The teaching about righteousness is a Biblical term that occurs in the book of Hebrews.

Of whom [ Melchizedek] we have many things to say, and hard to explain, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14 KJ2000)

I have written extensively on this subject, particularly in my books When We Awake and Food Sacrificed to Idols.  Given the great apostasy of the church as clearly seen in other links on this site, and as personally experienced on The Shack Forum the last three days, we would do well to review it.

First, Hebrews 5:14 counsels mature Christians to become able to discern between good and evil.  Anyone who cannot do this remains a babe in Christ, unskillful in the word of righteousness.  This means that such a one cannot understand the Word of God, the Bible.  Oh, he will think he can, but his words and lawless attitude betray him as a mere babe.

The teaching about righteousness has nothing to do with obeying a particular set of principles, commonly called The Law, through the power of the flesh. All of history shows that mankind cannot perfectly obey God’s Law.  This teaching also has nothing to do with church-made laws or man’s laws. Instead, the teaching about righteousness is all about being led by the Holy Spirit. Through his leading and by the washing of the water of the Word, we learn and are enabled to apply God’s principles to all of life.  Thus moral principles like forsaking fornication certainly apply to us in the natural as written in Exodus 20.  On the other hand, by following the Spirit we understand that we do not need to continue sacrificing bulls, sheep, goats, or birds according to the book of Leviticus.  This is because Jesus himself fulfilled all of those sacrifices and we apply his sacrifice to our life by faith in him.

Jesus himself teaches us to be perfect, not perfect by some human standard, but perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect.  God calls this perfection “righteousness.”  Another word for this is “holiness.”  Our God IS righteous and holy and fully expects us to be too.  Jesus did not make some flippant, unattainable comment when he said, “be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.”  He meant it.

So how do we “be perfect.”  First, become acquainted with God’s ways.  Get to know his definitions of right and wrong.  Learn how to apply these principles to all of life’s many situations.  Second, begin to desire to obey particular standards and rules of conduct.  This has to do with taking every thought captive to Christ so that you will obey his will instead of your own which has been steeped in sin.  Of course this obedience does not “earn” your salvation.   Only an imbecile would suggest that it does once he understands that Jesus died for us and forgives us our sins.  Third, repent of anything you do that you know is contrary to God’s will.  Anything that is not of faith is sin, and don’t fool yourself into believing that your clearly sinful acts are done in faith.  I’m afraid that won’t work with God.

John said it clearly, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.  [10] By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:9-10 ESV)  So, you may disagree and say that God does not call us to be righteous and holy, but you will be wrong.  You would be in agreement with Satan instead of God.

The Old Testament proves we cannot perfectly keep God’s Law.  God knows you are not inherently perfect.  That’s why he gave us an escape valve from sin.  It’s called repentance.  That’s why its the first elementary doctrine of the Christian faith mentioned in Hebrews 6.  So long as we faithfully seek to obey Christ and repent when we fail, we maintain our perfect standing before God.  This is all God asks of us.  [Next]

I recently commended the book entitled The Shack by William Paul Young.  I find that I no longer can because so many take its primary teaching and distort it into lawlessness.   The book teaches a profound truth about God’s forgiveness and the fact that Jesus died to reconcile all men to God.  We find the full truth of this in the beauty and mystery of the doctrine of “universal reconciliation.”  Many people forget (or never learned) this major tenet of the Gospel in their profound zeal to hurry people into hell.  But, the book can and does cause a problem in the wrong, zealous hands.

Immediately after I read The Shack I gave it to my wife to read, who did.  We have now discussed it on numerous occasions.   It does contain some theological flaws, but what book doesn’t?  Again, who possesses perfect wisdom with respect to God’s truth?  No one you or I know!  But, there is a huge theological flaw in The Shack that must be addressed, which is that people can and are using the book to defend lawlessness.  I will address some of those issues here.

