Many who falsely claim to be Christians cannot see the relevance of God's Law. And many cannot recite even a superficial paraphrase of any of the Ten Commandments, much less truly comprehend their genuine and God-intended meaning. Yet those Ten Commandments summarize all of the 613 commandments in God’s Law (i.e., in the first five books of the Bible). And all these laws, which are summarized by Ten Commandments, were intended to reveal the essence of all Jesus teaches to our spirits. Jesus declared that He came to fulfill literally every tiny detail of God’s 613 laws, in us and through us, for our salvation. For all those laws tell us how to build up and maintain our relationship with God and His people. We will do acts of love according to His Law as we submit to His process of salvation. Scriptures clearly state that God Himself will put His Law in us to cement our New Covenant relationship with Him (see Jer. 31:31-34). Then Scriptures frequently state that God will do His works through us after He has put His Law in us. So those 613 commandments and laws are what God promised to fulfill in us and through us for our salvation, for the Messiah’s sanctification of our souls. These are the very same laws that Jesus Christ's Holy Spirit writes upon our hearts and in our minds, in order to cause our spirits to truly love and worship our God, all within the sphere of pure truth, so we can become the true and faithful priesthood of God and actually glorify His name.
Some churches have taken a small step in the right direction, since they talk about God's Law as a means by which we might gain a knowledge of sin. But they often teach God’s Law so that souls may learn to inordinately and superstitiously fear God and His wrath, so they might then “repent” into the arms of the evangelists who scream God’s Law into their frightened ears. So none of those evangelists are actually trying to steer human spirits to Jesus. By trying to impart this superficial understanding of what God deems to be sinful, they never truly strive to awaken hearts into love and salvation from sin, to cause them to see the reality of God’s eternal spiritual creations. But all true evangelists are teaching elders who use God’s Law to help souls realize that they are indeed sinners, and remind them that God is duty-bound to reject sinners, so those souls will then turn to Jesus and let Jesus teach and train their spirits for their salvation. Inwardly, all the elect already know that our God judges all our motives and intentions of all our works according to His Law, and will cast many lawbreakers into hell for all eternity. So, one we gain a conscious knowledge of sin, we turn to Jesus for His teaching and training of our weak and infantile spirits. But a knowledge of sin combined with faith in man alone, without any real faith in Jesus, leads only to despair. False evangelists hope that we will learn to fear and repent to them, to heed their words and serve them as human gods. Also, false evangelists want us to repent only once and for all time, and only to them, so we might worship and esteem them as our saving gods. They do not want us to repent to Jesus, to heed Christ’s words and serve Jesus as our only Head, only Lord, only King and only God. But Jesus teaches us to repent to Him every time we sin, during our entire Christian walk, many times each day, so He might teach and train our spirits, until we gradually become better priests each day through this saving process.
Using God’s Law to acquire a knowledge of sin, to find out what God hates, is a legitimate and biblical use for that Law. It is actually a fairly good thing to do, at times. But using God’s Law in this way must be done wisely, while allowing the greater works of Christ’s salvation to be completed. For a knowledge of sin cannot help anyone personally know God Himself in any deeper and more fruitful way. Nor does a knowledge of what God condemns help anyone develop a better knowledge and more effective application of the loving, effective ways that are truly blessed. Knowing what is bad does not help anyone be truly good, just and loving, like Jesus. Not doing bad does not make anyone good. One needs to actually do real good to be good. And, even if one’s mind of flesh gains some knowledge of God’s good ways from God’s Law, one still is not being saved, because our God Jesus is our one and only Saviour, and evangelists are not our saviours. Nor are we our own saviours. In other words, “By works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20, ESV). Fleshy knowledge of the Law justifies no one.
