The Kerygma - God's Requirement for Salvation

For what its worth here is a detailed study on Revelation and Daniel that I really enjoyed. It's long 112 videos but broken down in only 30 minutes each. If going through have your bible handy. Its structured as a bible study two pastors two lay people, but makes this amazing book easier to understand.

One thing to keep in mind Revelation is not written chronologically, its based on repeat and enlarge. One will get really lost if not following that pattern.

I would start at video 2 and skip the overview.

01 - “Overview of Revelation - Salvation in Symbols & Signs”

Foundationally having a belief there is God (Rom1):

NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (Jesus is the Christ)

NKJ 2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," and "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity unrighteousness."

In Acts13:16-41 we have a record of Paul evangelizing to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. To make it clear what Paul means by "Christ" in Acts13:33 he references Psalm2. In Ps2 "YHWH's Messiah/Christ/Anointed" is YHWH's King who He has made King of kings to who He gives the earth as His inheritance. When we read "Christ" in the NT Writings we should automatically recall Ps2 to understand and explain what Christ means and who Jesus is. With this in mind it's pretty simple to use some basic logic and common sense to understand that belief that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God (also referenced in Ps2:7 and Acts13:33) the King of kings must include bowing the knee to Him in faithful obedience (which is Paul's self-described mission to the nations in Rom1:5 & 16:26). We can also see Paul being wholly absorbed with the message (or compelled by the Spirit depending on Greek manuscripts) to proclaim to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

The last clause in 2Tim2:19 stated as part of God's solid foundation and seal is a command to all of those who are "The Lord's" to depart/withdraw from/distance yourselves from/revolt from (apostatise from) unrighteousness (which is sin 1John5:17 and lawlessness 1John3:4 which the Lord hates Heb1:9).

The above Foundation is commanded by God in 1John3:23: Believe in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He commands.

Foundationally the message is pretty simple: Believe as commanded by God that Jesus is the Christ/King and live out your days in submission to His Absolute Rulership. And this lasting belief and lasting submission are biblically one and the same thing.

IAWU with you Captain.
GJ on this whole thread. It's similar to MUOFB.

BTW the name Captain doesn't suit you because it's already taken.

We have Captain Obvious with travel commercials.
We got Captain Interesting with dos equis commercials.
And of course who can forget Captain Morgan the patron saint of all sailors out there.

Yep, I agree (simple enough for a child of about nine years old to understand :^)

Okay, you can call me major, then :^)

Pretty good job herding cats.

LOL! Thanks. It is indeed a job getting these CC cats to agree on GRFS or the essential Christian Creed, but I enjoy it, hoping we are answering the prayer of Jesus in JN 17 for oneness :^)

Since it is such a job, is it truly your intention to host a forum on your site?

No, I decided it would be too much trouble, so thanks for reminding me to delete that part.

Wisdom.

Wisdom is the child of Ignorance and Laziness? :^)

You hardly seem lazy nor ignorant theologically and being in your retirement years (I think I read), your decision that running a forum would be too much trouble seems to me a very wise decision. CC and others will provide all the proof of this that one needs.

Thanks, I love LGW and hope fellow truthseekers receive a boost from what I share :^), although I say "indeed" re your last :^(

I can tell. As do I.

It is good to meet a fellow truthseeker! :^)

The need for persevering faith is obvious, so let us now consider the topic of Spiritual Dynamics. Perseverance serves as the bridge from GRFS (the kerygma) to LGW regarding various teachings (the didache) subsequent to learning the Gospel. Jesus taught that the evidence of saving faith or satisfying GRFS is working faith or helping humanity (JN 13:35), and Paul clarified that saving faith precedes loving works. Disciples of Jesus (or Believers) tend to love and help others, not by virtue of their own goodness, but because they are moved or motivated by the loving Spirit of the Lord (1JN 4:7-8).

Humans can never become good enough to earn or merit salvation as a reward for right behavior. A person cannot be good by doing good. Those who try to attain heaven by imitating Christ-like behavior without accepting Christ’s Lordship and atonement actually go in the opposite direction (GL 5:4), so we should cooperate with God’s Way or POS. No one achieves moral perfection in this life, but no one who lacks divine love will reap eternal life with God (GL 6:7-8). Thus, a person who claims to be a Christian but who is behaving in an ungodly (unloving, untruthful) manner may be in one of the following categories:

a. a normally loving person observed during a rare moment when he/she acted uncharacteristically (PHP 3:12-16),

b. an immature Believer, who is making progress–you should have known him/her a year ago! (1CR 3:1-3, EPH 4:11-15)

c. a truthseeker who has not yet learned the correct interpretation of God’s Word (1CR 6:9-11, EPH 5:8-9), or

d. a pseudo-Christian (MT 7:21), who may affirm morality while rejecting its divine rationale.

