Would you call a curse evil?

 At the risk of boring you with my going over the same topic over and over, I am going to post this anyway.
  This dogma that God makes us sick is so taken up by many church denominations today, that it really does need to be put to death.  
  If there is one thought process out there that will make you distrust God - and even turn you away from Him - it is this one about God makes you sick.
   Please give this some serious thought before you continue to believe this heretic dogma...

Does God make us sick?

Would you call a curse evil?

Would you call cancer evil?

Would you call all sickness evil? 

 It is according to Deuteronomy 28 it is. (v 21,22)
 ²¹ The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
²² The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
  (Remember this curse is OLD TESTAMENT.  God does not curse us under the NEW Testament because Jesus became a curse for us. I think that this is one reason people still believe that God curses us with sickness - they won't take the time to study God's Word for themselves.)

Keeping that in mind, now go to:

James 1:13

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

 The first part of verse 13 states man's thinking. The second part states the truth of it.  Man's thinking and tradition leads him to distrust God for you cannot have faith in someone who is double minded and/or who might kill you at any time - for any reason. 

 We are admonished to NOT FOLLOW MAN'S TRADITIONS. (which is obedience to the practices or dogma of a certain church, group, or religion. IE:  ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it… or ‘in this church we believe…’.    Well, what does God say in His Word about it? That’s the only yard stick you should go by.)


Sickness is a curse according to Deuteronomy 28.  God is not double-minded.  He wants to bless you not curse you.  Read that chapter again!  As far as our own sins ‘coming to roost’ here is how it happens.  You will note it is our own choices that bring this result of sin on to us.  Sin must be conceived  in our minds and allowed to grow before it can produce results.  Therefore, it is totally up to each of us to control our thoughts and not let a newly conceived sin dwell there by thinking about it.  This is why Paul continue tells us to ‘renew your mind.” (Rom 12:2, Ephesians 4:23)

(James 1:14,15)
¹⁴ But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
¹⁵ Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.



The Message Bible:
James 1:
^13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

 That's about as simple as as it gets to understand these verses. There is nothing more to say on that!

  Once again, I encourage you to get into God's Word for yourself and see what it says.  Quit believing every untrue doctrine that you hear because it is 'what I've always been taught."  

  Well, you can be taught wrong too, you know.

 I wanted to post this message from Fredrick K.C.Price of Ever Increasing Faith ministries.  I have always liked his teachings as he is a stickler for being accurate with scriptural things.  I have learned a lot from him over the years.  I believe he's 79 or 80 yrs of age now, and his son has taken over his huge ministry.

 This is about what we call Easter.  I think you will agree with me that that is a misnomer.  However it what we are using at present to refer to:

Resurrection Day

We are approaching what I believe to be the most important day on the Christian calendar-Resurrection Sunday. Everything in Christianity hinges on the reality of the resurrection. If the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a literal fact, then Christianity is no different from any of the other great religions of the world . . . and we have no hope, and our faith is meaningless and empty.
The Apostle Paul put it this way: “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20 NKJV)
The resurrection of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with the cultural trappings that surround Easter Sunday-bunnies, eggs, candy and new dresses or suits are not what this day is about. I don't even like to refer to it as Easter Sunday, because that is not a biblical expression. The word Easter is not found in the Bible. In Acts 12:4 the word that is translated Easter in the King James Bible is the Greek word “pascha” which means “Passover.” It does not mean Easter. In fact the word Easter comes from Astarte, the pagan goddess of fertility. The resurrection is Christian, but Easter is not.
Because Jesus was resurrected, He will never die again and He is alive today-and because of the resurrection, we have hope both for this life and the next. Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Of course Jesus is not talking about physical death here but spiritual death. Physical death has no more power over us because death and the grave have already been defeated!
The same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead is working in your life and my life today. This mighty power is at the heart of the work of Ever Increasing Faith Ministries. We are teaching the truths of Scripture to you and to hungry hearts all around the world.

As you celebrate Resurrection Sunday with your family, remember that it is the power of Our Heavenly Father which has been manifested in your life that gives you victory over the enemy. Rejoice in that victory and live in it not just on one special day but throughout the year.

In the service of the King,

Apostle Frederick K. C. Price, D.D.

Ever Increasing Faith Ministries

 http://www.faithdome.org/

Happy Resurrection Day everyone!

Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust

      Today, I wanted to touch on a subject that has bothered me every since I was a teenager. 

At that time, I was having my own ‘struggles’ with a lot of what I was hearing at church and being taught from the pulpit. I guess a lot of that struggle was simply from being a teen-ager and questioning the whole ‘formality’ of Sunday morning services, but I felt like there was so much ‘more’ I was wanting to understand and yet was not being given any real teaching that helped me to understand God more.  It seemed all I was being told was how Holy He was – and what a terrible sinner I was. 

