In Due Time!

1 Timothy 2:3-6 has to be one of my favorite passages. While looking at this passage, I noticed that many translations have tried desperately to hide the truth about the salvation of all. Many translations have this passage worded in a way that makes it seem like the "due time" spoken of has happened and it is in reference to the message of Christ dying for all mankind, as opposed to the factual redemption of all mankind at the consummation!

Have a look:

AMP :6 Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time.

CJB:6 who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of all, thus providing testimony to God’s purpose at just the right time.

ERV:6 gave himself to pay for everyone to be free. This is the message that was given to us at just the right time.

NLT:6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.
NIV:6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

These versions change a future event into a past occurrence! This is a prime example of changing Scripture to fit doctrine instead of changing doctrine to fit Scripture! 

Let's look at a few other versions, including the CLNT and YLT which are literal translations directly from the original Greek.

CLNT: 6 Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (the testimony in it's own eras)

YLT:6 who did give himself a ransom for all -- the testimony in its own times --

ASV:6 who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times;

Even the KJV!
KJV: 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

The fact is, due time hasn't come yet! If there is one single human being not ransomed, than God is not finished with His mission. God. Will. Not. Fail.

Make sure when you are studying to use more than one version. You will come across these doctrinal biased translations more often than not. 

God will not stop until every sheep is back in the fold. Until every coin is found. Count on it!

Yellow Means WHAT?!

The other day I decided to teach my daughter what the different colors meant at a stop light. She already knew red and green. "Falyn, what does red mean?" I said. "Red means stop!" She replied. "Good! What does green mean?" "Go!" "Great job, Falyn! Do you know what yellow means?" "Uhhh.... no." "It means GO FASTER!" "Ohhhh, GO FASTER!" Of course that isn't the truth and I was just kidding around with her but I couldn't help but laugh and ask her to tell me what yellow meant. Her reply? "GO FASTER!" At this point Kali is already irritated at me, she looks back to Falyn and says, "No, Falyn don't listen to daddy he is being silly. Yellow means SLOW DOWN!" "Oh, slow down?" "Yes!" Kali kept telling her for a good ten minutes or so in the car ride that yellow meant slow down. Falyn would even start to answer correctly, but do you know what her answer is today..... "GO FASTER!"

The problem is that she believes the first thing that she was taught to be true and to be suspicious of all other points of view and teachings. How many of us were/are like that? I was raised Baptist and was 100% sure that we were right and every other opinion was wrong.

I just believed what I was taught first! I never looked into my beliefs myself because I was certain it was truth! Don't be comfortable in your faith if you have never examined what you really believe. What are the odds that you just happened to be born into a family, that just happened to believe the right things about God, that just happened to be in this region of the world? 

So my challenge to you is to not believe what you believe just because that is what you were raised to believe!

I believed in a vindictive God who had no power and/or no desire to save all of mankind. I believed in many contradictions to logic and Scripture. (Never-ending Torment, Trinity, Immortality of the Soul, Free-Will, etc.)

So in the words of Ice-Cube and Zach Galifianakis, "You better check yo self, before you wreck yo self."  Movie Clip!

"I've got God."

"I've got God."

No.

Wrong.

God's got YOU! And that is far better than you having God. Think about it. When you say, "I've got God." What are you really implying? You have God, but others don't. Do you own the rights to the Almighty? You don't have God any more than Nickelback has fans. And this is fine because, God has YOU. If you had God you could lose Him, what if you left Him in your pants pocket and went on a trip without those pants? TOO BAD you don't have God with you anymore!  Okay I am just being a smart-ass, but really. When someone says they "have God" it irks me.

God has you.

God has everyone.

No one has God.

Undercover Project!

Hello everyone! It's me, Chris! Obviously seeing as how this IS my blog. 

I wanted to let everyone know about a project that I plan to do! I am very excited to be doing this project, but I am going to need some help. 

Financially, I could use the help in getting some of the necessary gear for the project. Mostly one item in particular. Here is the URL: http://www.deluxecctv.com/catalog/hidden-cameras/1080p-hidden-covert-sophisticated-glasses-dvr-hd-spy-camera-2503.html?gclid=CMKk__Snj78CFYQ-MgodmgEAuw.

I will also be trying to raise money to buy multiple copies of "How To Quit Church Without Quitting God" by Martin Zender, to leave behind at each church for those that God gives ears to hear and eyes to see!

My idea is simple. Wear these camera glasses into a different church every week for at least 6 months. I will interview people that are just attendees or "sheep", and also the pastor/priest/etc or "shepherd". I will be recording answers that I receive to simple questions about the doctrines of "hell", immortality of the soul, the trinity, salvation of all, etc. I will also ask them about verses such as 1 Timothy 4:10, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Romans 5:18,etc. I understand that due to privacy issues and things of that nature, I will need to ask the recorded individual for permission to use the footage or I will have to blur them out in the video. 

