THE  CALLING

"... praise Him [God] with stringed instruments and organs."  (Ps. 150:4) KJV

This word "organs" [Heb. 'ugab] refers to some sort of cylindrical hand-held instrument blown by the breath, likely something made of bone or wood with hand-carved holes musicians from the earliest civilizations played on occasions of rejoicing, mourning, and in religious exercises.  In various other translations it is rendered "flute(s)" or "pipe(s)."

The question posed in this Psalm is not one of having access to certain historical instruments but using the available resources at hand to the fullest in offering praise to God.

Today that certainly would include "organs."

WE GIVE THANKS ALWAYS AND EVERWHERE FOR

THE ORGANIST,

THE MUSICIAN WHO CAN TURN A MASSIVE MECHANICAL MACHINE INTO SOMETHING THAT'S ALIVE AND DEEPLY EXPRESSIVE,

WHO MAKES BREATHE AND BRINGS FORTH SONG FROM THE MOST STUPENDOUS,

THE MOST WONDERFUL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

EVER CONCEIVED IN THE MIND OF GOD

AND FABRICATED BY THE HAND OF MAN.

Those who begin digesting their way through the information supplied on this platform should not wonder about the space they find devoted to explaining the ministerial dimensions of being an organist and what performing at an organ console

has to do with the salvation of man.

Without doing any independent Bible study on our own

to find out what the Word of God actually says,

and, just as importantly, what it doesn't say,

is like going through life blindfolded.

What we do with the gifts God gave us

is a very serious matter (Matt. 25:14-30).

On first thought it may seem that the mechanics of working an organ console and being a musician are disparate artistic disciplines having only an indirect, if any, connection

with soul-saving. 

That.  Idea.  Is.  False.

Faith comes by HEARING (Rom. 10:17).

Something a person HEARS

causes their faith to rise.

BEING SAVED BY THE NAME, PERSON, WORK, LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND GRACE

OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

is not of ourselves.

Salvation [the gracious work of God whereby He delivers undeserving human beings from judgment]

is also a gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

We all share in the disobedience of Adam

by having his sin imputed to us.

We are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).

We have no righteousness of our own.

But, by being in the body of Christ through faith, 

His own righteousness is imputed to us.

We can only then receive God's grace and mercy.

The organist's CALLING

in the music ministry 

is to use the organ to:

1.  express the joy of salvation,

2.  offer praise to God for that divine gift,

3.  help teach the message of the cross in

hymn accompanying, and

4.  develop, feed, and strengthen the faith of believers.

Organists who perform for worship

are more than volunteers or employees.

They are ministers

and ambassadors for the instrument

who use all the wonders of music

to reach out to the walking wounded of this world

to uplift their spirits and empower them

with the gospel of grace.

They are serious musicians, but

and they do not chase stages, titles, or applause.

They chase The King Of Kings.

In the Bible, a dispensation is a set of instructions that God "dispenses" (or gives) to mankind, or to a section of mankind, for people to apply to life during a particular time period.   God expects them to obey the particular dispensation He gives to them, and He has dispensed diverse sets of these  instructions throughout history.  The so-called dispensation of grace is the set of divine instructions that pertains to us today and involves God's current dealings with mankind.  The apostle Paul wrote that he [Paul] alone was the apostle chosen to bring the gospel of grace to the gentiles (Rom. 11:13).  Prior to Paul this mystery was kept hid in God; consequently through his own repentance and faith he became the first person to be placed into the body of Christ -- "the mystery church."  The same thing happens to all today who align themselves with the will of God (Rom. 12:2), come to repentance, and believe and trust in Jesus for their justification.  They become a new creature clothed in His righteousness, a permanent possession of God, their mind is transformed and renewed, they live by faith, walk in the Spirit, and the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:16-21) are crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20).    

Prior to Paul, God was forming the nation [Genesis thru John] so that it might then evangelize the Gentiles.  But when the nation rejected its Messiah Jesus, refused to repent and trust Him, and sent Him to the cross, Israel fell before God.  At the time, Saul of Tarsus (who became the apostle Paul) was a blasphemer against the Holy Spirit (1Tim. 1:13) for assisting with the murder of Stephen (Acts 6-7), a Spirit-filled man, and found no pardon for this sin under Israel's program.  When God temporarily paused the nation's kingdom program in Acts 7 and opened the mystery program of the church to Gentiles in Acts 9, Saul [Paul] was the first person in this age of grace to be saved.  The nation's program will resume [Hebrews thru Revelation] after Christ appears unannounced in the clouds to remove all those saved under grace, living and dead, to heaven (1Thess. 4:15-18).

  

God formed a nation, the nation of Israel (Gen. 12:2).  Today He is forming a body, the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:27).  These two entities need to be kept separate because they have different instructions and different destinies.  When preachers and teachers fail to keep separate what God in His wisdom has chosen to keep separate [chiefly prophecy from mystery, law from grace, the nation from the body of Christ, "born again" from "new creature in Christ," and "times past" from "but now" from "ages to come" (1Cor. 2:7)] they labor unknowingly under some very serious misconceptions.  The rightly divided truth is, the church will be God's vessel to be used in the heavens for Jesus Christ's glory, it wasn't the law that was nailed to His cross (Col. 2:14) but our record of sins, we're saved by faith in His death, blood atonement, and resurrection plus nothing else, in this age of grace the church is not under a covenant, and the church has not replaced the nation as "spiritual Israel" in God's plan.  The Bible does not lie; Paul's instructions to Timothy to rightly divide the Word of truth (2Tim. 2:15) means exactly what it says -- to divide TRUTH from TRUTH to keep from falling into error.  Those who haven't taken the time to break this down and unpack it for themselves miss this and end up mocking those who have.

This platform is not the place to essay this subject save for saying that denominational boards of directors,

while they may hire and direct church musicians,

generally know very little if anything

about what it means to biblically minister

rightly divided to congregations today,

let alone the organist's job or how to do IT.

Authority does not automatically imply knowledge.

The contributions organists make

in filling the air with soaring beauty and majesty

in worship spaces where they ply their art

play a critically important role in communicating

God's plan for mankind through Jesus 

prophetically revealed in the Old Testament

in Genesis 3:15

and even more explicitly by design 

in the generations of Adam

recorded in Genesis 5:

Adam [in the Hebrew language] -- means man,

Seth -- means appointed,

Enos -- means mortal, frail, miserable,

Mahalaleel -- means blessed God,

Jared -- means shall come down,

Enoch -- means teaching,

Methuselah -- means his death shall bring,

Lamech -- means despairing,

Noah -- means rest, comfort.

When you put it all together it says,

"Man is appointed mortal, frail, miserable, but the blessed God shall come down teaching, and His death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort."

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS

TO WORK THE KEYS OF AN ORGAN IN WORSHIP.

IT MEANS EXPRESSING JOY, OFFERING PRAISE,

TEACHING SALVATION, AND STRENGTHENING FAITH.

It also means something else

which no church musician is able to escape or deny ...

IT MEANS ENGAGING IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

The agency behind all the evil seen in this world 

IS NOT IMAGINARY.

HE IS A REAL ANGEL, NOT MAN-MADE FICTION.

HE IS NOT SOME VAGUE PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT.

Lucifer whose name meant "Light bringer" started out as a covering cherub of extremely high rank stationed at God's very throne.  After the earth was formed and habitable God selected him for earth's throne and granted him unique powers to broadcast his own attitudes to the minds of other sentient beings on this planet to govern them in God's ways  and glorify heaven.  After this promotion something went terribly wrong however with Lucifer's thinking.  He became puffed up with pride (Ezek. 3:6), intoxicated with his own importance, felt he deserved more sovereignty, and began to harbor resentment toward God for what he perceived was an injustice toward him.  The earth was no longer enough; he wanted it all -- a level of power and control that it was the prerogative of God alone to wield.  After convincing a third of heaven's angels to agree with and join him (Rev. 2:4) Lucifer led these angelic gangsters of his in a caper to overthrow the order of heaven.  This invasion of his ended in failure (Rev. 12:7-9) when he was defeated by Michael the archangel and his forces.  Lucifer was then stripped of his beauty, name, and heavenly authority, cast out of heaven along with his angels, cut down to the ground (Isa. 14:12-15), slammed back to the earth like lightning (Luke 10:18), and fell into ruin by making himself into an adversary [Heb. "satan"] of God.  His traitorous angelic henchmen also fell into condemnation

and separated into legions of "demons."  

IT WAS VERY EARLY IN THE MINISTRY OF JESUS THAT THIS APOSTATE SPIRIT BEGAN HIS CRUEL WARFARE UPON THE WORLD'S REDEEMER BY SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO HIM.

The daring blasphemy of Satan's demand that the Son of God pay him homage, his presumptuous boldness and malicious intent betrayed in urging Jesus to test and tempt God (Matt. 4:1-11), the unsleeping malice that hunted Jesus from place to place inspiring the hearts of people to reject His love, all of this and more unmasked Satan for who and what he really is:

He's a killer, an enemy who wants every human soul destroyed. 

Imaginary characters do not communicate in real time like this.

Satan the devil is real.

