Last day of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI

For over two decades Joseph Ratzinger has dealt with the question if a pope resign. John Paul  considered retiring at 75, an ordinary bishop's retirement age, according to the best-selling book Why He Is a Saint, and discussed it with Ratzinger, but he eventually abandoned the idea of a papal retirement age,



Could it be that Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI has lost control?

Child abuse and the financial secret happenings should worry all believers as well as the protectionshield the Church of Rome is creating for Joseph Ratzinger. Namely, he will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation. Doing so will offer him legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said on Friday the 15th of February.

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless". announced Vatican officials.

Vatican City (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

This startling admission of guilt by the church is also a direct obstruction of justice, and lends more weight to the charge by the ITCCS and others that the Vatican has arranged with the Italian government to shield Ratzinger from criminal prosecution, in violation of international laws ratified by Italy.

The Vatican decided two weeks ago to give permanent sanctuary to a proven war criminal by allowing Joseph Ratzinger to obstruct justice and evade prosecution for crimes against humanity. And the government of Italy is colluding in this abrogation of international law.
This decision validates the claims of International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) – Brussels, about the criminal conspiracy surrounding Ratzinger and his Vatican co-conspirators. It also makes it clear that the Vatican is a rogue power that is flaunting every law to conceal its own criminality.

Fifteen countries have now become  part of the movement against abuse, trafficking, torture and murder of children and historic genocide of indigenous peoples at the hands of European Christendom.

Kevin Annett of ITCCS says:

Protecting Ratzinger within the walls of the Vatican may halt justice for a moment, but it violates a basic rule of warfare, which is to never give your enemy a permanent focus for their attack. Ratzinger, the evil Emperor, now a permanent fixture in the Vatican? The absurdity of offering such an ongoing focus to the civilized world's hatred of catholic criminality is also a sign that the church is adrift and improvising. But it also shows how genuinely worried is the Vtaican about the legal offensive mounted by our affiliates, lawyers for torture survivors, and the International Criminal Court.

Ratzinger non aprirà l'anno accademico. The students told "No Pope in the University!". The Pope won't go to the Rome's university. (Photo credit: Zingaro. I am a gipsy too.)

The Vatican is pulling out all stops to keep Ratzinger out of court. Their loyal, one-man owned Italian media is assaulting the crap out of yours truly and our ITCCS these days, playing the "Deny, Distract and Discredit" strategy of any damage-controlling corporation.

This Friday, California Public Television will broadcast the complete Proceedings, Evidence and Verdict of our Common Law Court of Justice, to a viewership of millions of people.
This Saturday, the ITCCS global online radio program will feature some of the Citizen Jurors who found the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and Canada guilty of Genocide – On March 2 at 4 pm EST, 9 pm GMT on www.blogtalkradio.com/wethejury

The top Catholic official in England, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, suddenly resigned this week and announced he would not vote at the Vatican Conclave on March 15 to elect a new Pope. This unprecedented defiance may indicate a collapse in the disciplinary chain of command within the church, since Cardinals' attendance at the Papal Conclave is normally mandatory.
Meanwhile, Common Law Court officers have begun to serve the Order of Compliance to the thirty officials found guilty of Crimes against Humanity last Monday, including Joseph Ratzinger, Elizabeth Windsor, top Roman Cardinals and Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. All of the accused parties seem to be in hiding.

The Vatican has forever been an organization that is mainly, not to say only, interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation and its own finances. Already in early times it was clear that lots of people in charge prefered to be on good terms by those in power. For that reason they agreed even to Constantine and his successors to come to terms with certain Greek and philosophical teachings. Soon the so called 'Apologists' arose with the goal to blend Christianity and Greek philosophy. They said that although God was one, which Moses, Jesus and Paul unite in their testimony and can be found in many books of the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; Galatians 3:20; 2 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6 just to give some examples). Also on the mortality of man the church gave a twist to confirm with the powerful Roman Emprie. Genesis 2:7 and 3:19 clearly tell us that man is a material and mortal thing. Our body is corruptible and mortal (1 Corinthians 15:47,53-54) but the men in power wanted to give in into tradition and other favoured beliefs that the 'soul' and 'body' were separate things, the 'soul' being immortal. Thus Christendom, became virtually a Christianized Greek philosophy.

