1 Corinthians 15:1
¶Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Galatians 1:6
¶I marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7 Which is not another; but
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say
I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed.
Another gospel?
Trinity doctrine teaches that the 1st
person of the godhead (The Father), sent the 2nd person of the godhead (The
Son) to die.
'Oneness' people try to preserve both the Oneness of God and
the god-hood of Christ at the same time by saying that it was God the Father,
manifested in the form of the Son that died for us.
Both contradict the same cardinal tenet of scripture-
God is immortal. God cannot die.
1 Timothy 1:17
Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God,
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:16
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power
everlasting. Amen.
The question of God Almighty dying for our sins shouldn't
trouble a scripturally informed mind for an instant.
It isn't found anywhere in the Bible and it contradicts what
the Bible does say.
No matter how the Theologians try to spiritualise it, the
issue is simple:
Either the man Christ Jesus died and was given immortality by God subsequent to
his resurrection (As all that are partakers of the first resurrection will) or
he is God Almighty and so immortal (In which case he could not literally or
actually die). He cannot be both.
What do we mean by Christ's death?
There are many different beliefs about what death is.
From the purely physical definition- the cessation of vital
signs and the decomposition of the body- to the Pagan concepts of becoming an
angel or living on in a disembodied spirit form.
The 1 Corinthians passage above makes it absolutely clear
that Christ's death was according to the
scriptures.
In other words, to understand what the Bible means when it says Christ died,
our understanding of death must be according
to the scriptures.
So what do the
scriptures teach us about death?
Death is caused by the separation of body and spirit:
James 2:26
For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.
A dead person has no memory:
Psalms 6:5
For in death there is no remembrance of
thee:
in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Thoughts cease:
Psalms 146:4
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to
his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing,
neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
because of this A dead person can do nothing:
Ecclesiastes
9:10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Psalms 88:10
¶Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?
Selah.
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the
grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Isaiah 38:18
For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go
down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
The scripture teaches us that Jesus died:
Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a
loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard
it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
36 And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar,
and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see
whether Elias will come to take him down.
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
The words ghost and spirit are synonymous. Jesus' spirit
separated from his body.
At that moment he died. And to say that he died from a
Biblical standpoint means that not only did all his vital signs cease, but that
all the other conditions which the Bible teaches come upon a dead person, came
upon him.
In the grave Christ was inactive. For 3 days and 3 nights he
remembered nothing, thought nothing, did nothing.
Before you begin redefining the Biblical concept of what
death is in order to fit your theological model you need to beware:
This is the gospel you are dealing with. You need to take
your shoes off and tread carefully for this is holy ground.
To say that any of the scriptural symptoms of death did not
apply to Christ is to question the very gospel of your salvation- that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures
We also need to understand what the Bible means by hell
because prior to his resurrection that's where Christ was:
Acts 2:31
He seeing this before spake of the
resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh did see corruption.
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are
witnesses.
To begin with, let me make it crystal clear what hell is
not.
Hell is not, according to the scriptures, the kingdom of
Satan.
People speak of ‘demons from hell’, the ‘forces of hell’ and
‘all hell breaking loose’.
Such talk is
unbiblical.
Nowhere in the Bible is the word hell used
in this way- you go ahead and look it up!
This is a cultural norm.
Instead, hell in the New Testament is the translation of 2
Greek words:
1
Hades
This was the word used to describe a temporary storage place for the
dead, where they 'sleep', awaiting resurrection and judgement.
That is why Revelation 20.13-14 describes
Hades delivering up the dead which are in it and then being cast into the Lake
of Fire.
It is during their time here that the conditions of death described above
apply.
It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Sheol.
2
Gehenna
This was the name of a place in the valley of Hinnom just south of
Jerusalem. It was the place where rubbish and the dead bodies of criminals and
animals were burned. It was a huge bonfire, which burned day and night and
around its edges maggots fed on the rotting flesh of the corpses.
In his teaching Jesus used it as an analogy for the Lake of Fire prepared for
the devil and his angels, where those who reject the gospel will suffer
everlasting destruction.
It is mentioned in scriptures such as
Matthew 5.22 & 29-30; 10.28; 18.9; 23.15 &
33; Mark 9.43.
(In fact Jesus taught about hell more than anyone else in the whole Bible,
shame most preachers nowadays avoid the subject!)
When the Bible describes Jesus as being in hell between his
death and resurrection, in the Old Testament passage which prophesies this
(Psalm 16.9-11) the word used is 'Sheol';
and in the New Testament where Psalm 16 is quoted by Peter (Acts 2.27 & 31)
it is 'Hades'.
