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26/11/2018 - ABOUT PURIFICATION

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Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. John 3:25

Doctrinal questions arise and act as fuel to the confusion or sedition in the work of God.  However, they can also serve as clarification concerning the faith.  In the days of Jesus there were people considered to be experts in the doctrine.  The Pharisees were zealous but did not practice what they preached (Matthew 23:23).  The Sadducees did not believe in spirits and angels, and the scribes, for copying the Holy Scriptures, considered themselves to be authorities in the Scriptures. The uncompromising work against the work!

During Jesus’ days on Earth, these groups of thinkers and doctrinaires came to the extreme of questioning the Master with regards to several points and even picked up rocks to stone Him (John 8:59).  Such men did not understand that Jesus is the Truth.  He himself affirmed that whosoever believed in Him would never die (John 11:26). On hearing this, those religious men became incensed, thinking that Jesus compared himself to be greater than Abraham the patriarch, who had died.  In truth, Christ is certainly much greater!

Paul spoke of groups that did not understand the new doctrine preached by the Savior, demanding from the newly converted the observance of the Jewish customs, such as circumcision.  In Antioch, the apostle was irritated at Peter for having acted in a reprehensible and hypocritical fashion, because before some brothers had come from James, Peter ate with the gentiles, but as he saw these brothers arrive he withdrew himself fearing those of the circumcision (Galatians 2:12).

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul firmly admonished those people who did not understand that they had been born again, relinquishing all idolatry and its regulations. Therefore they did not have to observe the dates as they formerly did. However, they observed days, months, seasons and years.  This type of doctrine is common among the brothers who do not yet fully understand the message of the Gospel and fall back recurring to serving these habits and rituals that are to no avail (Galatians 4:9).

Our freedom is complete in Christ (Galatians 5:1).  It becomes necessary therefore to teach everyone not to submit themselves to teachings that will draw them away from the Lord and reduce them to servants of the enemy.  The apostle John was ever more firm to write that those who prevaricate – disobey the Word – and do not persevere in the doctrine of Christ, do not have God in their lives.  However, those that remain firm in the doctrine of Jesus have both the Father as well as the Son (2 John 1:9) Do not give in to the rules of religiosity, but only to the Most High.

In the book of Revelation, Christ instructed John to write to the church of Pergamum, which had suffered terribly at the hands of the roman emperors, mentioning all the good things that these Christians did, in spite of living near to the throne of Satan.  However, the Son of God had something against them, for they tolerated those who worshipped Balaam, the traitor prophet, who taught the king of the Moabites to throw rocks against the Israelites (Revelation 2:12-14). Heresies must never be tolerated! 

Finally, Jude wrote concerning the men who introduced strange doctrines to the Gospel; converting to dissolution the Divine Grace and denying the only Conqueror and Lord, Jesus Christ.  He reminds us that the Almighty having taken the Israelites out of bondage from Egypt, destroyed the unbelievers and bound up the angels who did not keep watch over his habitation.  (Jude 1:4-6).

In Christ, with Love,

R. R. Soares

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Lord of Holiness! Help us to teach Your people that those who fall for strange directions away from the Gospel are not doing something simple and foolish, but deny You and can be condemned to eternal prison, as occurred with the angels that rebelled. 

Had Jesus been politically correct, He would have pleased the Jews, and these would not have persecuted Him.  But what matters most is to do Your bidding, so as not to be contaminated by the kingdom of evil.  That we may remain faithful in keeping Your precepts and doing Your will!

The doubts concerning the purification that arose among the disciples of John the Baptist and a Jew led them to ask what they should do, since Jesus had baptized many beyond the River Jordan.  John was content, for he had declared not to be the Christ from God.  Only Jesus has the purifying doctrine!

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and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
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