Who will be Exalted?

"The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth."
Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, "Cities Petrus Bertanous"

Isaiah 42:8, "I am the LORD; that is my name!  I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols."

------------------------------------------

"I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I." (History of the Church, Vol.6, pp. 408-09).   (Joseph Smith)

Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

namely, that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—(Journal of Discourses 7:289)

Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hazrat Isa (Prophet Jesus) is an honored Prophet. After he comes down he would still be a Prophet and Messenger. An affirmation by a person of no account that he will be only a member of the Muslim community is not correct, inasmuch as he being one of the Muslims and his giving effect to the Islamic law is not inconsistent with his being a Prophet and a Messenger. (Alfatawa Alhadisiyyak, p.129)


I believe that our Holy Prophet, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is more exalted than all the Messengers and is the Khatamul Anbiya. (Hamamatul Bushra, p.8)

----------------------------------------------------------------

These are just a few who claim to be equal to God or greater than God.  It would be too time consuming to investigate and list all the others and the claims made by them or about them.  I'm not necessarily trying to single these out, but I use them because I'm more familiar with them.

This idea of wanting to be equal to or greater than God is not a new one.  Satan was the first.  We read in Isaiah 14:12-15:

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!  You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!  You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."  But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

And what was the first temptation Satan brought to man?  The same thing he tried to do and what led to his downfall.  Genesis 3:5, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

And this resulted in Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden.

Not only is this attempt to be like God or greater than God not a new one, but God's response to this attempt is consistent.  He will share His glory with no one.

Isaiah 2:17 & 18, "The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear."

Are you one of the many who are following those who make these claims?  Are you believing what they are saying?  Are you believing a gospel they are preaching that is no gospel at all? If they are not telling you the truth about God and about themselves, then they are not telling you the truth about how to be saved from judgement.  If you're reading this post, you don't have an excuse.  The Word of God, the Bible, is available everywhere, the standard by which you can grade everything you read and hear.  You probably have a Bible in your home, or can buy one at your local bookstore, or ask for one at your local Christian church.  Or you can read the Bible online.  It's not like the Word of God is not available to you.  You have access to it.  Open it up and ask God for understanding.  He says that He gives wisdom without finding fault.

It is imperative that you find out the truth.  Your very life depends on it.  God will not accept anything from you but that you belong to Jesus.  If you want to belong to Jesus, scroll down to the bottom of my blog and you will see how.

Philippians 2:6-11

Who being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with

God something to be

grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a

servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a

man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death--

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the

highest place

and gave him the name that is

above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under

the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

The LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

Tim

My wife and I are currently in Ft. Stockton, Texas.  On the way back to the hotel tonight after dinner, we saw a hitch hiker crossing the bridge over Interstate 10.

I took my wife back to the hotel and then went searching for the man to talk to him.  I found him sitting on a bench outside of a gas and shop.  I asked if I could talk to him about his life.  He said yes.

I learned that his life had been very troubled.  A divorce.  Life on the streets that had started out as fun but grew very tiring.  He was at the end.  He was heading to a small town in New Mexico where he said he was just going to lay down and die.

After talking for awhile I found he had asked Jesus to be his Savior at age 17.  At age 18 he found the good life, stopped reading his Bible, and stopped going to church.  As far as he knew now, God was angry with him and had maybe walked away from him.

I talked to him for awhile and used Scripture to show him that God had never left him, and wasn't going to.  We prayed together and I gave him a list of who he is in Christ and what that means (I get this list from Neal T. Anderson's book, "The Bondage Breaker."

In the end, he had a change of mind.  That was good to hear.  Please pray for him that he will meditate on the things that are true of him because he belongs to Christ.  I told him I would post this and that people would pray for him.  Pray also that God would give him direction.  He's asking for your prayers.

Say to this Mountain

Mark 11:22-23, "Have faith in God," Jesus answered.  "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him."

About a month ago I met a man on the streets of Colorado Springs.  He is a veteran of the war, and he is also a brother in Christ.  He, in the past, has received Jesus as his Savior and became a child of God and was given the sure hope of eternal life.

During the course of our conversation I discovered a mountain of deception that had been placed before him.  During his time in the Middle East he had to kill.  Having experienced this trauma, he was led to believe that God would not forgive him.  "Doesn't God say to not murder?" he asked me.

"Yes, God does say to not murder," I told him.  But I went on to say that what he did in war was in defense of our country, our families, our freedoms, and his family.  There is a difference.  I think his concern was that he may have not always had the right motives in killing.  I suppose there could have been times of killing that was done out of fear, sometimes out of anger, sometimes out of wrong motives, I suppose there could have been acts that would be considered murder, or there could be times of just having an overactive consciense. 