Jesus did not die and go to Gehenna. He died and went down
into 'Hades', and there he slept until the Father raised him 3 days later.
That is why on the cross he cried out 'It is finished!'.
Christ's work was done. His suffering was over. The onus was now on the Father
to fulfil his promise and raise his Son to life again.
Jesus went to hell
and took the keys to death and hell from the devil
In the box below is the following scriptural account of when and how this took place:
…
That's right. There is no scriptural backing for this myth.
Jesus was given the keys to release the dead from the place
where the dead are stored and it was his Father that gave them to him:
John 5:21
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them;
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
25 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.
26 For as the
Father hath life in himself;
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
28 Marvel
not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation.
Revelation 1:18
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and,
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;
and have the keys of hell and of death.
Teachings that Jesus was tormented in the Fires of Hades or
that he went to the kingdom of the enemy and took keys from him… (etc. etc.
etc.) are all based either on a misunderstanding of the Biblical definition of
the word hell, or a confusion between the words 'Gehenna' and 'Hades'.
Remember- Jesus was dead for this entire period.
Any teaching of Jesus being active during his death, whether
praising God or warring with the devil call into question the most foundational
fact of our salvation:
Jesus died for our sins according
to the scriptures.
And by calling into question the genuineness of his
death,
the genuineness of his resurrection is also called into question.
Jesus died and God raised him.
You either accept the gospel or reject it- but don’t you dare mess with it!
Because any other teaching which contradicts these cardinal truths
is in danger of being another gospel.
What did God sacrifice?
The true gospel of Jesus Christ was prefigured in the Old
Testament most strikingly in the testing of Abraham
Genesis 22:1
¶And it came to pass after these things,
that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold,
here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him
there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
This is the first place in the Bible where love is mentioned.
God chose to test the measure of Abraham's love for him by
asking him to sacrifice what was most precious to him in all the world. The
life of his own son.
And Abraham obeyed.
Many men in the Bible willingly gave their lives, but Abraham's sacrifice remains supreme causing even God to call out:
Genesis 22:11
¶And the angel of the LORD called unto
him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou any thing unto him: for
now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is this:
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.
God, having tested the love of Abraham, subjected his own
love to the same measure.
More so, because as Jesus hung on the cross gasping for air,
his back ploughed like a field and the beard ripped from his face, there was no
command to stop.
That's the love of God
Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
You may well marvel:
"But Jesus- so perfect, so sinless, so noble... how can
God have been willing to exchange him for me?"
2 Peter 1:17
For he received from God the Father
honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.
That’s how much God loves you.
If you and I, being sinners and not having seen Jesus are
able to love him- How much more his heavenly Father!
God saw all his works, and read even his heart.
Imagine how pleased he was with his beloved Son!
God, who is love, had in the man Christ Jesus the worthiest
and most deserving subject for his love out of all his creation.
Imagine how the Father loved the Son!
John 3:35
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into his hand.
John 5:20
For the Father loveth the Son, and
sheweth him all things that himself doeth:
and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
And yet he exchanged him- for you and I.
And all this, while we were yet sinners and his enemies.
That's the love of God.
The greatness of his love is expressed in the greatness of his sacrifice.
To say that God was merely
'disrobing himself of flesh', or that it was only the flesh of Christ that died
while the ‘God’ lived on belittles both the sacrifice God made, making it less
than Abraham was willing to do; and the sacrifice of Christ, who gave his all.
The Son of God was not ‘God playing
a role’. His body was more than just some fleshly box. He agonised in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
Christ did not want to die:
Mark 14:33
And he taketh with him Peter and James
and John,
and began to be sore amazed, and to be
very heavy;
34 And saith unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto
death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a
little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that,
if it were possible, the hour might pass
from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto
thee;
take away this cup from me: nevertheless
not what I will, but what thou wilt.
If there was some
alternative way for Christ to have avoided the cross and still save mankind. If
that were possible, he would have chosen it. But no:
Hebrews 5:7
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Jesus was not just a helpless pawn. He dreaded the death of the cross- but because of love overcame his fear and did it anyway.
John 10:18
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it
down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father.
So then, to reject the gospel
entails a rejection of the love, mercy and free forgiveness of God given to us
in his sacrifice of his beloved, only begotten Son.
It is a rejection of the only
lifeline God has extended to the human race to be saved from the fires of
‘Gehenna’.
As Jonah said:
Jonah 2:8
They that observe lying vanities forsake
their own mercy.
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1. Introduction |
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10. Seen! |
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17. Jesus- a Godsend |
18. 1 Creator |
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20. The firstborn |
21. The name of God |
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