I wrote this book for souls who have already heard some teachings about Jesus Christ's salvation, and because so many of us feel those doctrines need a serious reexamination. After all, there are now so many vastly contradictory teachings, created through so much compromise, that Christianity has become undefined and its message seems utterly redundant to all eyes of men. But the doctrines taught directly by Jesus, the prophets and the apostles are not like that. They are so meaningful to the true believers, so critical to their inner lives, that they are willing to die for all its truth and wisdom.
Did you ever ask yourself why the apostles valued the message of Jesus and His salvation so much more than Christians do now? Was it because they were more superstitious and backwards? Actually, no! An honest person must admit the opposite is true. Yes, today’s world has advanced in technology, but certainly not in its ability to think and live meaningful, joyful, loving lives. In general, our times are characterized by far greater inward ignorance, coupled with the irrational superstitions and biases of the politically correct. As a consequence, wars and discontent are everywhere, and increase daily. Science has worked the most unspeakable atrocities, and has now polluted the earth to the verge of its destruction. The world has less knowledge and understanding of life than ever before, and is now much less free. In our day, it is far easier for ruthless exploiters to dupe “the masses,” binding them in darkness with lies, forcing them to serve an elite like mindless slaves. Even the educated willingly swallow deceptions, without attempting to question even the most obvious logical contradictions.
Overall, our world, even the church, has become far more backwards, shallow and barbaric than it has ever been in all history. And true Christianity is unknown on earth. So our need for the one, true good message about Jesus Christ's salvation, which we call “the Gospel,” is greater than ever before.
So let me start by demonstrating how the Bible defines this “Gospel.” Then ask yourself if this is the same Gospel preached from most pulpits in most churches today. Jesus began His ministry with the proclamation: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15, ESV). Then, after saying this, He immediately began to gather disciples, those to whom He diligently taught His doctrines. Now look at this verse. From it, we must conclude that the Gospel fulfils a promised time. For it says “the time is fulfilled.” And it says this because God promised that a time of a New Covenant relationship with Him would come someday. This time was to be when the Messiah and His salvation would be manifested. This promised Messiah and His salvation would then usher in God's “kingdom.” Here, the wording implies this is a new kingdom coming to replace an old kingdom, since it says “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Then, in other parts of the Bible, it defines the old kingdom as the world order ruled by Satan, and declares that the Messiah's kingdom shall eventually crush it to dust (e.g., Dan. 2:44). Lastly, Jesus was telling us that the “Gospel” is a teaching, because it must be believed. In particular, it must be some kind of moral teaching, because it also requires repentance (i.e., turning away from sin and toward true teachings).
Of course, the Jews who knew the Old Testament teachings instantly recognized what Jesus was talking about when He broadcast this “mission statement,” His intentions for His ministry. They also knew precisely why Jesus began to gather disciples as soon as He proclaimed it. But it is far more difficult for people today, even those who have attended a church for many years, to even begin to comprehend what Jesus actually said here and what He did after that. For the teachings about the Bible in our churches are absolutely nothing like the teachings of Jesus. Christians cannot imagine why anyone would need to become disciples in order to become Christians, why they would need to spend their entire lives being taught doctrines and being trained in the right ways to apply those teachings. Therefore, let us further examine some other biblical teachings that define the Gospel.
Some may be a little overwhelmed by all that is actually taught about the Gospel in these other biblical passages, but all these concepts will be further explained in this book. So please be patient.
In the Scriptures, it tells us that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (II Tim. 1:9-10, ESV). So here we see that the Gospel brings to light (or explains) “life and immortality.” And this “life and immortality” is defined in the preceding statements. Namely, the Gospel teaches us how God “saved us and called us to a holy calling.” What did He save us from? He saved us from death and mortality so we could have “life and immortality,” a life involving His “holy calling,” which is a life set apart for God's purposes, that is, to serve as His priests, to do His works on earth. So salvation is also a calling to serve God, as those He chose and taught to act on His behalf, to be His priests on earth.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” (I Peter 2:9, ESV).
All this was made clear to us “through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus.” Here Jesus is called “our Saviour,” the one who saves us. Yet, at the same time, it says God saved us. So this implies that Jesus and God are one and the same Being. God is a Spirit and His Spirit dwelt in Jesus' human body of flesh. Then it reinforces the fact that God saves us. For it states that we are not saved “because of our works,” not because we chose to be good and acceptable to God. Instead, we are saved “because of [God's] own purpose and grace.” So, if it is by God's “purpose,” it is by His decision and His will, not by our own decisions or our own wills. And, if it is by His “grace,” that is, by the unmerited and unearned mercy and kindness of God, then it is not by anything we say or do. In addition to this, it also tells us that God's “purpose and grace” were granted to us “before the ages began,” before the world was created, before anyone ever existed. Since God decided to create and to save all those He is now saving, not one is now being saved by one's own human will or works.
Rather, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, ESV). God shapes the wills of our spirits, through His teaching, training and discipline with fatherly love. Then our shaped wills cause us to want to do His good works through God-like love.
Another Scripture states: “In [Christ]—after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and after having believed in Him—you were also sealed by the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, for the redemption of the purchased possession, for the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:13-14, ALT). This statement is packed with meaning. Here the phrase, “the word of truth,” is placed in apposition to the phrase, “the Gospel of your salvation.” So both phrases refer to one and the same thing. The Gospel of our salvation is “the word of truth,” or the body of rational principles teaching reality and verity. In other words, the Gospel is a body of teachings which saves us, but only “in Christ.” The word “Christ” is a Greek word referring to the Messiah, Jesus, who is the “Son of God,” that is, God incarnate, God's Spirit dwelling in a human body, so He may walk among us. Then the phrase, “in Christ,” means “in the sphere of His Being,” in His power and will.
Consequently, after having heard the Gospel, and after having put our trust and confidence in Jesus Christ (i.e., in the original Greek text, both ἀκούσαντες and πιστεύσαντες are aorist participles referring to completed acts, “after having heard” and “after having believed”), we are “sealed by the promised Holy Spirit.” This Holy Spirit is God's Spirit. So God “seals” us with a permanent sign to indicate that we belong to Him. Since it is God who “seals” us—and God cannot make mistakes, nor be stopped from accomplishing anything He decides to do—this sealing is an absolute “guarantee” of our salvation. That is, all whom God decides to seal shall indeed inherit a place in heaven and be with God forever. A time will surely come when all His elect will trust in Jesus' saving power and will be redeemed as His “purchased possession” for a heavenly inheritance. And this acquiring of a place in heaven will be for the “glory” or “good opinion” of Jesus. His authority, ability and power will take responsibility for saving us into heaven, thus giving all His people a good opinion of Him.
To some, all this information may be confusing, but let me continue. We are told the Gospel is what God “promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:2-3, ESV). Through the prophets who penned the Old Testament Scriptures, God promised “beforehand” or predestined that the Messiah would come to fulfil all His other promises in His New Covenant with Israel. This covenant will be discussed in greater detail later. But, for now, look at this predestined purpose of the Gospel and that New Covenant. It is “for the heeding from faith by people from all kinds of races for the sake of His name” (Rom. 1:5, ALT). Clearly, this Gospel is a moral teaching heard and followed through faith. Through faith, it “is the power of God for salvation for the benefit of everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16, ALT). It is not just a teaching heeded through a person's own will and power, through faith in oneself. Rather, it is a teaching made inwardly effective by God Himself, as our hearts trust in His power to cause us to know and desire to do His will for our salvation. “The righteousness from God is being revealed in [the Gospel], out of faith into faith, just as it is effectively written, 'The just will live out of faith'” (Rom. 1:17, ALT). We are saved by trusting in God, not by trusting in ourselves.
All our heeding and righteousness is worked inside us by God's power. Yet even the most spiritually mature people of God do not always display this “righteousness from God,” worked by His power. For we are told that even Peter, one of the most mature of the apostles, “was not walking uprightly before the truth of the Gospel,” even while he was serving as a true preacher in the true church (Gal. 2:14). For Peter had been deceived by false teachers. Therefore, this again reveals that the Gospel requires us to place all our faith in Jesus and His truth, not in men. And we must be careful about being turned away from Jesus' truth by the persuasion of men. Yes, Jesus sends us out into the world, to hear and discuss all kinds of things with all kinds of people. But we must keep our focus on Jesus.
We must remember to inwardly “guard” the truth Jesus teaches us, and never forget that Jesus is our only final authority in all matters of life and faith, our one and only Head Teacher. This guarding of His truth primarily involves frequently going to our God, Jesus, in prayer, seeking His power and truth, and not relying on ourselves or others. Above all, Jesus most often speaks to our hearts, and makes His presence known to our spirits, whenever we study His Word. So we go to His Bible, and read it often, praying for His teaching Spirit to counsel our spirits through it. For we cannot guard His truth simply by avoiding people, by living a secluded or monastic life—although there are times when we must avoid those who are very stubborn and destructive. So we guard His Word by His power, not by our own power. We go to Him often. Then Jesus sends us out into this world to do His works, to act as His hands and His mouth. Still, He does not send us to literally everyone. For we know some are not able to hear the Gospel. God veils the Gospel for those being destroyed, because, “in their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of [those] unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Cor. 4:3-4, ESV).