But Jesus said something that I believe covers all of these.  Mark 3:28, "I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them."  What did he say?  All the sins.  That means all.

Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been to war and have had to kill may think they have gone to far.  Don't some teach that even though God will never leave us, that we may leave him?  I know in Romans chapter 8 we are told that nothing can seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Some have told me, "Except us."  Well, I have news for them.  It doesn't say that there.  What it does say is that nothing can. 

I read something recently that greatly encouraged me, and I believe will encourage you as well.  I will copy and paste his web address, and I will also copy and paste that which so encouraged me:

 http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/BTP/Dr_Harry_Ironside/eternal_security.htm

So He says, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” He puts no conditions around that promise, “They shall never perish.” The word “perish” is in the middle voice, so that if rendered literally in English, you would have to make two words of it, because we do not have a middle voice. The words “perish” and “destroy” are the same in Greek. “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never destroy themselves.”


God will not let you destroy yourself.

So, what is this mountain in your life?  You went to war, you saw and experienced the trauma of war, perhaps you were led into the deception that God has walked away from you.  Either God walked away from you and won't forgive you, or you went too far and destroyed your hope. 

That's a lie from the evil one.

You were God's child before you went to war, he was with you during your time there, he is with you now.  He never left.  You are forgiven, you are cleansed, you are a child of God sealed by the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of your inheritance in Christ, and God has never left you.

Choose the truth of God's word and speak to the mountain of deception.  You are a child of God and he has never walked away.

And for those who have come back from the war and have never asked Jesus to save you from judgement, there is only one difference between you and those you fought next to:  You are not children of God.  But you can be. And you can have the same sure hope that they have.  John 1:12, "Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God." 

We have all at one time by nature been objects of wrath from a just and holy God.  But Jesus paid the penalty for you sin and is waiting to clothe you in His righteousness and put you in right standing with God.  Ask Him to do that for you now, and He will not refuse you.  He will forgive all your sin and give you eternal life.  You will belong to Him forever.  He will never let you go.  And He will not let you destroy yourself.

God is good.

Life in the Desert Places

When my wife and I first arrived in Ft. Stockton, Texas, all we saw was a small town and desert.  The thought of working here for several months did not look attractive at all.  But then we found a church to attend with very hospitable people, where we could worship the Lord, learn from Him, and find fellowship. 

This made me think of Isaiah 35:1&2, "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.  Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy."

I think most times we make judgements according to what we see and feel, and miss the beauty of life that the Spirit of the Lord brings.  In the physical, the desert is very dry and desolate.  In the spiritual, because the Spirit of the Lord is among His people, the desert is full of life.

Ephesians 1:3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

If you are a child of God, and the circumstances you are in now are dry and desolate, know that the Spirit of the Lord is with you, and ask God to help you see His life in your situation.

If you are not a child of God, ask Jesus to save you from judgement and to adopt you as His child, and He will do it.  And in the midst of a dark and troubled world you will know the life of God.

What a man desires is unfailing love; Proverbs 19:22a

I went downtown yesterday in hopes of finding a brother in Christ on the streets who needed encouragement.  I found one.  I'll call him Steve.

He grew up as the older of three brothers.  They went to church and had a pretty normal childhood.  Until he was about ten years old.  His dad was unfaithful and left the mom with the children.  This caused Steve to hate men for quite some time.  His mother was a strong woman, having been raised on a farm in Wyoming.  She taught her boys to be tough.

As I was talking to him, and listening to him, I hadn't yet had the opportunity to find out about his relationship with the Lord.  About 15 minutes into our conversation, a street pastor that he knew walked up on us and joined the conversation.  I didn't wait much longer before asking Steve if he had ever asked Jesus to be his Savior.  He had.

After more discussion, I realized the problem he was having was understanding who he was in Christ, and what that meant.  He didn't know about God's unfailing love for him as a result of his being included in Christ.  So the pastor and I talked to him for a while concerning this, sharing pertinent Scripture with him, and he was being encouraged. 

A few minutes later, a young lady and her boyfriend walked by us.  She posed for her boyfriend to take a picture, and Steve noticed what was written on her t-shirt:  His love endures forever.  Steve was getting the hint.  God was pursuing him.  Not to make him His own, he already was.  But to help Steve to understand what was already true.  God's love for him was unfailing.

I know this experience will turn out well for Steve.  God has already shown me what He can do in a person's life when that person comes to realize the promises we have in Christ.  And the most important promise all of God's children have is His unfailing love. 

Their Protection is Gone

As my wife and I read through the Scriptures, specifically the account of the Jews in the desert marching around the land of Canaan, I can't help but wonder if I see a similar pattern happening today in America.  In recent years, when catastrophes happen, we will periodically hear pastors and preachers on television say that these are God's judgments on our country.  This usually brings a public outcry.  But are they right?  If they are, we need to be paying attention and finding out what we can do.

Paul writes in Romans 15:4, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

So what can we find in Scripture that was written in the past that could teach us today and bring us hope?  One of the things I've found is what was happening to the Canaanites, what choices they had, and what choices do we have.

In Leviticus chapter 18, verses 24 and 25, after God had given the Jews a long list of  "don'ts" concerning sexuality, He says to the Jews, "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.  Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

And we find in Numbers chapter 14 verse 9, after the 12 Jewish spies came back from spying out the land of Canaan, Joshua and Caleb said to the people, "And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.  THEIR PROTECTION IS GONE, but the LORD is with us."

Now, no matter how much the uproar may be, the fact is that our country is full of immorality.  It's undeniable.  There is pornograpy, adultery, homosexuality, sex and sexual inuendos on television, etc.  It's widely accepted. 

The Canaanites saw the judgement of God approaching them for 40 years and had every opportunity to repent.  The Scriptures even teach that the the Canaanites were fearful of what was coming.  They saw the miracles of God in the desert.  They saw God protecting His people.  Yet they refused to repent.

In recent years we have been seeing major events and catastrophies happening to our country.  Thousands have been killed.  2 major cities have been devestated, as well as surrounding communities.  Are these events chance, or is God warning us? 

One more point:  from what I have read in Scripture, God has never judged a nation that was walking with Him.

So we have a choice to make.  Will we refuse to see what is really happening, or will we repent and get back to our Christian roots.  Will God return His protection, or will we lose it.  It's time for us to wake up.

Mormonism in the Spotlight

In recent weeks and months opportunity has been given to put Mormonism in the spotlight.  Many are asking questions, some are trying to give answers.  I guess the person I have been listening to a lot would be Glenn Beck.  I have listened to him slip in a little Mormon doctrine here and there and recently he did a show on it to try and answer some questions.

I guess the question I would ask, I hope respectfully,  is what foundation is Mormonism based on? 

Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-27, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

What both of these scenarios have in common is that the storm came.  One house survived, one didn't.  And the foundations here are the Word of God, or something that is not the Word of God.

Again, what foundation is Mormonism based on?  Rock or sand?  And before anyone thinks I'm trying to pick on Mormons, we should all know that our foundation needs to be on the rock.  Or we won't survive the coming storm.

It occured to me a few days ago as I was thinking about doing this post that in order to introduce something that is contrary to the truth, you first have to sideline or discredit the truth.  We see the first example of this in Genesis 3:1-5, Now the Serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "  "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

The serpent had to first put doubt on what God said before he introduced the deception to Eve.

What are some of the claims of Joseph Smith and Mormonism?  And would these things put doubt on the Word of God?

Word of God

Matthew 24:35  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away."

Mormonism



The truth of the Gospel had been lost from the earth and had to be brought back.

Word of God



Colossians 1:16-17  For by him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;all things were created by him and for
him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Ezekiel 28:15 (Speaking of Satan) You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

Mormonism

Jesus and Lucifer/Satan are brothers.

Word of God

Isaiah 45:5a  I am the LORD and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.

Mormonism

We will someday become gods and rule our own planets.

Word of God

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man,  that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Mormonism

God was once a man like us, a sinner, and had to be saved by his own god.

Word of God

Romans 3:20  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Romans 3:28  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Mormonism

We are saved from judgement by our good works.



Romans 3:21-26

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify.

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

He did it to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--

he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Here we have gotten to the heart of the matter.  First, doubt is put on the truth of God's Word, then destructive deception is introduced.  According to what the Word of God says, where will you build your house?  On works (sand), or on faith in what Jesus did for you (rock)?  His Word, the Truth, the Gospel, was not lost.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22  You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"  If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.  That prophet has spoken presumptuously.  Do not be afraid of him.

Joseph Smith prophesied that the temple would be built in western Missouri in his lifetime.

Joseph Smith prophesied that he would christen that temple.

Joseph Smith prophesied Jesus would come back before the turn of the century (1900).