‘Grace!’ ….will it become another shallow humanistic dogma…or the key to understanding the Mystery of God; Christ?

‘Grace’ has indeed become the current and popular theme in the contemporary Church of today, and rightly so!

Yet the ‘revelation of grace’, as wonderfully liberating and empowering as it may be when it first impacts a life, especially when correctly taught and understood, is not meant to be ‘an end’ but merely a ‘means to an end’!
Grace is not merely an alternative to ‘legalism’ and ‘works based’ Christianity, nor is it meant to be merely a modern day extension or the amplification of an aspect of existing Evangelical, Charismatic or Pentecostal Theology.
Unless ‘grace’ is fully comprehended in the context of a uniquely ‘Trinitarian’ understanding, and not merely from the human-centred, ‘benefit and blessing’ perspective, ‘grace’ may degenerate into another shallow and counterproductive contemporary ‘dogma’. Causing even a negative abreaction and a reversion back to ‘religion as usual’ as compensation for the lack of enduring spiritual reality, inevitably produced by pouring the ‘new wine’ of ‘grace’ into old hardened ‘traditional’ wineskins of works based religion!
It is my experience and current opinion that a proper insight into and a good grasp of ‘grace’, as understood  from a ‘uniquely Trinitarian perspective’, is a vital ‘next step’ in the Holy Spirit’s agenda in the further unveiling of the eternal Mystery regarding both the Father and Christ.
The aspect of God as a Trinity has for most believers largely remained a vague, philosophical and rather obscure theological abstract with little practical relevance.
However, the revelation of ‘grace’….as it applies to humankind within the proper context of the ‘uniquely ‘relational’ dynamics of the Divine Triune Godhead …the Father, Son and Holy Spirit indeed produces  a revolutionary impact on our perception of and experiential approach to our relationship with God.
Furthermore it holds the key to the completion of our fragmented understanding and experience of the Christian life like nothing else I personally know of. It seems to bring the pieces of the ‘puzzle’ together in a profound way!
To this end my ministry efforts are currently devoted shareing with Pastors, individuals, groups and Churches desiring to take the ‘next step’ in discovering and exploring the inclusion and infusion of mankind into the Love and Life of the Trinity, in and through Christ Jesus!

Bob Bell’s new book, questioning the traditional notion of ‘HELL’, is ‘hot tamale’, to ‘hot’ for many Pastor’s and Christians!

The latest  controversy surrounding  Rob Bell, of Mars hill fame’s  new book, questioning  the traditional concept and the existence of a so called ‘hell’, as a future destiny for ‘all unbelievers’,  is becoming an very  ’hot tamale’ for many Pastors! Just too much ‘heat’ to chew and to ‘potent’ to swallow!  Yet…they are ‘damned’ if they ‘do’ and ‘damned it they don’t…because Rob may just be right on the money!

I am convinced that much ‘ducking and diving’ is taking place in Churches as ‘thinking’ people come with questions, demanding answers! Is Rob Bell perhaps forcing Pastors to become better ‘politicians?

This reminds me of a politician, who during the days of Prohibition, that period in United States history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was outlawed., was asked during a public meeting, while canvassing votes:

“Where” do you stand on the whiskey question?

Without batting an eyelid He replied;

“My friend…if by ‘whiskey’, you mean that despicable devil’s brew,

that snake oil from the pit of hell…..

that vile potion, that is the ruin and downfall of many a Christian man and woman……….

that evil that destroys men’s souls and damn’s them to eternal torment and perdition!

Alas, my dear fellow…

if by ‘whiskey’, you are referring to that ghastly satanic liquid……….

that ruins many a Godly family…

that cruel master that bankrupts many a business and homes…

that sinful substance….

that breaks up marriages and leaves many poor orphaned….

Fatherless and penniless!

If this is what you mean by ‘whiskey’…… my absolute and truthful

answer today, is undoubtedly……. YES!

But….. on the other hand…….