In conclusion, the Gospel is a body of teachings or doctrines. These teachings come directly from God and encompass more knowledge and wisdom than it is possible for anyone to learn and heed by studying all the written teachings in the entire Bible through one's own strength alone. For the Gospel is not just a body of teachings to be learned by the intellect or brain of flesh. Rather, its teachings must be taught directly by God, who is a Spirit. God's Spirit must directly teach the greater and more rational minds of our spirits. For our minds of flesh cannot profit at all from God’s truth.
As Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63, ESV). In the days of Jesus, the Jews believed every human being had two minds; a mind of the flesh and a mind of the spirit. And only the mind of the spirit can comprehend the wisdom of teachings directly from God Himself. Only the spirit works love and all one's moral choices. Now, since we must live by these Gospel teachings from our spirits, we can only logically conclude that we must conduct our lives according to what our spirits in our hearts learn directly from our God, Jesus, and from His Holy Spirit—not according to what our brains of flesh learn intellectually or emotionally, by reading Scriptures or from words of other human beings.
The Gospel proclaims that God is now fulfilling the promises He made in His New Covenant with Israel (Jer. 31:31-34). And His main promise was to save His people by personally working in their hearts. Yet God said He was going to do these works by coming to us in the body of a human being who would be our Messiah. God is a Spirit, and His Spirit dwelt in the body of the Messiah, Jesus. So the Gospel declares that Jesus will do God's saving works in us, to renew the spirits in our hearts.
The entire Gospel stands on this one truth: Jesus must do His saving works upon our spirits in our hearts. From the time of Adam, the Messiah was prophesied to come and do these works. Mankind waited thousands of years for Him to save us. And there can be no other salvation. Therefore, if one is not being saved by Jesus' Spirit working inside, to renew one's spirit, then one is not being saved.
Jesus proclaimed this Gospel to all mankind when He walked in a body of flesh on earth. After proclaiming it, He sacrificed His body in a death on a cross, to pay the just penalty for the lifetimes of sins committed by the bodies of His people. This had to be done to give God's utterly holy Spirit (Jesus' Spirit) the right to enter all our sinful bodies. Jesus' body died as a substitute for the death of our bodies. Thus, since a body can only die once, His death cleansed our bodies from the guilt of our entire lifetimes of our sins. Now all our bodies are counted as clean, so God's utterly holy Spirit can justly enter us, to teach and train our spirits for our salvation. For, if we remained in the guilt of our sins, the utterly holy God could not justly enter our hearts in our bodies, to save us. If God’s Spirit entered and helped us as sinners, without making a just payment for the guilt of our sins, He could be accused of aiding and abetting our sins—since anyone helping one who is practising sin is taking part in that one's sins. Anyone who is enabling a sinner to commit sins is partaking in the very sins that the sinner is doing. Thus, Jesus had to die on the cross, so He could begin His works inside us.
In describing His New Covenant works of salvation, God declared, “I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33, ESV). To save us, God promised to personally teach His ways to our spirits in our hearts. For that is what He meant when He said this. He will teach and train our spirits until we are able to rightly understand and apply all His just precepts. His “law” also reveals and reflects His very nature. So His Spirit not only teaches and trains our spirits to know His ways, but also to know God Himself, His very inner Being. This constant teaching and training then causes us to become more like God each day. We are being conformed into the image of Jesus, our God (Rom. 8:29). Jesus' body rose from the dead so that, when His Spirit enters our bodies, He can become the principal Teacher of our spirits in our hearts. And absolutely nothing else can possibly perform the works for our salvation except His personal teaching and training, which He calls His writing of His “law” upon our hearts. Nothing from man can save us. Only the trust and faith of our spirits in our Teacher, to do these works within our spirits, can possibly procure our salvation for us.
We cannot afford to ignore, distort or nullify God's New Covenant salvation promises. Yet, from what I see, the real Gospel has become almost unknown on earth. Most churches do not understand the whole Gospel message and no longer preach it. Instead, we see a bunch of men striving to rise up in the hierarchical systems of “church” organizations created by men, seeking better wages and more undue esteem for themselves. And, to do this, they lie. So this book returns to the biblical teachings and strives to expound upon their original, God-intended meanings, in order to explain the true and whole Gospel. To begin with, let me provide an outline of the promises God gave His people, the main aspects of Christ’s Gospel, the message proclaimed by the Jewish prophets and the apostles:
1. God's Spirit will continuously cleanse, discipline, renew and educate the spirits in the hearts of the people He created and chose to be His children. More and more, during their entire lives, Jesus will teach the spirits in the hearts of these elect ones to rightly love Him and His people; to live in a just, pure, God-like way; to respect Him and His ways above the ways of men of this world; to do what is right and truly loving. And only God can do this work in us.