Throughout history the Roman Catholic Church used its power to get more power and to get more money in their banks, doing everything to secure  their power of having something to say and to dictate in the world. today nothing has changed, but some may think there is moving a lot, and even in the own ranks there is a contra movement.

Keith Porteous Wood:

The Vatican has forever been an organization that is only interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation and its own finances - it has always been thus. But with the kind off communications we have today, they can’t get away with that any longer.

I’m certainly aware of two major issues over child abuses that are going to come up and are going to be very, very hard for the Vatican to swallow. Because it is not like it is the child abuse, bad though that is, is the issue - it is actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointed at the Vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret files that it won’t release.
So, that is going to look very, very bad, and I think people will get less and less tolerant about that. And the Vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this, of putting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins, and being much more open and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes turned over to the police.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives on St Peter's square for his last weekly audience on February 27, 2013 at the Vatican. (AFP Photo / Tiziana Fabi)

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Read also:

1. John Paul to Ratzinger: Should I resign?
2. Roman Church admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and “protection”
3. Celebrating a Pope-Free World
4. Vatican policies ‘catastrophic in their implications’

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• Roman Church admits the Pope's Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and "protection"
• Roman Church admits the Pope's Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and "protection"

English Artticles from July-September 2011

In Christa-Delphos Welcome we brought a welcome to new visitors and mentioned also the news of us not going to bring so many articles any more on this platform.

We are pleased to find that the articles we now place on the WordPress pages are generating more visitors a day. And that is what we would love to see: more people reading about our ideas.

But we also notice that people do not dare to subscribe or do not want (yet) to receive updates so that they can know when a new article is published.
It does not harm to subscribe and it is free. At no cost or hidden agendas you can receive a notice in your mailbox when a new article is published. That is also for this site; By becoming a member you shall be able to get a notice by every new publication or to receive a rapport of what has been published in the past week.

On the other websites some article can be interesting to have a look at.
You shall be able to find:

Major points of Christadelphian belief

יהוה Creator of heaven and earth and everything around

A god between many gods

The wrong hero

God about His name “יהוה“

Posted on September 22, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh | Tags: Elohim, Jehovah, Name of God, Tetragrammaton, YaHuWah |

The Bible and names in it

Posted on September 22, 2011. Filed under: Bible Study and Bible Reading, Holy Scriptures, Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Preaching | Tags: God, Bible, Jehovah, Lord, Lord of lords, YaHuWah, Tetragrammaton, Name of God, Tanakh, Masoretic Text, Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Trinity, Names, Pagan, Charles Spurgeon |

Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #1 Suffering covered by Peace Offering

Posted on August 5, 2011. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Suffering | Tags: Christ, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Suffering, Via Veritas Vita, Yahshua |

Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #2 What you must do

Posted on August 5, 2011. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Faith, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua | Tags: Beatitudes, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Yahshua |

Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian

Posted on August 8, 2011. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Christianity, Ecclesia, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua | Tags: Christianity, church, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Ten Commandments, Yahshua | 

Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man

Posted on July 19, 2011. Filed under: Endtimes, Environment and Ecology, Suffering, World | Tags: anti-social behaviour, Belgium, Book of Job, Chernobyl, Education, Environment, European Union, everyday live, Flanders, Fukushima, God, Human, Job, Labour economics, litter, misery, Natural disaster, natural law, Poverty, Suffering, welfare, Welfare state |

Self inflicted misery to bear 1.     The root by man For some the Book of Job offers no simple answer to the problem of suffering. But it should shed a light on how nobody can escape the problems of this world and shall be able to find himself confronted with misery at one or another [...]

