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Messages of Jose Anathanam and
the Covenant Ministries from |
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Messages of Jose Anathanam and
the Covenant Ministries from |
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In
Christ Jesus
Part X
| IS JESUS THE PROBLEM? [PART – A] “I am afraid that as the serpent DECEIVED EVE by his cunning, your thoughts will be lead ASTRAY from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” [2 Corinthians 11/3] This letter is written by a very devout Jew by birth, Saul of Tarsus, who later on became St. Paul – The Apostle of Christ Jesus. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he writes from his own experience. Speaking about himself, he writes that he advanced in Judaism beyond many of his own age among his people, so extremely zealous was he for the traditions of his fathers [Galatians 1/14]. Being a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia brought up in that city at the feet of Gamaliel the great teacher, educated according to the strict manner of the law of his fathers and being zealous for God [Acts 22/3], he obeyed all the laws of Moses. He was circumcised on the eighth day, belonged to the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee; as to the righteousness under the law of blameless. Yet with all his zeal, sincerity and faithfulness he was spiritually blind; Hence he ended up kicking at the very God who created him, who saved him and who called him, because he did not know the name of his God – the name that is above every other name – JESUS CHRIST. He was so blind spiritually; that in persecuting the Church – THE BODY OF CHRIST – he was persecuting JESUS CHRIST Himself. Once upon a time he thought of Christ Jesus merely as a human being [2 Corinthians 5/16]. At that time he did not realize that Satan was very cleverly leading his thoughts ASTRAY from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Being a very religious person himself; he knows fully well that Satan uses religion to lead people away from JESUS CHRIST. That is the reason he cries out from the bottom of his heart when he looks at his own brethren, his kinsmen by race as he writes in Romans 9/1-7 “I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself be accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race. They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the Word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants. My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own; they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For they don’t understand that Christ has died for them to make them right with God. Instead, they are trying to make themselves righteous by their own methods and customs; but that is not God’s way of Salvation.” [Romans 9/1-7, 10/1-4] In the process of rejecting JESUS CHRIST - THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. Paul himself says, he formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted JESUS CHRIST [1 Timothy 1/13] This is the sad state of affairs of many sincere, faithful, holy religious people in the modern days too. That is why St. Paul, who himself was deceived wrote in 2 Corinthians 11/3 for all those who will ever live after him, writhing with concern. “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be lead ASTRAY from a sincere and pure devotion to CHRIST”? [2 Corinthians 11/3] Satan’s arch enemy is “JESUS CHRIST Himself. He is not bothered with anyone who exalts himself; or any deity who is exalted as god, because he knows they are not gods. Instead he encourages devotion to such gods because that will keep them away from a pure and sincere devotion from the real God, JESUS CHRIST. He has succeeded to such an extent that he is able to prevent even Christians from speaking the name JESUS – the ONLY NAME UNDER THE HEAVENS given among men by which we must be saved [Acts 4/12]. And so very cunningly, Satan puts into the minds of people good desires and thoughts to bring unity among all religions when he fully knows that God has no religion!! In that process, he brings in a common word – GOD – which can be used by every religion that rejects the real and true GOD, JESUS CHRIST. The word – “GOD” – is a compromise when it is not referred to JESUS CHRIST. God can be anything or anybody, any deity or IDOL. Money too can be a God. Any created thing can be God and Satan promotes such Gods. His main works in this world is to blind the minds of the people to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is in the likeness of God [2 Corinthians 4/4] and he uses religion as a veil to blind their minds. The first time Satan put his blind on Eve was when he managed to take her focus away from JESUS CHRIST [represented by the Tree of Life], to self-dependence [represented by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil] and to self-righteousness [RELIGION – represented by the fig leaves]. Ever since, as the human race increased and multiplied, religions also increased and multiplied. Not one of these religions acknowledges JESUS CHRIST as God. The cunning serpent – Satan, knows full well that God created man NOT TO BE IN RELIGIONS; but even before the world was created, God chose us to be IN CHRIST JESUS [Ephesians 1/4]. Satan also knows that, man was given the image and likeness of God, the very life of God, the authority and the Power of God [Genesis 1/26-28, Genesis 2/7] and that man was crowned with the glory and honour of God [Psalm 8/5-6]. And GOD called his people Gods [Psalm 82/6, John 10/34-35]. Satan also knows; that, as long as man remains IN CHRIST JESUS his kingdom of darkness will be over them because, all that God gave to man can be exercised only IN CHRIST JESUS. Apart from JESUS CHRIST, man is dead spiritually; is sick, in poverty, in tribulation, suffering all kinds of calamities. In this situation Satan is able to overpower them, make them slaves to sin and keep them under his control. In order to do that Satan promotes religion which gives them a false sense of well – being and encourages them to go to all types of gods to solve their problems when in fact he himself receives all the worship. St. Paul, who went through all these experiences, writes with authority – “Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship of idols. What pagan’s sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” [1 Corinthians 10/14-20 2 Corinthians 11/14-15] Today; we are living in the church age, The Church is THE BODY OF CHRIST. The Church is JESUS CHRIST Himself. Just as JESUS CHRIST walked on this earth through the body he took form Mary’s womb in order to dispel the darkness and destroy the works of the devil [1 John 3/8, John 1/5]. That same Jesus is alive today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever [Hebrews 13/8]. This Jesus continues to walk on this earth through another body – THE CHURCH – to dispel the darkness and to destroy the works of the devil. This Church, THE BODY OF CHRIST – consists of believers who are the true disciples of JESUS CHRIST, who live according to the Word of God [John 8/31-32], who are filled with the Holy Spirit [Acts 2/1-4, Ephesians 5/18], who are lead by the Holy Spirit [Romans 8/14], who are clothed with power from on High [Luke 24/49] who do exactly what Jesus did [John 14/12], who have all the signs of the believers mentioned in [Mark 16/16-18], who are proclaiming JESUS CHRIST and the Kingdom of God [Acts 28/23] and making disciples of all nations according to the command given by their master in [Mathew 28/18-20]. And the Lord JESUS CHRIST, works along with them confirming their messages with signs and wonders [Mark 16/20]. This is the Church. This is the BODY OF CHRIST. This is JESUS CHRIST Himself walking on this planet earth even in the 21st Century!! THE CHURCH is not a religion, but Satan has managed to put it into the minds of the people to make them believe that Christianity is religion Remember; religion does not acknowledge JESUS CHRIST nor proclaim Him and so today we have people who do not proclaim JESUS CHRIST nor mention His name and yet call themselves Christians. They cannot be the CHURCH. They unfortunately and unknowingly are blinded and enslaved in a religion that does not proclaim the name of JESUS CHRIST. JESUS was the problem to Satan even before the world was created. JESUS became more of a problem to Satan when man was created in the image and likeness of God. The only way to keep this problem away from him was to DECEIVE man and take away his sincere and pure devotion to Christ, by leading man’s thoughts ASTRAY from Jesus [2 Corinthians 11/3]! And to make Christians believe that Christianity is a religion and that all the religions are the same and all religions lead to God. This is the righteousness without Jesus – THE TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD – The deception that Paul and his brethren were in [Romans 10/1-4] which made them persecute JESUS CHRIST and HIS CHURCH. And so very cunningly, Satan has divided the Christians into thousands of bits and pieces, which call themselves Church when actually they are projecting a religion without Christ. IS JESUS A PROBLEM EVEN FOR CHRISTIANS? (To be continued…) |
The Covenant
People
P.O. Box: 20, Kanjirapally
Kottayam District, Kerala - India
