End Days - Last Trip
1 Timothy 4:1-5 The Message Paraphrase
[Part of the end of the world Series]
By the time Jesus was born, the Jewish people have evolved from doing God's will to following man-made rules and rituals, and making it appear that they are doing God's will.
Humankind has done this every time they started a religion. They turn God into a legalistic set of dos and don'ts. And everytime one can do the dos and avoid the don'ts, they move one step higher because the more righteous they become, like there is a heavenly scoreboard somewhere and it's a race to heaven.
Religions are man's futile attempts to reach up and touch God, reach a transcendental state of being or enter the spiritual realm.
Heaven Came Down
Jesus came to put a stop to this nonsense. It is written that the ancient Hebrews already tried to reach heaven by building the Tower of Babel. They failed. But this did not stop every generation to attempt the same.
Through the centuries people have experimented with not just religion but with drugs, alcohol, activities or exercises to reach heaven. Indeed they reached some place where eventually they would come crashing back down to earth. And so they keep trying so they can reach the next high.
People didn't learn the lesson that they cannot reach God with their own devices and schemes, and through their religion of man-made rules, rituals and acts of righteousness.
God came down and reached down to us through Jesus of Nazareth. God's Kingdom has been within our reach, ever since. We just needed to reach back out to Christ.
But after Jesus went back to heaven and after His disciples passed on, people again went back to their own ways, their old habits.
They again went into chasing after false highs, and false teachers who restarted teaching more and more false doctrine. Mankind again went into trying religion in an attempt to reach up to the heavens, reach up to God. This is understable as nothing in this world can ever satisfy human desires.
What may be unknown to some is that God is here, in our midst. He is speaking to us through Scriptures.
If we don't read God's Word we will always be deceived by teachers who may or may not be deliberately lying, for they too may be deceived themselves.
Last Days
Although what will be prevalent in the later days, the end days even, is a proliferance of deliberate lies and a falling away from God. This is a sign of the end of days.
But in the last days God will pour His Spirit into all flesh, so that humanity will have the last chance to know Christ and to be saved -- kind of like the last call to board the last trip to heaven. That way no one can plead ignorance and say, they didn't know. And then the end will come.
Jesus came to put a stop to this nonsense. It is written that the ancient Hebrews already tried to reach heaven by building the Tower of Babel. They failed. But this did not stop every generation to attempt the same.
Through the centuries people have experimented with not just religion but with drugs, alcohol, activities or exercises to reach heaven. Indeed they reached some place where eventually they would come crashing back down to earth. And so they keep trying so they can reach the next high.
People didn't learn the lesson that they cannot reach God with their own devices and schemes, and through their religion of man-made rules, rituals and acts of righteousness.
God came down and reached down to us through Jesus of Nazareth. God's Kingdom has been within our reach, ever since. We just needed to reach back out to Christ.
But after Jesus went back to heaven and after His disciples passed on, people again went back to their own ways, their old habits.
They again went into chasing after false highs, and false teachers who restarted teaching more and more false doctrine. Mankind again went into trying religion in an attempt to reach up to the heavens, reach up to God. This is understable as nothing in this world can ever satisfy human desires.
What may be unknown to some is that God is here, in our midst. He is speaking to us through Scriptures.
If we don't read God's Word we will always be deceived by teachers who may or may not be deliberately lying, for they too may be deceived themselves.
Last Days
Although what will be prevalent in the later days, the end days even, is a proliferance of deliberate lies and a falling away from God. This is a sign of the end of days.
But in the last days God will pour His Spirit into all flesh, so that humanity will have the last chance to know Christ and to be saved -- kind of like the last call to board the last trip to heaven. That way no one can plead ignorance and say, they didn't know. And then the end will come.
Another Hallelujah
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