Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule applies to the walk of faith

Long before I became a Christian I began to resent the success of others, feeling at the time that my fortunes were heading south due to the deteriorating state of my health. My ego was sorely damaged from several repeated job-failures and I began to envy people who had found success in worldly work. At the same time I instinctively knew that worldly success was not the type of success which I wanted or was prepared to work hard for. I can only ascribe this to being not that materialistic at heart. Sure I do like the finer things in life, but I have learned to be content with what I have. By and large, I believe that I already have all the basics in life anyway and I consider it a blessing that I have no debts. I was not spoiled as a child either, but I have become accustomed to a certain standard of living which I would like to maintain thank you very much! Money is not my primary objective in life but I believe that wealth is a blessing which comes as a byproduct of success. My philosophy is that if you are doing what you love, your heart is in it, you are giving of yourself for others and you work hard at it, then you will be rewarded. As the bible says, “wealth is the blessing of God and he adds no trouble to it”.(Prov 10:22)

So by now I am sure you've heard of that saying, “there is no such thing as a free lunch”? Well you must be familiar with it and recognize that it applies to the relationship between hard work and reward. There is a Latin saying: “non sine pulvere palma”, or the palm not won without wrestling for it. Historical evidence reveals that success in any human endeavor is not solely determined by luck or good fortune. Certainly there are conditions which serve to help someone become successful, such as a wealthy family background and a high level of education. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, hard work, diligent graft or toil is what ultimately determines success. A man who labours in his work towards a goal and for an extended period of time and puts in more hours than his competitors or the average Joe, is guaranteed to be successful through the perfecting or honing of his skill.

Today I read an article on Malcolm Gladwell and I was intrigued by his 10,000 hour rule which proposes that a man will achieve success after he has sacrificed a prerequisite number of hours for his work. According to the rule, if you wish to have mastery of something or achieve excellence in a field, you must devote 10,000 hours to achieve your goal. Learning about this theory, I immediately began to think of the labour or work of the gospel which I have explained before as something which happens before the inception of ministry.

All work prepares a man for success and I believe that the work of sanctification is no different. Before a man can achieve the mastery of sanctity he has to recognize that the labour of the faith is a preparatory work. The bible in many places uses the metaphor of the farmer having to plough his field BEFORE he can sow and reap the harvest of righteousness. A man who puts his shoulder to the plough and looks back, and certainly who goes back to old ways, will not be fit for service in the kingdom of God. He must keep going, plodding daily against the burden of spiritual resistance which is put upon him as a yoke to test his faith. This is the cross we are expected to carry when we follow Jesus.

Many Christians today wrongly assume that the work of the gospel is ministry, but careful study of the scriptures reveals that there is no actual labour performed in the ministry of the saints. Jesus placed his hands on people or spoke the word and demons were driven out - it was effortless. The sinner was then saved, sanctified, consecrated or set-apart for immediate service to God. For this very reason Jesus was called the sanctifier. The work of the priest we have come to know in our Sunday services, is to pray for people, and deliver sermons. There is no way that it could ever be regarded as a labour. The high school I attended was a Diocesan boys school and I vividly remembered shaking the hand of the archbishop one evening after a Eucharist service and being amazed at how smooth it felt. Surely this could not be the hand of a labourer!

Therefore the only work of the true minister would be prayer, daily remaining in the word of God and fighting a good fight with all his might. The word says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...and you will find rest for your souls”.(Matt 11:29) There is rest for the man who toils in faith and perseveres to victory. This rest is identified in the gospels as the Sabbath day of rest for God's people. The saints who rest from their labours, do so precisely because they enter HIS rest (the kingdom) and so find rest for their souls.

Although their flesh is in the world, they (their spirits) are not of the world, having overcome the world. Their labours therefore prepare them for lives of blessing. The bible assures us that the sowers of the word will be made rich in every way.(2 Cor 9:11) You can be sure that the end-time saints will be in poverty while they labour during their tribulation, but will be given true riches when they enter his rest at the eventual rapture of their salvation. The workers of the gospel are therefore those men and women who by faith, diligence, perseverance and endurance reap the reward of eventual righteousness in the great contest of the faith in the face of (long) suffering and adversity.

The saints in their own right are all MASTERS because like Jesus they have personal mastery over sin. Luke 6:40 tells us that everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher, but not above his master. What we learn here is that the true disciples of Christ will be transformed by the holy spirit into the likeness of Christ, or will be Christs in their own right. When the bible in many places uses the word Lord, it's not only referring to Jesus but those who by their pleasing of God, have the title of Lord conferred on them by God or Lorded. In this way the rank of a person in the social hierarchy is elevated and exalted to a rank of high honour or esteem. (Rom 2:11, Isaiah 11:10) The salvation and glorification of the soul is supposed to deify the true minister of God. Jesus said of those to whom the word of God came, “and ye shall be as gods”.