Since God’s Law talks about the selfish, self-serving sins that God hates, it causes the selfish, selfserving mind of flesh to notice and ponder those sins. Then the flesh begins to wonder if it could gratify and please itself by doing those sinful things, which God’s Law forbids. So, after hearing God’s Law, the flesh begins to desire the self-gratifying pleasures of sin more than it desired those things before it heard God’s Law. Therefore, if a preacher uses God’s Law primarily to teach the knowledge of sin—but does not primarily focus on Jesus Christ’s personal works of teaching and training the elect spirit to become more like Him each day—that preacher will turn the focus of the mind of flesh towards sin, not away from sin. That preacher will cause the people to become more carnal and focused on sin, not more spiritual and focused upon God. Also, if a preacher causes their minds of flesh to become too active, to carried away with the emotions and intellects of the flesh, their minds of flesh will overcome the minds of their spirits in the chambers of their souls. So those people will conduct their lives according to their minds of flesh, not according to the knowledge, wisdom and concepts taught to the minds of their spirits by Jesus. And their minds of their flesh are never able to comprehend any of the truth, reality, justice and God-like love that Jesus teaches to spirits. Thus, these kinds of evangelists are serving Satan, and the Bible-thumping is not for Christ.
When the focus of a preacher rests too much upon identifying sin, the people also will be looking for sin in every soul they meet, as well as in themselves, although most will be far kinder to themselves than to others. Thus, the people will not be seeking to find and build God-like love in themselves or in anyone else. And they will not be able to recognize another elect soul when they see one. For the only way one can possibly recognize another elect soul is by recognizing just, pure, God-like love in another soul. God has told us that all the elect who love in His way are born of Him and know Him. He did not say that the best Christian is the one who can condemn others the most. For Satan is, by far, the most adept when it comes to accusing others of sin. In fact, the devil is so good at accusing souls that one of his biblical names is “Thee Accuser” (Κατήγωρ, Rev. 12:10). So a preacher who teaches only a knowledge of sin breeds judgmental condemners, Satan-like hypocrites who always “war against sin,” but without any real knowledge or power from Jesus to resist any carnal desires. And, since they try to save themselves, often by abusing and misusing God’s Law to “hammer out sin,” they reject the real salvation worked in their spirits directly by Jesus. For they are so busy with the superficial thoughts in their sin-hunting minds of flesh that the minds of their spirits cannot begin to heed the whispering of Christ’s Holy Spirit. Their spirits are not being taught and trained by Jesus.
Yes, a knowledge of sin is partially necessary for evangelism, and all the greatest evangelists and preachers, the apostles and those God used most in all real and biblical revivals, used God’s Law in this way, to bring about a respectful fear of God, to cut through self-serving and complacent hearts in the worldly elect. But, after that fear did its work, all the true biblical preachers, like the apostles, taught the grace of God in providing Christ’s salvation and His payment for their lifetime of sins. They wanted sinners to seek, value and appreciate the real salvation of Jesus, to seek the completion of His process of salvation. For the Gospel of salvation is primarily about Jesus personally teaching and training the elect human spirit. And this is what made their revivals real. They were not fake revivals, like the emotional, carnal, unholy and ineffective so-called “revivals” today, which appeal only to minds of flesh. Now revivals never even touch on the subject of Christ’s Holy Spirit fulfilling God’s Law in us and through us. They say nothing about how Jesus’ Holy Spirit directly teaches and trains the minds of our spirits to know and wisely apply God’s Law through a just and God-like love.
We also must realize that most of the greatest evangelists and preachers of the past, including our Lord and God Jesus, as well as His apostles, did not consider the main purpose of God’s Law to be an “evangelical tool.” Jesus did not use God’s Law solely for instilling the fear of God in souls, so they could then save themselves by obeying that Law through a Platonic kind of “free will.” Yes, the Law can and should be used to instill a knowledge of sin with an ordinate a fear of God, and only in a wise and limited manner. For Jesus and the apostles never used God’s Law a fear-mongering tool!
Of course, in our day, most evangelists have swung to the other extreme, since this is what humanists usually do. Now many evangelists do not even mention God’s Law, neither to teach the knowledge of sin nor to show souls the attributes of God-like love which Jesus teaches. Modern evangelists merely strive to convince, cajole, trick or coerce people into repeating a magic “Sinner's Prayer” in public, before the face of the glorious and godlike evangelist exalted upon a raised pulpit. And the evangelist who can raise the most emotional response in their minds of flesh is the chiefest of church gods. So evangelists are no longer teaching elders, who carefully and diligently define sin and truth according to what Jesus has taught to their spirits. Now evangelists are motivational speakers, who only motivate minds of flesh to place all their trust in delusions and human gods, without mentioning anything at all about God’s Law or the kind of truth it teaches. But, of course, none can truly repent from sin and into the truth if they know nothing about what God calls sin or what God calls the truth.