Is love lawless?  The question is, did Jesus “put away” the law, or did he “fulfill” the law?  If he put away the law, then sin no longer exists.  If sin no longer exists, then evil no longer exists.  If God could take care of the sin problem by simply taking care of the law problem, that is, by annulling the law, then Jesus died for nothing.  Why? Because God could have just never implemented the law to begin with.

But, love is not lawless.  This is why the Scripture says, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” (Psalms 85:10 KJ2000)  In God’s plan mercy, which is another name for love or peace, meets together with and kisses truth, which is another name for justice (law) or righteousness.  God does not separate the two concepts.  Mercy triumphs over judgment, but never over justice, for mercy and justice are one (think of the Father and the Son who are one yet distinct).  Thus James says, “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy; and mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13 KJ2000)  James makes it clear that judgment for wrongdoing still exists and here he calls judgment without mercy wrongdoing.  The point he makes here is that justice and mercy will require judgment upon those who judge without mercy.

All the rest of Scripture make it equally clear that judgment comes upon the disobedient, rebellious, and unrepentant as well.  But, the goal of God’s judgment ultimately brings restoration to an individual.  Thus justice (righteousness) and mercy (peace) kiss in the restored person bringing him into union with God.  This is the reconciliation that Jesus effected by his death on the cross.

He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:48 KJ2000)

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators [sexually immoral including adulterers and homosexual offenders], and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. (Revelation 22:14-15 KJ2000)  Please note that this verse is at the very end of the Bible.

As true as many concepts in The Shack are, sin is still sin, and God will still bring us to account for sin and unrepentance.  They do err who teach that love and mercy never judge.  It is precisely our willingness to judge with love and mercy that finally brings the rebellious into God’s fold.  Mercy without judgment is exactly what Jude condemns in his book saying, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into licentiousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:4KJ2000)  The word “denying” here means contradicting.  When one uses the doctrine of grace to condone licentiousness he necessarily contradicts Jesus Christ, thus denying him.

Some seem to believe that The Shack teaches that God accepts anyone into his kingdom without requiring them to repent even though they still stand in the midst of their sin.  If it does, then those who accuse the author of The Shack of writing blasphemy are correct.  If you click this link to The Shack Forum you will see some examples of the confusion The Shack brings to people.  This is unfortunately true even of Christians who have, according to their own words, walked with the LORD a long time.   Virtually every person who commented on my post there takes issue with it.  None have a clue about God’s “teaching about righteousness,” and they don’t want to learn.  The Shack has somehow confirmed them in their rebellion to God’s ways.

But, I don’t think The Shack itself teaches lawlessness and licentiousness.  However, the book’s great weakness is that people indeed interpret it to do so.  It provides ground for immature Christians to become entrenched in their lawlessness and belief that God accepts them unconditionally in their sin without ever requiring their repentance.  No, our God is a holy God, and beloved, he will require holiness in each of us before we see his face.  I think the author of The Shack understands this, but most of his readers appear not to.  Therefore I cannot endorse the book because it leads God’s people astray.

God calls us to be like him.  What is he?  What are his characteristics?  We who have believed in Jesus as LORD and Savior have received the earnest of His Spirit.  So, let’s start with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Paul tells us in Galatians 6 that the first fruit of the Spirit is love.  Now, you be love.  How?  What is love?  The ways are endless, but begin with I Corinthians 13.

Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, Does not behave itself rudely, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, keeps no record of evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 KJ2000)

So, consider these attributes of love, meditate upon them, and become them.  Be love.  Next, be joy.  How?  Smile at your wife, your son, your boss, yes, even your enemy.  Greet others even if they don’t greet you.  Be friendly.  Let God’s Spirit come out of you and be seen by others.  Similarly, be peace, be patience, be kindness, be goodness, be faithfulness, be gentleness, and be self-controlled.

God is calling us to be a free people, fully at liberty, who have the royal law written on our hearts.  He is preparing a people in secret and in silence who are learning to be.  He withdrew the feelings of his presence (never his actual presence) from them in order to test them, in order to see if they would stand and walk in his ways on their own.  Many have now learned to just continue in the way they know to be right and true, even in the midst of adversity from the world.  They never feel the sweetness of God’s presence that was so real, so tangible, so common ten or twenty or thirty years ago.  Yet they go on seeking God’s face and walking in his ways.

Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, else they come not near unto you. (Psalms 32:9 KJ2000)

God is coming for his bride, for the one that is now like him, the one who will become one with him.  Be not like the horse, be not like the slave or the servant who need to be told what to do and how to do it.  Be a free man, like the Son of God, who knows the will of his Father and does it, not out of compulsion, not because he has to, not because he obeys a set of rules, but because his will is the same as his Father’s. 

Simply be because your Father IS!

One thing marks almost all the heroes of the faith.  Their children did not walk in their ways.  Samuel serves as a most striking example of this.  The Bible plainly tells us that because his sons did not walk in his ways the people asked for a king.  King David’s sons display moral failures time and  again, in son after son, culminating in possibly the greatest travesty of history, the apostasy of King Solomon.  What is the secret to raising successful children?

Two things are required; a child’s parents must fear the LORD and delight greatly in his commands.  If we will do this, God promises that our descendants shall be mighty upon earth.  Fear God and delight in his ways.  This is no idle injunction.  Here is the secret to life and especially to raising children who will themselves walk after the LORD.  How do we delight greatly in God’s commands?

First, know what God’s commands are.  Read and re-read both the Old and New Testament.  Seek out sincere teachers of God’s Word who can explain the commands you do  not understand.  Put the commands into practice.  For example, one command I had forgotten for awhile is the injunction to take your neighbor’s cattle into your own field if you find it wandering about.  The underlying principle here is that we should do to others as we would have them do to us.  If I lose a valuable animal, I would certainly want my neighbor to retain and restrain it for me if it got over my fence.  Wouldn’t you? 

Well, just a couple days after being reminded of this verse, I drove down a nearby highway and noticed a nice Angus steer outside its fence just off the road.  Immediately I pulled over, looked for the nearest house to the animal and drove there to report the missing beast.  The home-owner knew the owner of the animal and promptly called him so he could save his beef.  This is a simple example of putting God’s commands into practice.

The next step in obeying deals with three issues, what you look at, what you listen to, and what you say.  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  If you fill yourself with the latest lusts of Babylon through its movies, television, pornography, and music, you will naturally pass those lusts on to your children.   If you send your children to public schools that indoctrinate them in the religious values of Babylon, what do you expect them to become?  Do you want to raise virgins holy to the LORD?  Then come out of Babylon.  God promises that you will share in her sins and her plagues in you fail to do that.  Her sins are obvious.  Her plagues are many, including children who rebel against God and go their own way into sad lives of more sin and despair.

The generation of the upright shall be blessed.   This is the Elijah generation that sees the hearts of the children turned to their fathers and the fathers’ hearts turned to their children.  Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures forever.

Praise you the LORD. Blessed is the man that fears the LORD, that delights greatly in his commandments. His descendants shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures forever. Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man shows favor, and lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he sees his desire upon his enemies. He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his strength shall be exalted with honor. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish. (Psalms 112:1-10 KJ2000)

Seven marks the days
in which each week must pass,
the timing of the Sabbath,
the seals and bowls of wrath;
just one beyond the six of man
seven foretells the future,
the essence of God’s plan.

Then we spin our spider’s web
adding line to line
to every new opinion
within the realm of mind;
we add, subtract, and multiply,
dividing by fractions eight,
only to exclaim, “My it’s getting late!

“I’ve discovered secrets unknown to man;
I’ve seen the black abyss;
I’ve fathomed riddles lost in time;
I’ve made the serpent hiss;
My name will be engraved in gold
for all to now behold
the wonders of God’s bliss!”

“Meaningless!” says the teacher,
“You’ve been wrong each time before.
Just seek to quietly obey
and walk through that one door,
then down the narrow path of life
feeding orphans on the way;
do this, and you will live, I say!”

