The English word derives, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, from a Greek word, kuriakos, that means “house of the Lord.”  This does not necessarily imply “belonging to the Lord Jesus.”  Rather, it apples to any lord, whether a landlord, a master, a lord of slaves or any other lord.  It is this word, from which “church” is derived, that occurs only twice in the Greek New Testament.  In I Corinthians. 11:20, it is used to identify the “Lord’s Supper” as belonging to the Lord.  In Rev. 1:10, it is used to refer to the “Lord’s Day” as belonging to the Lord.  There is no record that Jesus ever used this word,kuriakos, and it is not found in the Gospels.

Of course, I am aware that “church” occurs many times in the English New Testament.  We find it more than one hundred times, primarily in the Acts and the Epistles, and always as translated from the Greek word that, transliterated, becomes in English ekklesia.  This word in turn derives from a Greek verb that means “to summon forth,” or “to call out from.”  It apparently has no etymological relation to church.  Ekklesia is not a uniquely Christian word.  In the Greek world it had numerous applications, often indicating an assembly of citizens, such as a town meeting.

Even in the New Testament it is not uniquely Christian.  When Paul was at Ephesus (Acts 9:23-41), Demetrius, the silversmith, vigorously opposed him and gathered together silversmiths and other craftsmen and started a riot that enveloped the whole city, for “the city was filled with confusion.”  Then a great mass of pagan citizens, crying out “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” laid hold of Paul’s companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and dragged them into the theater.  Some cried out one thing, some another, for the “ekklesia” was in confusion.  Then the town clerk took charge of the assembly, rebuked the mob and urged them to bring such charges as they might have before the courts, which were open.  “But,” he said, “if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular ekklesia.”  Then, after a few more words, “he dismissed the ekklesia.“

Here we have the word used to specify a rioting mob of pagan citizens of the city of Ephesus, and also to apply to a legal assemblage of citizens.  Luke in Acts also used the same word in relating the speech of Stephen that resulted in his martyrdom.  Speaking of the great congregation of the children of Israel that gathered with Moses at Sinai, Stephen said, “This is he who was in the ekklesia in the wilderness . . .” (Acts 7:38). In the first case, we have a rioting mob called out from the city of Ephesus by Demetrius, the silversmith.  In the second case, we have the Israelites whom God had called out from Egypt, and assembled with Moses at Sinai.  Finally, Luke also used ekklesia to refer to the assembly of disciples, in many references such as Acts 5:11, where he related,  “And great fear came upon the whole ekklesia and upon all who heard of these things.”

In the Septuagint, it is used in place of the Hebrew, qahal, for the assembly of the Israelites, especially when gathered for religious purposes.  Thus, below, we will find it used in this way in Acts 7:38 (by Stephen, based on his reading of the Septuagint) to define such an assemblage, and in Hebrews 2:12.

Jesus used ekklesia only twice in the gospels.  After eliciting Peter’s confession of himself as the Christ, the Son of the living God, he said:

Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter (petros – stone, little rock) and upon this rock (petra – crag, cliff, large rock) I will build my ekklesia (Matthew 16:17,18).

Later, giving instructions to the disciples as to how to respond to a brother who had sinned against them, he said:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.  If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the ekklesia; and if he refuses to listen even to the ekklesia, let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18:15-17).

It is interesting to note that if we did not have Matthew’s Gospel, we would have no record whatsoever of any direct reference of Jesus to the ekklesia, for neither Mark, nor Luke, nor John use this word in relating his utterances.  At the very least, this tells us that the apostles and other earliest disciples, who heard Jesus and later recorded his utterances, had very little recollection of any special significance that this word might have in the doctrine of their Lord. I believe it means that the church, as we know it, had absolutely no place in the message of Jesus.  