Jesus is also real.  He is God.  He is the Creator of every human being, whether they like it or not (John 1:3).  And unless someone has a personal, intimate, indwelling relationship with the Advocate (Holy Spirit) Jesus sends to live His life inside them,

unless they have this special and precious God-given anointing that comes about from faith in His gospel,

the Christian name they've adopted means nothing.

 

God's wisdom having to do with the mystery of salvation by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ was kept hid in God from the foundation of the world.  God kept it secret until He chose to reveal it to the apostle Paul beginning in Acts 9 -- this because had Satan and his cohorts known what God was about to do through the cross work of Jesus Christ, they would have worked to prevent it (1Cor. 2:7-8).  Instead the devil has been working against the prophesied coming of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) ever since he sowed doubt in Eve's mind and triggered God's judgment against man.  Satan fanned the flames of hatred in the heart of Cain to murder his brother Abel (Gen. 4:1-8), tried to corrupt the blood line leading to Jesus (Gen. 6:4), and did nothing to prevent evil spirits breeding with women which gave rise to unnatural offspring [the Nephilim, "giants"] that filled the earth with violence (Gen. 6:11).  Satan tricked Israel into breaking the law covenant (Jer. 32:31-33), tried to have Jesus killed as an infant (Matt. 2:13-16), tempted Jesus to sin (Matt. 4:1-11), and, after none of that worked, was instrumental in getting the Jews to reject their King, manufacture criminal charges against Him, have Him wrongfully arrested, tried, brutally punished, and in stirring the crowds to scream for His crucifixion (John 13:21-27, 19:6).  After Jesus suffered, died, and was buried Satan thought he had brought God's kingdom program to an end [no kingdom without a king].  But he never suspected that humanity's note of debt for sin also would be nailed to that middle cross (Col. 2:13-15).  After the apostle Paul had the news revealed to him by divine revelation from the risen Jesus in heaven that salvation was being offered to ALL through the mystery gospel of grace hid from the sons of men until then, he was instructed by the Lord Jesus to share it with the world at large (Eph. 6:19).  When Satan learned that he had been outsmarted this way by God, that the cross smashed to smithereens all the argument he had against sinful humanity, that it showed all of creation what a dunce he was, and that divine wisdom had prevailed over his own, Satan's hatred for God, Christ, the Bible, and mankind became implacable, incurable, and beyond human imagination or description.  Today he does his very best to trick believers with his cunning, craftiness, and slight-of-hand to blind them to who and what they really are.  He cannot change who God is or God's plan of justification by faith in Christ, but he can deceive people to embrace false religions and entice them to introduce destructive heresies into churchianity (2Cor. 11:3,13-15).   

His methods are insidious, but there is one angel of heaven so powerful that even Satan would not dare cross him.  That angel's name (Rev. 9:1-11) is Abaddon (Heb.), or Apollyon (Gr.).  It is he who is given the keys to the bottomless pit (abyss), a place of confinement, smoke, and torment for evil spirits.  Satan knows Abaddon will take hold of him at Christ's 2nd Advent, put a seal on him making him unable to deceive the nations, and confine him there for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3).  Satan knows that after this he will be released, but any forces he can reassemble will end in another defeat and eternal torment for him in a lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10).  So he's spent the last two thousand years working with great industry to counterfeit God, Scripture, grace, and get as many souls as he can to join him there and be destroyed.  He's succeeded in raising up a vast multitude of self-styled Christians of his own, an army of individuals living and dead who acknowledge the identity and authority of Jesus [even demons do that] presuming they're part of the body of Christ when they never were (1John 2:19).  That little word "believe" also means committing their lives to Christ, surrendering to Him, and trusting Him for everything going forward.  Satan didn't stop there -- fourteen hundred years ago under the guise of religion he raised up a fraternal order of organized thieves, rapists, misogynists, murderers, pedophiles, and a leader he tricked into idolatry.  Upon this leader's death his followers compiled a volume of sacred law based upon his sayings, a fraudulent package of fiction riddled with lies about Jesus and prejudice and intolerance against surrounding peoples.  That same primitive 7th century ideology and undying hostility toward the infidel [non-believers including Christians and Jews] survives today in multiple national theocratic regimes which share its fundamentalism, vision, and dedication to convert the rest of the world, entering into battle when needed, until this system of belief of theirs becomes the universal religion.      

Father God, because of His holiness, views sin very differently than we do.  God cannot look upon it, it's ugly and revolting to Him, and so, when it was imputed to man through Adam, God could no longer have fellowship with the human race.  Because of this a great gulf exists between man and a holy God which man cannot bridge on his own.  Sin dulls the conscience and hardens the heart of human beings.  Fallen man must be judged and sentenced as a lawbreaker to satisfy God's justice, but Father God in His great love for us has provided a plan for forgiveness of sin and to restore a condition of fellowship with Him.  God planted a bridge across that great chasm to close and heal the breach between human sinners and Himself.

That instrument is the cross of Christ.

People are born into this world with a tripartite physical BODY [head, trunk, limbs], a tripartite non-physical SOUL [mind, will, emotions], and a tripartite non-physical SPIRIT [conscience, intuition, godly connection] that's initially out of touch with and dead to God (1Cor. 2:11, Eph. 2:1).  Once God through the Holy Spirit uses the human conscience [the sense of right and wrong] and intuition [what can be sensed outside of reason or circumstances] to quicken the human spirit of the need for repentance and connection with a Higher Power, that person is poised to undergo a miraculous transformation into a new creature in Christ.  That same person's spirit is no longer in a spiritual blackout (2Cor. 4:4) -- it's been brought forth spiritually (John 3:3, 1John 4:4,5) and alive with a new identity (Gal. 6:15), one which delivers from the powers of sin and darkness (Col. 1:13).  This can happen over a period of time or in a moment, reaching that point of decision may be very distinct or very circuitous, but once someone has received this anointing and baptism of the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ they begin living a new life in Him (Matt. 3:11, 1Cor. 12:13, Gal. 3:27).  The old person is gone; (s)he ceases to exist.  The new creature has been implanted with the Holy Spirit and has crucified the flesh [sinful nature] with its ungodliness, worldly lusts, and desires (Gal. 5:24).  The new creature is in the Lord Jesus, He is in them, and is God's possession forever.

*  

Over time the pipe organ which has thrived in some form for over two thousand years became deeply rooted in a Christian identity because it was churches which provided organists with jobs, it was primarily churches that encouraged organists to learn the organ, and it was churches which were the biggest patrons of the instrument.  While precise statistics are hard to come by, the vast majority of pipe organs today are still found in churches with estimates suggesting that nearly 90 per cent of them are installed in primarily Christian religious settings due to their long standing association with such ceremonies and liturgical music.  At the same time it would be untrue to say that the organ's history is solely or even primarily Christian.  In acknowledging the vast repertoire of the instrument created during the last 7 centuries it's important not to create a false dichotomy between its sacred and secular uses.  The goal should not be to remove the secular, nor the sacred, from the organ but rather to reveal the true multiplicity of its identity.

This platform's home page has already touched upon the idea that true worship stems from a sincere heart and reverence for God, that when worship becomes focused more on performers rather than spiritual connection it indicates a departure from authentic spirituality.

It follows that those organists who feel called to the music ministry these days need to know something about what the institutions

with which they seek to connect themselves

are teaching.

Once a student's interest in organ playing leads them to wade into this vast ocean of learning it's inevitable that they find themselves beginning to sense -- rather sooner than later -- the conjoining between theology and the skills involved in organ playing, that it all fits together. 

The situation however is not a simple one.

Even though all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus (Col. 2:9) not every religion or forced unity cult claiming knowledge of the divine recognizes or teaches this truth.  As for those mainstream denominations which actually acknowledge the divine identity and authority of Jesus [even demons do that], their statement of faith typically has no relationship with the key [right division] to truly understanding and making sense of Scripture.   

      RELIGION.  NEVER.  SAVED.  ANYBODY.      

SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS IS A GIFT OF GOD.

(Rom. 6:25, Eph. 2:8).

IT ISN'T EARNED.  IT CANNOT BE BOUGHT.

IT'S FREE. 

WHEN ANY RELIGIOUS BELIEF SYSTEM DIRECTS PEOPLE

TO REJECT HIS DIVINITY

OR PERFORM CERTAIN WORKS OR SACRIFICES

TO DRAW DOWN SALVATION

OR FABRICATES CONDITIONS OF ITS OWN

TO QUALIFY FOR HEAVEN

IT RENDERS SACRED SCRIPTURE

AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST

OF NO EFFECT,

MAKES GOD INTO A LIAR,

DENIES HIS GRACE (Gal. 5:4), AND

BECOMES THE SNARE OF SATAN.