Christians often misuse a key end-times scripture in order to encourage their “back-slidden” brethren to “go back to church.”  They say, “Don’t forsake the assembling together of the brethren for fear of woeful judgment” as they mistakenly quote Hebrews 10:25-27.

But those verses have nothing to do with going to church.  They have everything to do, however, with the parousia, the second coming of our LORD Jesus Christ.  The Greek word translated “the assembling together” in Hebrews 10:25 is episunagoge which is used twice in this passage.  This  word occurs only one other time in all Scripture, in one of the very most important verses concerning Christ’s second coming, 2 Thessalonians 2:1.  This is an important clue for discerning it meaning. 

Paul said to the Thessalonians, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him…” (2 Thessalonians 2:1 KJ2000)  Here the editors translate the word episunagoge as “gathering together,” which is very similar to the meaning of “assembling together” used in Hebrews.  But, notice the context here in 2 Thessalonians.  This passage clearly concerns the gathering together, or assembling together, of Christians to meet Christ at his second coming.  Is the context of Hebrews 10:25 different?

The apostle says in Hebrews, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:25-27 KJ2000)  The context here is “as you see the day approaching.”  This passage concerns the day of the LORD, the time of Christ’s second coming, NOW!

Hebrews 10:25-27 means to prepare God’s people for his coming.  The verse deals with readiness to meet him face to face and exhorts us to quit sinning willfully.  Why?  Because no sacrifice for sin but Jesus exists or remains to us.  Many are called, but few are chosen.  Jesus calls us to emulate him, to mourn over our sinfulness, and seek his perfection and holiness.   We should especially  do this as we see the day approaching.  Why?  Because those who think they have it made simply because they make a proclamation of faith in Jesus will be sorely surprised when they miss the rapture, the parousia.  God calls us to be holy as he is holy.

John also speaks of this time in this important verse, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:1-2 KJ2000)

This appearance of God alluded to here is the second coming Paul speaks of 2 Thessalonians 2:1.  Paul, John, and Hebrews all speak about the same event.  The doctrine of episunagoge, then, is this:  Do not forsake the teaching about being ready to meet Jesus face to face at his second coming, especially as you see that day approaching.  This is the doctrine of separation, sanctification, and holiness.

Long ago God established a rule of law that truth must be established by two or more witnesses.  The two primary reasons for this law were to protect innocent people who were accused of a crime and to establish principles of truth.  I am an attorney and I can tell you from 20 years of experience the wisdom of this one rule.  I have had many trials before judges where the evidence simply consisted of one party’s word against the other’s.  In such cases the judge cannot really know what happened.  He can only hope to correctly discern the credibility of each witness, but, without the direct leading of the Holy Spirit, this is an impossible task.  On the other hand, if there exists one or more other pieces of evidence which substantiate one witness’ testimony or another witness gives testimony who says the same thing, then the first witness’ original story can be considered true.  (By the way, if a judge were perfectly led by the Holy Spirit to discern the truthfulness of witnesses, the Holy Spirit Himself would be the second witness)

The double witness rule can also be used to establish true principles and doctrine.  Thus, if what I have taught in these pages concerning man being made into the image of God is correct, we should see this doctrine established by two or more witnesses.  I believe I have already given well over two Scriptural references which prove this, but let’s consider even more.

Please read Ephesians 3:1-4:24.  The heading on my Bible just before Chapter 3 is interesting; it reads “the mystery of the gospel revealed.”  I believe that this heading is correct and that Paul does indeed reveal the mystery of the gospel in this passage.  But, like all of Paul’s writings, this passage appears convoluted and difficult to understand.  He begins by introducing himself as a prisoner and then says he was appointed to preach “to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God….” He doesn’t really tell us what the mystery is, however, until verse 3:19.  Here he tells us that the goal of the gospel is that “you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

But, isn’t that what the Bible tells us about Jesus himself?  Does it not say that in him dwelt the fullness of God in the flesh?  Colossians 1:19 says, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”  Colossians 2:9 says, “For in him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily.”  So, if Paul teaches in Ephesians that the goal of Christianity is that each of us should be filled with all the fullness of God, how is that goal different than the spiritual essence of  Jesus Christ Himself as revealed by the New Testament writers?