Why is church used to translate ekklesia into English, when it derives from a completely different Greek word? Ekklesia was carried over into Latin and all the romance languages, but not into English, German, or any Teutonic or Slavonic language (see Oxford Dictionary of the English Language).  We have no sure answer to this question, so I can only suggest one.  Consider that you are native to the British Isles at an early time when Christian missionaries were first preaching the Gospel in Britain, or when the first church buildings were being erected.  You might ask, concerning a new building under construction, whose is that?  And an appropriate answer would be, perhaps, “It is the Lord’s house.”  Or, in a single word, “that is a church,” for the word from whichchurch is derived, kuriakos, means “belonging to the Lord.”  It may have applied generally to the house of “the lord of the manor.” Then it is an easy step to apply church also to the assembly of persons who met in, and maintained the building, then to the larger institution consisting of the union of local congregations.  Thus it may have been that the use of church evolved through history with no reference to scriptural usage or precedents.  I have suggested the setting as Britain, for I am suggesting the origin of an English word; however, it may have been some other location where the word resembled the English church, such as in Germany where the corresponding word would have been kirche.  Carried over into English, it would naturally have become the corresponding church.   So while I do not know the answer to this question and can only suggest possibilities, I do believe it is very significant, for it seems symbolic of a transition from the Truth to the sham gospels that the modern church proclaims in the name of Jesus, both in the English speaking world and throughout Christendom.

There may be a another reason for the switch from ekklesia to church.  Ekklesia generally applies to an assembly or congregation of people who are “called out” or summoned to come together.  When applied to a gathering of the disciples of the Lord, this is properly interpreted to indicate a summoning of people to come out of the world and to congregate in his name, apart from the people of the world.  This was most appropriate in the early years of Christianity, when people were intensely aware of their uniqueness in having been called out of the world and set apart for the service of the Lord.  But their organization became worldly, particularly after Constantine, the Roman Emperor, converted to Christianity, legalized and protected the gatherings of the Christians and appropriated their movement to use on behalf of governing the empire.  Centuries passed during which the Christians, oftentimes forcibly “converted,” lost their sense of being called out from the world, and related more to the building in which they met to worship, to the local congregation, or to the multi-national institution ruling over them, than to a gathering of “called out individuals.”  Thereafter, it was natural for them to refer proudly to their great buildings as “belonging to the Lord,” and to refer to themselves, to their local gatherings, and their institution, in another sense as also belonging to the Lord, even though the Lord did not possess them!  In my mind, at least, this word switch according to which church comes to describe the buildings, gatherings, and local, national, and institutional religious organizations in English speaking Christendom, as also the mystical “body of Christ,” in contrast to ekklesia, the general, or nonspecific,  word used by Jesus and his disciples is symbolic of the tragic march of heresy through the centuries.  The “church experience” is therefore one that genuine disciples are well advised to avoid as being fraught with frustration, compromise, and all spiritual conflicts.  I do not mean that individuals are condemned by belonging to a church, only that it is an association that will being much tribulation to a true follower of Jesus.

Again, suppose church, as derived from kuriakos (lord’s house), and ekklesia (called out assembly) are each valid descriptions of separate but related entities.  In this case, I suppose that church is properly applied exactly as we apply it: to the behemoth that we call “the church,” But ekklesia may well apply to that worldwide assembly of individual children of the Father who are genuine disciples whose faith rests on the love of the Father and the hatred of life, and who listen to the Good Shepherd.  Many, perhaps most of them, are members of the churches and they will not be sorted out until the Judgment Day, when the Lord will gather and sort them at the Great Assize.  That final assemblage may be one thing that Jesus had in mind when he made his reference to the ekklesia in saying, “On this rock I will build my ekklesia.”  Then, in the early years, when the apostles were assembling small groups, little flocks, of disciples in the various cities of the Roman Empire, and when they were predominately genuine disciples, they would have been representative of the final gathering into the ekklesia.  As genuine representatives of that great and final assembly, these groups would have been properly called “the ekklesia” in whatever city they gathered, exactly as we read in the New Testament.  Later, that is, today, when the multitudes who congregate in the Lord’s name throughout the world no longer listen to his voice and so are not his true sheep – except for those few scattered through them who do listen – it is no longer appropriate to refer to them as the ekklesia, seeing that few of them will join that entity in the Great Assize and neither do they exhibit a separatist conscience as they must if called out from the world.  Thus, in English and Germanic speaking nations at least, they have another name, kuriakos, or church.