Cowards are the first category of human souls listed [even before murderers] in God's Word (Rev. 21:8) whose end will be in the lake of fire [Gr. "Gehenna," translated "hell"] burning with brimstone, sometimes called "the second death."  This passage refers in particular to self-styled Christians who believe that sinful man is only justified when his own merit-based works are super-added to the cross work of Jesus as a sin offering.  Satan the enemy has tripped them into this suspicion, and, due to their church's faulty hermeneutics, a great deal of biblical truth ends up misconstrued, mischaracterized, and codified into its own web of flawed theology.  The moment a man is suspicious of the power of Christ's salvation like this, that same man is shutting the door of mercy in his own face.  Over one billion professing Christians today don't understand this or even recognize the season they're in because the homilies they're hearing from the pew and the messaging they're hearing from the gallery contradict or barely touch upon it, if at all.  They play church, they attend services, they may rote-learn a catechism, they recite a creed, they perform a rite, they follow the prescribed routine, it makes them feel a sense of community, moral code, and humility, but in the back of their minds they're uneasy, haunted by whether they've "done enough to make it to heaven."  A trusted clergy may have spoon-fed them the same pabulum from the cradle that owning a Bible is unnecessary, that all they need to do is attend services on prescribed occasions  and stay in the lane.  They've been tricked into believing that all relating of man to God and God to man operates through a religious heirarchy whose job is largely to give constant reassurance that their religious edifice and manner of worship is the only pure and valid one.  The apostle Paul described those who practice this kind of diluted, works-dependent, mindless, hamster-wheel religion as having a form of godliness but denying its power, telling Timothy to turn away from such people (2Tim. 3:5).  

Those who are Christ's, i.e. those who are saved by grace through faith in His cross work and resurrection and have received the anointing and baptism of the Holy Spirit bear a fixed relationship with Him and experience the joy and peace that only the inner presence of the Spirit provides.  Henceforth they're led by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and, as stated, give no place to fulfilling the lust or works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).  Being unified in the body of Christ through faith they understand that their salvation comes through the Pauline mystery program which is separate and apart from Israel's prophecy program.  Right division shows us that salvation through the prophetic kingdom program requires, among other things, that those of Israel, not the church, prove their faith through works.  Faith without works is dead only when grace ends (Jas. 2:20).

  

Jesus claimed, rightly, that HE was "the Way, THE TRUTH, and the life" (John 14:6).  We therefore have it on the divine authority of the Son of God that there is indeed such a thing as absolute truth and that HE was the embodiment of it.  The error and heresy of indifferentism has to do with the big lie sweeping modern society that there is no such thing as absolute truth.  It rests upon the supposition that truth is relative, that it ebbs and flows and changes depending upon what the latest polls say it is or what people want it to be.

The truth isn't the latest opinion poll.

It isn't religion, rules, or rituals.

It's Christ's finished work revealed thru Paul.

(1Cor. 15:1-4, Rom. 3:24, 2Tim. 2:15)

The error of ecumenism -- the idea that every religion can be a path to heaven -- runs rampant within mainstream denominational Christianity.  It has arisen from the same modernist, progressive, religious agenda which promotes the tenets that the heart [of man] is fundamentally good, God loves everyone unconditionally, and

redemption is possible for all.

PLEASE NOTE THESE TRUTHS:

There is only One Road to heaven, and it is NOT religion.  The heart [of man] is naturally dishonest.

ALL men [people] are under condemnation for sin.

There is no redemption possible for unrepentant people lacking in faith who persist in unbelief.

The Word of God clearly states:

"No one comes to the Father except by Jesus" (John 14:6),

"The heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9),

"If anyone preach any other gospel [than Christ's]

let them be accursed [damned]" (Gal. 1:8-9).

"Whosoever shall [try to] save his own life [without Christ] shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25).

The take-away is this:

Men of God, in their search to serve and minister to the faithful un-heretically, cannot expect to rely upon their own intuition, reason, senses, and impressions to formulate doctrines of their own apart from Scripture

and still escape vain worship and the snare of the devil (Matt. 15:9).

There is one place, and one place only, given to man

where absolute truth can be found as God would have us learn it (2Tim. 2:15).

And that's the Bible [KJV].

The phrase "born again" comes straight out of Israel's prophetic kingdom program.  Jesus spoke this to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1-7), not to the church, the body of Christ.  Being born again refers to the spiritual regeneration Israel needs to enter their earthly kingdom as prophesied in the Old Testament (Ezek. 36:25-27).  They had a first birth as a nation (Ex. 4:22), but they needed a second, spiritual rebirth to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth under a new covenant (Jer. 31:31).  The body of Christ is not under a covenant, but under grace.  Today those saved in Christ are not being born again into Israel's covenants but have been made completely new separate and apart from the kingdom remnant of the Jews.

Mixing "born again" with "new creature" has been and continues to be the cause of some very sad confusion among mainstream Christian denominations.

When people today apply the term "born again" to themselves they unintentially place themselves in Israel's program under their promises, covenants, and future hope.  Instead, as members of the body of Christ, we're not awaiting an earthly kingdom -- our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).  We're not being reformed or renewed; we've been made into a totally new creature (2Cor. 5:17) justified by faith (Rom. 5:1), Holy Spirit anointed and baptized into the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13), sealed by God as His possession, and part of a heavenly calling formed by grace not prophecy.  Those in the body of Christ have not experienced, nor are waiting for, a "second birth" -- we're already complete in Him (Col. 2:10), destined to be raptured not left behind, part of the mystery (Eph. 3:1-6) created with a brand new identity, not under covenants (Rom. 6:14) but sealed forever in Christ, clothed in His righteousness, salvation being imputed to us through Him, and renewed in knowledge (Col. 3:10). 

Our modernist, humanist culture prefers a view of God Who is all love and no justice, all mercy and no judgment, and this same line of thinking has made its way and entrenched itself into the pulpit.  When the apostle John wrote that God is love (1John 4:16) he did not intend it to mean that "love is the God we seek," a false dictum being promoted amiss in many quarters today.  Firstly, those in the body of Christ have already found God.  Secondly, it's idolatrous for anyone let alone Christian clergy to claim divinity for and encourage the veneration of an affective emotion.  A congregation addicted to a steady diet of good fortune sermons, feel-good motivational speaking, promises of divine favor, and messages of thriving well-being in the here and now to the near exclusion of what they really need to hear is exercising friendship with the world, sets itself at animus with God (Gal. 1:4, James 4:4), makes the words of Christ of no effect (John 16:33), and plays right into Satan's hands.

While God's holiness and character never change (Mal. 3:6), He has kept his prophetic program for an Israelite audience separate from His mystery program for the body of Christ.  Since mainstream denominations do not teach right division, their devotees find themselves comfortably caught in the hamster wheel of their own doctrinal preferences.  It's very sad that friendships have ended, relatives have been lost, and faith-filled believers have been kicked out of denominational churches merely for encouraging right division Bible study, as Paul advised Timothy to do (2Tim. 2:15).

      

There are TWO gospels (Gal. 2:7-9)

which pertain to two different peoples.

Well-meaning denominational adherents who remain uninformed about this are not understanding that the kingdom gospel given to the nation and the Twelve during the earthly ministry of Jesus does not save anyone in this age.

ALL NEED TO BE AWARE OF SATAN'S DEVICES.

The truth is, the doctrine of replacement theology [the belief that the church has replaced the nation as "spiritual Israel"] is a lie, a deception, a false gospel and gross error that holds most of churchianity captive.  It's the trump card the devil uses through his own false and deceitful workers (2Cor. 11:12-15) to try to trick believers out of grace

and back into law.

The devil cannot make hell look beautiful,

so he makes beautiful roads that lead us there.

NOTE:  Repentance does not mean turning from sin.

It means changing your mind toward God

from unbelief to belief

in the

name, Person, work, life, death, blood atonement, resurrection, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and to trust Him for everything going forward

for the remainder of your earthly days and beyond. 

  

Jesus conducted his earthly ministry during the dispensation of law, His messaging being directed strictly to an Israelite audience [viz. the nation].  At that time the law was still serving as a middle wall of partition between the Jews "nigh unto God" and the gentiles "without God."  During that period and moment of time grace was still a mystery kept hid in God (Acts 1:7).  What Paul began preaching (1Cor. 15:1-4) was the revealing of a new, deeper program of salvation by grace through faith meant for all people, Jew and Gentile alike, which Father God held in reserve until the death and resurrection of His Son.  The book of Acts is a book of transition, from law to grace.  Grace was not a part of the kingdom gospel that the Lord Jesus preached to the Jews because the sacrifice of His life to atone for sin and His conquering of death, hell, and the grave had not yet taken place.  It was only after this and the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 that God parenthetically inserted the mystery of grace into the kingdom program.

We fall into error when we put the words of Jesus to the Jews prior to His cross and resurrection front and center before the mystery he revealed by divine revelation thru Paul for the benefit of the entire world in this age.  That same error plays right into the hands of Satan whose trump card is tricking believers out of grace and back into law.  Jesus was not sent to abolish the law given to the nation (Matt. 5:17) but to overcome what the law could not do (Rom. 8:1-4) and to magnify it (Isa. 42:21).  The Jew's earthly kingdom program paused after the nation fell on Christ the stumbling stone will resume after the body of Christ is removed from this world at the rapture (1Thess. 4:15-18) and this present age of grace concludes.