In order to be made perfect one has to dedicate the hours of toil which the scriptures explain as the sacrificial act pleasing to God. The offering of our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God IS our spiritual act of worship but there is something to be done which requires diligence on our part. In order to make our bodies alive, they have to be redeemed from death through intelligent co-operation and co-working with God's holy spirit. This prepares the soul for entry into the kingdom and is the point from which ministry can then begin.

The bible in many places warns against idleness or the lazy servant. “We do not want you to become LAZY, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised”. Heb 6:12. Here it's made very clear to us that the inheritance of eternal life through salvation will not be given to men who refuse to labour patiently for it. Compare this to the current church teaching which preaches that salvation is a free gift given to us upon mere acceptance of Jesus. I'm afraid the devaluation or debasement of salvation is another one of the end-times signs which heralds the impending restoration of power to the church, but that's the topic for another post.

In light of the above-mentioned thinking and taking the 10,000 hr rule into consideration, I created a spreadsheet, punched in the 1,260 days; times, time and half a time; 42 months which calls for patient endurance on th part of the saints, and I multiplied each day by 8 hours. We all know that there are 8 hours in the average working day. Amazingly the result is 10,080 hours! Now please tell me – is this a coincidence or is there more to this than meets the eye? Could it be that the labour of the saints for the achievement of their spiritual victory has been ordained by God to be of the same duration as for those men and women who are destined to achieve worldly success?

To me that is an interesting discovery and it would seem then that there is no difference between God's elect and non elect except that the former will achieve success in a spiritual work and the latter will achieve success in a physical work, both though by a labour which is rewarded by God. The real difference is in the nature of the wealth given to the successful. One the one hand you have temporal treasures and on the other hand you have a financial blessing and also immortality and spiritual wealth. Luke 12:34 says "where your heart will be your treasure will be also." If the prize or treasured reward of the faith is eternal life or the kingdom of heaven, then our hearts or spirits will be there, meaning out spirits will be in the kingdom.

Before you can stand daily in the faith

I'm not quite sure why I am writing this. Possibly because when I started my blog I was in a mad rush to release much of the things I experienced in the initial stages of my walk in faith. I realized later that many of my earlier postings probably made little sense, but now that my mind is clearer, I am finding that I want to go back over some things in an effort to explain myself better.

Before anyone can begin the journey to salvation and inner healing which is by deliverance, a series of God-governed steps have to have been taken and a certain level of reasoned understanding has to be in place in the mind before one can launch out in active warfare against the enemy. No man, or woman will be able to achieve complete sanctification during the lifetime, unless they move into the STANDING phase of the faith, wearing the armour of God with STRONG CONVICTION. Not one Christian is going to enter the battlefield on a whim.

One of the first things to remember is that we as Christians have to have a crystal clear understanding of the GOAL or OUTCOME of our faith. By this I mean the reason why we are in the faith to begin with, if we are actually in the faith at all. If we are in the faith because we believe that it's to ensure that we will go to heaven when we die, then we do not really understand the GLORY of the gospel and the HUMAN POTENTIAL which it spells out. First we need eyes to see. Without the vision of salvation we then COMPLETELY MISS the essence of the good news itself and we first need to understand or re-learn what the purpose of faith is.

The purpose of faith is to keep the human spirit active and uncompressed through a time of extreme suffering. By remaining in the scriptures daily, a rooted faith keeps the spirit alive. With the spirit alive the simultaneous co-operation of the outer man when danger signs present themselves in the spirit, assist in keeping the inner man in step and co-working daily with the holy spirit while restoration is brought about from one day to the next.

Succinctly, the purpose of faith is to initiate and maintain a process of inner spiritual transformation, until the work of the holy spirit planted within, brings this work to a conclusion so that ministry can begin. That transformation is supposed to take a man who is indwelt by sin and who is weak in his natural self and convert him into a man who has self-mastery. The prophesied overcomers who will make their appearance at the end of the age will be spiritual masters. They will be a grouping of Christos, or Christs, because they will have been found worthy to carry the anointing of Parakletos. These men and women will be Lorded or exalted among fallen men and will explain how the gospel is to be used to obtain all the blessings of God.

With the man remaining in the word daily and with indwelling sin beginning to exit his soul as his deliverance progresses, the ability to resist sin becomes easier. The reason why certain men think that it's impossible to be made holy is because they don't fully believe and understand that God is the ingredient that makes the impossible possible. The reason why a man says it's impossible is because the wickedness of sin in his unregenerate mind is leading him to think that way. He has what is known as a stronghold of unbelief in the power of God to keep his feet from slipping from the path of righteousness. 1 John 3:9 says that “no-one born of God continues to sin, because God's seed remains in him.” The seed of God enters the spirit of the man when that man has walked for a certain length of time, developing his faith. Establishing the foundation of faith by willfully choosing to remain in the word and prayer daily, is what brings this about.