So, just what is in the word?  Apparently not much, at least from the perspectives of Jesus and the early disciples.  Based on its New Testament usage, the state assemblies and the House of Representatives in Washington are all churches!  Likewise are the mosques and the synagogues.

(WRITTEN BY ED JONES)

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God;

only he has seen the Father .

The basic principle in knowing the nature of God is accepting His invisibility. According to Jesus, God is a Spirit and no man can see God. How can we see an omnipresent God who is everywhere? God is bigger than the universe. We may only see a tiny representative part of His being. Let us not subject ourselves into punishment by forcing to literally see God because this is an exercise in futility. Our imagination of God does not mean we have seen God at all. Wrong and inaccurate imagination or concept of God is intellectual paganism.

Jesus said that He had seen the Father, the Eternal God. The Word was with God before the foundation of the world. The Word is a Spirit and Life like God. Anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. The Son is in the Father sharing the Eternal Word together. We can only see God by the words of Christ that came from His Father. It was not the physical similitude that Jesus was referring to His disciples, in that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.

It does suffice our innermost desire to reach the absolute truth as we see (understand) the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word has no face. Jesus had a human face according to the biblical history of the Christian religion. Christianity is glued with pride to that human face. They love to worship images to some degree which they may deny doing it. The Middle Eastern image of a man has been the symbol of their faith. Contrary to that, our life and faith are anchored to the “faceless” Christ, the Logos of our dear Father. Our commitment is to the “faceless” words of Christ which are spirit and life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

if you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and

that will be enough for us.”

 Jesus answered:

“Don’t you know me, Philip,

even after I have been among you such a long time?

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father .

How can you say, ‘Show us the Father ‘?

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father ,

and that the Father is in me?

The words I say to you are not just my own.

Rather, it is the Father, living in me,

who is doing his work.

John 14:6-11 

Written and published (Tuesday, 14 November 2006)

Jesus taught “Born Again” as a time of cataclysmic new beginning in life. It means starting a life all over again, this time as a follower of Jesus Christ and His words. Mind and soul are renewed through the power of His words. Everyone who is born of the Spirit is born again. 

John 3:3-8
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
“Do not marvel that I said to you,
‘You must be born again.’
“The wind blows where it wishes,
and you hear the sound of it,
but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.
So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Jesus emphasizes this different kind of birth, brought about by the Spirit. I believe that the meaning of “born of the Spirit” is being born by His words. The words of Christ are spirit and life. (John 6:63) Nowhere Christ implied that the Father would give birth to everyone who wants to become a child of God through supernatural second birth. There is only one begotten of the Father and that is His eternal Son Jesus Christ.

Pagans believe in the maternal or paternal child-bearing concept of the Higher Being. Can you imagine this? God in heaven giving birth daily out of His or Her holy “womb” to conjure a born again experience for all those who repent of their sins and promise to follow the Lord.  

Paul propagated this doctrine of child-bearing deity who does “multiply” children according to its sovereign will. The existence of the sons of god with supernatural power, whose birth comes from the most advanced spiritual DNA needs serious revaluation and study. Paul teaches the doctrine of new creation when all things become new and old things in life had passed away, a total change of life after being born again. I don’t know a born again person who has this kind of realistic and truthful experience. How many born again people in jail that you know of?  Be honest, not all things became new by claiming the born again experience.

John wrote something about having the power to become children of God. The power is given to those who would follow Jesus Christ and believe in His name. This is not new birth. We don’t have the power to be born again by any means. We could have the “right” to become part of the family as children by the will of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

John 1:11-13

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become

children of God, to those who believe in His name:

who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus considers us as His brothers and sisters if we hear and obey His words. His Father is also our Father because we love Him by abiding in His words. Christ is an example of an obedient Son. He did what His Father asked Him to do.

John 8:42-44

Jesus said to them,

“If God were your Father, you would love Me,

for I proceeded forth and came from God;

nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
“Why do you not understand My speech?