If what you mean by ‘whiskey’……

is that nectar of the God’s…..?

that loyal and faithful friend……

that delightful companion sparkling in the hand.... 
by the fireplace with icy snow falling…….

that delightful heavenly potion……and golden medicinal brew.. ….

that has comforted and warmed the heart of many a dear fellow traveller on this earth…..

and has lightened the load of many a burdened soul….

indeed, that removes the painful reminder of toil and trouble……

Alas, that divine sipping substance that lifts the head

That puts a spring into the step……

of a meek old fellow like myself …….on a cold frosty wintry morning!

Indeed, if this … my friend, is what you mean by ‘whiskey’…..

then my answer to you this day, undoubtedly…………..

without any fear of equivocation…..is……………..YES!”

The ‘bosom of the Father’….as unveiled by Jesus !

The most accurate and compelling portrait of the yet unknown innately relational and compassionate paternal nature of God the Father, and His  irresistible attitude of  unashamed loving embrace towards us as fallen humanity, was given when Jesus Christ depicted the ‘running Father’!

The scandalous public embrace, open affection and instant unconditional reconciliation with His undeserving detestable wayward failure of a useless son, epitomizes the ‘bosom of the Father’ that Jesus came to reveal to humanity!

This same concerned Father is further illustrated standing outside in the darkness, urgently pleading with his prideful and deluded self-righteous oldest boy.

A son who has excluded himself because he hates the thought of his unworthy brother’s unsolicited pardon and empathetic inclusion into the life and love of their Fathers family!

An Open Letter to Every Christian and All Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

This day I am charged with a deep and profound spiritual awareness and an overwhelming feeling of gratitude because of the inner assurance and the intellectual certainty and that I feel….so much so that I can hardly speak about this without the emotion of  joy flowing!

A vision of the grand fact that Christ Jesus is indeed not only the Saviour of all, but also Supreme Lord over all of Mankind….universally the single most radical and revolutionary of both religious and secular ‘ideas’! This divine fact, although not easily explainable to those who have not also sought to comprehend this understanding of the mystery of Christ, has become to me personally, an absolute certainty!

The ‘truth missaplied and mismanaged…

This, the most profound and challenging Good News of all time, the one spiritual insight that drastically affects one’s perception of both Divinity and Humanity more than any other revelation, through the unfortunate ‘misapplication’ and neglectful ‘mismanagement’  by its appointed ‘Trustee’, namely the Christian Church, has become sadly lost within human history.

This explosive ‘objective reality’ was not conceived as a human religious construct, neither brought about by human agency, but wrought unilaterally by the hand of God in Christ Jesus. Although hidden for centuries from the subjective collective consciousness of humanity, and even veiled to the mind of the Christian Religion, this is indeed a ‘truth’ which has begun to again peculate to the surface of human awareness and understanding.

As a spiritual seed, hidden and long forgotten under the desert sand of humanity’s religious wilderness, this, the most vital and critical revelation of all time, is about to spring forth and bloom majestically, challenging the religious and spiritual paradigm of both the Church and of humanity, altering the very landscape of humanity’s spiritual consciousness!!

Jesus is bigger than we were told….

My own lifelong relentless search for truth, and my quest for meaning, has inevitably led me from mild curiosity though much soul-searching, study and contemplation to the following ultimate conclusion.
Jesus Christ is indeed the Living Logos, the divine reason sustaining and ordering the very life of the Cosmos, the Universal Lord and King over all of mankind! I am also persuaded this is an idea which time has come!

In order to satisfy my own sense of correctness, I have personally delved somewhat, and have studied the historical evolution of our contemporary Western brand of Christian religion, our popular evangelical Gospel, and our prevailing dogmas and doctrines.

We deeply respect and are indeed grateful to every single individual throughout the History of the Christian Church, who, indeed through much sacrifice, pain, toil and trouble contended for the Faith that we now enjoy.