After a period of perseverance the holy spirit joins with that man's spirit to begin instruction for deliverance. This means that if a man continues in sin he does not have the holy spirit in him as he thinks he has. He is deceived in another subtle way. Satan will go to great lengths to prevent a man from taking the right attitude, which is one of ABSOLUTE OPEN-MINDEDNESS. The right attitude should be, “This sounds difficult, maybe even impossible, but I trust God and believe that he can make it possible.” If a man can walk on the moon or create atomic fission, then achieving the divine nature is also within the realm of human possibility. We have simply lost sight of what exactly this nature is supposed to be. We have lost sight of ourselves and our purpose on Earth. We have lost sight of the Good News. Now we must re-learn this and the awesomeness which it spells out for us. The Lord says that we become like dry branches bearing no fruit unless we remain in him. The man who bears fruit is known by all because the fruit he bears is borne by no other man.

I can't understand the attitude held by many believers when they are confronted by the overwhelmingly obvious. What do I mean? Well isn't it evident that by examining the acts of the apostles demonstrated almost two thousand years ago, that something very powerful was happening to people in those times which is not happening today? Jesus said “these and greater shall ye do also.” Yes I know there are things perceived as miracles happening in the modern church, but who has been given the authority to make these acts happen? God is very much alive and working these miracles, yes I agree, but the truth is that God created and empowered certain men which he predestined and authorized to perform his good works. The time is getting short, so let's be honest with ourselves.

Who can we say with confidence, is doing the works of Jesus and greater in the modern church? Can anyone volunteer a few names? Would you regard that person as a god-man? Are there stories of people trying to worship that person because of the miracles they are performing, as the Iconian people attempted to do to Paul and Barnabus? Perhaps you think the biblical stories of the apostolic acts are embellishments as one man suggested. I am not talking about healing your grandmother's wheezy chest or being able to talk in tongues, I am talking about things like bringing about the onset of plagues, changing the state of the weather, causing men to drop dead etc etc. Those are some of the acts of God which men of biblical times were performing.

If you believe that you are a sinner and you will remain one forever, then you are brainwashed by a lie of Satan because the truth is that you can only truly serve God in a state of righteousness and the full measure of righteousness is holiness. You are declaring to yourself and others that you yourself can and will never be saved. Why are you then declaring yourself to be a Christian in the same breath? Have we forgotten that the Christian goal is mastery over sin? The primary purpose of the faith is to be transformed into an instrument for holy use, being counted worthy of a material (financial wealth) and spiritual blessing (immortality). Going to heaven when you die is not the primary reason for being in the faith.

We can only begin to take our stand against the nightly onslaughts of the devil if we believe that it's possible for a man to be made holy. We have to prepare ourselves to face a season of testing. If we are not mentally prepared for suffering then our attitudes require a re-think. We are GOING TO SUFFER and one of the character traits or hallmarks of the sanctified man is LONG-SUFFERING. Like Paul, we will be in chains for the gospel. If the prospect of long-suffering is not appealing to us then why are we in the faith? Let me say to you now that the persecutions of the faith begin in the spirit and by the instigation of the evil one. God permits the devil to test the faith of men and this is revealed very clearly in Job. We ought to understand that the character trait of long suffering is considered a higher spiritual VIRTUE, just as helpfulness, kindness, and generosity are all lower spiritual virtues. Jesus had the capacity for long-suffering; our capacity for long-suffering as disciple of the way will also be stretched to the limit. We will feel and understand exactly what Jesus was going through LONG BEFORE he arrived at Golgotha.

The inner transformation from unrighteous to righteous takes a season of time and can only begin when faith is established in the human spirit. In order to establish faith, a person only needs to have belief. If we believe in God and we are able to perceive the divine potential revealed in the scriptures, then that is belief ENOUGH to begin the establishment of faith. The faith we will need provides our spirits with a FIRM HOPE through a period of intense suffering which other people without that faith would consider to be a time of hopelessness. God leaves the faith part of our co-working relationship with his holy spirit in our hands because we are responsible for the development and maintenance of our faith. If our faith dries up and apostasy enters our hearts, it will be because we ourselves have shipwrecked our faith. God gives us the gift of initial faith by allowing us to perceive it's end-result in us and we the disciples are to maintain it. Believing that a once a week church attendance will be sufficient for salvation is self-deception and a delusion. The servant of God's has a job to do. That job is to work in the world as a carrier or vessel for the spirit of God. The job at hand requires that the servant of God remains daily in the scriptures. There has to be a passion, a zeal and a devotion to them.