Because you are not able to listen to My word.
“You are of your father the devil,

and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning,

and does not stand in the truth,

because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,

for he is a liar and the father of it.

I agree with the Apostle Peter when he wrote about the subject of being “Born Again” because it correlates with our Lord’s teaching. We can never know and experience new birth apart from the Words of Christ. Obeying the truth through the Spirit in love is a new beginning, having a new start, and a new life.  It is a spiritual experience generated by the word of the Lord that endures forever. The seed (the Word of the Lord) germinates as we hear and practice it.

1 Pet 1:22-25
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren,
love one another fervently with a pure heart,
having been born again,
not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
because “All flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

No one has ever gone into heaven except

the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.

John 3:13

For I have come down from heaven not to do my will

but to do the will of him who sent me.

John 6:38-39

Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word who came down from heaven. He didn’t originate from the Middle East but from His Father in “heaven”. If we miss this truth and believe that Jesus was simply and purely from earth, then we should stop listening to His words. The real Son of God is from above with the Father. Jesus is the only person who can tell us accurately about heaven since He lived there from eternity compared to His short mission on earth of just about thirty-three years.

Let us not be confused and be lost while figuring out the Father and Son relationship. The Father coexisted with the Son and vice-versa. A father can’t be a father without a son. A son can’t be a son without a father. That relationship was divinely conceived to illustrate what kind of relationship we must partake with the Almighty. We seem to miss this divine reality when we think of this relationship on material and physical level. However, let us remember that Jesus Christ is the mystical Word of God who is Way, the Truth, and the Life from the beginning.

Now, Jesus says that we should not allow our hearts to fail and worry about the troubles of this world. We are stable or not overly concerned for He is still in control. We shall continue as the  instruments of peace. The earth is not our final abode. To some, heaven is their final place to spend eternity. Heaven could mean many things. To us our life after this is a place reserved and prepared by Jesus Himself so that where He is, there we will be also. Interestingly enough, Jesus didn’t call that place, heaven. The name of the place was not given but could be somewhere in heaven. This is a glorious place specially prepared for those who follow Him and His Words.

]]> http://www.wojc.com/2012/04/20/who-came-from-heaven/feed/ 0 http://www.wojc.com/2012/04/12/you-will-be-scattered/ http://www.wojc.com/2012/04/12/you-will-be-scattered/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:31:29 +0000 admin http://www.wojc.com/?p=227 Continue reading →]]> “Do you now believe? 

 Indeed the hour is coming,

yes, has now come,

that you will be scattered,

each to his own,

and will leave Me alone.

And yet I am not alone,

because the Father is with Me. 

 These things I have spoken to you,

that in Me you may have peace.

 In the world you will have tribulation;

but be of good cheer,

I have overcome the world.”

John 16:31-33

Jesus spoke of trouble (tribulation) in this world. All troubles of every kind and magnitude. This world is in trouble, no doubt about it. The improvements and monetary investments in this world are in downward spiral. The dream is getting dimmer everyday. Her beauty and grandeur had been ruined recklessly by her inhabitants.

Everywhere we look, we can see the evilness of human deceitfulness. We can not trust our government civil servants anymore. Big corporate institutions driven by their greed are literally looting the country. The world’s system makes them heartless and void of clear conscience.

The kingdom of Christ is not in this world. He came to give light and life to this world. But people refused to follow Him and His teachings; instead they embraced their own man-made beliefs. Those who follow and live by His words are always of good cheer in times of trouble. They have the peace of in the midst of worldwide tribulation, the collapse of the stock market, the high cost of energy, economic recession and etc.

Always remember the word of the Lord when He says, “I have overcome the world”. Do you now believe on what Jesus says? The world of Jesus Christ is different from this world. Believers are untouchables in the world of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the Blessed people. They are filled with love, meek, living their testimony and each to its own. I don’t see my brothers and sisters in assembly but I know they are scattered around the world.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,

He that heareth my word,

and believeth on him that sent me,

hath everlasting life,

and shall not come into condemnation;

but is passed from death unto life.