2. God has already granted all His chosen ones the complete forgiveness of their entire lifetimes of sin, once and for all time, to permanently restore His relationship with them. This was done through the payment of all the sins of all His elect in all history, from the beginning to the end of the earth, by the predestined death of Jesus' sinless body at one moment in history.
3. God's wrath will send many judgements down upon the stubborn and rebellious earth, especially at a time shortly before God returns to earth in the physical body of Jesus. Even the elect will suffer during these end times, and the enemies of God will kill many of them.
4. After this great tribulation, our God Jesus, in a physical body, will return to rule the earth for a thousand years. During this time, God's fulfilled laws will replace the laws of all nations.
5. God will destroy the earth and the entire material universe soon after those thousand years. All spirits, both good and evil, will cast off their earthly bodies, receive new bodies made entirely of an eternal spiritual substance, and go before Jesus for their final judgement.
6. This final judgement will complete and perfect His works inside all His chosen people, by correcting them and teaching them the rest of His truth and wisdom. Because of this teaching on this day, all elect spirits shall willingly and joyfully repent into His whole truth, forsaking all that is not true. This will occur before He gathers them into heaven, their eternal home. But all spirits born to love the darkness of hell, rather than the light of heaven, will go to hell.
7. God, the Father of all elect spirits, will bring His elect into heaven to work beside Him, to serve the eternal creatures living there, just as He serves them. Heaven is not like the material universe, since it is utterly holy throughout. God allows evil on earth, but no evil can enter heaven. And all things in heaven consist of a spiritual substance that cannot decay or die.
The first point above describes God's principal work of salvation for His people, an ongoing work in all He chooses to save, while they live on earth and during the judgement day, even after their bodies die. All His chosen people, His elect, begin life as sinners with ignorant, infantile spirits dwelling in selfish, worldly bodies of flesh (Eph. 2:1-3); where one’s mind of the flesh seldom cooperates with one's mind of the spirit, and suppresses the spirit's desires. Since all elect spirits mature slowly, their spirits are not able to entirely control their minds of flesh, and all remain sinful until they die. This is why we all need God to teach, train and discipline our spirits,1 so we can begin to take control. This is Jesus' work, granting His elect an awareness of reality and training them to wisely apply His truth.
Of course, God's Spirit can best perform His saving works by using His Word (i.e., the Bible), by explaining His intended meaning of His written words to our spirits. But men do not always allow His elect to gain access to His written Word. So Jesus saves many of them without it. The almighty Spirit of our God Jesus can save anyone, and He can indeed do His saving works in the minds of elect spirits even if their minds of flesh have no access to His written words. Jesus' Spirit can teach His ways directly to an elect spirit without the help of men, without any written or preached Gospel. Jesus teaches His elect all over the world to love in a just, God-like way, by teaching His law and ways to their spirits. His inner works do not depend upon the eyes flesh reading His Word or the ears of flesh hearing His Word. The mind of flesh does not need to comprehend it first. Rather, first and foremost, the mind of each spirit must learn to hear His Spirit. So His saving work is a very personal apprenticeship, where His whole focus rests upon teaching each elect spirit how to truly, purely and justly love in the same way He loves. For God's Spirit is the Father of all elect spirits. So the Spirit of God personally teaches and trains all elect spirits like any good father should teach his children; to lead their spirits into maturity, until all their spirits can honestly express just love through their flesh.
Naturally, God loves all His children in spite of their sinfulness. But He is also honest about their sins. God cannot lie to Himself or delude Himself by telling Himself they are all actually good, since they prove otherwise in reality. In His love, He does not leave them solely with the righteousness He has imputed or credited to them as His children, through Jesus. Yes, all His children do indeed receive His imputed righteousness too. But it is only imputed to them because Jesus is now working very hard to teach them His right, just and loving ways, to save them from their destructive, sinful beliefs and ways. Our God labours, through many trials, to make His children subjectively righteous and loving, from the inside out. And we could never receive any imputed righteousness if He could possibly fail to fully complete this work to the point of absolute perfection. It is only because Jesus cannot fail to make us perfect and fit for heaven that we also receive this imputed righteousness. For it would be a sin to impute or credit righteousness to a deliberate sinner who will never stop sinning.
