at Amazon.com.
Blessings to you, the readers of this page, in Jesus Christ our Lord. May He guide you and protect you always.
God Lives Inside Us
" . . . for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:17
KJV)
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit Of
God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16 KJV)
<><
We know that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are
simply three different expressions of the same One, Lord God Almighty,
Creator of the Universe. (See
http://patriot.net/users/bmcgin/pearl-thetrinity.html
for Scriptural proof of this.)
And the "Tearing Of The Veil," which happened immediately after Jesus was crucified, is God's clear message to us that no priest or anyone else now stands between us and Him. In the Jewish temple, the veil was the official separation between God and the people. But after Jesus dies, the veil is torn open, the separation is abolished!
The Tearing Of The Veil
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice,
yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain
from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake,
and the rocks rent;
MATTHEW 27:50-51 (KJV)
And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the
ghost.
And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the
top to the bottom.
MARK 15:37-38 (KJV)
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple
was rent in the midst.
LUKE 23:45 (KJV)
Other Scripture confirms that this tearing of the veil signifies that we
now have direct access to God.
HEBREWS 10:14-20 (KJV)
14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them
that are sanctified.
15
Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for
after that he had said before,
16
This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more.
18
Now where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin.
19
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated
for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
<><
How then, did we Christians ever get the idea that somehow the official members of some church organization were entitled to stand between us and God? How did we ever get the notion that only priests were permitted to perform certain spiritual functions?
The answer is clear and obvious, once you think about it. Jesus was a Jew, and Christianity was born in Judaism, taking the Old Testament Bible as sacred text. Under the Old Testament, there were priests, the Levites, who were exclusively entitled to perform most spiritual functions. They were supported by tithes, ten percent of all increase, which were required by God to be paid to support them and the entire religious establishment. The Levitical priests did, in fact, stand between the individual and God in many ways. So it was understandable that early Christians would be predisposed to having some kind of priestly structure between themselves and God: this is what they were used to having.
And there is a second historical reason, perhaps even more important. In the year 325, the Roman Emperor Constantine called the Council Of Nicaea and proclaimed Christianity as the official state religion of the Roman Empire. At this point, millions of non-believers became nominal Christians, despite the fact that they may not have truly believed in Jesus or accepted Him as their personal Lord and Saviour, as required by Romans 10:9.
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9 KJV)
Now, you couldn't leave much of anything to the individual "Christian,"
because so
many of them didn't actually believe in Jesus Christ! So it was necessary,
politically, to have some formal organization, with special powers, to
stand between the individual and God. There needed to be some structural
way to organize and manage all the non-believers so that they conformed
to the outward appearances of Christianity, as required by the Emperor.
And
this is how so many people came to believe that priests stood between
themselves and God.
For a true Christian, priests are not required for anything: not for marriage, not for baptism, not for forgiveness of sins, not for administration of Holy Communion, not for any spiritual task whatsoever. Each individual Christian is his own priest, standing in direct personal contact with the Lord God Almighty.
_____________________________________________________________
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light;" (1 Peter 2:9 KJV)
_____________________________________________________________
As a human organization, any church has some administrative tasks that
must be performed. Buildings must be maintained, programs printed, phone
calls made, music prepared, worship services organized and executed.
For these things we may have church organizations and officials and layers
of
authority. But nobody
stands between you and God, spiritually. "The Lord is my Shepherd," not
some other human.
Perhaps some people cannot accept this. They feel unworthy or incapable of being their own priest. They feel they need someone else to do these things for them. For such people, it is acceptable for them to turn over certain of their own rights to a church of some sort. This is similar to giving someone else a legal "power of attorney," to act in your behalf. But always remember that the authority flows directly from God to you, not from God through some church organization, and then to you.
<><
May the Lord bless this presentation of His holy Word.
Bill McGinnis <><
bmcgin@patriot.net
http://patriot.net/users/bmcgin/ministries.html
"Teaching The Joyful Christian Life"
http://patriot.net/users/bmcgin/chapel.html
INTERNET DAILY CHAPEL
Internet Daily Chapel
Bill McGinnis Ministries
May the Lord bless this presentation of His holy Word.
Rev. Bill McGinnis <><
bmcgin@patriot.net
See more pages like this, at our Index of Pearls Of Faith, a treasury of Biblical truths.
Please also see our related pages . . .
CHRISTIAN
ETHICS & HUMAN RELATIONS
POLITICS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Blessings to you. May God help us all.
Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org
All of our original content on all of our web pages is in the Public Domain. You may link to these pages by any means you choose, including "framing."
Index of LoveAllPeople.org: - ETHICS & HUMAN RELATIONS - POLITICS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS - CHRISTIAN - AUTOMOTIVE - LAW & LEGAL SERVICES - HEALTH & FITNESS - PUBLISHING & CONSULTING - AFFILIATES & FEATURED PRODUCTS - SITE MAP - CONTACT LINK
Search all pages in The LoveAllPeople.org Network,See what we do => On The Web and Newsgroups-1 and Newsgroups-2. To support us, please click => HERE!.
using the search box below . . .For list of suggested searches, click => HERE!
See our
Huge
selection of products