 Verily, verily, I say unto you,

The hour is coming, and now is,

when the dead shall hear

the voice of the Son of God:

and they that hear shall live.
John 5:24-25

Aramaic scholars have transliterated the words of Christ, “Verily, Verily, I say unto you” in this way, “Amen, Amen;  I give my word to you”.

This is a remarkable exposition and it reinforces our belief that Jesus was in commitment, binding Himself with every word He says to us. If Jesus was the Word and only became flesh later on, incarnated in a form of man, then the words that came out of His lips were part of Him. He is the Bread of life that we can partake and eat. He not only gives His words but Himself every time He says something to His hearers. Now we can understand why He says that His words are life and spirit, contrary to the ordinary words of men that were written in letters and ink. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.

“Amen, Amen; I give my word to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”. John 6:47-51

ORAL GOSPEL

There was a point in time when the teachings of Christ were transmitted person to person, mouth to mouth without the benefit of a written note or manuscript. It was done several years after the death and resurrection of the Lord. These unwritten words of Jesus are known as the Oral Gospel. People were converted and became disciples of Christ through the preaching of the oral gospel. They must have memorized the words of Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit to continue spreading the oral gospel.

Paul and the other apostles had not yet written any epistles; however the oral gospel were in place to powerfully claim the lives of many sinners to Christ. Was it possible to follow Christ without the guidance of the epistles? Yes, you can read it in the Book of Acts that recorded the story and growth of the body of believers through the oral gospel. There were martyrs who died for the gospel they heard but not read.

(Thursday, 12 June 2003) – Written by Web Master – Last Updated (Thursday, 05 January 2006)

 with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength.’

Mark 12:30

Jesus teaches the existence of individual soul. Each person has a soul, the intangible part of our being. We have soul in us whether we like it or not. Though you may not see your soul but it is real as your physical body . Jesus knows our make up; we are made of body, soul and spirit. Pay attention to what He is saying about this subject called “Soul”.

 For what will it profit a man

if he gains the whole world,

and loses his own soul? 

 Or what will a man give

in exchange for his soul?

1. It means losing your identity.

Once we lose your soul, we lose your identity also. You become a statistic, from being a person to a faceless number. You will forget who you are and you don’t care what may happen to you. You don’t want to remember who you are and you will take anything to do this and resort to selective memory.

 2.     It means losing your purpose in life.

A lost soul is purposeless person. He is living in a meaningless life. His or her number one priority in life is himself or herself. He is the “god” to himself or herself.

He is a self-conceited person whose philosophy is “Whatever will be, will be”. He believes only in himself even though he keeps changing his mind and a double minded man.

3.     It means losing your worth of life.

There is no life worth living for a lost soul. You feel dead even you are still breathing. Hopeless people usually does not see the future, there is no tomorrow. Money can buy them way, way less than their life’s value. You think you are worthless.

4.     It means losing your soul in hell.

I am hesitant to include hell in this topic. But since Jesus mentioned about it, I have no recourse but to include hell on this article. I believe there is a literal hell somewhere because Jesus has said about it many times.

If there is no hell, you won’t lose anything. But if really there is a place called hell and don’t believe about it and live like hell, you will be definitely a loser.

And do not fear those who kill the body

 but cannot kill the soul.

But rather fear Him who is able

 to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matt 10:28-29

And I will say to my soul,

 ”Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years;

take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”‘

  But God said to him, ‘Fool!

This night your soul will be required of you;

then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself,

and is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:19-21

all ye that labour and are heavy laden,

 and I will give you rest.

 Take my yoke upon you,

and learn of me;

for I am meek and lowly in heart:

and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

 For my yoke is easy,

and my burden is light.

Matt 11:28-30

 Jesus read the Book of Moses and some of the prophets but not all Old Testament books of the Bible. There are many passages in the Old Testament books that are worthy of reading for they contain divine messages from God. They are far above any other historical books about the nation of Israel. No religion on earth can reduce the importance of the Scriptures.

Christ is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. The gist of all the Scriptures is loving God and our neighbors. Just to know the Scriptures, without practicing love is nothing. We should read and practice the teachings of Christ and then read the Scriptures later. We stop reading anything that hampers our task in loving our Father and our neighbors.