Farmers use ploughs and pitchforks; dentists have drills; surgeons rely on their precision instruments and scalpels, but the priest is the bearer of the most powerful weapon of all (the word of God). The sword-bearer must know his instrument! Where you go, your bible goes with you. No matter what you are doing each day, you commit with a good grace to do your reading. This daily reading and prayer begins to form the foundation of faith in your spirit, and this faith is the generator of the hope we expect to receive, but which is delayed for a season. A hope we immediately receive is no hope at all. This is why the reading has to be a daily commitment. The faith we need to have cannot be weak, it has to be strong, built up daily through the reading of the word and firm. Just as the word says: its the anchor for the soul.

1 John 3:18 says “we must not love by word or tongue but through actions which are sincere.” I believe that God does not want us to be saving people – because only the saints have the power of the Parakletos to do that. God wants us to remain in his word day in and day out, so that we can achieve sanctification and save men directly. Penn-Lewis in her book Secrets of Spiritual Warfare, remarks that many Christians are driven by indwelling sin to be preoccupied with the salvation and deliverance of others while they themselves are in bondage and in deep darkness.

If we are continually looking to bring others into our churches and to save others, but we ourselves are not fighting the good fight or being delivered, then be warned, this is one of the devil's greatest deceptions. We will find it much easier to save people when we have received divine power to do so. This is why Jesus warns us to take the log out of our own eyes first then we will see better to take the log out of the eyes of others. First lets get ourselves into a state of purity acceptable before God. Let us please God first and not be preoccupied with saving others for now. I don't mean that we should stop ministering to others, but that we should be be focussed on seed planting, not the salvation which is the work of God. Surely others will be put in our paths when we can genuinely and powerfully help them? That friends is the reality of the gravity of the situation in the church. Too many ministers getting burned-out, perpetually focussed on winning the souls of others, when they themselves are heading into deeper sin yet are oblivious to it. In Shakespeare's King Lear, the fool advises his unwise king to “See better Lear”. Godly wisdom in the scriptures says to us that we must first become fools in order to become wise. In the play, Shakespeare's fool is revealed to be the man of wisdom and his words display the old king's folly which is deception. Let us learn from this.

When the inner man begins it's healing work at night in the spirit, a lack of rooted faith results in a fading away from the battle and an eventual sinking into deep bondage. The devil seeks any means available to snuff out the faith of believers by keeping them away from or out of the word. Any excuse which comes into your head about not being able to read the word must be understood to be not coming from your own mind, but from the mind of sin already living in you. Your immediate thoughts when you hear the excuses coming from your own minds should be “yes I know I am tired, but I am going to read anyway and if I fall asleep while reading I will begin when I wake up again.” Your commitment to the word has to be unflinching and determined. In the beginning of his deliverance, difficulty arises for the carnal and soulish man. By seeking to establish the foundation of faith in his spirit he is fighting a certain level of indwelling sin or darkness within himself and that established level of sin is already beginning to fear and resist the man's single-minded determination to do the will of God daily.

About three years ago when saying prayers I had moments where I could feel that my tongue was being manipulated so that at times I felt like I wanted to say the name of Satan and not God. This is symptomatic of the way in which evil spirits already resident in the soul through indwelling sin operate to counteract the desire to pray and read the word. Falling asleep while reading the word is one of Satan's popular strategies to prevent the word from being internalized while being read. Evil living in you, hates to hear you read the word because an unlocking process begins to occur and the spirit man starts to experience a degree of liberation while the outer man is doing the reading. You might notice churning or gurgling noises in your bowels or strange sensations in your abdomen when you read the word. These subtle things I have noticed as the holy spirit moves into the body to prepare for deliverance each night through the displacement of evil spirits in the top layers of sin.

What about the atonement sacrifice now thought to be done away with?

The church is facing a truth-crisis, because a number of core teachings presented by the Old Testament are being incorrectly interpreted, as though the New Testament was brought in to do away with, or alter the Law given through the prophets. We seem to have forgotten that Jesus came to bring the law to fulfillment not to amend in any way or to do away with it.

These twisted teachings are the root of apostasy because through them, Churches now bring confusion to the masses, teaching them that Jesus took our sins upon himself so that we don't have to receive punishment for them. In short, the atonement sacrifice which is THE ONLY thing pleasing to God - our restitution for sins, is now said to be done away with through the sacrifice of Jesus. Men, in refusing to take responsibility for their own sins, nor willing to achieve mastery over sin, do not want to hear that they must suffer as just punishment for their sins. They will listen to men who tell them what they want to hear, NOT what they need to hear. This is the FUNDAMENTAL REASON why VERY FEW people have been completely healed by God and the reason why there is no supernatural POWER in the churches. Salvation has correspondingly been debased and cheapened; men have lost sight of the glory of the gospel.

