BTZ Blog

Is it right for people to conclude that when one starts questioning the doctrines and beliefs one has been taught, questioning the  rituals and practices that are considered biblical, questioning bible interpretations, questioning bible infallibility, questioning bible errorless-ness, one is traveling down a slippery-slope to the abyss of being anti-God, anti-Christ and anti-Gospel? I would say a big yes when it comes to having God, Christ, the Bible and the Gospel wrapped up in a little denominated box that fits one's denominated belief. I know I am definitely ANTI...God, Christ, Bible and Gospel when it comes to some of the how's, why's, and what's I believed about God, Christ, the Bible and the Gospel that was programmed into me by the religious meaning of such! Contrary to what some people say, God is not angered by questioning what we think or believe about Him just because the preachers and teachers that did instructed you to believe what you believe about God ...

Part of growing up in the "Old Time Religion" gospel was having the fear God hammered into you, to the point of misery and "soul sickness" and being terrified of this angry God. The preaching was that "God so loved the world"...the next mouth emitting encouragement was that God is a fierce and punishing sadistic God.  This contradicting characterization of God never made any rational sense to me! How could God love all of us so much That He wants us all to be with him, but then punish and send the vast majority of us to hell, only because we didn’t pray the ‘sinners prayer’? The Gospel was presented as "plundering hell to populate heaven" and if you didn't repent and say the sinners prayer you were going to populate hell. This was suppose to be the "Good News Gospel". God's love was limited to only the "saved people" and changed to hate for "sinning people. “I was a bible-toting, scripture-slinging hell def...

If death seals the fate of people who die "in their sins", and th en banished by God to an eternal hell fire to suffer forever as some believe and tea ch. I wonder...what should we do about the following verses? “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him” (2 Samuel 14:1h “I will ransom them from the power of the grave (Sheol/Hell); I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave (Sheol/Hell), I will be your destruction!” (Hosea 13:11-14).  Why w ere the prophets  in the the old Testament silent on the matter , why did Noah not warn the people about hell in His preaching?   If Hell is the fate of those who are tagged "sinners" by those tagged "saved" why did God tell the p eople that burning their children alive in the fire to the false god Molech, ... in the valley of ...

Loving with the Love of God is the worst adversary of the “devil's hell”. Love is a fire that is hotter than hell, it is the only fire that burns away “every dross of sin”...past...present...future, and unlike what we are told about “hell fire”, love's fire is redemptive not punitive. Fall into love's ring of fire and let it burn all your misconceptions about our loving God, let it fire you with His love to share the good news of the redemptive power that God's love has provided...”the great transaction is DONE!. Love's Fire is a Hell Fire Destroyer! If it was not for God's love there would be not blood shed to burn every dross of sin...thus, LOVE is the reason our sins are eradicated! Jesus' blood was the fuel that makes the love of God hot enough to burn up every dross of sin! If it was not for God's love you would not know sins forgiven...for God so LOVED the people of the world, He gave His son to die that man might be redeemed. The reason God all...

 A number of years ago I moved away from a denominated critique way of Bible study to where I studied the Bible from the point of trying to validify what I already believed, to a more objective critique of Bible study to where I allowed the Bible, as seen through the lens of Jesus, to formulate what I believe. That technique led to a radical change in some of my beliefs. The change was, not then, nor is now to disparage people caught up in the myriad of denominated beliefs under the broad banner of Religion; rather, my verbalization of my  change was in the hope that some people would feel free enough to lay aside...if they so desired...preconceived ideologies of traditional belief systems, God, the cross-work of Christ and the Gospel so they could think and reason for themselves, uninfluenced by man-made doctrines and traditions and to come to conclusions based on their God given ability to reason and hear the Spirit of Truth for themselves regarding the work and life of C...

Some of us drink so long at the religious trough we get drunk on self-righteousness and cause people to be intoxicated with our religious verbiage, while we feast on the delusion that God has endowed us with...exclusive rights to correct Bible interpretation, inside knowledge of God, the cross-work of Christ and His Gospel. We leave no room for people to question the sourness of our self-righteousness, no room for them to think for themselves before trying to digest the religious hogwash we are feeding them that prevents them from fully living in the Grace and Love of God. Though we think we are making disciples of Christ...we make disciples of men, ideologies and religious fables and end up assimilating people into our denominated religious beliefs. We portray ourselves as always right; a true, genuine disciple of Christ...the people who don't agree with our ideologies are in some stage of rebellion and waywardness...desperately in need of our spiritual guidanc...

The Spirit of Truth does not necessarily confirm Bible interpretation, for indeed, man's interpretation may not be God's revelation of the Bible interpretation...therefore The Spirit of Truth will not confirm it. On the other hand, if scriptural interpretation is Spirit revealed revelation, the interpretation is God's revelation, and the Spirit of Truth will confirm the interpretation. The Community of the Redeemed (The Church) is not built upon man-revelation Bible interpretation, it is built upon Spirit-revelation that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Son of the living God and that revelation energizes the Community of the Redeemed to operate in the resurrection power of Grace and Love. Man-revelation Bible interpretation is the cause of the segregation of God's people from each other...that violates Jesus' call for  unification of the Community of the Redeemed. Spirit-revelation produces unification of the Community of the Redeemed....that...

