ARE YOU A 'PECULIAR PERSON'?
ARE YOU A 'PECULIAR PERSON'?
Do you know that for a person born in 1900, it would have been reasonable to assume that Christ’s second coming was imminent! As decade after decade of the 1900s unfolded, it must have appeared that the world was actually coming to an end!
In the 1900’s, we had horrendous wars, rumours of wars, famines, plagues and earthquakes. Some believers must have thought that the ‘beginning of sorrows’ season, spoken of in Matthew 24:6-8, had actually arrived! Remember-
§ World War 1
§ The Spanish Flu Pandemic
§ The Great Depression
§ World War 11
§ AIDS
§ The Ethiopian famine (remember Bob Geldof and the ‘Band Aid’ concert?)
In fact, during the 1900s, if you had believed that the end times were upon us, then you may have stopped to think about God’s remnant (Revelation 12:17, 14:12 and 20:12-15) and wondered if you had a place in it.
2020 WAS LIKE THE 1900s!
But God spared us and the world did not end in the 1900s! Fast forward to 2020. As you watched this You tube video re-cap of 2020 by the AMAZING artist Cee Roo, what came to your mind? Did it seem like the world was still in chaos and still on the brink of the end times?
And as you watched the video, did you ask yourself: if I was standing before Christ today, would He consider me as one of His Father’s ‘peculiar people’ (1 Peter 2:9-10)?
What great truth does this history lesson teach us? Simply this- because NOBODY knows when the end is coming, everyone should get prepared now!
STEP #1 OF PREPARATION- BECOMING ONE OF GOD’S PECULIAR PEOPLE
Do you remember what 1 Peter 2:9-10 (KJV) says? This passage introduced the concept of ‘a peculiar people’ and it said (underline emphasis mine):
9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
One of the hallmarks of God’s peculiar people is that they worship Him and not Christ!
WORSHIPPING GOD, NOT CHRIST
The Old Testament is filled with examples of the punishment that God (Yahweh) meted out to those who chose to worship the ‘created’ thing and not the Creator. This is a fundamentally important theme that runs throughout the ENTIRE Old and New Testament words of God.
Even during times of great suffering or when we are under the cloud of death, this one command remains true.
§ Worship GOD. Worship YAHWEH.
The Book of Job teaches us this! The Psalms teach us this! In fact, all the saints who ever died for their belief in God have taught us this! We shouldn’t worship the Virgin Mary, Christ or the Holy Spirit. We should worship only God.
Now this is not to say that godly and Godly persons are not important. They are! But we must understand the differences between the ‘g’s’! Believers may become godly. Christ is Godly. But only Yahweh is GOD.
We must understand this fundamental concept because it will guide our proper understanding of the entire Bible and it will guide our understanding of the relationship that God wants us to have with His Son.
SO DO WE UNDERSTAND THE ‘HOLY TRINITY’ CORRECTLY?
There is a reason why the Holy Trinity concept, as most Christians have been taught it, is not actually biblical! Some believe that the doctrine of the ‘Holy Trinity’ means that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons of equal status in one Godhead.
But this is not what the Bible teaches! This ‘equal status’ concept is not in the Old Testament and Christ never taught it in the New Testament.
The Bible actually teaches us that there is a hierarchal relationship between these divine beings.
§ There is ONE GOD. Yahweh- the Father. LORD.
§ There is His begotten Son- Jesus Christ. Lord.
§ And there is the Holy Spirit- God’s essence. The Comforter.
So we have a trinity of divine beings and they have a hierarchal relationship with one another. Christ did not teach polytheism. He taught monotheism. The Torah taught monotheism. These concepts are clear in the Hebrew Old Testament.
§ God singular is ‘Yahweh’ (eg. Exodus 20:2).
§ God plural is ‘Elohim’ (eg. Genesis 1:1 and 1:26). When all the divine beings are spoken of together- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit- this is Elohim!
The Son is NOT equal to the Father. And, therefore, we should not worship the Son as the Father. Worship of the Son is idolatry and Paul’s teachings have sent us down this path!
GOD-CENTERED CHRISTIANITY
This describes a Christianity whose doctrines are God-centered and not Christ-centered. God-centered Christianity means that we worship God. It also means that we understand that Christ came to restore our relationship with God (i.e. as an atonement sacrifice for the original sin) and He also came as a messenger to deliver a message from God.
And what was this message? The gospel of the kingdom.
The gospel of the kingdom is actually a two-part message. The first part is about the ‘kingdom of heaven’. Do you remember Christ’s first sermon? It was a warning! It was an instruction for us to get ready because the ‘kingdom of heaven’ is coming (Matthew 4:17). What does this message mean? Judgment is real! Heaven and hell are real! Therefore, live your life knowing that we will ALL be held accountable for our deeds (Matthew 25:31-46 and Revelation 20:12-15), notwithstanding our confession of faith status.
The ‘kingdom of God’ is the second part of Christ’s ‘gospel of the kingdom’ message. What does it mean? Worship the Father and build His kingdom here on earth (Matthew 6:10 and 25:31-46).
The gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God. These are three inter-related concepts that God’s ‘peculiar people’ MUST understand!
THEREFORE- FOCUS ON BECOMING PECULIAR!
Don’t make the mistake of embracing ‘Christ-centered’ Christianity!
§ Paul’s message is to worship Christ. BUT THIS IS WRONG!
§ Paul promotes Christ as equal to God. BUT THIS IS WRONG!
The interpretation of Paul’s message has led Christians down a false path of Christ idolatry- a worship of the created, instead of a worship of the Creator!
We should focus ourselves on becoming ‘peculiar persons’!
We should focus ourselves on becoming ‘persons of God’!
We should focus on God-centered Christianity!
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‘HARVEST TIME Prophecies’ is the blog post site of TNG Academy. Our blog post site gets its name from Matthew 13:30- i.e. the separation of wheat and tares that will occur at harvest time (i.e. the end times). Remember, the ‘wheat’ symbolises Godly things and the ‘tares’ symbolise things of the devil.
The purpose of these blog posts is twofold. Firstly, they are written to encourage more focus on Christ’s core message- i.e. the ‘gospel of the kingdom’. And second, they are written as an aid for our discipleship journey- i.e. improving our understanding of God’s expectations of us. I hope, these posts assist you on your journey of ‘becoming’!
Visit our website- WWW.TNGACADEMY.ORG, to get copies of our Bible study books. Which books would I recommend for you to read first? Start with these three-
If you enjoy these posts, please share and help others get prepared for harvest time too!
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