The Lord Jesus, the very embodiment of truth, and with the wisdom of God set boundaries and walked away from certain types of people -- the lazy and idle, the ungrateful, the proud and arrogant, the wicked and sinful, the foolish, the dishonest and manipulative, and the unrepentant.  Save for chance meetings He also deliberately avoided interactions with gentiles, where possible.  In those days the Jews, including Jesus, were under kingdom law to have nothing to do with non-Jews, male or female; gentiles in fact were considered "dogs" to be shunned (Matt. 15:22-26).  Jesus was sent to teach and preach an earthly ministry focusing at the time only upon the nation (Matt. 15:24).  He instructed His closest disciples to minister just as He did, i.e. only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, not to the gentile world (Matt. 10:5-6).  At the same time Jesus because of His compassion (Matt. 20:35) made exceptions; He did not totally ignore those individuals outside of Judaism who were in dire need, expressed great faith, and believed in Him (Matt. 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10, 17:11-19).  He was kind.  He was concerned about the condition of one's heart.  He was concerned about the spiritual condition of one's soul (Mark 5:1-13, Luke 8:26-39).  He spoke with authority (Matt. 7:29-29).  He was quite clear about the danger of hell fire (Matt. 5:22), that it could utterly destroy the soul until nothing was left (Matt. 10:28), and indicated it was far worse than suffering 38 years as a paralytic (Matt. 5:1-14).  He spoke 3 times more about hell in fact than He did about heaven.  He was also quite clear that there would be a price to pay for being His follower, that it would have NOTHING to do with prosperity in this life (John 16:33).  He indicated that if any person were to come after Him they would have a cross of their own to bear (Matt. 16:24, Luke 9:23).  He meant giving up everything, if need be, for His sake, traveling a rough and rugged, narrow road, and willing to bear the full brunt of the enemy, the fallenness of men, and this world and its ways -- a world that hated Him first (Matt. 10:22).

If you're going to heaven as part of the body of Christ,

then you aren't living your best life now.

 

There are FOUR sins

that cry out to heaven for vengeance:

1) murder (Gen. 4:10),

2) the sin of Sodom (Ezek. 16:49-50, Jude 1:7),

3) oppression of the poor (Ex. 2:24, 22:22-23), and 

4) the defrauding of wages (Deut. 24:14-15, Jas. 5:4).

God hates these SEVEN things (Prov. 6:16-19):

1) a proud look,

2) a lying tongue,

3) hands that shed innocent blood,

4) a heart that devises wicked plans,

5) feet that are swift in running to evil,

6) a false witness who speaks lies, and

7) one who sows discord among brethren.

There are also FOUR definite warning signs

that people are on the road to hell:

1) denying hell's existence,

2) rejecting/ignoring Jesus as the only door to heaven,

3) not having a changed life through faith, and 

4) having a hardened heart toward God.

 

Have you noticed ALL of our Bible was written to the nation of Israel except Romans thru Philemon? ...

In this dispensation of grace God speaks to all people, fulfilling His Word to completion, through the Holy Spirit-inspired epistles of the apostle Paul (Col. 1:25-27).  Take these 13 "but now" epistles [Romans thru Philemon] for the present day out of the Bible and what you have left in fact is Judaism.  The church, the body of Christ, a called-out assembly, is neither Jew nor gentile -- no distinction -- but history shows that the biases of clergy who are supposedly acting in His name have given congregants new and old a thousand reasons never to attend worship.  When trusted teachers, for example, say things like "God told me" they're competing with Paul's stewardship and using the language of the occult.  As for the music, the larger congregations may still have an organ of some kind in mostly or partly working condition, but most, sad to say, do not have anyone to play it.  More often than not they rely upon a piano to accompany any live singing.  As for the listeners, a fair number of them really do not prefer the "pop concert" swing-and-sway atmosphere which now pervades the church music scene.  High-tech assisted worship, for them, is unnecessarily complicated.  They want the music reasonably familiar to them, time-tested, simple, easy to figure out, easy to follow, something that doesn't get them lost, and that makes a sound doctrinal statement.  

 

To hear so many congregants talking today the well-meaning rock band performing all kinds of special music of their own, while all well and good, is, frankly, wasted on them in a worship setting.  They agree that there is plenty of room for musical creativity, excellence, and talent, but they also admit that it should work with and not compete with assembled voices uplifted in worship.  They want to hear ALL of God's people united in praise, not merely the praise band singers.  They don't want to be forced to stumble through or silently listen to unfamiliar music and words they have trouble following while gazing at lines flashing across a Jumbotron screen.  They want to KNOW the music so they can sing it from their hearts.

This is a sobering situation facing the music ministry today.  Trends like this have pushed many an organist, whether deliberately or not, out of the picture right along with the traditional hymn book.  The current so-called shortage-of-organists can be attributed in large part to the concert atmosphere that's developed and the fact that worship attendance and offerings have been dwindling.  Consequently fewer young people are undertaking the study of an instrument whose proficiency demands much time, effort, and expense to develop, not to mention maintaining the several skill sets involved, but doesn't provide commensurate financial return.  There are some organists out there, of course, who attempt to make a full-time living from their music with a pay scale which provides for a part of their needs, health coverage, and other considerations, but such positions are very, very few and far between.  It's a fact that a great many churches these days have lost their organists because their musicians are expected to perform weekly for zero compensation.  The best case scenario seems to be relying on doing something else for a primary income which would allow someone to pursue the music ministry with a mind free of undue financial concern.       

In terms of filling the pews every week, the very misguided disuse of the hymnal and organ in worship and replacing them with a MIDI band has come at a very high price.  Hymnals and organs have become the scapegoats for the decline in church attendance when the exact opposite is true.  It's a brutal truth of modern society that a great many people of faith feel the so-called "praise music" being served up in so many churches today is atrocious and reason enough to keep them out of church on Sunday.  They feel it amounts to nothing but loud banging and tuneless words that have no spiritual meaning whatsoever -- a heartbreaking departure from the theologically sound hymns they grew up with.  They feel that young people today are being deprived of some of the greatest music traditions that have inspired Western missionaries to go take the gospel to far-flung places, promote patience in suffering, and bring hope to the walking wounded of this world.  They find the simplistic and repetitive chanting that counts as worship music today is frankly depressing and, in their opinion, an affront to God.  They fail to see why the stunning Christian church music written by composers like Bach, Handel, and Beethoven [not to mention the rich repertoire of organ music composed during the last 700 years, a great deal of which was either expressly written or can be purposed for worship] is being shoved aside in deference to spiritually hollow noise.  They believe it's a tremendous disservice to serve up this dissonant and discordant drivel to folk who want an uplifting worship experience.  A few of them are even more blunt about it and feel the so-called "Christian song writers/lyricists" of today who create and sell this kind of shallow junk "music" to churches ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Whether churchianity wants to acknowledge it or not,

that's where it is.  

The resulting fallout in education has involved school faculties which seem to be more challenged than ever before to recruit organ students.  The fact remains: when people regularly assemble to hear the Word of God, fellowship in a spirit of joy, and sing praises to Him, the effectiveness of the use of psalms, hymns, and spiritual [not theatrical] songs sung from the heart which a) are strong in doctrine, b) are not mantra or emotionally driven, c) are not filled with repetitive lyrics, d) make melody to the Lord [not an audience] (Eph. 5:19), and d) teach and admonish in a spirit of grace (Col. 3:16), for lifting up the voice for God's greater glory and to exalt the holy and blessed name of Jesus, has never been equaled, let alone surpassed.

NOTE:  This turnabout trend in so many of the churches today is to breed audiences and write off traditional hymn-singing by the congregants as non-productive.

The Lord Jesus didn't think so.

The last thing He and His closest apostles did before leaving for Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed was to sing a hymn with them, this to strengthen their faith for the dark hours ahead (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26).  Our blessed Saviour acknowledged the inherent power of drawing people closer to God when they all join in lifting their voices to Him in praise [See blog, Hymns, Parts I-XII].

There's a tremendous lesson in this.

Hymns are theological statements set to music.

• Hymns serve as a means to teach and reinforce the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.  Many contemporary songs simply lack the depth and theological richness that hymns provide.  Hymns can help educate and spiritually nourish congregations of all sizes.
• Hymns have connected generations of believers throughout history.  The singing of just one hymn at an appropriate moment, something approved of and encouraged by Jesus Himself (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26), can serve as a bridge between the church's past and its present, reminding all participants they are part of a much larger, timeless group which shares unity and continuity in worshiping God.
• Hymns are easy to remember.  Their melodies and lyrics stay with people for a lifetime.  Congregants can carry the messages and lessons contained in hymns throughout their lives, reinforcing their faith.
• Hymns can be a unifying force among a diverse congregation.  They transcend cultural and language barriers and provide an opportunity for people of different backgrounds to worship together.  They are a beautiful expression of unity in Christ among various sundry peoples that gives them a real sense of identity and belonging.
• Hymns can offer a broader musical palette and a sense of balance in worship.  They are flexible, arrangeable, and can accommodate a wide multiplicity of musical tastes and preferences.
• Hymns often carry deep emotional resonance.  Their melodies and lyrics can evoke strong feelings of reverence, joy, comfort, and pleasant memories of departed loved-ones.  They reach deeply into the soul, beckon the unsaved, and provide a safe space for people to express their emotions, a place where they can find solace and healing.
• Hymns can be powerful teaching tools.  They can be and are very often used to instruct and encourage, especially in conjunction with the preaching of sermons.  Many hymns are directly tied to biblical passages and stories, making them valuable teaching aids.
• Hymns preserve a sacred legacy for future generations.  These timeless songs of the church are a way that children and grandchildren have the opportunity to experience an unbroken musical heritage.  