However, a startling revelation and a major ‘eye opener’ to me, was when I began to realize the existence of a mostly unknown and unrecognized major blind spot. A human influence that has basically hijacked the Gospel as it was largely understood for about the first five centuries of the early Church, obscuring it from our perception!
It was startling to see the extent to which  the ancient pagan roots , racial characteristics, and religious mythology,  innate to  the Hellenistic, Latin and Semitic cultures has had on perverting and distorting even our present vision of God, and the work and Person of Jesus the Christ!

The ‘truth’ based on a ‘lie’…of omission….

The Gospel as generally understood and popularly preached today is ‘truth’, yet ‘truth based on much ‘error’! It is a lopsided, off-centre an incomplete representation of Who Jesus Christ really is, and what the Trinity purposed in eternity and accomplished in human history on humanity’s behalf.
It lacks the revelation of the full implication for man of the Incarnation of the Son of God, His Life, vicarious Death, Burial, and Resurrection from the dead, His Ascension and ultimate Exaltation and Glorification as the Son of Man at the Right Hand of God!

Hence, are we not ‘lying by omission’ when our Gospel message does not include the relevant facts, or indeed includes the failure to correct pre-existing misconceptions? Do we not ‘lie by commission’ when our Gospel message is one that specializes in the ‘minor’s’ and yet ignores the ‘major’s’, neglecting the crucial elements of Christ in favour of exaggerating the lesser detail?

The greatest ‘new paradigm thinker’ in history….Jesus the Christ!

Jesus Christ was the most radical ‘new paradigm thinker’ ever to place a foot on planet Earth! He singlehandedly challenged the human spiritual paradigm beyond any previous Teacher or Prophet.
He not only stretched the capacity of the human spirit, the psyche and the physical frame beyond all endurance on the Cross at Calvary, but also elevated the value of humanity even beyond our full comprehension by His glorification in Heaven within the Trinity. He claimed to be in and of Himself as a Person, the very Inclusion and Infusion of Humanity within Divinity! He represented the absorption of humanity into the Love and the Life of the Trinity.

Paul the Apostle …a ‘new paradigm thinker’!

The Apostle Paul, divinely commissioned, once again profound challenged the religious paradigm of mankind! He claimed, that within the human frame of the Man known as Jesus the Christ, dwelt all of the Fullness of the Godhead in bodily form! That in Him, was contained All the treasures of the Wisdom and the Knowledge of God. That He was indeed the very Source, the Agent and the Sustenance of All Creation. That He had indeed reconciled all things, things in Heaven, on the Earth and beneath the Earth to God by the Blood of His Cross! Paul stretched our spiritual paradigm to the ultimate by announcing that this Christ now lives inside us!

I challenge you to become a ‘new paradigm thinker’…

Today, my humble challenge to you, as well as to myself and every other  Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, indeed to every  Christian Believer as well as every Non-Believer, is simply this:
Resolve to once again become ‘teachable’, willing to look and learn of, and from Christ Jesus with fresh eyes, and an open mind. More importantly,become willing to ‘un-learn’ much our ‘religious paradigms’ in order to ‘learn’ Christ!
Let us face the blind spots in our theology and confront and question the redundant traditional mindsets that inadvertently cause our faith to be dwarfed and to stagnate.
As the Holy Spirit gives us fresh understanding, let us be bold enough to step out of the old, andembrace a new paradigm of thinking, indeed not actually new, but an ancient paradigm!

The belief that Jesus Christ indeed came, and ‘saved’ those that were ‘lost’…that He is indeed the Saviour of All Mankind!………. An idea which time has now come!

‘Trinitarian understanding of grace’…..The BIG PICTURE that puts the puzzle together!

A friend of mine Dr Paul Fitzgerald, writes in his blog ‘Audacious Grace’, in an article entitled ‘More of My Repenting’;

“Slowly, surely and painfully I’ve come to recognize that my theology has for the most of my life been off-centre. That is, it has been more experience-cantered than grounded on a Trinitarian understanding of grace.”

