. He is your everything.

Sin has been dealt with 2000 years ago. Rejoice when you sin. Thank Jesus that He took it on Himself 2000 years ago and you forever stand clean and forgiven and righteous in His eyes.

How good can this get?

Paul Kurts
Pastor Paul
Madison, Alabama
256-468-8081

DID HE OR DIDN'T HE?

Modern religionists want to make the Gospel SO conditional that it is beyond the reach of most human beings. Statements like, "you CAN be saved," or "you CAN be forgiven" permeate the doctrinal landscape of many professing Christians.

Verses such as " God so loved the world", become God so loved 'most' or 'some' of the world with that love being limited to only those who would somehow 'qualify' for that love.

Or, I Cor. 15:22, "As in Adam ALL die, in Christ ALL are / will be made alive." This is read as , " If one does the appropriate applications then one CAN be made alive in Christ." My point is that either we are made alive in Christ or we are not. No if, ands, or buts.

In Ephesians 1, either we ALL were chosen in Jesus Christ BEFORE the foundation of the world to be blameless IN HIS SIGHT ( By His declaration as an act of God) or we were not. Which is it? What hoops and ladders do we have to jump through or climb to attain this blamelessness? What do we have to do to be a part of His pleasure and will? Can we just be allowed to play God for a little while so we can make all of God's plan work out so He will LIKE it? Either we ALL were chosen before the foundation of the world or we were not.

God's plan and the Salvation of the Cosmos and humanity is not Conditional. It is not a potentiality or possibility. The Good News is not contractural. It is not based on us or anything humanity can do. The Good News is simply an ANNOUNCEMENT OR PROCLOMATION of what God HAS DONE ALREADY for all of humanity IN Jesus Christ.

The Good News is that you--ALL of you- have been given a part in it by our Great Triune God and loving Saviour, Jesus Christ. Did He or Didn't He?

He Did.

Amen

FAITH OF CHRIST OR FAITH IN CHRIST? WHICH?

Some have never even thought of this question which is of vital importance and relevance to all humans on earth. That question is, " is one saved by the FAITH OF CHRIST, or is one saved by FAITH IN Christ?" At first this may seem like a non sequitur, but in fact it IS the WHOLE Gospel in truth.

Karl Barth, the great Swiss/German Theologian said that the Gospel turns on prepisitions. How true.

We hear often, " Do you have faith? Do you have faith in Christ? Like that is something great and is going to do all there is in this great Cosmos to save a person. Don't get me wrong , faith in Christ is GOOD. To believe in Jesus Christ is VERY GOOD. Well, how much faith IN Christ is required for salvation? Is it a little, more, or much? Well, how much? Any room for error?

I posit that it is impossible for a human to have faith enough to secure salvation. At best humans can GUESS, OR POSTULATE, OR HOPE, OR ANY NUMBER OT OTHER THINGS BUT faith, I don't think so. At our best , our faith is only partial, limited, and small.

Will that do the work of God? Will that human , small, limited faith conclude the plan of God on this earth? You had better hope not.

There is a better understanding. It simply is this. EVERYTHING DEPENDS AND IS PREDICATED UPON THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST.

He is OUR Faith. He has perfect Faith and He gives it to us whether we know it or not.

He is our life. Col.3:4. And if that is so, then He is our FAITH as Well!!!!

We live and exist by the FAITH of the Son of God who lived and died for us and in our place. Gal.2:20.

IN our limited human understanding we can at least have some faith that Jesus' Faith is all we need. And that is enough.

Love to all,
Paul