Self inflicted misery #2 Weakness of human race

Posted on July 22, 2011. Filed under: World, Suffering, Environment and Ecology | Tags: Japan, life, evil, weakness, natural law, disease, United States, Fukushima Prefecture, Arnold Gundersen, Government of Japan, nuclearpower, human life, generation, contamination, customer |

Self inflicted misery to bear 2.     Weakness of human race Man’s neglect and misuse of his own life has corrupted the stream of human life itself, and left evils which fall on succeeding generations. These, again as part of natural law, may manifest themselves as hereditary weaknesses and tendencies to disease. The very stuff of [...]

Self inflicted misery #3 A man given to suffer for us

Posted on July 24, 2011. Filed under: Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Suffering | Tags: God, God the Father, Immortality, Jesus, Jesus Christ, salvation, Son of God |

Self inflicted misery to bear 3.     A man given to suffer for us About 2000 years ago a man named Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in the land of Israel. His birth, mission, death and resurrection were foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament of the Bible and revealed to us [...]

Self inflicted misery #4 To whom to listen

Posted on July 26, 2011. Filed under: Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh, Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua | Tags: Christ, Christian, God, Jesus, Jews, Sin, Son of God |

Self inflicted misery to bear 4.     To whom to listen As Christians we better listen to the one whose title we use in our name: Christians. The Christ, Jesus or Yeshua, the Nazarene often talked about his Father who showed His love to the world. The master teacher knew that many people accused his loving [...]

Self inflicted misery #5 A prophet without a hedge around him

Posted on July 28, 2011. Filed under: Jesus Christ Jeshua the Messiah Jahushua, Suffering | Tags: blindness, Christ, Christianity, God, healing, Jesus, Pharisee, prophet, Sabbath, Shabbat |

Self inflicted misery to bear 5.     A prophet without a hedge around him Though God loved Jesus He did not put hedge about him. Perhaps we can say God had blessed the work of his hands but God had not put a wall round him and no protection when Jesus was in need not to [...]

Self inflicted misery #6 Paying by death

Posted on July 29, 2011. Filed under: Life and Death, Suffering, Thought | Tags: Christ, Christ Jesus, Christianity, death, End Times, God, Jesus, punishment, salvation, Times |

Self inflicted misery to bear 6.     Paying by death The people Jesus brought to live had to die again. As long as the world did not come to face the End of the Times, the world had to pay for her sins by death. You could say that is the penalty God has given us [...]

Self inflicted misery #7 Good news to our suffering

Posted on August 1, 2011. Filed under: Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh, Kingdom of God, Religion, Suffering | Tags: Creator deity, faith, God, God the Father, Good News, Gospel, Jehovah, Jesus, Sacrifice, Suffering |

Self inflicted misery #8 Pruning to strengthen us

Posted on August 2, 2011. Filed under: Being Christian, following Jesus Christ, Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh, Suffering | Tags: children of God, Christianity, correct, Epistle to the Hebrews, God, guide, Holy Spirit, Jehovah, Jesus, Jews, loving God, punishment, righteousness, Son of God |

Self inflicted misery #9 Subject to worldly things

Posted on August 5, 2011. Filed under: Jehovah God Elohim Yahweh, Suffering | Tags: Christ, Christianity, God, Good News, Holy Spirit, Jesus, mortality, Religion and Spirituality, Son of God, Suffering |

Dying or not

Are there people who have no death in them? According to Scriptures nobody is going to escape death. Since what happened in Eden we all have to face pain, ageing, deterioration, dying. Immortality is not given to us worldly people.

We are all going to die, which means that we are going to cease to exist until resurrected.  In death, the grave, there is no knowledge, no remembrance, no praise. There is no extra element of us, an extraordinary being or sort ghost which is going to live on. Man is dust and to dust he returns (see Genesis 3:19; Job 10:9; Psalm 90:3).
A separate soul was not joined to a prepared body when we came into existence on this earth. We were born by receiving the breath of life.  Man became a living soul (being RSV) when the breath of the spirit of life was breathed into his nostrils. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7, KJV).