All whom God is saving eventually become aware of God's continuous, personal work of teaching and training their spirits in their hearts—in a way where they inwardly realize that God is directly responding to their individual weaknesses, strengths and needs of the heart. They also become aware of His discipline, which can be severe, and usually involves the suffering of their bodies of flesh. For God disciplines with their eternal lives in view, not to save their flesh. God will even destroy the flesh of His beloved child, if it provides a better result for that one's eternal spirit. Yet not all the suffering of the flesh involves the punishment of sin. In fact, most of the suffering of the flesh is to push the spirit into a deeper awareness of the spiritual realities existing all around it, so the spirit might focus more on the truths and principles related to just, pure, God-like love. And death of the body is a gift, a welcome gift if one is old, since it takes the spirit home, out of this troubled earth.
In this life on earth, there is one aspect of our salvation we must all remember: God has promised that literally everyone will cast off these bodies of fragile flesh. He has promised and predetermined that all our bodies of flesh shall die, usually through some pain. For flesh and blood cannot enter the eternal kingdom of God, heaven. Nothing of the flesh—wealth, worldly status, worldly power, or anything else—can enter the utterly holy heaven of God. Thus, neither should we bring these self- indulgent, worldly matters of the flesh into our lives on earth, into the kingdom of God on earth. For they belong to the kingdom of the world order, which God allows to war against His kingdom. These two opposing kingdoms must remain separate. God's people, of His kingdom, must be set apart. We are in this world, but not of this world order. We share this world, even caring for the welfare of our enemies, without prejudice, whenever possible, if this does not cause the innocent harm. For some enemies may be God's children who are temporarily caught up in the lies taught by the world order. But we are not to participate in these delusions of the world order. We must spurn selfish ambition.
Because the kingdom of the world order attacks God's kingdom, all people on earth experience much trouble and injustice, as well as God's wrath. So there is only so long an elect spirit—who is learning to love in a just, pure, God-like way—can bear the heavy burdens of life in a body flesh on earth.
The more loving one's spirit might be, the more grateful one becomes when one's flesh is removed. Death is a relief and a spiritual blessing, especially if the faith in one's heart trusts that God Himself will complete all one's unfinished earthly works, for the sakes of all one's beloved souls left behind.
Now, since all God's children begin life as monstrous sinners, it is only by the inner teaching and training of their spirits, by Jesus' Holy Spirit, that they can begin to realize that they are indeed monstrous sinners. Only by His inner teaching can they can begin to know that there is a better way and better life, then begin to seek it. By His inner teaching and training, they begin to repent, to turn away from sin, towards what is just, right and truly loving. By His teaching and training, with His discipline and rebuke, they learn to love in a more just, pure, God-like way each day. Whether or not one of God's elect has ever heard or read about Jesus, Jesus will indeed teach that one’s spirit to love. Some of God's elect may even turn away from one they think is Jesus, and hate a god, because false churches have taught them about a false Jesus and a false god. Nevertheless, the real Jesus (who is the real God and one with the Father of those elect spirits) cannot abandon them, and will save them.
All the elect, in all history, have experienced this inner teaching and training of their spirits by their God Jesus, for their salvation. However, not all the elect children of God become consciously aware (in their minds of flesh) of His forgiveness of sins. Of course, all the elect do indeed receive the full forgiveness in Christ. If they did not, then Jesus could not even begin to do His works upon their spirits inside their bodies of flesh. But not all have the real Gospel preached to them, or read it. So not all shall consciously realize His forgiveness, nor even know the name of the One saving them.
Still, all the Father's chosen children are being saved by Jesus' Holy Spirit, because He promised to save literally all of them. Salvation is not by man—not by sacraments performed by hands of men, nor by prayers that supposedly manipulate God's acts of salvation, nor by a man's works of gathering disciples for himself (instead of gathering disciples for Jesus). Salvation is worked by God, from its beginning to its end, according to His will alone, according to His decisions alone. God's own power and His own hands fulfil His promise to personally save all His elect. Yes, at times, the Father may raise up some elect to serve Jesus—to preach His real Gospel to His people; to act as agents in His sanctifying works for them; to glorify all that is just, good, right and loving; to help them live more full, meaningful and inwardly joyful lives; to help them consciously realize peace with God. But, if the spirits of His people are too weak to endure much real truth or fight a real spiritual warfare, God may decide to save their spirits without sending p