Paul continues in Ephesians saying that the goal of his and other anointed ministers’ ministries are, “for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ….” (Eph. 4:12-13) Paul clearly teaches that God’s goal for each of us is to attain the stature of both the fullness of Christ and of God.

If and when I attain to that statute then, and only then, will I have been made into God’s image.  So, when we attain to the fullness of Christ and of God, what have we become?  “Elohim!” says another double witness.

Okay, now you know the mystery of the Gospel.  Now what?  Do you think that you will automatically be able to put out your hand and say, “Thanks!  Give me my Elohim badge!”  I don’t think so.  Are there some of you who say, “Well, I’ll live it up during this life.  Then, because I now understand the restoration of all things, I’ll take the honor of Elohim after I die.”  NO! I don’t think so.

First, let me address you Christians who think that you are “once saved, always saved.”  You are, but not in the way most of you believe.  The vast majority of today’s Christians partake of a form of godliness (which means that they attend their church services and do the dead works that their leaders demand), but they deny the power of a godly life (they do not put into practice the many commands of their acclaimed LORD and His apostles and prophets and they do not aspire to be holy as He is holy).  How else do you define or explain millions of Christian children who attend pagan public schools in America alone, Christian parents who pay for their children’s abortions, rampant Christian pornography use, and even churches who ordain to the ministry those who practice sexual immorality?  These do not have a clue what godliness means.  These do not have even a hope of becoming elohim in their present condition.  In fact, these are those who will partake of the Lake of Fire!  (Yes, some Christians will partake of the Lake of Fire.  See especially Revelation 2:11 and 20:6.  Some Christians will be “hurt” by the second death which is being cast into the Lake of Fire.)

What?  Christians partake of the Lake of Fire?  Yes.  Christians go to Hell?  Yes.  Hell, that is Hades, is the abode of the dead.  The Lake of Fire is the place of the second death.  Hell is thrown into the Lake of Fire when death is done away with.   This is the second death according to Revelation 20:14.   The Lake of Fire itself is the consuming fire of God which purges and purifies His sons.  We allow that fire to purge us now or we will be forced to endure its purging later.

John, the beloved friend of Jesus, wrote, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power (right or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”  (John 1:12 KJV)  John does not say that this goal called Elohim is a sure thing.  People who believe in the restoration of all things may be wrong.  The Calvinists or the Arminians may be right.  (Of course, I don’t believe that they are or I would not be writing these things)  Or, it may be that the wicked, including the countless Christians who believe but do not obey, are simply consumed and finally obliterated in God’s presence (Lake of Fire) when the judgment does come.

Jesus said, “For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it.” (Mark 8:35 ASV)  The word life here is the Greek word psuche which means “soul.”  This verse speaks of  the salvation of the soul, not the spirit.  The soul is your mind, will, and emotions.  It is what you call yourself.  The way to saving your soul is narrow.  We do have responsibility.  If it were not so, then the Word of God, the Bible, would not have been written.  When you begin to understand these things, then you realize that the Bible was written primarily to and for believers, not unbelievers.  For it is only when we begin to believe in Jesus that we receive the right, the privilege, and the power to become a son of God, to become Elohim.

The wonder of God’s creation is that He designed a way to create man so that man could be part of his own making, so that he could come into agreement with His creator and desire to be what He desires him to be.  God did not make man an automaton, a mere computer or machine.  Man is not even “machine-like.”  The transhumanists betray their shallowness of thought and creativity when they mutter merging man with carbon microchips.  My creativity is not programmed.  I create because God creates.  Kurzweil may try to predict what God will do, but He never will, he never can.  Kurzweil may try to predict what I will do, but He never will and he never can.  My goal is to be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect, not to fabricate and prolong a shallow, meaningless life.  What’s yours?