Paul, not a newcomer to the Ministry, has this to say about the transformation and growth of his own understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“I have read, studied and even researched has made a significant impact on what I’ve seen and believed. Removing the lens feels at times like I’ve been blind and deaf the whole time. By “repenting” I mean what the word means – a change of thinking that is deep enough that it requires a shift in the direction of one’s life and choices. Yes, there are strong feelings involved but the feelings are not as important as the changes in direction of thinking and choosing.”

I can personally testify to the same radical transformation of my own understanding of the Gospel that came about by my embracing of a renewed revelation of a ‘Trinitarian understanding of grace’, and all that those terms imply.

Many separate and fragmented revelations and insights that I had been trying to piece together, all fell into place in a meaningful, superb and exciting way!

In retrospect I recognize that  nearly three decades of study and Ministry had been a futile attempt at  literally trying to build a puzzle, without ever having seen the complete picture on the outside of the box!

A Trinitarian understanding, particularly regarding the issue of Who Jesus Christ, the Son of God really is, and what the Father accomplished on behalf of all Mankind,  through the  Incarnation of the Son of God into humanity, His Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Glorification as the Son of Man, creates a renewed and congruent vision of the Gospel.

This new  overarching paradigm  is the ‘Big Picture’ for the puzzle, without which the ‘Gospel’ remains as it is for most people, pieces of dogma and fragments of theology that don’t really fit, nor truly makes logical sense to the honest observer!

Paul adds these powerful insights by Prof, Tom Torrance;

“Although it stresses the God-humanward movement in Christ, the human-Godward movement is still ours! It emphasizes our faith, our decision, our response in an event theology which short-circuit’s the vicarious humanity of Christ and belittles union with Christ.… it fails to see the place of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ…” who is present here and now through the Spirit and) ‘leads our worship, bears our sorrows on his heart and intercedes for us, presenting us to the Father in himself as God’s dear children, and uniting us with himself in his life in the Spirit.… It ignores the fact that God has already provided for us that response which is alone acceptable to him––the offering made for the whole human race in the life, obedience and passion of Jesus Christ.… Whatever else our faith is, it is a response to a response already made for us and continually being made for us in Christ, the pioneer of our faith.… At the center of the New Testament stands not a religious experience, not our faith or repentance or decision, however important these are, but a unique relationship between Jesus and the Father.” James H Torrance – Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace

He closes with these remarks;

‘Who knows, maybe it will lead you to repent too.

Blessings in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’

Well, will you? 

Will you take a look at the ‘Big Picture’…..or are you going to keep pretending that the pieces fit?

Is the Gospel ‘only’ about Jesus Christ? ….or perhaps…?

Contrary to popular belief, the mere fact that Jesus, the Son of God was born and died on a cross, is not actually the Gospel!

That God raised Jesus from the dead, and that He has returned to heaven, is also not the Gospel!

What then is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Although the Gospel is about Jesus, the Good News is actually about you and me!

Unless we recognise and understand that the Gospel events concerns Jesus Christ, but in fact the Gospel, is actually only the Good News Message because it is primarily about us human beings,us individually and also about mankind as a whole!

The Gospel is not just that The Son of God incarnated into human flesh!

Or that He lived a sinless life!

The Gospel is not that Jesus died!

Nor that He rose again from the dead!

Neither that he ascended to Heaven!

Also not that He was Glorified as the Son of Man!

What then is the Gospel?

The Gospel is the Good News that the Son of God was incarnated as the Last Adam!

That He is the representative of the entire race of mankind!

That you and I and all of humanity were included in Him during His sinless life!

That mankind was represented in Him in His humanity as He overcame human weakness, sin and the temptation of the devil!

That you and I and all humanity were fully represented in Jesus when He paid the full penalty for sin and died vicariously as us on the cross!

The Good News is that you and all humanity were personally present in Jesus on the cross when God was cancelling out all distance between Himself and humaniy, reconciling mankind to Himself!

