A Concerned Reader’s Questions

On my FaceBook page, I received several excellent questions from a reader that I want to post here and answer. Here they are:

1. In your blog you’ve tried to stress that the Bible is not the Word of God (as Jesus is the only Word of God) and is a book given by men and made holy by men. In one of your blogs “Should I care about what the Bible says”, you’ve answered “no” but care about what Jesus has to say. Since he’s alive he still had answers to our queries. So, if the Bible is not to be considered/cared while we talk of God, Jesus or heaven and hell then who or what are we supposed to relate to as the Bible is the only source wherein we get to know about all these matters. Moreover, your statements as Jesus is not God but a Son of God is also based on scriptures taken from the Bible. So, don’t you think that it is in contrary to what you are saying when you say that the Bible is not to be considered/cared/consulted in these matters? Please clarify.

2. You’ve not mentioned anywhere in your blog regarding the need of Holy Spirit and it’s gifts in our lives. Do you think that we need the Holy Spirit & it’s gifts as much as the apostles/disciples did during the times of Paul, Peter and John? I would be very happy to hear from you and I am sure you would come up with your answer that is not just what the majority thinks but what God says on these matters.

My Response To Question 1: 

I have stressed in many of my artilces that the Bible is not the Word of God. I strictly and strongly standby that belief as I know that there is only ONE GOD and likewise only ONE Word of God. The Apostle Paul – among many we read about in the scrolls – at 1 Cor 8:6 supports the one-God and one-Lord teaching as well. The Apostle is very clear as he says:

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Why should I stress that the Bible is the Word of God when I know that Christ Jesus is the Word of God. There cannot be two “Words of God!” Not only that, so many people give more prominence in wanting to make the Bible – a book that appears some 1500 years after Christ ascended into heaven, the Word of God rather than the one who is the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

Who did those disciples after Christ ascended for 1500 years view as The Word of God? Certainly noy the Bible because it did not exist. 

I see few people defending The Christ, the Son of God as God’s only authorized channel and Word of God. A book is being defended instead! I find this unsettling and it prompts me to consider how deep the rabbit hole of deception has burrowed itself into this world and in the minds of the many claiming to be followers of Christ. What would possess any follower of Christ to do such a thing.

Many persons claiming to be followers of Christ say, “How else can I learn about God and Christ if not for the Bible?” I am utterly astounded at this thinking. It is almost as if they are saying God and Christ are dead and unable to teach us. Jesus said at Matthew 28:19-20:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Thus, Christ is alive and ALWAYS with us. So why should I not listen to him?

Jesus never said anything about a Bible or listening to him through a Bible. Rather, he said that he would send his disciples Holy Spirit – a Helper – and it will be with them always teach his disciples. We read this at John 14:16 and John 14:26. So after Christs ascension, God would not send a book called and named by men “The Bible.” No! He would send Holy Spirit in – Jesus name (through him) – to teach us Christs teachings.

John 14:16 shows that God will send us that Helper or Comforter (Holy Spirit) that will be with us forever:

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (KJV)

John 14:26 shows what that Comforter or Helper is, Holy Spirit and that it will teach us:

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (KLV)

The questions many claiming to be followers of Christ and worshipers of The Most High God are: “Who told you that The Bible is The Word of God?” “Who or what is the power behind wanting you to place a book instead of the Holy Spirit sent by God – in Jesus’ name – to be a teacher of men?”

The reader asks are my statements that Jesus is NOT God, but the Son of God contrary to what I stated about the Bible “not to be considered/cared/consulted in these matters?”

Not at all! Why? Because it is NOT the Bible saying the things I am saying on these matters, it is Jesus Christ saying them! I am not going to attribute to a book what Christ HIMSELF says. This is precisely what I have been trying to get people to understand: A book is getting all of the credit and promotion about what God and Christ say! Rather than say God or Christ says “this or that” about a certain matter, they say that “The Bible” says it.

If one believes that the Bible is the Word of God, then they are ALSO believing that Satan the Devil is the Word of God! How so? Because he is also quoted in the Bible. He is speaking in Genesis (Garden of Eden), he is speaking with God concerning the man Job, and he is speaking with Jesus at his temptation. Yet, they ignore all of that. (Genesis 3:1-5, Job  1:7-12, and Matthew 4:3-6)

My Response To Question 2:

The perception is that I do not mention ANYWHERE on my blog “the need of Holy Spirit and it’s gifts in our lives.” Now, here is an example of someone setting up their own rules for me to follow. This precisely what the religious system called by men, Christianity does! It arrogantly presumes to tell all of the world the rules, regulations, requirements and teachings one MUST accept in order to be qualified as a godly person and a follower of Christ.