The “at-one”ment is the very thing which allows the souls of men to be reconciled with God. Let's look at this logically – sin separates man from God so that he is is veiled from the light of the kingdom where God lives. Removal of that sin brings the souls of men who have made atonement before God back into a spiritual or divine union with God. They re-enter the kingdom, their spiritual home, from which they fell in the beginning. They will be one with the father again, just as Jesus said “I and the father are one”.

For those of you out there who are teaching and proclaiming God's word, please consider this:

When men speak well of you, that is how their father's treated the FALSE PROPHETS.

Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because this was how they treated the TRUE PROPHETS. (Luke 6:22-26)

In the words of A.P. Adams: “The reason why man cannot keep God's law now is because he is depraved, weakened, benighted and diseased by sin; man must be "delivered from this bondage of corruption" before he can "walk with God" as Enoch did, and the purpose of the atonement is this deliverance from sin."

I would like to encourage you to read this article as background to some of the arguments I have presented in earlier postings concerning deliverance and the atonement because it reveals the correct interpretation of sacrifice pleasing to God.

http://tentmaker.org/books/SpiritOfTheWord/037TheAtonementAsTypifiedInTheLaw.htm

Death, judgement and the crucifixion of suffering

Each man must carry his cross for a season of suffering known only to God, but involving 3 – 31/2 years of intense struggle (wrestling), and spiritual affliction. The bible calls this persecution, fiery trial or testing.

Arrival at the judgement is in accordance with the sins of each soul. The man who sins much will reach this place ahead of those who live righteously. His many sins will reach judgement before him, while the sins of the righteous will “trail behind him” since he doesn't heap up his sins to the limit.

The first death happens when a man's flesh starts to breakdown and can no longer support the life of his soul. Due to old age, or disease, the “corpus” breaks down and the relatively uncorrupted soul exits the body because it's vehicle for doing work in the world has become perished or worn out.

A man who dies the second death, passes away because his soul is so corrupted and defiled by sin that no more energy or life-force is available to sustain or support the flesh. In this instance he will die before his naturally allocated time and this because his soul has become repugnant to his flesh. The flesh therefore casts off the soul.

The man who begins to experience fading vitality and ill-health early in life, not responding to medicine or treatment of the flesh can be said to be suffering from a malaise of soul. In this case the man will live a life of suffering and torment because his “self” is already entering hell, being engulfed by darkness. If that man turns to God as a means to escape suffering, he will be brought to the place of judgement where the state of his soul will be revealed to him. During this phase he will become afflicted with progressive severity because he now understands the truth of his inner condition and Satan will be permitted to afflict him as just punishment for his sins.

This is the point at which he is expected to repent (come to a change of heart) and “turn” wholeheartedly to perform the ordinances of God. Prayer, reading of the word and by praying for knowledge on how to resist and fight the enemy will be imparted to him. By reasoned deduction we could say that there is a way which seems wrong to a man but in the end it leads to life. The fact that no man today can tell us anything about the kingdom of God besides what is written about it in the bible testifies that no man today has entered life. Jesus says in Matt 12:28-19 that the kingdom of God has come upon a man who has had sin cast out of him.

Once this phase begins the man is forced into a choice: Either fight the good fight for his life and the deliverance of his soul, or be destroyed. His light and life-force will be drained from him) and he will fade away to destruction.

If he puts away sin, perseveres in prayer, contending through the season of affliction allocated to him, and is successful in his labour or toil, he will pass through judgement and will receive the victor's crown – salvation and glorification. He will be worthy of the title of saint. But if he is unsuccessful, either going back to sins during his atonement period, deviating from the way or cannot remain standing in the faith, he will be condemned. God's judgements are harsh so that men are moved quickly to action.

In all aspects of the judgement a man has freedom to choose, and that choice to be made with wisdom. “If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you. If you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.”

A man can choose to do what's right and pleasing to God, demonstrating enduring faith through trial, or he can choose to carry on doing what is wrong and face a judgement without mercy. In both cases, Jesus the spirit will come with his angels, bringing salvation and setting free the faithful from their torment and affliction, but the unsuccessful souls will be “cut down” – lamps will be removed from their lampstands and their lives will be snuffed out.

The judgement is a time to atone for sins and do what is right and pleasing to God. I am telling you this because I have been locked in it for some time now. Patient endurance and faith through affliction are the qualities which allow a man to be tested and proved worthy for service in the kingdom of God.

The person who receives a good judgement (rises to life) will be blessed and will receive power to meet out justice before the congregation of sinners. This is because that man himself will have passed through judgement successfully and is deemed worthy of the title of JUDGE or KING over sinners. He and he alone will be fit for ministry because he will have presented his soul unblemished to God, exactly as the hebrews new covenant says it must be. From this EXALTED place of REST, with abundant WEALTH and HEALTH, he will be able to bring a crushing blow to those who oppose him and refuse to come into obedience to the truth, but will be able to bless those who trust in him and heed his warnings. The end-times saints are all men and women who look at themselves with sober judgement, study the word diligently and recognise the true teaching of salvation. They set about bringing their souls to God, not just honouring him with their lips. The key words for the end-times are ACTION and PREPARATION of the soul.

I feel very strongly that many Christians are going to be caught-out in these times because they love the word of God but they don't love it enough to do the will of God which involves suffering. God assures us that only those who diligently seek and pursue the truth will receive an inheritance among the saints. A person who loves the truth shows themselves to be a lover of God, because God is truth, and so they must do the truth, not just proclaim it. They must be an example of the truth within themselves and must sacrifice everything for it. "He who loves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it"!

The Apocrypha wisdom books for a righteous and optimum life

The scriptural verses missing from the bible has been a hot topic of debate for some time now.

Should we be concerned about a few missing verses here and there? What about the 18 books of the apocrypha now omitted from the official canon? It always intrigues me how many people will use these omissions as an excuse to not read or study the scriptures, as though the central message of salvation was now flawed as a result of their absence.

Although I agree that there are distortions or omissions of text, plenty of other texts which support the central message and truth of salvation are now available. Anyone who devotes themselves to diligent study of the text - one of the reasons God has given us life on Earth, will discover the nuances and keywords revealing the truth. These things were never to be found through other men, but received directly from God through prayer for revelation. Not through dreams or visions, but solely through insight given by the holy spirit, through the reading of the word and resulting in knowledge imparted to the mind.

Believers it's important not to discount the other scriptures, but to read and study them for yourself BEFORE you decide what IS or IS NOT inspired by God. All scripture is God breathed, or is inspired by a love of God. If the person writing the scripture was not inspired by God, then just who or what exactly would be inspiring him to write those scriptures in the first place? Two of the most important wisdom books now excluded from the official canon are SIRACH, and the WISDOM OF SOLOMON. A Christian who professes to be a seeker of truth, will, when reading these books immediately recognise the gravity and importance of the teachings contained therein. This wisdom supports the concept of faith tested by affliction which I have explained in previous postings, and it also has the beneficial effect of causing one's fear of God to increase. No doubt good for us, since it is supposed to lead to the increased uptake of wisdom.

The more you fear God the more you will be inclined to seek out wisdom and by doing this, you can expect your knowledge and love of God to increase by meditation on these sayings.

Here is an extract of SIRACH concerning wisdom from the original King James.

CHAPTER 1

1: All wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever.
4: Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting.
5: The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdom; and her ways are everlasting commandments.
6: To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed? or who hath known her wise counsels?
7: [Unto whom hath the knowledge of wisdom been made manifest? and who hath understood her great experience?]
8: There is one wise and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting upon his throne.
9: He created her, and saw her, and numbered her, and poured her out upon all his works.
10: She is with all flesh according to his gift, and he hath given her to them that love him.
11: The fear of the Lord is HONOUR, and GLORY, and GLADNESS, and a CROWN of rejoicing. 12: The fear of the Lord maketh a MERRY HEART, and giveth JOY, and , and a LONG LIFE.
13: Whoso feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last, and he shall find favour in the day of his death.
14: To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb.
15: She hath built an everlasting foundation with men, and she shall continue with their seed.
16: To fear the Lord is fullness of wisdom, and filleth men with her fruits.
17: She filleth all their house with things desirable, and the garners with her increase.
18: The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom, MAKING PEACE and PERFECT HEALTH to flourish; BOTH which ARE the GIFTS of God: and it ENLARGETH their REJOICING that love him.
19: Wisdom raineth down SKILL and KNOWLEDGE of understanding standing, and EXALTETH THEM TO HONOUR that hold her fast.
20: The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and the branches thereof are long life.
21: The fear of the Lord driveth away sins: and where it is present, it turneth away wrath.
22: A furious man cannot be justified (saved); for the sway of his fury shall be his destruction.
23: A patient man will tear for a time, and afterward joy shall spring up unto him.
24: He will hide his words for a time, and the lips of many shall declare his wisdom.
25: The parables of knowledge are in the treasures of wisdom: but godliness is an abomination to a sinner.

26: If thou desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord shall give her unto thee.
27: For the fear of the Lord is WISDOM and INSTRUCTION: and FAITH and MEEKNESS are his delight.
28: Distrust not the fear of the Lord when thou art poor (corrupted in spirit): and come not unto him with a double heart. (not in half-heartedness) 29: Be not an hypocrite in the sight of men, and take good heed what thou speakest.
30: Exalt not thyself, lest thou fall, and bring dishonour upon thy soul, and so God discover thy secrets, and cast thee down in the midst of the congregation, because thou camest not in truth to the fear of the Lord, but thy heart is full of deceit.