All our live we may have chosen to follow God, but this even lets us not live on after our death. Once we come to that point we also shall not be able to feel or do anything anymore. Even not praising God.
"For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give you praise?" (Psalm 6:5)
"What profit will thee be in my blood when I go down to the pit?  Shall the dust praise thee?  Shall it declare thy truth?" (Psalm 30:9) "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence" (Psalm 115:17). We shall not be able to do anything, even not praise God. Because we would be like in a deep sleep. And we have to wait until we got woken up by Jesus like he called Lazarus (John 11:11). In "the last days", when God will show His power once more on the earth, at "a time of trouble such as never was "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:1-2). Some people will be raised from the dead when Jesus comes and others will sleep forever in the dust of the ground.

We die and return to the earth. If we have died "in Christ" we have that marvellous hope that we will rise again to eternal life. But that is not going to happen straight ahead after our death. That's why believers who have died in the new testament are said to be "asleep" while those who "understand not" as the Psalmist puts it have been destroyed.
Subjectively the dead have no sense of time between the moment of death and that of the resurrection. Objectively, thousands of years may have passed before they shall get resurrected.

“If (God) should set his heart on it, if he should gather to himself his spirit and his breath, All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14,15) and stay dust, but He has given His promises and by those we do find life.

Whilst it is easy to focus on the mention of dust, and to think of the bodily corruption that occurs when anybody dies, think instead about what is being told us about life.
Life is a gift from God. He energised Adam in the Garden of Eden and made it possible for mankind to come into existence and He has perpetuated the race that Adam and Eve fathered.
Someone once said about God: “He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), and that generosity is evident all around us, all the time.  Life is the most marvellous thing we
possess: it is God’s free gift to all of us.

He gives and we receive. He is the source of life and we are creatures dependent upon Him. When our breath leaves the body, try as we might, we cannot get it back. Nobody can bring a dead body back to life: when it is dead it is dead. So here is a stark reminder of the difference
between God and mankind: He is immortal and we are not. The Bible often makes that  distinction and that is hard for some people to accept, but see for yourself.

It is our Almighty God who has given immortality to His angels and to only one man. Namely Jesus who at his return to earth will manifest in his own time.  It is this Jesus who shall appear "our Lord Yahshua the Messiah: Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting.  Amen." (1 Timothy 6:14-16 KJBPNV)

If we want it or not, we are the lesser one. We are always given up to death. “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11); “Here mortal men receive tithes…” (Hebrews 7:8).

God alone has inherent immortality. He is the only one who is eternal. Though certain Christian denominations proclaim that we become eternal, this shall always be impossible because we always had somewhere a beginning. And a person who had a beginning can not be eternal because that is one of the implications of eternity, having no beginning and no end.

We are mortal – dying creatures. But God, who first gave mankind the breath of life, can also give us life that lasts forever. The Bible calls this “eternal life” or “immortality” but there you have to be careful how you want to understand that immortality. Please do have before your eyes that you have two forms of immortality: 1. having no way to die or 2. the one (how I would put it and believe in) were we have the possibility in us to die but are give (by grace) the possibility to stay for ever, which is to stay a life in eternity. Here’s one of God’s promises about that wonderful
prospect: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is that life for eternal what we can get, because Jesus brought his Ransom Offer. "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concernmg them which are asleep (he means in death), that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope .... For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven ... with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise . . ." (1 Thessalonians 4:13,16) Christ personally (note "himself") will descend from heaven; and the faithful dead will rise-from the grave of course. Here are basic teachings which are found throughout the New Testament. They are foundation truths of the Gospel. ". . . The hour is coming, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his (Jesus') voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29).

The bad news is that we could earn death; the good news is that there is an alternative. We could be given eternal life: the chance to live forever in a perfect world. What a choice and
what an opportunity!

The reward of the righteous does not consist of some "spirit existence" somewhere; it will be the granting of an incorruptible body, one that will not waste away and perish as our present one does, but will no longer be subject to death.