Our rule of conduct can only be found in the words of Christ. We must deal exclusively with His Words. We are not supposed to treat other sayings in the Bible and other holy books as equal with the Words of Christ. The casual reading of the Old Testament is not good to the understanding of our Father’s plan in Christ Jesus.

Christ was given and sent to this world to bring forth understanding after years of religious darkness based on earlier laws and codes. I have read the Old Testament myself many, many times and I nothing bad to say against it. If you feel reading it, read it wisely, and don’t forget to obey it, otherwise you will be such a fool not to follow it.

Our priority is in the Words of Jesus Christ which is spirit and life. Let us come to Him and learn from Him. He is meek and lowly. His lessons are easy and not complicated to understand. His yoke is light. Lastly, read all you can read, but what matters most in the final analysis is doing what Christ says. So, focus on the words of Christ in searching the Truth. They are light and easy to undertake.

 But the hour is coming, and now is,

when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;

 for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him

must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:23-24

 But when you pray, go into your room,

close the door and pray to your Father,

 who is unseen.

Then your Father,

who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you.

Matt 6:6

 No one has seen the Father

 except the one who is from God;

only he has seen the Father

John 6:46

 And the Father Himself, who sent Me,

 has testified of Me.

You have neither heard His voice at any time,

 nor seen His form. 

 But you do not have His word abiding in you,

because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.

John 5:37-39

Jesus spoke the truth about His Father. The Lord God is His Father. God is spirit and no one has seen God with his own eyes. The Father is unseen and we must accept the fact that He cannot be seen in His totality. If God is everywhere or omnipresent, how can we see Him as God? What part of God can your eyes see if He is really visible?

We only worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is in His natural state when He is invisible. If we worship something we see, then we are worshiping a false god. The basic principle and absolute attribute of God is that He is Spirit and therefore He is invisible, without form and boundary. If you claim that you have seen God, you must have seen something else. You can only see God when you don’t see Him in His totality.

We can worship the Father anywhere we choose for His presence is everywhere. God cannot be isolated or confined in one place. We can worship God inside or outside a church. Men from time to time tried to humanize God, create their own God that they can see, hear or touch. We are not surprised that Jesus never claimed to His disciples that He was God because of the fact that God is a Spirit. However, we are not questioning the Deity of Christ.

We can only rightfully worship the only true God if we keep the words of Jesus Christ.

has testified of Me.

You have neither heard His voice at any time,

nor seen His form.

But you do not have His word abiding in you,

because whom He sent,

Him you do not believe.

You search the Scriptures,

for in them you think you have eternal life;

and these are they which testify of Me.

 But you are not willing to come to Me

 that you may have life.

John 5:37-40

We may think that if search the Scriptures, we can have eternal life. The Scriptures do testify about Jesus Christ and many others. The eternal life is in Jesus Christ. He is the Life and He alone can give everlasting life. Jesus quoted from the Scriptures from time to time as needed to emphasize the truth. Many have considered the Scriptures as a written inspired word of God.

The Father has sent Jesus Christ and testified of Him. The invisible Lord God spoke through His Son, manifested in the flesh as a man like us. Whoever listens to Him listens to the Lord God who sent Him. Searching the Scriptures to find the eternal life was the practice of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

We don’t have eternal life even if we own a Scriptures or a Bible. It is possible to memorize the Scriptures and not willing to come to Jesus Christ to have eternal life. The Bible has included the Scriptures when it was compiled and canonized many centuries after Christ. The Bible is a large book to read and use in searching the Truth in Christ Jesus. Let us come to Christ whether we read the entire Bible or not. Many had reached for Christ during His time without the benefit of reading the Bible for there was none then.

Search the Scriptures for within them we may find the treasure of a lifetime. The Bible has two sections; the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Four Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John of the New Testament where the Life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ were recorded.

What we care is the oral gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we can find life abundantly. This is the true and original gospel— the spoken words of Jesus Christ written in our heart with the help of the Holy Spirit of God.