Paul listed some sins he implied genuine Christians would not typically commit (in 1CR 6:9-10), saying: “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Apparently, although a new Christian might commit such sins occasionally, it is inconceivable (because antithetical to NT teaching & the indwelling of the HS) that a mature Christian would commit them so typically that the person could be classified as an adulterer, for example. Atheists might try to practice the “Golden Rule”, but the key issue for them on judgment day will be explaining what good reason they had for rejecting God rather than glorifying Him as the One who determines what is good/golden.

Sinners can overcome selfishness only by becoming one with Christ via faith in Him/God as Lord and thereby sharing His goodness because of union with His/God’s Holy Spirit. This spiritual union is denoted by references to those who have saving faith as children of God the Father (RM 8:14-16). This is why Christianity is a relationship with God motivated by gratitude for God’s grace (PS 100, EPH 2:4-8) rather than a legalistic religion of working to merit God’s mercy because of fear of punishment.

I will now attempt to explain the dynamics of the relationship between God and truthseekers or how the Holy Spirit of God interacts and communicates with humans. This relationship may be viewed as involving three distinct stages of revelation or dispensations.

Humans are born innocent babies with the potential to attain the stage of accountability, comparable to when God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (GN 2:17). At this stage, a person’s interaction with the Spirit of God begins, because he/she has become a living soul or embodied mind/spirit (GN 2:7). (The spiritual status of humans before they reach the stage of moral accountability is not clearly explained in Scripture. Surely they would not go to hell, but on what basis would their destiny be heaven? Perhaps they share the fate of amoral animals.)

A person’s fellowship with God begins in a primitive and impersonal way when a soul becomes a truthseeker, because God’s Spirit is truth (1JN 5:6). The commitment to seek and have faith in the truth as revealed is a primitive “pre-theistic” satisfaction of GRFS (MT 7:7), thus the person begins a saving relationship with God although he/she may not realize it (RM 1:17). As a truthseeker at any time in history and place in the world meditates upon his/her experiences, Paul indicates that they will be able to discern God’s being or become conscious of God's power and love (RM 1:20, 2:14-15, GL 5:14) by means of what theologians call “natural or general revelation”: creation and conscience. This stage occurred from Adam to Moses per RM 5:12-14.

When truthseekers recognize the reality of God as the Creator of the universe who has a moral requirement, if they decide to become theists and worship Him, they become like Abraham and other OT believers, and their fellowship deepens or becomes personal. RM 4:1-25 teaches that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (v.3). Then this spiritual event was signified outwardly by circumcision (v.11). Similarly, all who believe in God are credited to be righteous and spiritual children of Abraham, although physical circumcision is optional (v.11-18).

RM 5:6-11 says that while we were powerless (unable to save ourselves via works per 3:9-20), Christ died for the ungodly or sinners or God’s enemies, so that believers (3:22-26) are justified or reconciled and saved from God’s wrath. This includes all of humanity potentially, comparable to how humanity became sinners following the original trespass (5:15-21). Thus, God provides pre-Christian believers the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ in a pre-NT and pre-Abrahamic or provisional form (cf. the proto-gospel), so they may repent of sin and accept the pre-incarnate One God/ Christ as Lord (JN 8:42, 1JN 1:3-4).

At the moment of repentance/acceptance, God’s Holy Spirit (HS) enters believers’ spiritual hearts (RV 3:20), uniting them with God as heavenly Father (RM 8:9) and identifying them with Christ’s worldwide/catholic body or church (CL 1:18). As noted, Paul refers to the comparable moment for Abraham as spiritual circumcision.

This manifold event is also called spiritual birth or baptism (1CR 12:13). We can infer that this dynamic occurs also for pre-NT believers like Abraham, because there is no salvation outside of Christ’s ekklesia or church (ACTS 4:12). Partial knowledge of God’s Word will limit ability to cooperate with Him, so there is a need for evangelism or learning the full Gospel (MT 28:18-20, cf. ACTS 18:24-26) as well as for lifelong discipleship or spiritual training (2TM 3:16-17). From the advent of Christ until the Second Coming is the third or New Covenant stage of revelation and relationship with God (RM 3:21-26, GL 3:24-25, HB 7:18-10:1).

Confusion may arise from the fact that in Ephesians 4:5 Paul says there is only one baptism, but elsewhere the NT seems to refer to two types of baptism: one by water and another by the HS. In His “Great Commission” Jesus tied saving faith closely to the work of water baptism when He said “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them” (MT 28:19). Yet, in 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul wrote that “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.”

This suggests that Spirit baptism occurs at the moment of conversion, when the HS unites the new saint (saved sinner/soul) with Christ, because “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” (RM 8:9) The indwelling of the HS may also be called the initial filling by the HS, because at the point of confession and conversion a person is cooperating fully with God. (See RM 6:3-7, GL 2:20) The evidence that a person has been baptized by God’s Spirit or included in Christ’s spiritual body is love in its myriad of forms (GL 5:22-23, JN 13:35).