Not having to endure pain or to be frightened to hurt ourselves or to die we shall be able to enter the "paradise" of the new Kingdom of peace and joy which Christ will establish when he returns to the earth.

Those who have listened to what God has to say, have taken the time to understand it, and who have made those promises their life’s aim, they shall, when they have repented and chosen to keep God's Commandments, be able to trust the Lord and shall receive the opportunity to live for eternal in God's Kingdom as true members of the family of God .

The Bible explains that we must be baptised if we want to enter the Kingdom of God and start to live with Him, here and now. It was the Lord himself who said: “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and he went on to explain that this means that we must be born again “of water and the Spirit” (3:5). do not postpone it, because you never what tomorrow brings.

Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Al of niet onsterfelijkheid

Let not sin reign in your mortal body

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON

Many sincere Christians express dissatisfaction over the fact that they continually fall short of perfection. Many admit continual failure in the spiritual life, repeating sins again and again, giving way to habit patterns contrary to the life of Christ. When they read the command of Christ, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), they feel both condemned and discouraged.

  In almost all great revivals believers have sought in one way or another to attain to perfection of living. They have longed for it, prayed for it, and worked for it. But the testimony of all great Christians is that they have never attained to it; that  the more they strove and the closer they came to Christ, the deeper was their sense of inadequacy and inherent sinfulness. While their lives bore testimony to victory over sin, at the same time they felt a deeper sense of their own need and unworthiness. Ask Peter, James, and John. Ask the noblest souls that the Christian church has ever seen, the most zealous men that mankind has ever produced. With one accord they exclaim with the Apostle Paul: “I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on, hoping to take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me. My friends, I do not reckon myself to have grasped hold of it yet. All I can say is this: forgetting what is behind me, and reaching out for that which lies ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize which is God’s call to the life above, in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:12:14.

  All the true believers who have come to know the saving power of God testify that the only perfection, the only sinlessness, they have ever seen or known has been that of Jesus Christ, the only perfect and sinless man: and that Jesus is the whole of their salvation, the whole of their righteousness and perfection. To be a genuine Christian means faith in Christ, fellowship with Christ, faithfulness to Christ, and fruitfulness for Christ. Man has no perfection and no righteousness of and in himself; he must trust wholly and solely in Christ.

  One of the hindrances to living the Christian life successfully is failure to understand what the Bible teaches about the nature of sin and perfection. A grave misapprehension lies at the root of much of the false teaching on this subject. In applying the term “perfect” to believers, the Bible never means “sinless.” There are at least nine different Hebrew words and six Greek words translated “perfect.” Noah is said to have been perfect in his generations.” Gen. 6:9. Of Asa, the king of Judah, we read: “But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.” 1 Kng. 15:14. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” Jam. 3:2. “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” 1 Cor. 2:6.

  The Bible writers do not say that these men were sinless. The meaning of “perfect” in these instances is that of spiritual maturity, ripeness in spiritual understanding, completeness in response to God. A “perfect” Christian is one whose heart and mind are permanently committed to Christ. Noah, Abraham, and Job were all declared to be “perfect” men. Yet the history of their lives shows that they were far from being sinless.

  If one’s view of sin is shallow enough, sinless perfection would not be an impossible achievement. It is a defective view of sin that leads to a wrong understanding of perfection. If sin simply means a deliberate, wilful doing of what is known to be wrong, then no Christian should commit this kind of sin. But if sin includes also a man’s state of mind and heart, man’s bias toward sin, (as an indwelling tendency), then perfection presents a totally different picture.

  Some Christians believe that it is possible in this life to reach a point in spiritual development where the sinful nature is completely eradicated and, therefore, no longer operative. The Bible does teach that the genuine Christian life is one of uniform and sustained victory over all known sin. The normal Christian experience should be one of victory and not constant defeat. Paul says: “Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, ... and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” Rom. 6:11-15.