I wrote a song a year or so ago with the refrain,

Every prophet I heard
took me firmly
by the hand …
to shifting sand.

The point of the song is that we live in a time when certain people speak as if they have all the answers to life (or at least some specific aspect of life) and others look to them as having the answers to all their needs (and therefore don’t bother to, or take the time to, discern the truth for themselves).  Unfortunately, this applies to many, many Christians.  Most Christians, for example, take the teaching of their pastor or favorite radio host at face value and do not read the Bible and pray for God to directly teach them.  This keeps Christians in a Nicolaitan (clergy-laity) relationship which God condemns.

Another great travesty among Christians is that some believe they have (and I think some actually do have) a strong prophetic gifting and, based upon certain things that the Holy Spirit shows them, they say outlandish things and make great predictions that never (and I mean NEVER) come to pass.  There are whole websites and ministries filled with these thousands of failed prophecies.

What makes this even worse is that many of these so-called prophets or talking sages cannot even discern good and evil.  I know one who listened for years to his side-kick prophet spout sexual euphemisms about Florida and Uranus and talk about the exodus as if it were God’s people leaving Mars (Cydonia).  To my knowledge he never rebuked him; he just attended more conferences with him as a guest speaker.  I know another, often considered the greatest evangelical Christian in America, who made himself rich off of his listeners, yet never even counseled them to take their kids out of the pagan public schools.  How could he?  He might offend them and lose their donations!

This is what Hebrews 5:10 means when it says that we have become “dull of hearing.”  We have selective hearing.  We have a thought.  We see an event.  We think it’s a sign and we concoct some elaborate theory about how God is going to do this or that.  It doesn’t happen when we expect, so we cry, “the Hezekiah factor,” and expect that perhaps ten years later it will happen.  Or, we see real evil in the world, say in our public school program that’s trying to get our kids to try witchcraft, or homosex, or Islam, and we fail to warn those who might listen to us to get their kids out while they still can!

God calls His people to exemplfy His rightousness in the earth.  He exhorts us to be holy as he is holy.  He commands us to leave the camp, to quit sitting in the seat of the ungodly, in order to do that.  Trying to predict the rapture does not do that.  Trying to make the two-income family that sends their kids to public school feel good about themselves doesn’t do that.

Every prophet I heard…

The Melchizedek Priesthood “enters into the inner place behind the curtain,” (Hebrews 6:19) where “Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:20)   A forerunner is a person who goes before others in order to lead them into a particular place.   This particular passage tells us that God’s plan is for others to follow Jesus into this holy place where He has gone.  Those Christians who do follow Him into the holy and most holy places of God’s tabernacle comprise the royal priesthood Peter mentions in 1 Peter 2:9.

The Book of Hebrews itself was written for two primary reasons, to establish who in fact Jesus is and to exhort believers to follow His footsteps into priesthood.  This book, like most of the Bible, was written to believers, not unbelievers.  Unbelievers cannot receive the things of God.  Men must first repent and have faith in God before God opens their spiritual eyes to see other things, especially the teaching about righteousness.    The Order of Melchizedek is all about this particular doctrine first introduced in Hebrews 5:

[Melchizedek] Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.  (Hebrews 5:11-14 KJV)

 This verse explains why many of the writings before this have dealt with the elementary doctrines of the faith.  We simply cannot go on until we understand them.  The sad reality is that even today most Christians do not understand even these six basic truths.  Most Christians want to send all unbelievers into an eternal fire pit of horrible torture forever!  They actually think that the Bible teaches this.  They serve a false god.  God is a God of mercy!  Throughout His Word He teaches that mercy triumphs over judgment.  “Love your enemies,” Jesus said.  He did not tell us to torture and kill them.

“God’s righteousness is not fully declared until He makes His creatures righteous with His own righteousness. … Righteousness is not complete, if it only judges and condemns, for the devil can also condemn.  The highest righteousness, while it judges sin, can never rest until it also makes the sinner righteous.”  (Andrew Jukes, The Names of God, pp. 53-54)