Now I know most of you will not be able to help financially and that is okay. Here is what else you can do:

1. Message me a list of some questions that you think I should ask. (If you aren't friends with me on Facebook, feel free to add me!)

2. If you know anything about video editing and software that would be useful for this project I could use your help there! 

3. Message me to encourage me! I know this project will test me, mostly it will test my patience with the silly answers I will be receiving.

If there is anything at all that you guys can think of to help me out in this, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Stop Trying To Earn God's Favor

Are you trying to get on God's good side? Do you feel like you need to strive to maintain God's favor or even achieve His favor to begin with? If so, then you are missing the entire point of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. If you think for one second that you need to do ANYTHING at all to achieve favor in the eyes of God, than you are sadly mistaken. Want to know a secret? God ALREADY favors you! You and everyone else that has ever been born! God is at peace with you. God loves you. Your sin's don't separate you from His grace. You have been conciliated to God. Not by anything you have done, or by anything you will do. You need to stop trying to earn God's favor and realize that....are you ready for this? GOD is trying to earn YOUR favor! 

Let me show you a passage. One of my favorites. It is found in 2 Corinthians, verses 5:18-20. It reads, "Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offences to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation. For Christ then, we are ambassadors as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, "Be conciliated to God!" How amazing! God is not counting our offences against us! He is already conciliated to us! We just need to realize that. God has no enmity towards us! It is we who have enmity towards HIM! God says, "I have taken care of everything and now I find no fault in you." You don't trust Him when you feel estranged from Him due to your own shortcomings and sins! You cannot out-sin grace! It is impossible! Romans 5:20, "Yet law came in by the way that the offense should be increasing. Yet where sin increases, grace SUPEREXCEEDS!"

I have been accused of condoning and even encouraging sin. I even had one guy say to me, "Well, that settles it who wants to have an orgy?" My response was, "Not with another guy, thanks though!" 

Paul was even accused of condoning sin! Romans 6:1,"What then shall we declare? That we may be persisting in sin that grace may be increasing?" Paul's response? Romans 6:2,"May it not be coming to that!" 

No I am not encouraging sin, I am encouraging you to GIVE UP trying to please God, and know that He is already pleased with you. If you sin, so what! It was taken care of. That is the entire point Christ's sacrifice. Christ freed us, not so we could be religious zealots carrying the weight of our sins and shortcomings on our shoulders, always worrying if you pleased God enough or if He is mad at you for slipping up. No, Christ freed us so we could be free! 

Are You Limiting God?

Sorry it has been quite awhile since I have blogged! I don't like to blog just for the sake of blogging though. I only blog when something is really tugging at me and I feel the need to post about it. 

Today I want to ask, are you limiting God? The Being who created everything, who runs everything, who formed you from dust (which He formed from a spoken word.) Are you LIMITING either His power, or His love? 

If you believe that God is not going to end up with 100% of His creation reconciled back to Him, then I have some humbling news for you. You are LIMITING GOD.

 If you believe that God WILLS everyone to be saved, (1 Timothy 2:4-6) but that because of man's so called 'free will' he will be unable to do so, then you are saying that creation's will is more powerful than The Creator's. You are also ignoring Ephesians 1:11, which states that God is operating ALL in accord with HIS WILL.

On the flipside, if you believe scripture about the absolute Sovereignty of God, that He is operating ALL in accord with HIS will, then you are limiting His very being, which is Love. God IS LOVE. You believe that God chooses some to be saved and go to heaven for eternity, whilst the majority is destined to be damned for all eternity, simply because God didn't choose them. If this isn't a contradiction of God's very being (Love), than I don't know what is. 

Good news though! You can believe that God is Love and also believe that God is Sovereign. If you believe these two scriptural statements then you will escape religion and it's insane legalism and scare tactics! The only way to believe 1 Timothy 2:4-6 without throwing away Ephesians 1:11 (or vice versa) , is to discard religion and use simple logic. You don't have to discard logic to believe the Scriptures. That is what religion does. Escape religion and let the truth set you free.

Final Thought:
-God wills all to be saved.
-God is operating ALL in accord with the counsel of His will.

You do the math.

We Are Not The Potter

By calling out people because they are different than you and even going so far as to shun other because they aren't like you, we are spreading a message of hate and selfishness.

If we ever want to see this world become a better place, we are going to have to learn that not everyone is exactly how you think they should be. We are all unique individuals with different talents and different interests. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same. So why are we shunning those who are different? Why do we treat people as if they deserve less than we do? A human is a human. We are causing people to have MENTAL DISORDERS because we are too STUBBORN to let go of our stereotypes and stigmas, and just see people as they are without trying to change them into how WE think they should be. It isn't OUR job to form someone into what WE think he or she should be. Someone else is taking care of that. Someone else is forming each individual exactly how He sees fit. So why don't we put down our hammers and our chisels and watch what He makes out of us? I promise you that in the end, nobody will be disappointed in His handiwork.