Some people don't want to take the bible literally because the Old Testament punishments for sin, like stoning for adultery, for ex, seem too harsh. They say "We can't do that now; so we won't take it literally. God couldn't have really said that."
Well He did really say those things, but He agrees with you that it is not the way He wanted people to live forever. He made a New covenant which offered Forgiveness for sins rather than punishment.
It is a covenant of grace, which means unmerited favor, rather than justice and punishment.
This forgiveness is made possible by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who took the punishment once, for the sins of the whole world.
The gospel of John says "The law came by Moses, but Grace and truth come by Jesus Christ" John 1:17
The catch is this; if you want God to forgive your sins, you need to be willing to forgive other people their sins too, including those against you.
Jesus said "If you don't forgive men their trespasses, God won't forgive yours. “ Mathew 6:14-15
So the mercy that we want for ourselves we need to extend to others.
We need to forgive for 2 reasons: it brings healing to ourselves, and if we don't we could end up in Hell or at least purgatory.
See article “the need for forgiveness”.
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com2012/01/need-for-forgiveness.html
People who say they don't want to take the bible literally because some of the facts of what happened and what God has communicated are unpleasant, are no different than holocaust deniers.
The bible is a history book; the history of how God has communicated with the Jewish people (OT) and then the rest of the world as well, after Jesus came (NT). Not taking it literally just creates a lack of clarity and makes the whole thing nonsensical. Would you deny the holocaust happened because it is too evil; we should just take it metaphorically that millions of people were killed by nazis? To be consistent, that is what you would have to do. See how dishonest that is?
The problem is ignorance of new testament theology.
The WHOLE POINT of the NEW COVENANT is that God made a provision for humanity's sins thru the final atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so that Jews and gentiles did not have to continue the harsh punishments he called for in the past.
The things God regards as abomination are still abomination to him; sexual immorality such as homosexuality is described that way in Leviticus 18 and also in the new testament in Romans 1:27, 1 Corinthians 6:9:
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination” Lev 18:22
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“and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another: men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:27 (Meaning, sickness which was a result of sin, hence AIDS).
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.”
1 Corinthians 6;9
Revelation 21:8 says that the 'abominable will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” (also included in the list are “fearful, unbelieving,murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolators & all liars).
But God's solution is that people can repent of sin, and be delivered from the spirit of homosexuality, or lust (which can cause addictive sexual behavior) AND BE HEALED in Jesus name when they accept Jesus as savior and get saved.
I repented of fornication, and was spontaneously healed of her---, a sexually transmitted disease that I had received as a result of this sin. I felt heat go thru me and God spoke to me, saying “Don't do it again or it will come back.”
Jesus also said to people he healed “Go and sin no more” John 5:14
Repentance, forgiveness for sins and deliverance from sin is the whole message of the new testament, made available by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus took the punishment for the sins of the world. Sickness is a result of sin. When people repent, they can be healed. Jesus told his followers to preach the gospel, heal the sick & raise the dead.
In John ch 8 Jesus meets with a woman who had committed adultery. The rabbis asked him, “should we stone her like Moses says?
Jesus said “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then he drew on the ground, indicating he knew their sins. They left. Then Jesus said to her “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” John 8:11
Jesus came to forgive sins, not condemn us, but He also admonishes us to turn from sin.
See article “Prophetic message to Gays” http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/12/prophetic-message-to-gays.html
Denying the literalism of the old testament would remove the need for Jesus' sacrifice.
It is precisely because the Old testament is telling the Truth that the need is apparent. God did not want people living in the old testament indefinitely; he made provision for a NEW COVENANT, and Jesus fulfilled that new covenant by his sacrifice for our sins.
The Jews were commanded to make animal sacrifices for sins in the temple; that was a foreshadowing of the final sacrifice of Jesus as the atonement for the sins of the world. This ritual act of animal sacrifice was symbolic; it was to show us that sin leads to death, spiritual death. If we stay in sin, we are not holy, and will not end up in the presence of God in Heaven for eternity. This is spiritual death.
God is Holy. To be with Him, we need to be holy. We need our sins washed away. This is possible through baptism in Jesus' name, when we accept him as savior, repent of our sins and ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which is what it means to be born again.
Jesus commanded people to be baptized "in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit". Matthew 28:19
Jesus said "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark 16:16
Jesus said “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” John 3:3
“Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
We become Holy not by our own works, but through justification through Jesus Christ & his atonement for our sins.
Isaiah 53 which clearly describes Jesus as the atonement for sins: says "my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their sins."
The temple was destroyed in 70 AD because animal sacrifices for sins were NO LONGER NECESSARY. God was saying “3000 years of this is ENOUGH”.
God had already provided a BETTER ARRANGEMENT - the atoning sacrifice of Jesus once, for all mankind.
God told us thru his Old Testament prophets that he would make a new covenant, based on the forgiveness of sins. Jeremiah 31:31 and Isaiah 53 both describe this explicitly.
Jeremiah 31:31 says "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not like the one I made with them when I took them out of Egypt, which covenant they brake...and I will forgive their sins.”
The above scripture came to me in a dream when I asked God if it was true that Jesus is the messiah. The bible tells us that God often speaks to us in dreams.
Isaiah 53 says "for the sins of my people he was stricken...my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their sins. With his stripes we are healed. "
The scripture is so obvious that the rabbis do not include it in the liturgy that is read yearly in the temples; they have been lying by omission to the Jewish people for years about the truth of Jesus being the messiah.
Jesus not only saves, He Heals.
As it says in Isaiah 53: “by his stripes we are healed.”
All mental & physical illnesses are caused by demonic spirits whose assignments are those diseases. Jesus rebuked them & gave his followers authority to do it. I have done it; it works. I have rebuked canc-, asthm-, depress-.
I have been healed of a sexual disease when I repented of sexual sin. I felt a heat go thru my body; I knew I was healed. God spoke to me, saying “don't do it again or it will come back.” I didn't & it didn't.
Jesus healed a man and said to him “Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.” John 5:14
Jesus healed people as a testimony that he was who he said; the messiah. And God heals today when we pray in Jesus name, as a testimony to the same thing, that Jesus is the messiah. That is the purpose.
God doesn't heal for its own sake; He does it so that people will come to faith in Jesus and be saved.
If the bible were not literally true, this would not be true, but it is. Millions of Christians can also testify to this experience of being healed when they prayed in Jesus name. That is why they have faith.
Churches that deny the literal truth of the bible grieve the Holy Spirit, and are sinning, and do NOT have authority to pray for healing. In those liberal churches, one is less likely to hear testimonies of such healings. However, in fundamentalist churches that honor the word of God, there are plenty of such testimonies. This is the evidence that the bible is TRUE, literally. Jesus said, "your word is truth."
I lived in a church for 2 years, playing the piano & worshipping at night. As I did so, God healed me and gave me a loud singing voice I did not have previously.
During this time, a rabbi challenged my belief in Jesus as the messiah. He said “You're wrong about Jesus. God just answers your prayer because you're a Jew.”
So in response, I experimented. For 2 weeks, I did not sing "Jesus"; but only "Adonai, God of Abraham Isaac & Jacob". I felt the same presence of God as I had when singing "Jesus".
As I felt His spirit on me, God answered me, repeatedly, with the same 2 phrases:
"DON'T DENY THE NAME OF MY SON”, and
“MY WORD IS TRUE”.
The first part referred to Jesus, as the son of God.
The 2nd part obviously meant the bible & is a confirmation of what Jesus himself had said.
God was not just correcting me; he was rebuking me for having doubted. I never tested it again, because God already had answered the question.
God speaks to all of us in our thoughts, thru the Holy Spirit which has been on the earth for 2000 years since Jesus sent it from Heaven. Our conscience is God.
Everyone “hears voices” as thoughts in our heads. They come from the spiritual realm. The word 'inspiration' means “a spirit goes into it”.
It is normal Christian theology to “hear voices”. Jesus said “my sheep hear my voice” John 10:27. This is the difference between Old Testament and New testament theology.
In the old testament, initially, God spoke to man directly. It says that Abraham walked and talked with God.
Later, God spoke thru prophets, because he had spoken to the entire Jewish people on Mt Sinai. They all heard him, and said “who can hear God and live? Just talk to Moses”. God agreed. So for a time, He spoke thru prophets.
But with the New Covenant, God re-instituted speaking directly to people again, first thru Jesus in person, and then thru the Holy Spirit.
Jesus healed people as a testimony to who he was, the savior. God still heals people today for the same purpose; as a testimony that Jesus is the savior, and we need to be born again to go to Heaven.
Jesus said "and these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Mark 16:17-18
see article:
Do you need mental or physical healing
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-you-need-mental-or-physical-healing.html
The New Testament says that mental & physical illness are caused by demonic spirits whose "assignment" is the name of the disease. Jesus rebuked them & gave his followers authority to do it.
We need to assess our environment for openings for demonic oppression, which can cause mental or physical illness.
These openings include; unrepentant sin, all drugs that affect the mind, including caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, pot, lsd, etc & all psych meds (which actually cause mental illness rather than cure it for this reason), bad music, art, books, symbols, occult objects such as ouija boards, tarot cards.