  There is one truth that every believer needs to learn who would fully enjoy complete salvation in Christ. It is the need to abide in Christ, to look continually to Christ, to depend wholly on Christ and his righteousness. God’s method of salvation is not eradication of a sinful nature, but the counteraction of it by Divine power through the Holy Spirit. Only by the continual counteracting presence of the Holy Spirit is it possible to be victorious over sin and the sinful nature within us.

  It is fatal to believe that if only we could become totally surrendered to Christ, the sinful nature would be eradicated. The law of sin and death continues to operate within us. It is something that remains in us as long as we live. Victory over all known sin does not mean sinlessness. It does mean the glorious opportunity in Christ to strive successfully against all sin and overcome it. But this is an experience that must be maintained day by day through fellowship with and surrender to Christ. The Christian life is a lifelong battle. So long as the believer abides in Christ, real holiness and victory are possible. What we have in the everyday life is the counteracting power of God against our sinful tendencies and our sinful natures.

  

 In this earthly life there is always a conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. Paul again says, “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Gal. 5:16-18.

  The greatest men in the Bible never claimed sinless perfection. They were all painfully aware of the fact that they were sinners throughout their lives. So long as a man is in a state of sin with a sinful nature still present in him, he will confess himself to be a sinner. The Christian always recognizes himself to be a sinner in need of Divine grace. The Apostle John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” 1 John 1:8-10.

  We find here the most solemn warning against the doctrine of sinless perfection in this life. The indisputable meaning of this passage is that the man is a self-deceiver who claims for himself what the Apostle John dared not claim. The truth is not in him. The doctrine of sinless perfection leads to the conclusion that both Christ and the Holy Spirit are unnecessary once this state of eradication of the sinful nature is reached. Wherever the professed Christian claims to have the sinful nature eradicated in his life, there is a corresponding loss of true dependence upon Christ. There is a break in the only saving relationship that man needs for victory. This allows people to sin and call evil good. It discourages those who strive to be like Christ, but fall short of this false idea of perfection.

  Christ is our sole perfection, our sole righteousness. In ourselves we are never sinless. But so long as we look to Christ, sin and self cannot prevail.

  The pretension to sinless perfection at any time in this earthly life is the root of spiritual pride and self-righteousness. The Christian does not deny that the new life in Christ is capable of a new righteousness, of victory over sin. But he insists that it is not his righteousness, not his victory, but Christ’s.

  There will be no point in spiritual achievement in this life where one may rest with the certainty that he will sin no more, or that he does not stand before God as a sinner in need of Divine grace and power. The Christian knows that there still remains in him a fountain of evil, a depraved nature.

 Salvation by grace alone means that absolute perfection and sinlessness cannot be realized here and now. Righteousness by faith means that we look continually and exclusively to Christ, that we look away from ourselves and any hope in ourselves altogether in order to live by him alone. Genuine salvation directs us at once to Christ, to the only perfect life lived here on earth, and to his redemption through the Cross. Jesus Christ is absolutely central. Man’s victory over sin is exclusively the work of God in Christ, the continual control of the life by the Holy Spirit, that through daily union with Christ we participate in his holy life. The righteousness of Christ that saves us is not the beginning of a new self-righteousness but the end of it.

 John Aldersley

Change

CHANGE

Do you remember when you were a child, school holidays seemed to go on forever, chewing gum never lost its flavour and when on a long journey the destination never seemed to come! Parents always got exasperated with comments like ‘I’m bored! How much further? Are we there yet? Parents also got fed up with putting their hands on age old chewing gum stuck to chairs and bed heads! Childhood just went on and on, but imperceptibly we grew and matured until the day came when the first tentative steps were taken to live alone. It may have been when going to college or university or just wanting independence, but sooner or later we left home and the first major change occurred in our lives. Sadly, there are children who through tragedy experience life changes and insecurity at earlier ages, but by and large our awareness of change comes as we reach young adulthood. But even as the moves towards independence come and changes occur, somehow they are made with the knowledge [even if not admitted] that not so far away the stability of home is still there.

