Before anything else I’m sharing this coming Sunday, and we’ll be talking about Part 4 of the book ‘God Without Religion’ by Andrew Farley.
Part 1 we talk about how the Law’s purpose was for us to be silent; that is, that we would come to the end of ourselves, that we would stop relying on our own works to get the attention and love of God. But we also spoke about how Christ’s salvation ushered us into the New Covenant, where we celebrate God’s love for us, which is the actual motivation behind our works.
Part 2 was when Mama Nitz talked about Giving In Grace – and we essentially came to the agreement that we do not talk about percentages anymore when it comes to giving. No, what God did to us through Christ was that He gave us a new heart, as part of our salvation; and it is out of this new heart that we are able to give, and give cheerfully.
Another point we came up with is that Malachi 3:10, read in context, further stresses the point that we couldn’t live up to the standards of the Law, and as such, we couldn’t even ‘give’ / tithe up to the standards of the Law – the Israelites were being rebuked (‘You are robbing God’) and cursed (v9), and it’s from this that they were reminded to ‘bring the WHOLE tithe’.
Finally, I thought it was essential for us to talk about how we shouldn’t continue the mentality that we ‘buy’ God’s blessings – we give to the offering basket with the expectation that He would answer our prayers according to how we think they should be answered. I felt the need to remind our folks that we give out of thanks, and we ask out of grace.
Part 3 was when Ate Winnie was talking about the 2 Ministries of Christ. And I do commend her for going through the material but I feel I need to reiterate just a little, about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount being the culmination of His first ministry – To introduce Moses 2.0, that if we were having a hard time obeying the law with our actions, Christ made it absolutely impossible because obeying the letter of the law also involves our thoughts.
And it was not Christ’s birth, but His DEATH that was the culmination of His second ministry – to introduce the new and more excellent way, salvation by faith in Christ alone. His salvation is much more than a ‘Go to Heaven when you die’ card; it’s the eternal God with us, here and now, till the end of time, and beyond!
Introduction
As I was reading through Part 4,I was thinking to myself, how is this relevant to our people, and how is this relevant to my congregation in particular? If anything, we’re challenged – as we go through this book together, I see how Dr. Farley is also challenging us to do as it says in 2 Timothy 2:15 – to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
The other day Sister Angie reached out to me with a concern. On her way to work she would be approached by folks who would insist on news (I mean, it isn’t even Good News), that if there was God the Father, then there would also be God the Mother. My immediate response to her was, if any of that drivel takes away the importance of Christ and His finished work, then you’re wasting your time listening to any of it.
Curious, I looked it up on Google, and sure enough, this is what I found:
The concept of a “heavenly mother” who is the “true” bride of Christ is taught by the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG or WMSCG), a Korean cult founded by Ahn Sahng-Hong in 1964. The WMSCOG believes that Ahn Sahng-Hong was the second coming of Christ. When he died in 1985, his “spiritual wife,” Zahng Gil-Jah, took over, calling herself the “heavenly mother” and citing verses such as Revelation 21:9-10; 22:17; and Galatians 4:26. (Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/heavenly-mother.html)
Now I’m told that that’s exactly what they did to Sister Angie – they pointed out Bible verses and made that their basis. The good news is that Sister Angie walked away from them and told them she was not interested. The bad news is that, well, this isn’t the first time we’ve been hearing of these folks peddle that sort of ‘fake news’.
Let’s take some time, and take on the verses they claim state that there is ‘God the Mother’:
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, Revelation 21:9-10
It’s pretty clear that the angel was NOT showing John a singular person or entity that was the ‘wife of the Lamb’, much less a ‘Mother’; In the same passage we see that the angel was referring to ‘the holy city Jerusalem’; a community that represented the Bride of Christ. There is NO Mother because WE are the Wife of the Lamb!
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.Revelation 22:17
Two things – (1) First, we’ve already established that there is no separate God the Mother, but WE are the Bride of Christ, and (2) In line with the Spirit that is poured unto us, we say, ‘Come’, in response to Christ, who in the verse before states: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Folks, we as the Bride of Christ respond TO Christ, and not to any of these false teachings.
The last verse is as follows:
But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. Galatians 4:26
I’ll share the refute here: Taken by itself, this is indeed a perplexing verse. However, the context makes the meaning plain. Paul is contrasting the Old and New Covenants. As an illustration, he contrasts Hagar (Abraham’s slave) with Sarah (Abraham’s wife). Hagar represents the bondage to the law, and her son, Ishmael, was a son of law and of bondage. Sarah represents freedom, and her son, Isaac, was a son of promise and of freedom. Paul’s point is that those “born” of Sinai (under the Old Covenant of law) are in bondage, whereas those “born” of the heavenly Jerusalem (under the New Covenant of grace) are free. To paraphrase verse 26, “We, like Isaac, are children of promise; we are not under the law; we are freeborn citizens of the heavenly city of Christ.”
What are we to gather from these verses? Obviously NOT that there is a ‘God the Mother,’ but Christ the Savior who loves us as a Groom loves His bride, by way of setting us free of sin and bondage – by His resurrection we’ve been born into righteousness, and freedom!