While it would be narrow-minded to think that hymn singing out of the hymnal is incapable of joining in praise with other kinds of worship music when congregations gather to offer praise to God, it does provide a great deal of spiritual depth, theological richness, timeless connection, memorability, inclusivity, variety and balance, and emotional resonance while serving as a powerful teaching tool with a living legacy.  There's also something else to consider:  just holding a hymnal during worship is important.  Practically speaking, hymn books cannot break down in the middle of a liturgy like technology can.  Musically, they teach -- looking at notes on a page as opposed to just lyrics helps people learn the basics of melodic direction and rhythmic value, giving them the first steps in learning to read music.  Theologically, congregants don't just see what the worship leader has selected but are instead exposed to the full repertoire.  They can turn the page and encounter hymns in other languages, reminding them of the church's diversity.  Seeing old hymns next to newer ones unites them with all believers throughout history.  Hymnals are also symbols of consistency.  Unlike a screen that fades or a paper bulletin which is discarded, they demonstrate that what is being sung is worth keeping around as well as reminding everyone that prayer is continuous and can't be turned off or discarded.  Hymnals are something that can and should be held proudly in the hands.  The fact that congregants have a voice and the organist has an organ which can lead them remains a very dynamic way to enrich the spiritual lives of congregations by maintaining connection with the church's roots, providing a robust theological foundation, reminding people of God's love and grace, and fostering unity and inclusivity while helping to stir souls and draw them closer to God.

At the same time, Jesus died to save sinners,

not to create the mayhem of denominations

we see today.

ORGANISTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

When the Bible is not consulted as authoritative for guidance and direction from God there are no limits to the denominations, religions, and forced unity cults people can come up with to suit their own fancies and feed the beliefs of their preference.  During the first decades of church history the world quickly became saturated with an untold number of contentious and divided Christian factions all claiming doctrinal purity and all of them in disagreement (1Cor. 1:10-15).  In more recent times these factions have multiplied exponentially many times over.  Each one has retranslated the unerrant Word of God to get it in agreement with its own doctrine -- a situation where man leads the Bible rather than the Bible leading man.  Among the many negative issues impacting the church today, biblical illiteracy and lack of biblical authority are in the forefront along with no fear of God [lack of understanding of His sovereignty and character], very little discipleship, liberal doctrines [politics from the pulpit], and the comforts of 21st century life which make for a lukewarm Christianity.  But while Father God's nature never changes (Mal. 3:6), He has dispensed different sets of instructions for different people, or groups of people, at different periods of time in order to bring about the redemption of mankind.

The book of Acts records the historical transition from law to grace, from prophecy to mystery, from national kingdom to the body of Christ.  The purpose of the law given to the Jewish nation was to serve as a middle wall of partition between Israel and the gentiles; it was a mirror to reveal the condition of the human heart, show the nation what God expected for obedience in time past, and ultimately to lead us to Christ.  The trouble was, the law was weak in that it had no power to change a sinful heart or to save anyone (Rom. 3:20, Titus 3:5).  God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to take our sins to the cross, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in all who believe in the name, Person, work, life, death, blood atonement, resurrection, and grace of the crucified Lord Jesus and walk thereafter in the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4),

FULLY JUSTIFIED by grace through faith in Him. 

 

God, through Paul, told us nearly 2,000 years ago how and why to study His written Word (2Tim. 2:7, 15-16).  In the King James version of the Bible [KJV] right division is necessary to be "approved of God," this in order for Him to "give us understanding in all things."  If we DON'T rightly divide, then Paul says we will be subject to "profane and vain babblings" which will "increase unto more ungodliness."  Not good.  The KJV Bible describes a major separation of instructions that God Himself has made:  1) prophecy -- that which was spoken since the world began (Acts 3:21), and 2) mystery -- that which was kept hid in God until the Lord Jesus revealed it to Paul (Rom. 16:25).

Mainstream denominations fall into serious error by ignoring this separation and mistakenly mixing Israel with the body of Christ, law with grace, prophecy with mystery, earthly kingdom gospel with heavenly gospel of grace, times past with "but now" with ages to come.  They ignore the fact that the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Hebrews thru Revelation do not say a single thing about Paul's gospel (Rom. 2:16, 16:25, 2Tim. 2:8), the gospel of grace, the only one in force now -- they ignore the fact that Paul is the ONLY God-appointed master builder and apostle TO the body of Christ -- they ignore the fact that the nation and the church are two different agencies created by God, the former with an earthly destiny and the latter with a heavenly destiny -- they ignore the fact that God in His wisdom is Himself a dispensationalist (Col. 1:25, KJV) -- they do not acknowledge the fact that God's salvation instructions to humanity during different ages were different -- they remain largely ignorant and uninformed about how the rapture of the church [the blessed hope described by Paul (1Thess. 4:13-18, Titus 2:13)] and the 2nd Advent of Christ have multiple Scriptural differences in terms of timing, nature, purpose, visibility, and method which cannot be reconciled by one and the same event:

Many clergy these days have been indoctrinated by their own church's exegesis to think of both phases of Christ's return as a single event.  They tend in general to mock, reject, and condemn as delusive, illegitimate, and man-made any concept, biblical or otherwise, which denies, impugns, challenges, or fails to conform with their own guarded system of theological belief.  And so, some of them rationalize the coming of Jesus for His saints by calling it "the satanic secret rapture theory."    

Satan the devil achieves his primary objective when the fragmented denominations he's been instrumental in creating for the last two millennia dismiss the correction that ALL of Scripture offers (2Tim. 3:16).

There is nothing hypothetical

about anything recorded in Holy Scripture

including the Lord Jesus removing His saints to heaven prior to His 2nd Advent (1Thess. 4:15-18, 5:9).

NOTE:  We live currently in the gap between Daniel's 69 prophesied weeks of years and the 70th week (Dan. 9:24-27).  In a biblically "tight" scenario of end time events nothing further needs to happen prophetically in order for the rapture to take place.  This event has as its purpose to fetch and rescue the church, the body of Christ, from the wrath to come and to transport His saints to the judgment seat of Christ in heaven, each to receive individualized reward and be readied to accompany Him and His holy angels at His 2nd Advent.  The prophecy of Psalm 83 states that the Jews led by God will be victorious in battle against their ancient enemies, notably the Islamic nations of Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, & Iran.  The effect of this Jewish victory is to last "forever" in that the entire combined military forces of these Islamic nations are said to "perish" (Ps. 83:17).  This massive coalition of multinational forces to invade Israel from all sides is to be led by "Gog, of the land of Magog [Russia], the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal" (Ezek. 38: 3-6) whom God Himself draws into battle "out of the far north" (Ezek. 38:15, 39:2) for His own purposes -- to judge Israel's enemies, display His glory, and purge the land in preparation for Christ's earthly reign.  Gog's future move against Israel with this great company and mighty army to wipe Israel off the map, exterminate the Jews, and plunder the land happens "in the latter years" meaning the time leading up to the Millennial Kingdom [Ezek. 38:8].  Also joining this alliance will be troops from Gomer and Togarmah (Ezek. 38:6), referring to the general vicinity of Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey.  By tracing these ancient geographic names to modern territories the figure we see as Gog coming out of the far north strongly points to a Russian leader with the modern nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey taking part.  This Ezekiel 38 Gog-Magog War is part of Israel's prophetic program, not ours, very likely triggered by the sudden disappearance of hundreds of millions of Christians and friends of Israel, and is therefore expected to follow the rapture (1Thess. 5:9).  This conflict will end in total annihilation of Gog and his entire military bloc of troops, to a man, on the open field (Ezek. 39:4-5) due to God's supernatural intervention.  Another view of this same scene describes the divinely-empowered Jews consuming "all the surrounding peoples" (Zech. 12:6-8).  After God gives their corpses to the birds of prey and beasts of the field to be devoured, whatever remains will be given a burial ground by God in an area thought to be in western Jordan just east of the Dead Sea which they will call Hamon Gog, a graveyard so large that it will obstruct travelers (Ezek. 39:11).  The house of Israel will be occupied with burying bones and other decaying body parts there to cleanse the land for 7 months (Ezek. 39:11-13) and building fires from the weapons used against them for 7 years (Ezek. 39:9-10).  We conclude then, that Gog cannot be the Antichrist because the death and burial of Gog THEN sets the stage for the Antichrist [whose origin is prophesied to be from the old Grecian territories under Alexander (Dan. 8), not the land of Magog] to muster the world's support and demand that peace be made for Israel and for its Temple to be rebuilt by divine right on its original site -- a project which by then will meet with very little if any Islamic military opposition.  As soon as the Antichrist strikes this 7-year peace covenant and orders the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, the 7-year tribulation [70th week of Daniel] will begin at that point in time (Dan. 9:24-27) and God's kingdom program will resume.  The nations gathered and assembled under the Antichrist's satanic leadership and reinforced as a great army will gather and assemble on the plain of Esdraelon in the valley of Jezreel [Heb. "Har Magedon," Gr. "Armageddon"] to slaughter and erase Israel from history, but before they can advance they will be utterly consumed by the blinding glory of Christ at His Second Coming and the sword which proceeds from the Word of His mouth (Rev. 19:11-21).  Thus the "forever" triumph of Israel over the Psalm 83 nations occurs at the 2nd Advent of Christ.