CHAPTER 2

1: My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for TESTING (TEMPTATION).
2: Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble.
3: Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end.
4: Whatsoever is brought upon thee (affliction) take cheerfully, and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate. (brought low).
5: For gold is tried in the fire, and ACCEPTABLE MEN in the FURNACE OF ADVERSITY.
6: Believe in him, and he will help thee; order thy way aright, and trust in him.
7: Ye that fear the Lord, WAIT for his mercy; and go not aside, lest ye fall.
8: Ye that fear the Lord, believe him; and your reward shall not fail.
9: Ye that fear the Lord, hope for good, and for everlasting joy and mercy.
10: Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him?
11: For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, and very pitiful, and forgiveth sins, and saveth in time of affliction.
12: Woe be to fearful hearts, and faint hands, and the sinner that goeth two ways!
13: Woe unto him that is fainthearted! for he believeth not; therefore shall he not be defended.
14: Woe unto you that have lost patience! and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?
15: They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word; and they that love him will keep his ways.
16: They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well, pleasing unto him; and they that love him shall be filled with the law.
17: They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and humble their souls in his sight,
18: Saying, We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men: for as his majesty is, so is his mercy.

CHAPTER 3

11: Wisdom exalteth her children, and layeth hold of them that seek her.
12: He that loveth her loveth life; and they that seek to her early shall be filled with joy.
13: He that holdeth her fast shall inherit glory; and wheresoever she entereth, the Lord will bless.
14: They that serve her shall minister to the Holy One: and them that love her the Lord doth love.
15: Whoso giveth ear unto her shall judge the nations: and he that attendeth unto her shall dwell securely.
16: If a man commit himself unto her, he shall inherit her; and his generation shall hold her in possession.
17: For at the FIRST she will walk with him by CROOKED WAYS, and BRING FEAR AND DREAD UPON HIM, and TORMENT HIM with her DISCIPLINE, UNTIL she may trust his soul, and TRY (PROVE) him by her laws.
18: Then will she return the straight way unto him, and comfort him, and shew him her secrets.
19: But IF HE GO WRONG, SHE WILL FORSAKE HIM, and GIVE HIM over to his OWN RUIN.
20: OBSERVE THE OPPORTUNITY, and beware of evil; and be not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul.
21: For there is a shame that bringeth sin; and there is a shame which is glory and grace.
22: Accept no person against thy soul, and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall.
23: And refrain not to speak, when there is occasion to do good, and hide not thy wisdom in her beauty.
24: For by speech wisdom shall be known: and learning by the word of the tongue.
25: In no wise speak against the truth; but be abashed of the error of thine ignorance.
26: Be not ashamed to confess thy sins; and force not the course of the river.
27: Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man; neither accept the person of the mighty.
28: Strive for the truth unto death(fight the good fight), and the Lord shall fight for thee.
29: Be not hasty in thy tongue, and in thy deeds slack and remiss.
30: Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantick among thy servants.
31: Let not thine hand be stretched out to receive, and shut when thou shouldest repay.

CHAPTER 15

1: He that feareth the Lord will do good, and he that hath the knowledge of the law shall obtain her.
2: And as a mother shall she meet him, and receive him as a wife married of a virgin.
3: With the bread of understanding shall she feed him, and give him the water of wisdom to drink.
4: He shall be stayed upon her, and shall not be moved; and shall rely upon her, and shall not be confounded.
5: She shall exalt him above his neighbours, and in the midst of the congregation shall she open his mouth.
6: He shall find joy and a crown of gladness, and she shall cause him to inherit an everlasting name. 7: But FOOLISH MEN SHALL NOT ATTAIN UNTO HER, and SINNERS SHALL NOT SEE HER.
8: For she is far from pride, and men that are liars cannot remember her.
9: Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, for it was not sent him of the Lord.
10: For praise shall be uttered in wisdom, and the Lord will prosper it.
11: Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away: for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth.
12: Say not thou, He hath caused me to err: for he hath no need of the sinful man.
13: The Lord hateth all abomination; and they that fear God love it not.
14: He himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel;
15: If thou wilt, to keep the commandments, and to perform acceptable faithfulness.
16: He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt.
17: Before man is life and death; and whether him liketh shall be given him.
18: For the wisdom of the Lord is great, and he is mighty in power, and beholdeth all things:
19: And his eyes are upon them that fear him, and he knoweth every work of man.
20: He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, neither hath he given any man license to sin.