Another way of putting it – and as an example – if one does not believe that Jesus is God or believes in a fiery hellfire or a Trinity or in a rapture (just to name a few), they use their established rules as a way to label you has one who is either ungodly, unfaithful, deceived, or misled. But the bottom line here is that this is their criteria, not God or Christ’s.

What the person has to do is establish the rule – not mentioning the need of Holy Spirit and it’s gifts in our lives – and then use it to say, “You see! You failed to mention this so you do not know what you are talking about.” Plus, they see only what they want to see. They do not mention all of the other important things I say about God and Christs teachings. This is a clever technique many within Christianity use to make others who do not believe God and Christ as they do somehow ineffective and diminished. I am well aware of this ploy and it does not work with me as I do not follow the rules of Christianity – who I consider an enemy of God and Christ – rather, I follow Christ and worship the Father in heaven. I obey their rules, not those of men.

I do mention Holy Spirit and its need. The problem is that these persons have their own preconceived notions as to what the Holy Spirit is and they expect others to subscribe their notions. I, for one, actually delve deeper into exactly what the Holy Spirit is and why it is essential and required in our worship of God. (Here are three such articles where I mention Holy Spirit: http://www.e-prophetic.com/articles/the-matter-of-prayer/http://www.e-prophetic.com/articles/two-masters-one-serve/http://www.e-prophetic.com/articles/did-christ-establish-water-baptism/)

Yet, in many of my articles I mention John 4:23-24 where Jesus said:

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is an invisible God. He cannot be worshiped through things that can be seen. That would be idolatry. All that God is, His wisdom, His understanding and knowledge cannot be had or known from a book containing some 1500 pages. If that were true, God would have sent us a book to explain him, but he did not. He sent his Son and told us to listen to him. (John 1:18 and Luke 9:35)

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and  is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

No book can “make God known.” Only the one He sent can. That is why Jesus could say of himself at John 14:6:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

No book is the way, the truth, the life. A person is. And the persons name is Jesus Christ.

But he has been minimized by many claiming to follow him and they place a book that men named and “sent” into the world as The Word of God. What a faithless generation as they “see” a book and not Christ as the ONLY Word of God and they defend and place faith in a book?

It is too much for them to do as Christ directed them and that is to at Matthew 7:7:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

One can only ask the Father through the Son (who is the way to the Father), not through a religious organization or a book. They cannot receive answers from the Father by some OTHER way such as a book. They will receive what they ask of the Father through the SAME WAY or channel that they asked. And, that is Christ Jesus!

One cannot pray to the Father – in Jesus name – and expect an answer by some other means!

If we receive from the Father – for example His Holy Spirit or some piece of knowledge or wisdom – it can only come to us through Christ and no OTHER WAY!

That means, then, that our faith has to be in him and me must not view his as inactive or as if he is dead and unable to teach us. I have stated many times on my blog that prayer is not phyiscal, it is spiritual. People kneel, close their eyes, or fold their hands when they pray. These are all physical gestures. Who told them to do that when they pray. Christ certainly did not! It is men who tell people to do that.

My point in all of this is that people make many assumptions and listen to what the men and women within religious organizations tell them rather than listening to the one God told us to listen to.

If one does not listen to Christ,they are opposed or “anti” to him. Thus, they are antichrists.

If one makes the Bible The Word of God, then they are saying that the Bible is Christ also! They are antichrist and blasphemers.

It is uncanny how many so-called followers of Christ fight that a book be the Word of God and will not expend one breath to defend that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Word of God and there is no other. That they do this shows that they are in a deep slumber in a spiritual sense. It is so dark where they are, it is difficult to reason with them. They are more emotionally driven that reasonable.

Yet, the Apostle John saw in vision and was told to write down by Jesus’ angel is one who is the Word of God and what John saw was not a book. It was a person. At Revelation 19:13 John said:

His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

Since the revelation was given to Jesus by God, it is God’s revelation. Jesus is the way it would be given to humans. (Rev 1:1)

God’s revelation reveals that it is a person and not a book that is the Word of God.

That is what God says about the matter.

So who do you believe, God or what men say and teach?

 

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R. Jerome Harris

No one of importance. A disciple (student) of Christ apart from the established religious systems who reasons, thinks and concludes matters for myself. Something is not right with the state of religion in the world. The real dichotomy is that we live in a world so full of religion, yet is an evil, immoral, and dangerous place to live. A mental and spiritual separation from this world that Jesus said his kingdom is no part of is the first step to a "break-through" to freedom and entry into a much larger spiritual world where God and Christ resides and the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God can be accessed.

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