Any confusion is resolved by understanding that the two types of baptism are united if baptism with water is viewed as a symbolic way of portraying baptism by the HS. The details for this work are vague, but the mode of immersion best portrays a Believer’s spiritual union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection to eternal life (CL 2:12, RM 6:4). As a practical matter, a new Believer normally would be baptized by the local congregation of the catholic (worldwide) church in which he/she will want to participate as an acknowledged member.

Instead of commanding water baptism for salvation, Paul said in one place (RM 10:9-10) that a convert should confess “with your mouth” in order to be saved, even though elsewhere (EPH 2:8-9) he taught that one is saved by faith. Both outward confession and water baptism may be seen as works manifesting love for God that every new Believer will want to (but we cannot say “must”) perform as soon as possible following his/her decision to have saving faith (cf. MT 3:13-15, ACTS 2:38).

Although Paul did not command baptism, he administered it (in ACTS 16:33, 18:8, 19:5 & 1CR 1:114-16) even though he said Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel (1CR 1:17). IOW, Paul’s focus was on preaching (spirit baptism) and he probably left the water baptizing to his assistants.

The relationship between Believers/Christians and God may be viewed as having three stages. The first stage is the moment of conversion or repentance (ACTS 20:21) just mentioned, when a person “plugs in” to the power of God’s HS by accepting Christ Jesus as Lord. Because a person’s commitment to Christ is in accordance with God’s perfect will and the response of yielding to His calling (1TM 2:3-4), the moment of spiritual baptism fulfills the command of Ephesians 5:18 to be filled (cooperate fully) with the Spirit. For Christians, this stage occurred in the past historically and grammatically; we were saved when we repented and accepted Christ.

It should be noted that the indwelling of the HS does not obviate the need for faith, which is the way God makes or provides for keeping believers standing firm (1CR 1:8, 10:12 & 15:58, 2CR 1:20-24). In JN 17:6-12 Jesus said that the disciples knew Jesus spoke GW and knew with certainty and believed that God sent Jesus, indicating that “certainty” meant confident faith, noting that Judas was lost in order to fulfill Scripture (cf. 6:70 & 13:18, referring to PS 41:9). Also, Peter denied knowing Christ thrice, and Thomas doubted per JN 20:24-29.

The second stage is spiritual growth, which is also referred to as maturation (EPH 4:13), discipleship (ACTS 14:22) or sanctification (2THS 2:13). Grammatically it is present progressive, and historically it is the process of being saved now.

This stage has two phases: instability and maturity. Although a new Spirit-filled convert has access to all of the power he/she needs for loving like Christ (EPH 3:16-19), no one attains immediate “perfection” by remaining filled with the Holy Spirit forever (PHP 3:12). Instead, the combination of temptations, ignorance and the old selfish nature results in immature saints committing their first post-conversion sin(s). Then he/she no longer is spiritual or filled with the Holy Spirit but rather is acting like unsaved unbelievers (1CR 3:1). This “venial” type of error differs from the “mortal” or damning sin of unbelief or apostasy (rejecting God’s Lordship, cf. JM 1:15).

As soon as a Christian realizes a sin was committed, he/she should confess it (1JN 1:9) rather than compound it by trying to hide it or cover it up like Adam and Eve did (GN 3:7-8). Then God will forgive, and the saint will again be in a Spirit-filled or spiritual condition. This spiritual flip-flopping might happen once a day, or it could occur several times in an hour. While this instability may be bad, failure to confess promptly is much worse, because it results in chain-sinning or back-sliding. This condition is also referred to as being carnal/worldly (1CR 3:1) or prodigal (LK 15:13) if it continues for weeks or years.

Unfortunately, some people may not appreciate the process of being renewed morally or as Paul says (in RM 12:2) of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind”, perhaps because it involves admitting sins or having “guilt trips”. It is not guilt that is bad; rather whatever one is doing that makes one feel guilty. Guilt is like a warning light on a car’s instrument panel that lets one know something is wrong. Until we have the wisdom to welcome God’s “guilt trips” like we do warning lights, we will never feel the satisfaction of becoming a new and improved version of ourselves. Hopefully, we will never reach the point where we are so callous that we experience no guilt when we do wrong (cf. MT 13:14-15). Warnings are good!

This unstable or immature phase in a Christian’s spiritual relationship with God is followed eventually (and hopefully soon) by a second phase of relative perfection or maturity signified in the Bible (especially the King James Version) by the phrase “walking with God”. Genesis 5:24 describes Enoch as a man who walked with God, and the apostle Paul described the goal of Christians (the fullness of Christ) as walking with God (RM 6:4, GL 5:16, EPH 4:1, 1THS 4:1). Elsewhere the continually (ideally) Spirit-filled condition is referred to as walking: in light (1JN 1:7), in love (EPH 5:2), in a new life (RM 6:4), according to the Spirit (RM 8:4), and in good works (CL 1:10).

The outward evidence that someone is Spirit-filled (EPH 5:18) or walking with God is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit or fullness of Christ (EPH 3:19, 4:13), which consists of such attributes as those listed in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Jesus said “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (JN13:35), because “love” sums up the moral character of God (1JN 4:7-8).