  

The Roman Catholic church owns some of the most wonderfully crafted and majestic pipe organs ever built which speak into some of the largest and most magnificent ambient spaces ever constructed, but it rejects the idea of itself being a denomination.  It insists that Rome is the only legitimate church and that only Rome has the authority to determine Christian doctrine.  What the Bible allows, Rome does not.  Its local clergy is on record for teaching during worship that there is no need to even own a Bible, that if people attend Mass regularly they'll have the entire Bible read to them in three years -- a claim without any provision whatsoever in its liturgy.  Rome slices and dices salvation a thousand ways turning it into a seemingly endless series of steps and requirements that rival a nation's criminal code.

The Bible is very clear that there is no second chance at salvation after death, that those souls who reject or ignore God's invitation of love in Christ and whose pride will not permit them to see any need to repent will be completely consumed without a trace, not eternally preserved in torment -- they will utterly vanish in "the second death" in the lake of fire and simply pass out of existence (Ps. 37: 9-10, 20, Ezek. 18:4, Matt. 7:13-14, 10:28, John 3:16, 2Thess. 1:9, Phil. 3:19, 2Pet. 2:6, Rev. 20:14-15).  This view, often called the annihilation of the wicked, shows that eternal life is based on conditions and belongs only to the redeemed while the unrepentant soul is ultimately destroyed and ceases to exist.  God never meant for anyone to be lost (2Pet. 3:9), none who seek His grace will be refused, His heart breaks over every soul who turns away from His love, but the sad reality is that the majority will still perish, not because God wants it, but because they refuse His mercy, spurn the gospel of Christ, and do not repent.  The false gospel of universalism teaching that everyone will ultimately be saved regardless of how they live therefore must be called out as a deadly deception.

Rome sees it differently.  According to Rome everyone gets saved, but no petty little sinner can make it directly to heaven without some additional repairs, the merits of Jesus alone being insufficient.  It teaches that almost everyone does not go directly to heaven upon their death.  Only "saintly people" like popes get to heaven on the express route -- everyone else first must be purified more thoroughly in a place of suffering called "purgatory" where some serious discipline is administered to purify and prepare their souls to meet God.  There is some good news however:  suffering in purgatory may be shortened with certain prescribed rituals which benefit the church.  A special Mass with an accompanying financial donation "may help."  OR the church herself may apply the merits of Jesus to clean up the saved sinner (a very generous gesture to allow Jesus to do His work).  Then there are the required prayers by the average Catholic -- vain, repetitive praying contrary to the teaching of Jesus (Matt. 6:7) such as the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which "may help."  Another option is the indulgence, either partial or plenary, but there are conditions -- the person seeking it must completely separate themselves from all sin, both mortal sin and the little venial ones.  Rome provides other means of gaining salvation through the church:  a work of charity, an act of penance, giving some money, an appeal to "the saints" or the virgin Mary by wearing the Brown Scapular on Saturdays.  OR to just be willing to embrace suffering or penance in this life.  ALL "may help."  As a last chance, on their deathbeds Catholics might receive an "Apostolic Pardon" which supposedly eliminates all punishment for sins.  Not everyone gets a nice death-bed scene however, so a Catholic Apostolic Pardon is not available to everyone.

Rome also maintains that its own clergy and religious alone are qualified to convey the meaning of Scripture to the faithful and insists that its priesthood is the sole channel required to relate God to man and man to God.  It insists that its canon law, the decisions of its councils, the decretals of popes, and its tradition all carry equal weight with Scripture.  It assigns the apostle Simon Peter retroactively as the "first pope" in the historical parade of papal succession when Peter was never a pope or even a priest -- 1st century Christians in fact had no priests.  It promotes Mary the mother of Jesus as sinless when she admitted her need of a Savior (Luke 1:46-47).  Its official time-honored position is that she is a Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix with Jesus and should be prayed to along with angels and departed saints.  The pope, the presumed Vicar of Christ on earth, rules this system of Mariolatry with the iron fist of the papacy and through the allegiance of the priestly hierarchy under him -- a system which denies, even mocks, the idea that Jesus will return for his saints to rapture them prior to His 2nd Advent and that the "blessed hope" about which Paul wrote (1Thess. 4:15-18, Titus 2:11-13) has nothing to do with the faithful being rescued from God's wrath.  Among the various churches Rome is not alone in this respect.  And so, with the minds of over a billion people worldwide caught in this mixmaster of all kinds of things the result is, the body of Christ [the church that God is forming today] is NOT a denomination to be found anywhere.  Anyone belonging to a denominational church who begins speaking about right division as a means to make better sense of the Bible is likely in fact to get themselves kicked out or excommunicated.

No church is perfect.

People looking to join the perfect church will not find it.  So then, can a person believe false doctrine

and still be saved?

What if they're a Roman Catholic? -- what if they're a Protestant? -- what if they're neither? -- what if they believe they must do good works or keep the law to be saved? -- what if they think the church has replaced Israel? -- what if they believe there's no rapture? -- what if they believe a Christian can lose salvation if they sin or fail to endure? -- what if they think faith in Christ guarantees health and wealth? -- what if they believe water baptism is necessary for salvation today? -- what if they don't even own a Bible?

Surprisingly, the answer is YES.

But only if they've believed the one thing that truly saves:  that Jesus Christ the Son of God died for their sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1Cor. 15:3-4).

  

 

The book of Hosea recounts how Israel became unfaithful to God.  It summarizes how God will forgive Israel of her sins, restore her, and bring her back into her homeland where she will be His earthly people (Hosea 2:15-23).  The book of Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-34) records God's relationship with Israel as His representative nation on earth, that He was a husband to the house of Israel and the house of Judah before they broke their covenant with Him, but that at a future time He will reconcile her, forgive the nation of her iniquity, and remember her sins no more.  Paul also uses the metaphor of marriage to explain the body of Christ's legal release from the law and union to Christ for fruit (Rom. 7:4).  He also uses marriage to illustrate Christ's sanctifying love and the church's one-flesh head-body union (Eph. 5:25-32).  Neither passage however reassigns the body of Christ to Israel's bride identity; this title is reserved for New Jerusalem (Rev. 21).  Bride language belongs to Israel's prophetic program, not the mystery program of the body of Christ.  These Scriptures show that the church is not a prophetic "bride" -- they merely explain a change of jurisdiction, from law to Christ.  Marriage explains our organic unity with Christ but doesn't rename the body of Christ as "the bride," a misunderstanding that comes from mixing law with grace.  The celebration of this union (the so-called Marriage Supper) will take place on this earth after Christ's triumphant return to earth to defeat Israel's enemies and establish His rule (Rev. 19:11-16), after the corrupt world system is judged (Rev. 18-19), after the resurrection and reward of saints (Rev. 11:15-18). but BEFORE His physical, millennial kingdom on this earth begins (Rev. 20:4-6).    

Prophecy and mystery are the TWO DIFFERENT WAYS in which God has revealed Himself and His will for mankind.  The former was SPOKEN about since the beginning -- God spoke through the prophets, the words of Jesus, and the Twelve about the promises of a kingdom [of God, of heaven] for His chosen people and nation to reign one day on this earth.  The latter was kept SECRET by God since the beginning, which He hid in Himself (Eph. 3:9).  THAT secret, THAT mystery, is the agency God uses to redeem, justify, and sanctify humanity, demolish the works of Satan, and raise up a people prepared for a sinless eternity in heaven (1Cor. 2:7-8). 

Tithing was part of kingdom doctrine during the dispensation of law (Lev. 27:30-33, Num. 18:21-32, Deut. 14:22-29) to help provide for the needs of the Temple priests, but it involved land and agricultural goods, not money.

The body of Christ today is not under law but under grace, empowered by God's unmerited favor (Rom. 6:14).

If righteousness were to come through the law,

then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21).

It's a trick of the devil, one of many, to mix law with grace, to gull people into thinking that the deeds of a sinful character can live up to what God has required we have under the law.

The righteousness of the law can only be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh,

but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:3-4).

Repeating:  the prime key to understanding the whole Bible as God wants for people to understand it,

is right division [as Paul advised Timothy].

It cannot be denied that some very basic yet profound divisions are to be found in Gods' written Word -- 66 books which record God dispensing different sets of instructions or programs called "dispensations" for different people or groups over different time periods -- knowledge which God Himself has caused to be shared with man and made readily available in the pages of the KJV Bible for all to read and see.  This used to be the dominant belief among 20th century evangelicals but lately has fallen on hard times.  Its critics have mistakenly believed that it puts the spotlight on Paul at the expense of Jesus, that it fails to place the teachings of Jesus to an Israelite audience front and center for the body of Christ today.  Some even go so far as to level the charge against God's wisdom that dispensationalism is "heresy."  Reformed theology, by way of contrast, wrongly affirms one people of God, the church, in every age when there is a distinction between people of faith throughout history.  This doctrine maintains that Scripture describes a "covenant of grace" that unifies all the elect in Christ in every time and place, that this covenant was in place during the time of the law, that when the Messiah came it was merely administered differently, and that today the church is the covenant community and the bride of Christ.  The biblical truth is, the body of Christ, the church, began in Acts 9, Paul was its first member, it is not under a covenant, and, as explained above, bride language belongs to the nation's kingdom program.       