Look. I know that the folks I’m sharing to wouldn’t be so quick to listen, much less agree with what these God the Mother people are selling – But the sad fact is that this cult is apparently still in operation, and even international, to this very day.
If we are not rightly dividing the Word of Truth, we ourselves would be so vulnerable and so quick to be deceived.
In this Fourth part of the book God Without Religion, Dr. Farley seems to take a side step of sorts, to talk about predestination – yet another topic taken out of context. The Encyclopedia Britannica states the following: Predestination, in Christianity, the doctrine that God has eternally chosen those whom he intends to save.
The good old MW Dictionary defines it as follows: the doctrine that God in consequence of his foreknowledge of all events infallibly guides those who are destined for salvation.
In Dr. Farley’s eyes many people explain predestination as God walking down the streets with a divine clipboard, pointing at one person, saying he’s saved, he’s going to heaven, he’s going to hell, she’s saved, etc. Or, at least that’s how they interpret it.
But we shouldn’t be limiting our insight on predestination to what the dictionaries say. Nor should we, as in the case of ‘God the Mother’, be so quick to look at only parts of the Bible to draw out false doctrine.
To save time, let’s go straight to the Bible. And I’ll also be quoting Dr. Farley straight from the book. Because there’s a lot of ground that he covered, I have to set the expectation that I’m only gathering some points from the book, the ones I think are more important:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6
Friends, you’ll notice that the word is indeed there – but how is it used? It says that He predestined us to be adopted and to be called as sons and daughters. And if you read the earlier verses, it also mentions there that He chose us IN HIM before the foundation of the world, versus some other people who I’m assuming are ignoring where it says ‘in Him’.
The way I see it, when you merely choose people, that implies that other people aren’t chosen. BUT if you choose people ‘in Him’, the choice shifts from the people, to your choice for people to be in Him. Or, if you have a choice, you’d want people to be in Him.
Furthermore, it says that this was God’s choice for you before the foundation of the world. Before all that would be created was created, it was His desire and His will for us to be ‘in Him’ – us in Him, Him in us.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit… Ephesians 1:11-13
The word ‘predestined’ is also mentioned here, but what Paul is saying is that in God’s desire for us to be ‘in Him’, they were the first to hope and believe in Christ, but when we also heard the Gospel, we too were brought ‘in Him’.
You want to know more about God’s desire? According to the Jews, they were the only ones who were the people of God, they were the only ones who were saved – the rest of us were Gentiles. But later in the same letter to the Ephesians, Paul clearly points good news SPECIFICALLY for Gentiles and Non-Jews:
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:11-13
Paul makes it clear that before Christ, we were ‘alienated from the commonwealth of Israel’, God’s chosen people; The old covenants were not applicable to us either, and as such we had absolutely NO hope, we did not have God! But praise God, because His desire for ALL to be ‘in Him’ has been fulfilled by Christ – there’s another thing to say when we celebrate Holy Communion: We who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ!
Finally, let’s see what Paul tells the Romans, where predestination is mentioned:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:26-29
Let’s focus on where it says ‘those whom he foreknew he also predestined’; Now, who were those who He foreknew? That would be all of us! Going back to Ephesians 1:4, it says: ‘he chose us in him before the foundation of the world’! But see here, not only were we chosen to be in Him; if you keep going, it says that we who are chosen were also ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son’!
Romans 8 is up there with John 17 as some of my favorite Chapters in the Bible, but to be honest, I’m seeing it in another light as we’re guided through these verses. Dr. Farley points out that Paul was telling us that we were chosen before the foundations of the world to conform to the image of His Son, as an encouragement for us no matter what happens. See, the rest of Romans 8 shares how ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’ (8:18), how ‘the Spirit helps us in our weakness’ (8:26), and so on.
All of it is not a waste of time, for through all we’re experiencing, not only do we remember how we are IN HIM, but our eyes are also opened to how we are being conformed to His image!
Friends, to be honest, there’s so much more in the book points out in the Bible against the contradicting perspectives regarding predestination, and I encourage all of us to get the book and read what Dr. Farley has to share.
But it is my prayer, my desire that through our going into these select Scriptures, that we all come to agreement to two things:
(1) Predestination is not God picking beforehand who would go to heaven and who would go to hell. Predestination is God’s desire for all of us, Jew and Gentile, to be ‘in Him’, that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.
In Dr. Farley’s closing words:
God is God.
He can do whatever he wants.
He elected the Gentiles for salvation as well.
Now anyone can come to Christ by faith.
Deal with this reality! It’s God’s sovereign choice.
(2) It’s important, it’s vital for ALL of us to dive into the Word on our own, so that the Holy Spirit would guide us as individuals to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
Just gonna end with this:
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). Romans 10:6-7
…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. …For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:9, 11
This is long but I hope to continue condensing it… But you could expect, that in the end, it’ll all be summarized into one word: Christ.
Until the next post, God bless you.
268224/369000
#Predestination #GodTheMother #FalseTeaching #Godliness #GodWithoutReligion #AndrewFarley #Ephesians #Romans #Prayer #Revelations #Grace #Bible #PracticalChristianity #God #Truth #Life #Peace #Gospel #Christianity #JesusChrist #Reflections
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment