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I have only just read a couple of things from your web pages, which I found in a search for president Bush's equating Allah with YHVH, and therefore denying Jesus as our Lord, God and our only Savior. Your e-mail was good. Thank you.
When I saw your "e-mail to a Mormon believer," I felt I had to write to you because I have many Mormons in my family for whom I grieve that they may know Jesus as their only Lord and Savior. Reference your response in which you agree with him and admit you don't have the answers to his questions about the "adding to the Word", I'd like to share some of my thoughts:
When God created man He made him the governor of all the earth, to rule over it and to benefit by its bountiful provisions. He placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to tend it and enjoy all its benefits. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was there, and the tree of life. Adam was on "probation" in a sense, and if he had obeyed and not eaten the fruit that was forbidden, he would have eventually gotten to eat of the tree of life and then would have lived forever, never dying in his physical body, but being transformed at the proper time. (Genesis 1:28, 2:8,9,15-17, and 3:1-15, 22-24)
We know the transformed body does not marry, nor procreate. That God intended man to marry and have children, and then at some time to be transformed by eating the Tree of Life, is, I think, a proper deduction from the reading of scripture; and we who are alive and remain 'till the coming of the Lord will know that kind of transformation, because we have eaten of the Tree of Life, in the spiritual sense, by being transformed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear Son -when we were born anew by His spirit.(Genesis 1:28, 2:24, Malachi 2:15, Matthew 22: 23-30, Philipians 3:20, 1 Corinthians 15: 51-57 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, Colossians 2:12-14, John 3:3, Revelation 2:7, 22:2,14, John 3:16, John 11:25,26)
God promised the Seed of the woman that would crush the head of the tempter on the day man was condemned to "die until he died." (Genesis 2:17, 3:15) To get man to the understanding about "The Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world," Who is the Seed of the woman promised (the virgin born Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ) God called Abraham (Abram) out of the Syrian peoples and promised to make a nation from him in which all the earth would be blessed, narrowing the promise down, at that time, to come through a nation that God would make of Abraham's descendants. (Genesis 11:28 through 12:3, 22:1-18, John 8:56, Isaiah 53:1-12, esp. verses 7-12, John 1:29, 30, Revelation 5:6-14, 13:8)
To prepare that nation to be able to show the purpose and meaning of the promised "Seed of the woman," He worked through them, bringing them out of Egypt and slavery with mighty miracles, culminating with the feast of Passover, which is the symbol of Jesus' death delivering each person who believes and applies the Blood of that Passover Lamb, in faith, to the "doorposts of their heart." Egypt being, then, the type of the "world, and slavery to sin each person is in." (Exodus 12:1-51, 1 Corinthians 5:7, Isaiah 53, Luke 22:14-20)
After that he proceeded to take them to the mountain in Sinai, where He visited them personally, though they refused to hear Him, and asked Moses to go to Him and then tell them what God said. (Exodus 19:1 through 20:21)
At that time God introduced his Torah to that nation and all the rituals and ceremonies that went with the whole system known as "The Law." Every ritual, every feast, every sacrifice that God commanded, even the exact plans for the tabernacle, which could not be changed in any way, were given to that nation to be a type and shadow - or pattern - if you will, for everything He would reveal about the Lord Jesus Christ: His person, His holiness, and His plan of salvation for all peoples. The Jews were chosen to be a kingdom of priests and kings before Him, making Him known in all the earth. They and they alone were entrusted with that law and the promise of the Messiah through them.(Exodus 25: 40, Hebrews 8: 1-5, colossians 2: 8-17 Romans 3:1,2)
There were believers in the true God, from the day of creation, in the nations of the world. God has never left mankind without a witness and there have been many who walked with him, before the Law, and after. Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to Him, Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, who was a priest of the Most High God who himself was a type and shadow of the Lord Jesus, as was Moses, and as was Joseph, and as was Joshua. (Genesis 4: 3,4, Genesis 14:18-20, Hebrews 7: 1-17, Deuteronomy 18:15, Acts 3:21-26. Much has been written on Joseph and Joshua as "a type of Messiah", and I would urge anyone to conduct a search on these men.)
Job was a man of true faith who knew his maker. In fact many of the proverbs that Solomon collected and wrote for us were spoken along with known facts by Job and Job's "comforters" though the "comforters" did not apply them in the light and understanding of the Spirit of God. (Ecclesiastes 12:9, Job 5; 17, Proverbs 3:11, Job 31:4, 34:21, Proverbs 5:21 Job 18:5, 6, Proverbs 13:9, and Proverbs 20:20 to mention a few. Please browse the book of Job and check out the direct links to Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.)
Moses' Father-in-Law was also a priest of God and certainly was not a false one.
The Jews, of all the peoples of the world, were God's Chosen who were given the Law, as I said, to reveal Messiah and His work. Therefore, the penalty for adding to, or taking anything from it is death. The Bible is God's Word, not man's, and although many prophets arose in Israel, no one was to be listened to if what they said contradicted the law given through Moses in any way - in fact they were to be stoned to death! And from Genesis to Revelation, the book is about His work to redeem mankind. It's all about Him! And he chose to teach the world about Himself through the Jewish nation and the Law that he gave.
Jesus said to the Jews, "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but they are they that testify of Me." He also said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work," when they wanted to stone Him for healing on the Sabbath: yet when He hung on the cross, He cried, "It is finished!" and died. He promised He did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. He said not one jot or tittle would pass away till all was fulfilled. He fulfilled it! (John 5:1-18, 39, John 19:30, Matthew 5:17, 18)
The work which he began before creation (by having the plan already, to redeem us to Himself - being the "Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world!") to redeem mankind and bring us back to fellowship with our most Holy Creator was finished when He died on the cross. When He rose up from the dead and went back into the presence of the Father, he sat down. It is finished! All who believe in his sacrificial death for their sins and apply the Passover Lamb's Blood by faith, to their heart, are now in His Sabbath rest, which Israel never achieved as a nation (Psalm 95:11), for the "shadow" of the Sabbath "sign" was given to them as another pattern of Jesus' work. (Hebrews 4:1-11, Hebrews 1:3)
Just as the breaking of the Sabbath Law was punishable by death in Israel, even so is the breaking of the Sabbath rest God has given all peoples in the death of Jesus for our redemption. He fulfilled the promise given to Adam and Eve of the Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent (Satan) by His death on the cross. In His resurrection, we have the assurance that we, too, will be resurrected (or changed, if we are alive when He comes) in the body to live forever in His presence in fellowship with him. That is what was lost in the Garden of Eden and what Jesus - the only visible manifestation of the Godhead we will ever see throughout eternity - our Creator God, who became a human born of a virgin; not tainted with the sin cursed blood of Adam, but a "new creation," came to restore us to.
There can be no more religions or types or shadows or prophets with new revelations, for that would be breaking the Sabbath Rest in Jesus (Hebrews 4, Hebrews 8:1-10:23). God will still use the Jewish Nation to show the world who He is, and that His Name is above every name that is named in Heaven and in earth, and will fulfill every promise He ever made to physical Israel.
In the millennial reign, we see the Feast of Tabernacles being kept by all the nations, and the temple rebuilt in which Jesus has His earthly throne (the Holy of Holies- Ezekiel 43:1-7) while He rules from Jerusalem. We who are Gentile believers in Jesus are saved as Abraham was, by faith in Him, and as Job was, who "Knew His redeemer lived and would stand in the latter days upon the earth and that he would see Him in his flesh." We are told in Acts 15 what we must do as believers: abstain from sexual immorality, abstain from eating blood, and to keep ourselves from idols. Jews who are believers in "Yeshua", though, have the advantage in explaining His work through the Law and Feasts (when they come to fully understand them), as did the first Jews who followed Jesus as Messiah. (Luke 24:42-45, Zechariah 14:16-18, James 2;23, Job 19:25-27)
Mormonism is a lie that breaks the Sabbath, and so does Roman Catholicism, with all its priests, feasts, and services which are lies in their makeup, and in having a pope, who sits in the seat of "God!" We all have direct access to the throne of grace now, and can come boldly in the Name of Jesus, through the "veil that is His flesh" to minister to God and request His help for all our needs.
The work is finished, the veil has been torn in two that kept us from His Holy and Glorious presence, and we who believe are all priests and kings to Him! Before His death, no human who had died physically was able to enter into His presence, but awaited the day - from the death of Abel on - in which Christ would come to take them into His presence, and at His descension into hell (the place of rest, called Abraham's bosom, for Jews) where the righteous dead were waiting, He announced the Good News to them and ascended on high, Scripture tells us, leading Captivity (death) captive! Now all who die in faith in Him go immediately into His presence. (Matthew 27:51-53, Hebrews 4, Revelation 1:5, 6, Luke 16:22, Psalm 68:18, Ephesians 4:7,9, 2 Corinthians 5:4-6, Phillipians 1:21-24, 2 Timothy 1: 7-10, John 8; 51, Hebrews 2:14,15)
To sum up the original reason for my response to the Mormon man's assertion that adding to the scriptures was done after the warning not to, and thereby giving license to the Mormons to play with, and add to, the word of God: Nothing was added to the Law which taught about the Messiah's reason for coming and how He would come and what He would do. To play with the revealed Word in any way - changing it, adding to it, or removing it as it was revealed in the Torah, will bring eternal death and separation from His holy presence forever. The Law, as given through Moses, is the only "religion" God ever "invented". It is full of types and shadows (patterns) of Jesus Christ, Yeshua haMaschiach, who Himself is the True Temple of God (Emmanuel, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, bodily) that the earthly temple was patterned after. To change the pattern of God's requirements and instructions changes who Jesus is, and that cannot be done; it is fixed in Heaven and on earth!
Jesus came to fulfill the Law and it was all about Him after all, for He is the Word of God made Flesh, come to be our Savior, our redeemer kinsman, who restores us back to a relationship of fellowship with our holy God that we lost in our father Adam at the fall, and we do enter His Sabbath Rest when we believe - no more works will be offered to man for salvation than His finished work, for that would break the Sabbath Rest that God gave us.
There is no other Gospel given or any other Name given than His. It is indeed finished! How can anyone claim another gospel with a straight face who has read the scriptures? They are blind leaders of the blind, indeed, and worthy of eternal death for breaking His Holy Sabbath!
In Him,
T.K.
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