Therefore, churches today see very little to nothing of elect spirits genuinely repenting into the truth about God and salvation. Most churches today consist of pastors and people who know absolutely nothing about the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. In fact, biblical salvation is a totally foreign concept to them. And since most people today are humanists, most think through their minds of flesh alone. Most are not even aware of the fact that they have two minds, a mind of the spirit and a mind of flesh. Thus, they almost always let their minds of flesh take captive the minds of their spirits. So, since they do not walk according to the minds of their spirits, they cannot comprehend God’s Law. For God’s Law is spiritual and must be understood by the minds of our spirits, as Christ’s Spirit teaches our spirits. Since they mostly think through their mind of flesh alone, they cannot begin to see how God judges the intentions and motives of the spirit. Sin occurs when the thoughts in the mind of the spirit fall short of the glory of God, when the spirit does not please God through truly righteous, just, spontaneous and God-like love. Humanists know nothing about their need for God’s Spirit to personally teach and train their spirits, to shape right motives and intentions in their spirits.
All these churches are effectively teaching souls to take charge of their own destinies and, through their fictitious “free wills,” do their own works to earn their own salvation. Yet none of the apostles ever taught these Platonic doctrines about a “free will” and earning one’s own salvation. None taught that one could buy a ticket into heaven by partaking in sacraments. None ever even attempted to get anyone to earn their own salvation by vocally uttering a public “Sinner's Prayer.” Rather, the apostles and evangelists of the true church always preached about Jesus Christ’s works in us for salvation, and would utterly condemn any teaching about salvation by magic “sacraments” or by “sincerely” repeating the magic words of a “Sinner’s Prayer.” For they all believed that Jesus is God. They did not believe we are our own saving, destiny-determining gods with Platonic souls and passive bodies.
Also, not one of the apostles of the true church ever believed that the “Great Commission” of Christ obligates literally everyone in the church to evangelize, as most evangelical churches teach today. In fact, because Evangelicals say this, they are also forced them to redefine “evangelism” and “dumb down” the Gospel message. So now, what they call “evangelism” and “the gospel” have absolutely nothing to do with God's definition of evangelism and thee Gospel. The true and biblical Gospel is, basically, the entire Bible, but with a focus on how the Messiah saves us by writing His Law upon our hearts according to His New Covenant promises for our salvation. And the real, biblical, true definition of evangelism is the right and faithful teaching of the genuine doctrines of the Gospel, which includes everything taught in the Bible. Therefore, an evangelist must be someone who has been extensively taught and trained by Jesus over a long period of time, until his knowledge of those doctrines is broad, deep and thorough. A true evangelist’s knowledge of the true and God-intended meaning of the Scriptures must be nearly perfect. So a real evangelist is a very mature disciple of Jesus, an advanced kind of teaching elder, one who has been genuinely called, taught, trained and appointed by Jesus for this very purpose. An apostle or evangelist is one of the most highly gifted and most well-trained teachers of God’s Word, an elder who not only teaches, but also judges with more authority, one who rebukes, corrects and straightens the wayward most effectively through Christ’s power, as he guides souls to Christ. Every real evangelist is a male elder who is has been adequately perfected in his ability to teach right doctrines. And an evangelist is Christ’s assistant, not a fully authorized “head teacher.” For Jesus is our only the fully authorized Head Teacher and Judge.
So evangelism is primarily done by two basic kinds of teaching elders, by evangelists and apostles. These are usually the most well-taught, gifted and mature teaching elders, since their purpose is to establish new churches entirely on a foundation of real truths from the real Jesus Christ. And a real evangelist does not save anyone, since only Jesus has the power to save anyone. The evangelists help their brothers and sisters turn to Jesus and His core truths, so they might begin the process of their salvation soon and more effectively. That is, evangelists serve Jesus as well-taught disciples helping more novice disciples to better understand Christ’s lessons, but let Jesus teach and train their very spirits for their salvation. Evangelists assist in the process. Yet it is Jesus who does all the saving and sanctifying, the setting apart of elect spirits for God’s purposes, for salvation. And it is Jesus who is the only real and authoritative Teacher of each elect spirit. Jesus is the only Head of each individual elect soul, the only One with the final decision-making authority over all matters of life and faith.