Whatever spirit “inspires” the books, music, art etc around us, will be transmitted to us when listening or reading, or even just having them around. When we remove them, the spirits lose authority to be there. In order to be healed and stay healed, we need to change our environment so as not to get re-contaminated by demonic oppression.
My free minibook Spiritual Wisdom which talks about healing & prayer, talks about assessing one's environment. .
Http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/spiritual%20wisdom%20revised.htm
Also see chap 7 of my FREE book Manual for Transformational Healing-God's Answer to Psychiatry. At http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/
Psychiatry, which is rooted in an atheistic worldview, regards “hearing voices” as an auditory hallucination, a supposed symptom of psychosis. It is the way they are trained. But this is error. It is not “hallucinations” (i.e. 'imaginary"); the spiritual realm is real; God and demons both exist, and can speak to us in our thoughts. It is normal. All thoughts come from the spiritual realm. The word 'inspiration' means “a spirit goes into it.” The New Testament book of James ch 3 says there are 2 sources of thought: wisdom from above and from below.
Schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder are not mental disorders; they are nonsense labels given to Christians and anyone with spiritual experiences or beliefs that atheistic psychiatry falsely calls mentally ill. They call experiences like hearing voices or having visions of angels, demons, “hallucinations”; and beliefs “delusions”. They consider hallucinations & delusions to be symptoms of psychosis.
I had an atheist court psychologist literally say to me, “if you believe in the bible, you're mentally ill.” Really!
God sent me into the mental health system to be a witness against it & write a book exposing it: Manual for Transformational Healing-God's Answer to Psychiatry, FREE at http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/
It exposes atheistic psychiatry & their toxic drugs, which are deadly, by design, and tells how to heal mental & physical illness thru prayer.
As a witness I saw that 95% of mental patients are not ill; they are Christians or others with spiritual experiences that atheist psychiatrists falsely call mentally ill.
Polls show that 95% of psychiatrists & psychologists are atheists. For 50 years, since Sigmund Freud, the atheist father of psychiatry, psychiatry has been falsely calling Christians schizophrenic.
All Christians would be called schizophrenic by psychiatry, and millions have been for 50 years.
The mental health system is unconstitutional; it violates the first amendment for religious freedom. It is also a violation of the anti-slavery amendment, since they hold & treat patients involuntarily, using them as medical guinea pigs; this is involuntary servitude, or slavery.
The Nazis killed mental patients with drugs in the secret t4 euthenasia program. They have continued this agenda worldwide ever since using mental health as a cover.The drugs are toxic & deadly BY DESIGN. They cause mental illness, suicide, homicide.
This was a covert genocide of Christians, who they falsely called mentally ill using atheistic psychiatry. This has continued for 50 years.
See article “The Mental Health System is a front for nazi genocide” at http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com2010/08/mental-health-system-is-continuation-of.html
I am a Jew who accepted Jesus as savior & has been a Christian for 22 years; a musician, teacher, writer. My website has prophetic messages to Jews, Christians, atheists, musicians, everyone about God, music, education, warnings about healthcare, mental health, the new world order, microchips, fluoride, toxic vaccines.
Articles, minibooks, books are all FREE at:
http://www.1prophetspeaks.com
FREE Book: Manual for Transformational Healing-God's Answer to Psychiatry, exposes atheistic psychiatry & their genocide by toxic drugs, which are deadly BY DESIGN, & tells how to heal mental & physical illness thru prayer.
see articles
The Need for Forgiveness
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/01/need-for-forgiveness.html
Do you believe God speaks to You-He DOES in your thoughts http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-you-believe-god-speaks-to-you-he.html
Do you need mental or physical healing
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/09/do-you-need-mental-or-physical-healing.html
Prophetic Message to Gays
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/12/prophetic-message-to-gays.html
How to reconcile the Trinity & the Schma
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-reconcile-trinity-and-schma.html
Letter to a scientist/atheist
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/12/letter-to-scientist/atheist.html
Letter to a new ager on spiritual deception
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/12/ager.html
Urgent Prophetic message to Churches & Christians
http://www.1prophetspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/urgent-prophetic-message-to-churches_1139.html
Free Minibooks:
Spiritual Wisdom on prayer, healing
http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/spiritual%20wisdom%20revised.htm
The Power of Words (words do not just describe, they invoke what we speak about, hence can act like self-fulfilling prophecies, curses or blessings.
Http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/power%20of%20words%20revised%204.htm
Blueprint for Revival; God's call to 24 hour worship, 24 hour open churches, consecration
http://www.1prophetspeaks.com/blueprint%20for%20revival%20revised%202.htm
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