1 John 1

1 John 1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

--- This is one of my favorite books of the Bible. This is actually only the first chapter. Read 1st John if you get a chance; actually, make a chance. There's no reason why you can't take time to read it. It is a life changing book. It's towards the end of the New Testament. It will bring you through a series of small tests, to find out whether or not you are in the faith. I know some of you don't need to find out whether or not you're in the faith, because you know already that you are not in the faith. In that case, if you read this book, you will find a life giving message that will show you what it means to walk as a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Bible is full of amazement, and it never gets old. It is a fresh and living book, full of wisdom, full of the life giving message of Jesus Christ. Read it, obey it, believe it, conform your life to it, and examine yourself. James 4:14, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." Make sure you know where you're going when you go!

"Perfect in the original manuscripts"

Search the internet for churches, preferably conservative churches who call themselves evangelical, and read their statement of faith. Concerning the Bible it will say something like this one from Campus Crusades for Christ, "The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.


Can I ask you, does ANYONE have a copy of the ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS? NO! So what good does that statement do? If we don't have the exact word of God, copied exactly from the original manuscripts, then we don't have the Holy Scriptures. How is it that the so called intellectuals that write these statements of faith not see the stupidity in their statement concerning the Scriptures? So what if you believe that the original manuscripts were perfect, we don't have them now! Accuracy in translation doesn't mean inerrancy or infallibility, because translators, being human, or having evil intentions, can make small changes to the Scriptures and change the meanings of entire passages.

So these same people that will hold up a Bible and proclaim it to be "THE INFALLIBLE WORD OF GOD" are saying under their breath, "but not really, because we don't have the original manuscripts".

One has to trust that manuscripts that have been carefully copied are also infallible and inerrant. I believe that there were texts that were carefully transcribed and kept perfect, and I believe this only because God promised that He would preserve His word all generations.

The modern translations such as the NIV, ESV, RSV, NASB, among others, use a Greek text that was extremely modified by Westcott and Hort in the late 1800's. The text of the NIV has 64,000 less words than the King James Version. And ministers can stand in a pulpit and say it doesn't really matter that much which Bible version one uses. This is satanic. The more I study it, and the more I think about this issue, the more I am convinced that this is confusion sent from the devil himself.

God promised that He would preserve His word for all generations, and I believe Him. The 5,000 most ancient manuscripts of the Bible that we have match up with the Textus Receptus some 99%. I am still studying this issue, because I am certainly not an expert, and a man or woman may gain information for salvation from any decent translation of the Scriptures; I did. However, this is a confusing mess in the world of Christianity. I am sticking with the Authorized Version (King James).

Be Reconciled To God (Get Right)

As a result of the first sin of Adam and Eve, disobedience to a direct command from God, sin entered into the world, and death through sin. Many people have argued that only Adam and Eve were punished for their specific sin against God, however, this is not true. Every succeeding generation has a natural inclination to sin against the Laws and perfect will of God. This is sufficient enough evidence to see that all have sinned in Adam and Eve, because every human being born after Adam and Eve have sinned, and will sin, because they have a gnawing desire inside that presses them to sin against God and man, some more than others, but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10). Nobody is righteous; nobody can attain the righteousness that God requires while he or she is in this flesh, and that will keep everyone out of heaven. This sounds discouraging, and it should. It may make you think that God is unfair or unkind. Think of it this way; God is perfect; not like man’s standard of perfection, He is “Perfection”. He meant for us to be perfect, as the Bible says in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In order to be perfect, we must be reconciled to God, we must have a removal of all of our past sins. Without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). How do we have our past sins removed? How do we become perfect? How do we become holy so we can see the Lord? --Reconciliation through Jesus Christ!! He must be our redeemer and mediator between God and us. He must, first, remove our sins by taking the punishment for our sins on the cross, and then, by His ascension into heaven, He sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us always. This is the only way, as it is written in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” This excludes every other false way of getting saved and making it to heaven. You have two choices; believe what Jesus said, that He is the only way, or reject what Jesus said, call Him a liar, and wind up in hell. Romans 5:8-11 puts it very well, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” He will save us by His death, if we believe in Him, and we shall be saved by His life, because He is still alive and makes intercession for us. Make Him your savior, AND Lord, today. Don’t put it off. Amen.

Once again, what matters?

What is the ultimate goal of being a Christian? Is it so we can "fill a void in our hearts"? Is is so we can "have our best life now"? No. Neither. The ultimate goal is spending eternity with our Father in Heaven. Jesus Christ made this possible by taking our place of eternal punishment, nailing it to a cross, dying, raising from the dead, ascending to heaven and ruling as Lord and King. The Lord is not willing that any should perish and go off to everlating hell. Not just separation from God, as most modern evangelists put it; ever-lasting-hell. Because of your sin you will be shut out of heaven and cast into hell, unless you repent and put your trust in Jesus. It's not about wearing nice clothes to church, having a blessed life on earth, having emotionally healthy spirituality or all that garbage; it's about being saved from wrath! It's about loving God with all your heart for being so loving as to give you a way to escape hell. Turn to Him today, surrender your life and follow Jesus. Read your Bible and pray every day.