Very few if any churches, colleges, and seminaries teach dispensational truth at the heart of which is the progressive revelation of God's divine plan for mankind through different ages and administrations.  This truth recognizes the Bible's true division being not simply between Old and New Testaments but between prophecy and mystery, between God's plan for the earth through Israel and His plan for heaven through the body of Christ, something which was not made known to the sons of men in other ages.  The doctrine that God has given up on Israel and replaced the nation with the church, in other words, that the body of Christ is "spiritual Israel," is called replacement theology.   This doctrine is false, anything but biblical, requires an extremely loose and alleghorical reading of much of God's written Word, and makes God's promise (Gen. 12:2) of no effect.  Seven centuries before Christ it was prophesied that the nation's Messiah would come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and that they [the nation] would subsequently reject Him (Isa. 53:3-5).  In fulfillment of this prophecy the Lord Jesus came from heaven to this earth and walked among the Jews to preach to them, among other things, the prophetic coming and offering of a future literal, physical, earthly kingdom all their own (Matt. 15:24).  His mission at the time was strictly to an Israelite audience.  After the nation rejected Him and His message the consequent stumbling and falling of the nation was not kept under a basket -- Peter in fact identified and preached Jesus as the stumbling stone (1Pet. 2:8).  But it was the nation's fall, confirmed by the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7), that made the extending of salvation to gentile and Jew alike possible through the revelation of the mystery of grace given to Paul (Acts 9).  According to prophecy a remnant of this nation would suffer through the coming tribulation on this earth in the latter days (Matt. 24:29-30), the result being a refined Israel where only those clothed in the righteousness of the Son of God remained (Isa. 4:3-5).  These righteous would then enter that earthly kingdom finally and fulfill the promise of the rise of Israel among the gentiles (Isa. 62:1-2), yet the tribulation Jesus described did not occur -- it is still a future event as Israel is not yet preeminent among all nations.

The answer to what has happened to Israel lies in the knowledge of the revelation of the mystery given to the apostle Paul (Rom. 16:25, Eph. 3:1).  This secret information is not to be found among the prophetic writings for it was hid in God (Eph. 3:9).  Seven being Father God's number of completion, He in His wisdom has "dispensed" or divided His plan for the redemption of fallen man into 7 ages or administrations [Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, Law, Church, Kingdom] one of which [Law] involved the temporary fall of Israel (Rom. 11:11) and pausing of that particular administration.  It was the gentile nations that would eventually come to Israel and seek God (Zech. 8:22-23).  Yet it was kept secret also that through the fall of Israel salvation would come to all of mankind.  This intelligence was not known in prior Scriptures (Rom. 11:25) but was given to Paul by revelation from the risen Jesus in heaven and recorded/promoted in Paul's 13 epistles.  In this age God has counted Israel in unbelief among the gentiles so that He could have mercy upon all men freely (Rom. 3:24, 11:32).  Scripture is very specific to address the issue of Israel's return (Rom. 11:12).  It is also clear that at some future time God will restore Israel and fulfill the prophecies concerning their rise and earthly dominion under God -- but it will not occur until this age of grace, wherein there is no national distinction before God, is complete.  As a result we can all freely receive God's mercy through Jesus Christ through faith apart from any national standing before God.  The lack of recognition of this dispensational change regarding Israel has led to a variety of false notions concerning politics and foreign affairs with Israel as well as mainstream Christian denominational belief.  The takeaway is that during this current age God has counted Israel in unbelief and in need of the grace of God just as the other nations (Rom. 11:3).

The apostle Paul taught that the answers to many questions about following Jesus lie not in tradition, man-made religion, or assumptions, but in right division (2Tim. 2:15).  It's important to understand the difference between the narrow audience of Jews Jesus was addressing in His earthly ministry and the revelation of the mystery of grace given to us through Paul that all people are to follow today.  These are two different sets of instructions.  The gospel of the kingdom looks ahead to the reign of Christ; the gospel of grace looks back to the cross -- same Saviour, different directions.  The earthly ministry of Jesus was not to the gentiles (non-Jews); they were not His audience.  In those days, in that part of the world, the custom of the Jews including Jesus was to strictly avoid interactions with those outside their own fold (Matt. 27: 21-26).  All of the Twelve Jesus hand-picked to be His closest disciples were Jews.  With Peter as spokesman, these same Twelve stood up with one accord to inform the men of Judea [not the gentiles] that this same Jesus, Whom they wrongly condemned to crucifixion a couple of months earlier, is both Lord and Christ (Acts 2).  The risen Jesus charged them to take this kingdom gospel (including water baptism) to Jews in all nations wherever dispersed (Matt. 28:18-20).  The gentiles meanwhile still had no apostle of their own -- as a group they were still on the outside looking in until Paul was specially selected by the risen Lord Jesus from heaven to reveal to him the mystery gospel of grace (Rom. 11:13) kept hid in God until then and to share it with the gentile world at large.  The cross and resurrection provides forgiveness of sins for all Spirit-baptized believers as members of the body of Christ regardless of accidents of birth, gender, age, race, national origin, language, location, social status, abilities, or disabilities (if any).  The body of Christ is called to follow Him in glory according to the gospel of grace revealed through Paul.  Period.  Not according to the kingdom gospel Jesus preached to the Jews which, due to their rejection of Him and everything He had to say, has been temporarily paused.

Another unbiblical doctrine is

Lordship salvation, which says:

"You must surrender every area of your life, obey Jesus' commands, take up your cross, and persevere in works to prove you are saved."

Works were required under the kingdom program for Israel, God's covenant people, to prove their faith (Jas. 1;1, 2:14-17), but works do not enter into the grace program for the body of Christ.  The moment we trust in Christ's finished work on the cross, we are forever sealed and complete in Him (Col. 2:10).

The situation in denominational churches today is to find one gospel for all time being preached.  Noah didn't preach "Christ crucified."  Neither did Abraham.  Neither did Moses.  Neither did David.  John the Baptist didn't preach "the cross for our justification."  Peter at Pentecost didn't preach "faith alone in the finished work."  Yet all were part of God's plan -- revealed progressively, yes, through prophecy, but dispensationally different in content and audience.  When denominations today ignore this, their theological doctrines end up being supported only by a cherry-picking of Scripture leaving many important concepts in a state of contradiction and confusion which play right into Satan the killer's hands.

Jesus said anyone He sends receives Him (John 13:10).  Jesus sent Paul (Acts 9:1-15).  So, if we want to honor the Lord Jesus, then the inescapable conclusion is, we need to pay attention to Paul's words and observe everything he [Paul] set down in writing, including his instructions to Timothy about right division (2Tim. 2:15) and his comments about the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17, Gal. 5:19-21).  The gospel of the kingdom has no power to save anyone between now and the rapture.  When Jesus spoke of "the kingdom of God" publicly to the crowds (Matt. 6:33), privately to Nicodemus (John 3:3), and again to a certain man (Luke 9:62), He hinted at the mystery program of grace hid in God at the time.  His closest disciples were given to know about the kingdom of heaven earthly program (Matt. 13:11), He also foretold His death to them (John 14:19-20), they didn't understand it (Mark 9:32), but it was not yet time to divulge the body of Christ heavenly program, and it was not part of the good news Jesus preached.  The church does not have a covenant with God because the relationship of those in the body of Christ is secured by union with Christ Himself and is not maintained by contract.

Repeating, the kingdom [of heaven] gospel prepares Israel for God's earthly purpose, whereas Paul's gospel of grace prepares the body of Christ for God's heavenly purpose.  Even though the gospel of the kingdom has no power to save anyone between now and the rapture, those who rightly divide dispensational truth DO NOT remove the Lord Jesus from a place front and center in worship [this is an odious lie].  They simply recognize Paul as their apostle and follow Jesus according to the revelation of the mystery given to Paul for us.  Once we keep these two programs separate the Bible makes perfect sense to where we can truly begin rejoicing in the glorious liberty it offers us by being God's children and possession forever (Rom. 8:21).