 I grew up in a ‘religious’ family, and we regularly attended a local Church with a large congregation of our neighbours.  (The denomination itself is irrelevant here as this teaching I will refer to, seems to be taught by every denomination today.)

            I well remember attending a funeral of a relative when I was sixteen or seventeen.  At the gravesite the minister said some words and at the end of it said this:  “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust; the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

           I’m sure everyone has heard those words.  They sound very wise and Biblical don’t they?

 

         I remember thinking at the time though, that they just seemed somehow ‘wrong’.  I did not know why they sounded wrong really, nor did I ever check it out with what is actually in Scripture, but I knew even then, that God did not kill my relative.  Nor did the Lord ‘call him home’.  I knew for sure in my spirit that this was just wrong.  Why would God kill my Uncle?  Doesn’t God love us?  Does it not stand to reason that if God loves us, then He would want good things for us like health, long days on the earth, guidance, prosperity, peace, etc.. ?  It did not seem to me that the Loving God I was searching so hard to relate to would just turn around one mysterious day and ‘call me home’ –which is to say, cause my death.  The few times I did enquire about this to anyone, the answer was usually something about ‘God moves in mysterious ways.’   Well, He may well have moved in mysterious ways to Old Testament believers, but the mystery has been cleared up since the New Testament was written.  His ‘mystery” has been written down for 2,000 years now and is there for any student of His Word to see.  (Mark 4:11; Mathew 13:11; Eph 1:9 for starters and especially Romans 16:25)

 
  Below in the scripture reference is the verse that seems to be always quoted at funerals (Job 1:21).   You’ve heard it also:  ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

  This is a huge part of the cause of people thinking that God kills you.  And that line of thinking is simply Not true!  Jesus came to bring us life –and that more abundantly.  Jesus healed anyone who was sick and asked Him to, and Jesus himself testified that if you ‘Have seen me, then you have seen the Father.’  From this we know that God is not out to give you disease or death but to Heal you so that you will live longer!

  In the first place, the whole statement is not a quote of one sentence, but is made up of two statements. One is from the book of Genisis and the second part from the Book of Job.   The first part about ‘Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust’ is actually from Gen 3:19.  It is not quoted words, but refers instead to a concept.  God made man from the dust of the ground.  (Gen 2:7)

     Below, I have copied the first chapter of the book of Job.  If you read verse 21 in the context of the whole chapter, you can plainly see that it was satan who 'tooketh away' - not God!
   Also note, that these words are not inspired of God as is so much of the Bible. (especially the New Testament), but instead are a quote out of Job's mind and mouth - and after such a series of disasters!  But even so, it was after he 'fell down upon the ground, and worshipped!  Later on, Job’s wife would tempt him to blame God for all this trouble, and Job rebuked her severely for her thoughts that God was the cause of his misfortunes.

   Remember also, as you read this account of Satan having been given permission from God to check out Job’s faith, that this is in the OLD Testament. 

In the New Testament, we –as individual believers – have been given the authority through the precious name of Jesus Christ, to stop Satan in his foul tracks.  We no longer have to suffer from his attacks on us because Jesus totally disarmed and defanged satan and gave us all authority in His name to rebuke and banish satan from hurting us.  Oh, that rat will still attack us, and we are told to ‘put on the full armour of God’ to stop those flaming darts of his attack upon us.

   No, God does not kill us.  God loves us and has given us all the protection we need to withstand the ‘wiles’ of the devil.  For that is the only thing satan can actually fight us with – his wiles.  If you are not armed with the Word of God to repel those attacks, then you are going to be wide open to receive them.  This is also why so many people today are doubting even the existence of satan!  If you don’t believe you have an enemy, then you are wide open for every and all attacks from him.  Good luck.

   But that weapon –wiles – is more deadly than  we realize!  And here is the proof of that.  If you believe ‘that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away’ your life, then how my friend, are you ever going to develop a trusting and strong Faith in His Goodness?  I doubt you can.  If you had a friend in the physical world who would fly off the handle and beat you up every once in a while, how long would he/she be your friend?  If your father would suddenly turn on you and beat you, would you love to be in his company and yearn to be with him? 

   This doctrine of God ‘calling us home’ is  a heretic teaching inspired by Satan himself.  It is designed to destroy –or at least greatly weaken- your faith in God your Father.

  I hope this gives some clarity to the misuse of this verse as we hear it all the time at funerals.  I for one, speak to the Minister in charge every time I hear this junk preached.  It is a heretic teaching and most people do not even realize the damage it causes – even those preaching it. 

  God did NOT do these things to Job.
  satan did.