The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is in absolute control of all things, and that includes natural disasters. If God had wanted, He could have prevented the earthquake in Haiti.

No man, however, has the right to claim natural disasters are acts of judgement.

As God said to Job:

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Haitians need compassion, Mr Robertson, not the questionable judgement of a televangelist.

If you want to shock, Mr Robertson, why not preach biblical truth? For instance, why not preach that the biblical tithe should not be the means by which Christian religious organizations obtain their funds to function; that the tithing laws of the Bible are no more valid for Christians today than offering animal sacrifices? Or are some biblical truths unpalatable?

Given the time of year, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the purpose of Christ’s life (something, sadly, not preached in churches), and “The Mystery.”

Up to 63 AD, the Apostle Paul taught the New Covenant to gentiles, explaining that those who accepted Christ as their saviour were reckoned to be saved in Christ. Considering that the New Covenant was made solely with the houses of Israel and Judah, this was the only legal way for gentiles to be saved. Once in Christ, however, gentiles were legally considered spiritual Israelites: children of Abraham with whom the Old Covenant had been made and for whom Jeremiah had promised a New Covenant.

In 63 AD, however, Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians where he offered a new, divinely-inspired teaching no longer based on contingencies and stipulations: a promise rather than a contract. And only one party has to keep a promise: in this case, God.

In Ephesians, Paul writes of “the mystery of Christ that in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit”; and in Colossians, “the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but is now made manifest to his saints.”

At the heart of this new teaching is the promise of salvation and deification for all mankind.

Paul understood that Christ lived a substitutionary life for everyone: a life of perfect righteousness, perfect faith, perfect obedience to the law. And that life—His birth, His circumcision, His baptism, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His judgment—has been imputed to us as our sins have been to him. All mankind is legally considered in Christ, bound by no works to be saved. In fact, we’ve been considered in Christ since the beginning: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.”

Nothing we do or don’t do can prevent our salvation—Christ has already done the work. That’s what Paul meant when he said there is one mediator between God and men. Instead of preaching what people must do in order to be saved, churches should be teaching what Christ did that got them saved. “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.” But remember, it’s not your faith, it’s Christ’s. That’s the gift: the imputation of Christ’s perfect faith to us. Offered freely, whether you accept it or not.

And even though you’re expected to do good works, there’s no stipulation according to the mystery. You’re free to do as you wish; you’re no longer under the law—including the Ten Commandments. But that freedom isn’t a license to be willfully evil. Paul warned: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”

If you don’t do good works, live a good life, accept Christ as your saviour, however, you miss out on the first resurrection and the Kingdom of God—which most mistake for salvation. Everyone else is resurrected at the end of that millennium when they will be taught the gospel and finally accept Christ to attain their salvation.

When Paul wrote in Ephesians that God “might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth,” he meant it. Christ’s mission is that “all should come to repentance.” Since He can’t fail because of who He is, no one’s left behind, no one rots in “hell” (hell is a fiction used to fill the coffers, to keep people in line). Not even Satan. Everyone’s saved. The mystery removes all power from anyone claiming to have divine authority on earth.

The mystery also plainly states that all of us are now in Christ—everyone who has lived and will live. That is the mystery’s promise. And since Christ is a divine person sitting on God’s right hand we are considered in that same position: our citizenship is divine—right now. Our actual deification comes after we’re resurrected, but as far as God’s concerned, you, me, all of humanity, are members of the divine family. And we’re expected to conduct ourselves as such.

Never forget: Christianity is not a religion but a philosophy of life. Christianity is freedom; religion is slavery.

Expect The Holy Bible in its Original Order to be the first of many new translations restoring the Bible to its proper forty-nine books (rather than today’s sixty-six) and reëstablishing the correct seven divisions:

Particularly important is the placement of Paul’s epistles after the seven general epistles, fulfilling the principle “to the Jew first”:

But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

Perhaps this will help people to rightly divide the word of truth.

Few things are harder to overcome than one’s own past, our days spent bearing under the weight of vices turned into habits and memories recalled as regrets.

Positive change, then, becomes the sine qua non of our lives; a race to betterment against the clock of fate.

Perhaps, then, we should remember what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:16-17:

Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

And then consider what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11:

. . . [F]or I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

In the end, however, salvation is only gained through grace which has already been given to us and can’t be taken away. Why? Because it’s not our faith, it’s Christ’s. That’s the gift: the imputation of Christ’s perfect faith to us (Ephesians 2:8-9):

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast.

Instead of preaching what we must do in order to be saved (nothing), churches should be teaching what Christ did that got us (mankind) saved. (What purpose, then, do churches serve if we’re already saved? Who would fill their coffers if they preached universal salvation instead of eternal punishment?)

So, really, we have all the time in the world to accept our gift.

I’ll take you yanquis seriously about your precious doctrine of separation of church and state when you as a nation demand all federal, state, county, and local government facilities remain open for business on 25 December, just like any other day.

So long as government offices remain closed on 25 December, however, you’re simply continuing the tradition of bowing to tragically misguided church authority, from the Catholic Church on down through its Protestant spawn.

And, in turn, you are bowing to pagan idolatry:

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. . . . But they are altogether brutish and foolish; the stock [tree] is a doctrine of vanities. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they [the trees] are all the work of cunning men.

Granted, Jeremiah is telling only the Israelites not to follow pagan customs (such as seasonal feasts of the Solstice or Equinox), but I still don’t understand why any Christian today would want to (especially given Paul’s dismissal, “we know that an idol is nothing in the world,” and then his admonition to the wise nevertheless to “flee from idolatry”).

It always makes me cringe when people demand that Christ be put back in Christmas; He was never in Christmas in the first place.

If you want to bow to mediæval church authority and idolatrous pagan customs, feel free to celebrate Christmas. And while you’re at it, why not celebrate the Hajj, too? It’s as Christian as Christmas is.

For those who feel the need to celebrate Christ’s birth, do so on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

You are, of course, bound to no celebrations. Which is the way I like to celebrate just another day.

While I may not agree with everything Michael Dirda writes in his article, “Why Mephistopheles Had to Work Overtime”, I can’t deny his conclusion:

To the believer, forgiveness ultimately comes from God. So it is actually appropriate that the poet Heine remarked on his deathbed: “God will forgive me—that’s his job.” In fact, one could argue that he wasn’t joking but was simply being theologically exact. Nonetheless, even if forgiveness may be God’s job, it’s also yours and mine.

Forgiveness, however, has always been a tough one for us humans.

(Link via Bookforum)