Our seventy years of life is very brief and as we grow older, changes come with increasing rapidity. The passage of time is marked by changes in life both good and bad; marriage, birth of our own children, kindnesses and loving care from others bring joy. Yet that joy is tainted by sorrow as we lose through death the company of those whom we love, the unexpected always happens and we sometimes hit a physical or spiritual brick wall, in the sense that illness, disease, disability or the unkind and ill thought actions of others take their toll. We come know our own weakening and ageing. Old age comes to all and we realise all too quickly our own mortality.

In a well know hymn we sing that ”change is our portion now.” How true this statement is. Some changes come so quickly others imperceptibly. Just like the second and minute hands on a clock, the rising and setting of the sun and the changing of the seasons are marks on the clock of life signalling the passage of time and change. But at the same time, we can stare at the hour hand of a clock and not see it move, yet it does in time, but that movement is slow and imperceptible to our eye. So also, many life changes occur imperceptibly. The changes we need to watch are the spiritual changes and such changes can be both good and bad. Life has many paths and crossroads always come. The path we choose is not always of necessity right or wrong, but the choices will lead to different outcomes and those outcomes will have an effect for good or ill upon our spiritual well being.

We are constantly changing even if we cannot see it. We react to stressors in life and the changes that occur can gradually debilitate or strengthen faith. Those changes are happening and constantly will happen. What we need to do is to make sure that we are changing in the right direction.

So how do we measure spiritual change? Well, just ask yourself do I know more about the scriptures now than say last year? Do I read the Bible more or read less frequently than a year ago? What have I learned over the past few months? Do I attend the meetings and meet with my brethren and sisters as often as last year? How often do I pray?
These things are a sort of spiritual barometer of change. If the mercury falls then we read less often, learn less, become less motivated and apathy sets in. If we read more and take in what we read, then we will learn. The more knowledge increases the more our zeal and enthusiasm will grow and the barometer goes up. Change occurs in the right direction and faith is stronger.

Similarly, we need to review the circumstances that trigger prayer. Ask yourself, does prayer come only when I am in need, or do I actively seek contact with Yahweh through prayer in times of joy, to express thanksgiving, but also to commune and meditate upon the wonderful, glorious characteristics and purpose of Yahweh?
Life is in a constant flux of change and much of that change is beyond our control, but we do have control over how we respond to change. We also have a measure of control over what changes we initiate ourselves. Response to change will be governed by faith and by our mental characteristics. That hymn rightly states ‘change is our portion now’ but equally as correctly says: ‘Faithful is Yahweh’s word, I will be with thee saith the Lord’.  The words of scripture are truth indeed and are unchanging. If God be for us who can be against us!

We maybe recall King Asa was told, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” Equally, Paul’s words of exhortation and encouragement come ringing through the years:

“The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.” Rom 13:11-12

So let us resolve today, NOW, to seek God while He may be found, to make changes that are likely to enhance and strengthen faith, to respond to changes in a way that will please Yahweh and to follow the principles of scripture day by day.
Andy P.

Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?

This month's survey question:

Human Nature: What does the Bible teach?

- Human nature is the divine spark and is basically good.

- It is inherently immortal and will live in hell or heaven forever.

- It is mortal and corrupt with no hope of life after death.

- Although mortal and prone to sin it can be redeemed by Christ.

- Don't know.

Go to www.thisisyourbible.com to submit your answer!

There is no escaping the reality of death.
 Many people find some comfort in the idea of survival.
The inescapable fact is that since the dawn of history millions upon millions of human beings have lived, died, and been laid in the grave.
If they have in fact survived in some new form, would you not have
expected to hear from them some word of consolation for the bereaved, some information about their state, or some warning for the living? Yet we never hear anything from them.


Just think what the Bible does. It records how the human race came into being and it explains in clear terms why there is evil, suffering and death in the world. It tells us positively what happens after death.
And it also reveals the new kind of life which can be ours, if we will.

All mankind will perish, unless they repent.

Only pay attention to the Bible its message.

> After Death - What?
Death and after
Destination of righteous
Sheool or grave