Clearly, real biblical evangelism is actually the right teaching of God’s Word, which can only be made effective by God in the hearts of His elect, and only when He decides that His appointed time has come for an elect spirit to awaken and hear Him. According to the Bible, an evangelist is defined as a very mature male elder/pastor who has been called, taught, trained, chosen and sent by Jesus Himself. Since an evangelist must be one whom Jesus has taught more perfect doctrines, and since learning that much from Jesus takes much time, evangelists are usually the oldest teaching elders, men who are usually more than fifty years old. And all four kinds of teaching elders in the first true church—apostles who were the most gifted and evangelized in far-off places, local teaching elders with the gift of prophecy which convicted souls to repent into the truth, evangelists who set up new churches in near-by places, and local teaching elders who helped with the daily spiritual and physical needs of the people—were all older men who had to be personally taught, trained by the Holy Spirit of Jesus our God Himself, over a period of many years, so Jesus could personally send them to teach the people. They all had to possess genuine wisdom with a real knowledge of truly right doctrine, which can only come from Jesus, not from anyone else. Because it usually takes an infantile elect spirit, a “novice” spirit who has just been awakened to repent into the truth, many years to learn to overcome one’s own mind flesh and begin to correctly apply God’s truth, almost all elders were old.
Now, a very large portion of this true Gospel involved a knowledge of God's Old Covenant Law and the ability to correctly apply it to various real-life situations, an ability to think through problems under the guidance of Christ’s Holy Spirit. For a teaching elder also had to judge rightly, according to God’s will and intentions. Thus, all evangelists had to know how God’s Law defined the kind of loving righteousness that the power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit was working in and through all His elect for their salvation. A true evangelist knew how to lead the people into a true understanding of the saving works of God, into a knowledge of what God Himself calls righteous. A true evangelist’s work helped others see how true and God-like love is righteous, just and pure, functioning according to God's Law. For true love never breaks God’s Law—although love may appear to break one of God’s laws, if that particular law does not actually apply to a specific situation. But the unwise and unjust often try to force one particular law to apply to one specific situation, although, in reality, the principles of many of God’s laws always apply to any one situation and judgment. And, if someone judges wrongly, by wrongly applying His Law in any judgment, it is a sin. But just, true love never offends God, and it always actively does what is good, right and wise towards all in God's creation.
The real work of evangelism therefore requires a very mature man of God. And Paul listed four basic kinds of teaching elders: (1) apostles, (2) teaching elders who were also granted the gift of prophecy, (3) evangelists, and (4) the local teaching elders/pastors (see Eph. 4:11 in Greek, noting the TSKS construction regarding the fourth kind, which some ignore and, thus, think it defines five kinds). Since all four kinds of teaching elders are given to the church by God, an evangelist is teaching elder who is chosen, called, taught, trained and sent by God. And an evangelist is just a teaching elder who is more knowledgeable and wise than local teaching elders, regarding right doctrines revealed to him by God Himself. For an evangelist helps set up and establish new churches within the vicinity of his church. Then the apostles (a word which literally means “sent out to perform a mission by a lord”) were granted the most perfect teachings of all the elders, and the most spiritual gifts, including the gift of prophecy. So apostles also were evangelists, but usually in far-off places, where none had ever heard of Jesus and His salvation. As for the teaching elders with the gift of prophecy, they seemed to take care of church purity and discipline. Then the local teaching elders (pastors/shepherds) did the daily works of spiritually and physically caring for the flock. And there were usually multiple local teaching elders. A small church, with less than twenty families, might have only two local teaching elders. But a larger church, with forty families, might have four or five. And some elders were paid while others were volunteers. But pay did not depend on their qualifications. Rather, pay depended entirely upon the financial needs of each elder’s family, and the financial ability of a local church. So some of the most highly gifted apostles were paid nothing at times, while the youngest and least qualified teaching elders, those who still had children at home, were given the most pay. For those younger elders had to provide for the needs of their families while dedicating all their time to study.