Salvation: church theology vs biblical doctrine

I have been compiling the fundamental differences between the church's teaching on salvation and the bible's version. My presentation of the different teachings is based on 1 Pet 1:9, “we are receiving the outcome (goal) of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” If we take the core truth out of this verse, it's that salvation is the goal of the christian faith. We must remember that Peter's letter was addressed to the Elect or saints of the diaspora who THEMSELVES were receiving the GOAL of their faith and suffering persecution which was related to spiritual affliction.

The church tells us that we receive the goal of our faith at the inception of our faith or when we accept Christ. This begs the question, how can it be possible for the goal of the faith to be received or achieved when we begin in the faith? If you run a race, how is it possible to reach the finish line as you begin the race? It's logically and fundamentally impossible. So here is are the two versions:

Biblical Salvation - a 3 step process, I=>W=>S
INCEPTION, WALK then SALVATION

I - Accept Jesus into your heart by faith and you WILL BE saved. (this indicates a time in the disciple's future)

W - Walk in the footsteps of the faith, RESISTING the devil (1 Pet 5:9), STANDING firm and CONTENDING for the faith (according to Jude 1:3), PATIENTLY ENDURING a time or season of TESTING by trial, TRIBULATION and AFFLICTION with long suffering.

S - SALVATION and the simultaneous REVELATION of Jesus from heaven in blazing fire (1 Pet 1:13-15) resulting in completed sanctification, holiness, and the full measure of righteousness.

The church's version - a 3 step process, I+S=>W

INCEPTION and SIMULTANEOUS salvation then a WALK in faith.

I + S - Accept Jesus into your heart by faith and you are instantly saved.
Here, the twisting of YOU WILL be saved is interpreted to mean YOU ARE saved. As you enter the faith and in baby faith, you receive IMMEDIATELY your salvation without undergoing any sort of TESTING or TRIBULATION. Also there is nothing to contend with for your salvation.
Contending means to STRIVE, FIGHT or STRUGGLE and what do we know about a STRUGGLE? Paul tells us our struggle is not against FLESH and BLOOD, but against SPIRITUAL FORCES of WICKEDNESS. In short we must contend with the devil in the spirit.

W - From the point of believing they have received salvation, the new christian begins to walk in faith, because the church tells them they are saved. Eventually doubts creep into the minds of some, but these very healthy doubts which should prompt further study and investigation are ignored, and often regarded as the work of Satan trying to diminish their faith. When doubt arises we ought to examine ourselves with sober judgement not chase fantasies; we should take heed lest we fall.

Regarding the battle of the saints against the enemy:

1 Tim 6:12 says that we must “EXERT all our STRENGTH in the HONOURABLE STRUGGLE for the faith.

Tyndale's Heb 10:32 tells us to “CALL TO REMEMBRANCE the days that are passed, in the which, after ye received light (the truth), YE ABODE a GREAT FIGHT in ADVERSITIES.

Psalm 35:1 says “Contend O Lord with those that contend with me, fight against those who fight against me.”

A person who walks according to the church walks IN VAIN. Why? Because the future blessed hope which walking and standing daily in faith brings closer, is already thought to have been received. The definition of faith is a hope which you perceive or expect, which as yet remains unseen or unreceived. There would be NO POINT walking in faith if you knew that you had already received what you hoped for. You would in reality be walking with no hope at all. You would be walking in a state of hopelessness.

James 1:3 “The TESTING of your faith produces ENDURANCE”
Luke 21:10 “By your ENDURANCE your will protect your lives" (gain life)
Rom 5:3 “TRIBULATION brings about PERSEVERANCE”
Matt 10:32 “He who PERSEVERES to the END WILL BE SAVED"

From these we can make a reasonable deduction and with the help of KEY words linking together:

Tribulation produces perseverance, which brings about endurance, which is brought about by faith undergoing testing or trial. By persevering and enduring (standing steadfast) to the end of this tribulation, we will be saved and gain life or enter life. Those who enter life, enter the kingdom and they are the ones who are worthy of glory and honour. Look up the hymn, "pilgrims progress" to get an idea of the kind of faith which necessary for salvation. The word is CONSTANCY by rooted faith.

This fits well with what we know about the saints who must first undergo tribulation BEFORE they are RAPTURED, RAISED-UP or GLORIFIED. The saints are NOT going to leave the ground and soar into heaven, they will instead remain on terra firma, but have souls which have shed the FALLEN NATURE caused by SIN and have put on or assumed the RISEN NATURE brought about by SINLESSNESS, the wages of righteousness.

The bible calls this process translation, resurrection, or metamorphosis. The saints who do the will of God will enter the Kingdom of heaven by spiritual conversion and so will begin their superior ministry on earth with souls that are heaven bound and no longer earthbound. The souls of the fallen and deceived will be SUBJECT to those men and women who will have AUTHORITY to bring those souls to judgement. This is why the saints are also referred to as the KINGS of the earth - they have divine authority and POWER to RULE over the fallen.