Paul's Passing Thoughts

Like any other super cult, Protestantism has hijacked and redefined every biblical definition of words and concepts from front cover to back cover. Any denomination that believes the clergy has aut…

Source: The Horrible Protestant Doctrine of Mortification and Vivification

Assurance of salvation comes from understanding the new birth and knowing there is no law to judge you. It must be understood that the new birth is a literal spiritual rebirth. Protestantism is fraught with doubt of salvation because its orthodoxy calls for no assurance as a driving force behind sanctification. Protestant orthodoxy redefines the new birth as a legal declaration rather than a literal new birth. The new birth and righteousness (justification) cannot be separated; so, if justification is a mere legal declaration as confessed by Protestant creeds, so is the new birth.

Literal new birth changes the relationship of the law to the believer. There are only two kinds of people in the world: those under law and those under grace. Those under the law are under its condemnation; those under grace are under God’s loving help described by the same law and executed by the law’s application to wise living. A primary proof of new birth is a love for God’s truth. Prior to salvation we were obviously indifferent to God’s truth. The following chart shows forth the Bible’s dual perspective on the law.

Always remember there is no law to condemn you; it died with the old you. Always think of God as your literal Father, and pray to Him accordingly as one speaking to a literal Father. Seek God’s forgiveness for failure to love Him and others per the law’s wisdom, but not as one under the law’s condemnation.

Lastly, strive to love rather than focusing on not sinning. Technically, where there is no law of condemnation there is no condemning sin. However, a lack of love grieves the Spirit who has sealed us until the redemption of our mortal bodies.

Do this and think this way and assurance of salvation will be your experience.

paul   

Gnosticism and all its various forms was the primary nemesis of 1^st century Christianity. In fact, Gnosticism is the foundation of the clear majority of religions save a few. What is it?

It shouldn’t surprise us, but it is the religion that even spoofed God’s created beings Adam and Eve. If it worked on them, why reinvent the wheel? Gnosticism is the “knowledge of good and evil.” It is a strict state-of-being reality between the material world and what is invisible. The material world is evil and the invisible world is good in a manner of speaking, but in all cases, escaping the material world signified by bondage for the freedom of the “spiritual realm” is the utopic goal. The escape is progressive via some religious doctrine and finalized by death.

God drove a Mac truck over Gnosticism through Christ who united holiness with the material world, but of course, religious people can be very thick headed. Most of Christ’s life was a demonstrable statement against Gnosticism.

First, Gnosticism makes weakness and sin synonymous. Mortality and holiness/goodness are mutually exclusive. In the case of Protestantism, perfect law-keeping of the biblical variety defines goodness. Hence, the only good President is a Christian president and if a Christian president doesn’t get elected all bets are off; basically, the United States might as well get nuked by China tomorrow. In fact, we deserve such for not electing Mike Huckabee since we are a decadent nation that has obviously turned its back on God because we refuse to elect a “Christian” president.

This will present itself something like this when someone like Trump is elected: “Our President is Jesus (pronounced, “GeeeeeeJuuuuus”) not Donald Trump the evil one.

Secondly, infatuation with the trending exchange of power event will be deemed man-worship as opposed to Jesus-worship. It’s an either/or view of reality.

And thirdly, this results in a primary hallmark of Gnosticism: denial of cause and effect, and fourthly, an utter indifference to present-day societal injustice.

Let me summarize the mentality of numbers 3 and 4 this way: “Whether we have another holocaust in our day is neither here nor there because Jesus is coming back anyway. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen because GeeeeJuuuuus is in total control. Besides, God is presently judging America for not electing Mike Huckabee anyway.”

This manifestation of Gnosticism denies practical cause and effect and assumes that God cares little about present societal justice in the present material world. Of course, this is the antithesis of what the Bible states about God who is “angry everyday” with present injustice.

Gnosticism throws out the material baby with the material bathwater—it looks at the baby in the featured picture and says, “That’s what happens when people turn their back on God; praise GeeeeJuuuuus.”

Those not of the Gnostic worldview prefer as little carnage as possible until Jesus returns and are therefore willing to partake in present-day practical cause and effect. Gnostics will have more of a “let go and let God” indifference to practicality because everything material sucks anyway.

Gnostic underpinning will often lead to fundamental Gnostics under many different nomenclatures to deny the above intellectually, but nevertheless function per Gnosticism in the practice of their worldview.

Really, all denominations, Calvinists, Arminians, and Baptists et al should just come under one umbrella and sit around the campfire singing Kumbaya because they are all fundamentally Gnostic.

paul