Every evangelist must teach near perfect doctrines to novices, because he must establish the new churches on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ, so all will know Jesus and trust His true words. Every teaching elder is to be a ὑπηρέτης Χριστοῦ and an οἰκονόμος μυστηρίων θεοῦ (I Cor. 4:1). That is, each must be a mature and gifted disciple of the Rabbi Jesus, one who helps Jesus as His assistant teacher, like a faculty assistant. And every teaching elder is also a household steward of the mysteries of God. As a household steward, a teaching elder has been put in charge of guarding and maintaining the purity and integrity of the revealed truths belonging to God, with the responsibility of distributing them to the rest of the church household according to their needs and according to the will of the One who owns all. Then the other servants of the Lord’s household, the church, are to work beside him, not under him. For a teaching elder is not a lord, but a fellow servant. God also requires him to be faithful (I Cor. 4:2), lest foolish and destructive lies and delusions of the world order creep into the church and tear apart the lives of individuals belonging to Jesus’ household.
Of course, in the days of the apostolic church, every Christian would openly share information about the blessings and trials regarding his or her faith. But certainly not all were evangelists. For not all were teaching elders. And simply sharing information is not the God-given ministry of teaching right doctrines, which is what an evangelist must do. Nor did the evangelists preach a highly “dumbed down” and fake Gospel, one which only required a simple work of the flesh, through a fictitious “free will,” to earn salvation, such as a “sacrament” or a “Sinner’s Prayer.” Rather, true evangelism involved many hours of teaching each week, and for very many weeks, to be effective. Also, the family or household of believers in the original true church would share their faith in a truly wise, honest and humble way, not through hypocrisy and affectations of piety. True believers admitted what they did not know, and did not boast about delusions or emotional experiences of the flesh. They did not learn to “evangelize” by applying carnal sales tactics, since they knew salvation cannot be sold, and that God, our Saviour, certainly cannot be sold either. Nor did they learn to use cunning kinds of fraud tactics to get people to “confess Jesus.” And the early church never gave a higher status to those able to trick and deceive the most souls into their churches. So the true church was absolutely nothing like the coldhearted, deceptive, dishonest “evangelical” churches we see today.
The spirits of true Christians learn to trust in Jesus, in His Holy Spirit’s love and wisdom, far more than they trust in themselves or any human being. Yes, they love and trust other elect souls. And they learn to love and trust the teaching elders too, but as a younger siblings love their older brothers, with the knowledge that their older brothers are actually not that much older, nothing like their oldest Brother, Jesus, who lived for all eternity before time was created, since Christ’s Spirit is the one and only uncreated God. And, since their teaching elders are merely minutes older, they know those elders make mistakes and cannot be fully trusted in all matters of life and faith. Therefore, the only Head Teacher of everyone in the church is Jesus. Jesus, who rose from the dead and lives in their hearts as their wise King making a solid stance on truth, is their only Lord. All true evangelists are watchful, guarding Christ’s precious truth through a deep, trusting and uncompromising love, and looking for other truly loving souls whom God had made open to that truth, seeking their welfare, labouring for God’s equitable justice among all, including their enemies. They do this because the words of Jesus rule the thoughts of their spirits, and their spirits lovingly guard those true words.
Naturally, all true Christians remain wary of enemies who strive to silence them. Yet they do not focus on identifying and fighting against enemies, because most of their efforts are directed to the building up of God’s family, the church. And they do not write off any enemy, knowing that any one of their enemies may actually be a deceived and deluded elect child of God. Furthermore, even the worst enemies are ultimately ruled by God, and God may bring some truths and good works to His people through any of His creations, even through His enemies. For all of God’s creations are used by Him as instruments or agents to perform His saving works in our spirits. Even the most basic of physical things, like food, clothing and shelter, can either help or hinder our spiritual progress in salvation, according to His will. So God’s true elect are too busy helping the needy, healing the sick, alleviating internal and physical suffering, leading souls into abundant lives and fulfilling God’s Law of just, pure, God-like love to make wars against any perceived enemy. And, since they know there are at least some deceived elect souls trapped within every imaginable kind of major belief system on earth, there will be at least some elect trapped among the belief systems of their enemies as well. Thus, each true believer openly shares one’s faith with some enemies, with those willing to listen, with those who seem to have some attributes of God-like love. Even novice believers will share their own good reasons for loving Jesus and believing His words. However, like each individual member in the true apostolic church founded by Jesus, each believer primarily focuses on doing the particular works Jesus calls and commands one’s own hands to do at this current hour and in this current day.