That you together with the entire old Adamic race died together with Jesus, making an end to the old creation’s demise into ‘sin and separation’ through Adams disobedience!

The Gospel is about how you where present in Jesus as He descended into Hades, and as a mere human being, stripped demonic principalities and laid to waste the devil’s power over mankind, making a open display of the devil as a defeated foe!

That you also were there in Jesus when death and Hades could no longer hold back His and our Righteousness and We rose victorious over death and the grave!

Its the wonderful news hat you were in Him as He ascended to Heaven, and was seated in Heavenly Places far above All power and Authority!

You were also in Him as He, as the Son of Man was enthroned and eternally Glorified within the Triune Godhead!

And you were also seated together in Him in Heavenly Places, at the right hand of Majesty on High, in the Seat of All Rule and Power!

The Gospel is the good News that you have died with Christ, and your very life is now hidden with Christ in God!

That you now no longer live, but having died with Christ, the life you now live in the flesh, you actually live by the Faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

That Christ is now your very life!

What is the Good News?

That although it may not always ‘feel like it’ or rarely even  ’look like it’ based on apperances,  you have been made ‘more that a conqueror’ through Jesus Christ! 

That the ‘Greater One’ lives inside you now!

Its he Good News  that although’ life’ sometimes ‘sucks’,  nothing, absolutely nothing, except your own thinking, can ever again seperate you from the love of God,that is yours in Christ Jesus!

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Has Christianity ‘missed the mark’…. and become fragmented, confused, dumbed down, and mentally bound?

When I woke up this morning, it was crystal clear in my own mind ‘how’ and ‘why’ much of traditional Christianity has become so totally fragmented, confused, dumbed down, and mentally bound!

Our understanding has become twisted by a ‘potpourri’ of blatant ‘errors in translation’ and miss-application, as for instance, certain words such as ‘eternal’ and so called ‘hell’!

Our capacity to reason has become paralyzed and  ’trapped’ in  a  mixture and mashing together of inappropriate ‘Old Testament’ based dogma, and erroneous ‘End of the World’ theology, based on the fallacious interpretation of certain of the teachings of Jesus, His Apostles and specifically the Book of Revelation!

Combined with that the fact, that the average modern Christian’s understanding of the Gospel is tightly wound around a ‘selfish’ man- centred ‘gospel’ and an ’egotistical’ religion. Man made doctrines that revolve mostly around going to ‘heaven and escaping hell’ and ‘what’ Jesus and God ‘has done’ and ‘can do’ to further ‘bless me’!

Sadly, it literally seems to take a miracle the set the average Christians  mind free enough to think beyond his own ‘blessings’ and ‘self-interest’ and to even consider what  the Trinity has done ‘for’ mankind in and through Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the World!

The tragic fact is that most of us Christians don’t really fully understand, and neither have they really ever ‘thought through’ to the ultimate conclusion, much of the silly religious concepts and notions, mostly man’s own religious ideas and  philosophical speculations, that we  have been taught  to blindly believe!

Let's become honest and admit that most Christians and especially Ministers are just to petrified  by fear, and immobilized by superstition or have a vested financial or social interest  interest in maintaining the status-quo, to even question many of the illogical and unscriptural traditional ‘theories’ that we have been ‘spoon fed’ since childhood.

Ironically, many don’t even know what they believe, yet are willing to die for it!

I personally know this to be true…….because I too have the T- shirt!

We as followers of Jesus Christ need to gain the courage to question and unlearn much of our ‘religion’ ….in order to ‘learn the Mystery of God: Christ!‘

Jesus Christ is the Saviour of All Mankind, of every man, woman and child…..this is God’s own Testimony concerning His Son. 

This is a Divine Fact…whether we believe it or not! God rests from His work, based on His conviction and confidence in His own testimony! The time has come for Christianity to rediscover and again believe the wonderful testimony of God!