Those in the body of Christ today don't get to follow Jesus on their own terms, neither do they get to worship God just with their heart or any other way they want.  Referring to the Scriptures, Christ taught that people must worship God in spirit AND in truth (John 4:24).  Both are necessary and non-negotiable conditions according to Jesus, which means that the Bible is conjoined with the hymnal (and comes before it).  Preachers and pastors who go along to get along are leading many congregations today.  More time is spent listening to and watching Christian-based songs performed at their services than the messaging people need to hear.  Since congregations learn their theology not only by the preaching they hear but by the songs they sing it's important to bear in mind that Satan the devil, as described above, also is a musician -- he knows all about music, and his workmanship in this department was prepared for him in heaven from the time he was created (Ezek. 28:13).  The devil is very much aware that giftedness in the creative arts does not equal spiritual maturity.  So, with characteristic, unmitigated gall he cunningly and treacherously deceives and preys upon any well-meaning but unwary, underinformed, or misinformed praise song writers.  He specifically targets their proficiency in crafting poetic and artistic language to perpetrate a hoax; he misleads them to incorporate what's theologically false into the lyrics they're matching to the latest captivating tune to issue from their pen.  In so doing, this malevolent being, working undercover, exploits the creativity of the gifted  musician to adroitly assemble a Trojan Horse for him.  The musical product is a very subtle, perfidious imposture which on its surface looks and sounds and seems uplifting, reverent, and honoring to God but when introduced into and performed at worship it ends up achieving the pernicious end that Satan wants; its wording, when mirrored against biblical truth, is irreverent and lacking honor to God while at the same time promoting what's untrue in such an astute and guileful way that it goes largely unnoticed.  This is only one way that Satan, the ruler and god of this world (John 16:11, 2Cor. 4:4) who knows that God will not trespass on man's free will, exploits believers.  With the devil, it's a matter of pride -- at the time of the crucifixion Satan was convinced that the kingdom program requiring works to prove faith was the only gospel and that it was shipwrecked with the death of Jesus.  He never counted on a future Pauline mystery of grace to come where eternal reward depends not on works but on faith and trust in Christ.  To make up for that he does his best to influence mankind to follow various "works-based" religions [such as Islam] and by tricking denominational churches from grace back into law.  He worms his way into the arts.  He infiltrates religious thinking and worship.  He manipulates the people involved.  He manipulates places (including pulpits & the elevated stage).  He manipulates seminaries, liturgies, bible translations, theologies, and music to introduce error into biblical and dispensational truth.  He disguises what's false and misleading in a cloak of purity just enough to corrupt it.  Incognizant singers who are duped by all of this may be charter members of their congregations, they may have multiple baptismal certificates to their name, they may own a drawer full of Sunday school pins, they may have never missed a prayer meeting or choir practice, they may have been consecrated an elder -- and STILL end up soaking in unsound belief. 

  As stated, the devil doesn't come on as a bad guy.  He works behind the scenes masquerading as a good guy to achieve his ends.  He doesn't give a hoot about how much people sing praises to God in the churches every week as long as it's laced with a little bit of error -- the result is still fiction.  Being the master of insidious propaganda that he is, ambush predator that he is (1Pet. 5:8), arrogant, brazen, back-stabbing traitor to God that he is -- this incorrigibly wicked angel hates God, hates Christ, hates the Holy Spirit, hates man, hates the Word of God rightly divided, hates the mystery of grace, is infuriated by it, and will stop at nothing and stoop to anything to contaminate and pollute its message.  Working undercover he lures people away from God and gets them to disqualify themselves by any subtle means his genius can contrive.

No man has ever turned away from God and found happiness, joy, and peace that was lasting and permanent.

God has made the Lord Jesus Christ the only door to heaven. There isn't any other way to be justified in God's sight save for being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. 

The man or woman who refuses to accept the shelter the cross of Christ offers is doomed, being self-condemned.

The devil knows this.

He knows that those living today are not in the prophetic timeline but in the dispensation of grace -- a pause in God's prophetic clock.  He knows when grace ends, prophecy resumes, and God's wrath will again be revealed (2Thess. 2, Rev. 6).  He knows being saved in Christ has nothing to do with religion, thus religious deception and false doctrine is his specialty.  He knows if he can use religion and denominationalism to keep people blinded to rightly dividing God's Word he can keep them soaking in unsound belief.  Right division shows us that anyone saved by grace through faith in the gospel Jesus gave us through Paul is no longer enslaved of sin but part of a miraculously formed new creature [the body of Christ] against which no weapon seen or unseen shall prosper (Isa. 54:17).  

 

As for the classic hymns which form the backbone of church organ work, there is much poetic and artistic language in them but it's always combined with a reverence and an honoring to God that's sadly lacking in a fair number of the newer songs used in praise.  It pays dividends to follow Paul's example (1Cor. 14:15) when he says he will sing with the spirit and also sing with the understanding.  This is another reason why organists who play for mainstream denominations cannot afford to be unacquainted with right division Bible study.  When there is a proper way to sing to the Lord, i.e. in the spirit with both truth and understanding, then people should avoid singing songs to God that they do not understand -- because if it's something they don't understand, then it's truthfulness cannot be determined.  People fail to catch any untruths in the stanzas they're singing in worship without knowing the truth directly from sacred Scripture.  This makes it incumbent upon organists as well as praise music writers and other performers involved in the music ministry to reflect upon the body of belief being taught where the music they perform is being heard.

One of the subtle traps of the Christian walk is consistently repeating to ourselves and others, "I'm a sinner."  It would be a wrong mindset to wear any label that God has removed.  Before salvation we were indeed sinners by nature (Rom. 5:8), but in Christ our semblance before God changes completely (Rom. 5:17).  Notice that the apostle Paul never writes to the churches and addresses them as "sinners" -- instead he calls them "saints" because God made a permanent change in them, as He does with us, by His grace.  Paul reminded them of their true identity in Christ.  He didn't deny their sins, but he corrected them by pointing them back to who God had already made them to be.  If we keep seeing and dwelling upon our own selves as offensive sinners, if we keep confessing to others how much we need prayer because of our contemptible sinfulness, if we keep separating sainthood from our own oneness in Christ, we will keep walking like sinners and have us trapped in a cycle of increasing guilt.  But if we see ourselves as Paul did -- as saints [people who have been justified (declared righteous before God), sanctified (set apart for Him), washed (cleansed from the old life), God's temple (by His Spirit dwelling in us), and Christ's members (joined to Him as one body)] -- then we'll be encouraged to walk worthy of that calling.  Paul gives plenty of correction to the churches about sinful behavior, but he never confuses behavior with identity, and neither should we.  In Christ our position is secure.

Which is exactly why we fight sin -- not to become saints,

but because we are saints already.

 

*

ORGANISTS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE

IN SOUL-SAVING

As a musician you need to grasp the harmony

in God's eternal plan.

As a minister you need to bear in mind that the church where you exercise your ministry is not perfect, that the perfect church does not exist. 

THEREFORE

UNTIL THE BODY OF CHRIST IS CAUGHT UP

AND THIS PRESENT AGE OF GRACE CONCLUDES:

It's a melancholy truth that in the 21st century the organist is no longer a performer but a "curator" -- a word that would have bewildered Bach, amused Franck, and perhaps horrified Widor.  Yet here we are, heirs to an art form of transcendent depth, forced to plead its case before a distracted public whose musical diet consists largely of rhythmic monotony and amplified sentimentality.  The modern organist, in order to survive, must not only play but persuade, coax the inattentive into attention, the secular into reverence, and the indifferent into wonder.

The organist today faces a challenge that would have been alien to these and other predecessors of the past:  how to program for a public that has lost the habit of patience.  The organ is not a circus instrument.  It is the voice of architecture itself, and to degrade it to the status of background entertainment is to betray its lineage.  And so the organist's task in the present age is not simply to perform but to curate, to construct programs that seduce the ear without cheapening the intellect.  It becomes an act of diplomacy, a negotiation between the eternal and the ephemeral.  One might begin with a work of color and immediacy, something that proclaims itself even to the untrained listener.  Then, having secured the attention of the crowd, they can be led gently but inexorably toward the contemplative majesty of Bach, the melodic mysticism of Franck, or the haunting chromaticism of Vierne.  This is not manipulation but evangelism of the highest order.

To curate a concert [this word is preferable to "recital," a word which connotes an academic requirement or exercise to display proficiency] is to compose a narrative, one which unfolds not in words but in resonance, in color, and in silence.  It's a balance that must be deliberate, intelligent, and above all sincere.  One detects in some programming today a faint odor of apology -- as though we must disguise the seriousness of our art to make it "accessible."  But accessibility, in the vulgar sense, is overrated.  The human soul has not changed so radically that it cannot still be moved by grandeur, or thrilled by counterpoint, or quieted by prayerful simplicity.  If our audiences have forgotten how to listen, it is not our duty to abandon the art; it is our duty to re-teach the listening.

The modern organist then, must be equal parts scholar, advocate, and provocateur, must know the repertory deeply, defend its dignity fiercely, and present it with imagination knowing that an audience doesn't want to be flattered but transported.  It is not our task to entertain but to elevate and provide a conversation with the past.  Even when we play the creations of modern composers who have been brave enough to write for so demanding an instrument we extend that lineage into the present and maintain continuity.  A concert which succeeds in this balance, onewhich begins with charm and ends with revelation, we're reminded that the organ's future is not in jeopardy at all.  It is merely in need of stewards with courage and taste.  Organists of this digital age should always remember that their instrument, whether of wood and wind or of sampled tone, remains a vehicle of transcendence whose destiny will not be secured by technology or marketing but by the conviction of those who play it.  For in the end, it is not the instrument that must justify itself to the age, but the age that must justify itself to the instrument.

BOTTOM LINE

Unrepentance

is like being in a jail cell, except it's all nice and comfy.

It won't seem like jail.

It won't seem like there's any need to leave.

The door's kept wide open.

Except one day time runs out.

The cell door slams shut.

  And suddenly.  It's too late.

But, no problem, you can still come and go freely.

That's what you were told.

You were lied to.

There are no denominations in heaven.

There is no man-made liturgy there.

There is no church registration there.

Your church affiliation in the here and now won't matter.

In the afterlife what matters only is

your relationship with Jesus.

Your faith and trust

in the mystery gospel of grace

revealed through the apostle Paul to us

is what matters.

May the good Lord bless you this day

and forever.

      *