In the true church, only the teaching elders carried out the Great Commission of Christ. For Jesus called only His inner circle of His most well-taught disciples, His eleven “faculty assistants” who were helping Him in the teaching of the other disciples, to fulfill that Great Commission (see Mat. 28:16-20). Jesus did not give the Great Commission to all His disciples, as some claim. Rather, He first called aside only the eleven most well-taught and trusted disciples, whom He chose from the beginning of His ministry. But Jesus gave each of all the other disciples in that true church a unique and different ministry or function to perform, as a personal service to Him. Each unique member of the whole body did his or her own part in His whole body on earth, according to God's calling and equipping, for the good of all, to build up His church. No one even attempted to be an “evangelist,” unless Jesus had chosen, called, taught, trained and sent one to be an evangelist. And neither the elders, nor anyone else in the true church, ever tried to be the kind of “evangelist” who goes out to “win souls for Christ,” by appealing to emotions of the flesh, through deception, false reasoning, fear-mongering or carnal salesmanship. For everyone knew, through personal experience, that none can come to Jesus Christ except through the power of Christ, according to His will and His calling.
We must realize that there was never any method for “winning souls for Christ” taught in the Bible, because Jesus did not want us to trick souls into getting baptized or saying a “Sinner's Prayer” and going to a church. For no one can be saved through a man-invented ritual of baptism, nor through a man-invented ritual of saying a “Sinner’s Prayer.” And the baptism which Jesus commanded was actually a law of Moses involving the symbolic, ceremonial washing of the body by dipping it under the water. It was not a magic “sacrament,” but was done strictly to acknowledge that God’s cleansing had already been completed by God Himself, or was in the process of being completed by God. Any baptism in Christ’s name—or in the name of all three Persons of the Trinity—was to acknowledge that Jesus had forgiven one’s entire lifetime of sins, that His resurrection restored one’s relationship with the Father, and that His Holy Spirit was now sanctifying one’s life by teaching and training one’s elect human spirit to know and apply the loving, wise ways of His Law. As for the “Sinner’s Prayer,” this spontaneously occurred after Jesus began His salvation process. After Jesus taught some truth to one’s spirit, so the spirit developed godly sorrow over one’s sins and repented into this truth, one’s very spirit would pray something like a “Sinner’s Prayer,” in one’s own words, directly from the heart. First Jesus begins to save, in a way where He cannot fail to complete that salvation. Then, each time one repents into the truth, which Jesus teaches for one’s salvation, one’s spirit will utter a true “Sinner’s Prayer.” Every true Christian often repents and utters a true “Sinner’s Prayer,” usually many times a day and throughout one’s entire life, once Jesus begins His salvation process.
Jesus Himself declared that His Great Commission can only be fulfilled by “teaching [His people, the elect] to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mat. 28:20, ESV). Therefore, to fulfill this Great Commission, one must first correctly and thoroughly know all that Jesus commanded, even all the full and fulfilled meaning of all that Jesus, our God, commanded in His Old Covenant Law. And, to do this, one’s very spirit must first be awakened, then thoroughly taught and trained for years, all directly by the Holy Spirit of Jesus, our God. Then one must be sent and commanded by Jesus to teach, and must teach only the words that He commands them to teach. For how can one teach all that He commanded, if He has not commanded one to teach anything? Furthermore, Jesus will command different teaching elders to specialize in teaching about certain areas of knowledge, as well as upon the whole of the Gospel, in general. For we are all limited beings. So Jesus gives each a different array of experiences, so each will gain a deeper understanding of certain aspects of life and faith. And Jesus makes each individual ready to hear and receive different areas of knowledge from Him. Therefore, each teaching elder generally has a different and unique knowledge set. So, to fulfill the Great Commission, Jesus personally teaches, calls, appoints, authorizes, sends out and directly commands more than one evangelist to set up and establish a new local church for the people whom He chooses. And only those elders who teach in Christ’s name—that is, under His direct command and authority, according to His will alone—will ever be able to truly and effectively fulfill Christ’s Great Commission. Only His appointed and sent teaching elders can do thi