The Name of Jesus is not a magic formula you say at the end of a prayer to provoke God to answer your request. The power that is in the Name of Jesus is because of RELATIONSHIP! Before my son (Sheldon) or daughter (Vanessa) were born the names they now have didn’t mean much to me. But say one of their names now and my heart fills with emotion, I can smell the freshness of their babyhood, I hear the sound of their voice as a toddler, I feel the pain they endured when they hurt themselves, their crying made me cry, what brought them joy brought me joy, that is the kind of power their name has on me now. If they ask me for something and it is in my power and their best interest they know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I will do it. Their names erupt with power as does mine to them because of our relationship. It is being in relationship with Jesus that gives His Name power in your life. Because of His LOVE and the relationship between you and Him, His NAME...

Many who formally held to the authoritative and literalistic view of the Bible are becoming increasingly perplexed and unsatisfied with such un-biblical claims. A "straight forward" literalistic reading of Scripture inevitably leads people to do immoral things that are against one's conscience and reasoning because of the literal idealistic approach of..."the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it" is accepted without regard for its contextual context or a love for people. In doing so the Bible is read and judgement, condemnation and damnation is justified and considered godly. Reading the Bible from that perspective makes christianized people immoral and sometimes barbaric in actions, and wave the banner of Christianity proudly. This presents a magnanimous problem. The Bible is supposed to make us respectable, moral, loving people...not sear our conscience causing us to be unloving and to commit immoral acts or teach that God commits immoral acts. ...

Why do religious people believe without reservation that two naked fallible human beings in a Garden ate of the forbidden fruit...that resulted in ALL of humanity being made sinners...Yet, Jesus, "The God Man"...comes to earth to save the people of the world, was crucified, died, and rose again...but the outcome of being reconciled to God does not apply to ALL people...and because I dare claim Jesus really was 100% successful in His mission to reconcile ALL people of the world to God through His finished work on the cross...some religionists call me an apostate and a heretic traveling the slippery slope that leads to the sinner torture chamber in the fires hell.  There is a big discrepancy in the religionists way of thinking...Most, if not ALL religionists believe in a universal outcome that includes ALL people because of the sin of a mere man named Adam; but when it comes to "The God Man"...Jesus...regarding His sacrifice and His ability to ...

In the modern Church world, Church is defined as man-made structures, man-made ideologies, man-made doctrine and selfish man-wanted conveniences, gained by hierarchical appointed, titled people who abuse, misuse and misinterpret the Bible to manipulate and control people through fear-mongering for the survival of the fabricated identity as to who and what the Community of the Redeemed is.  However, this system has duped the Community of Humanity and the major ity of the Community of the Redeemed...the Church...that Jesus said He would build. This system can and has survived without the glory of God because the deceived within never experienced the glory of God, for "God no longer dwells in temples made with hands." Thus, the glory of God does not exist where God does not dwell. But it can and does dwell in the Church that Jesus is building known as the Community of the Redeemed and the Community of the Redeemed CANNOT survive without the glory of God ...

Many people who say they are traveling the narrow-road  through the narrow-gate believe it is a legit reason for them to be narrow-minded. They even say, "I am proud to be narrow-minded because Jesus was narrow-minded." Many narrow-minded people who think they have entered through the narrow-gate and are traveling the narrow-road leading to life, have entered through the wide-gate and are traveling the broad-road that leads to destruction! People think that because Jesus said that the narrow gate and the narrow road leads to life, that Jesus Himself was narrow-minded. But...was Jesus narrow-minded? The narrow-road to spiritual life is a GRACE road that enables us to enter the kingdom of God on earth and be the Community of the Redeemed through which Christ works through to fill the earth with God's Glory...NOT...the road that gives us entrance into heaven. The broad-road to spiritual destruction is the RELIGIOUS road that prevents us from entering the kingdom of God on...

The question I am about to ask will cause some people to speculate as to whether the depth of my religious heretical-ism and apostasy, permits me to call myself a believer of Jesus Christ. Here is the question...Is religion in the truest sense of the meaning of the word...anti-Christ...meaning against Christ? By that I mean...is what religion is about, what religion believes, what religion stands for, and what religion teaches and preaches...antithetical to the teaching and life living of Jesus Christ and the Church He said He would build? If it is, it presents a profound and disturbing problem for what the religionists stand for in their religiosity! The anti-Christ spirit is the master of disguise and has deceived many in the Community of the Redeemed, yet they are unaware they are deceived and are singing his songs of deception as if they are from God Himself. We are living in a day where we are seeing an increase in Satan’s efforts to trap people in dece...

Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles...He received the the Gospel of Grace from Jesus Himself and the revelation of its mystery for the Church. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because He declared the "whole council of God. Yet nowhere in his writings did he teach or preach on hell! Wait a cotton-picken minute..."Paul you never preached on, taught on or even alluded to the great drawing card to get people saved...the great doctrine of HELL in any of your Epistles". Yet you have the audacity to declare that you have declared the "WHOLE COUNCIL OF GOD...come on man get real." That can't be...can it? How could Paul's ministry have brought glory to God, while he did not mention the word hell once? I mean the traditional doctrine of hell is at the very foundation of religious creeds. How could Paul have been so negligent in failing through his entire ministry to teach on the great doctrine of hell the cornerstone of reli...

Proof-texting is bolstered by contextual extracting of scripture and often  portrays God as the "bad dude in the sky" that is out to condemn ALL who have not said the "sinner's prayer" to suffering and torment in hell's flames for eternity, religionists are cast as the ideal Christians who must defend the Bible and God from any doctrine that goes against their man-made doctrine beliefs. To people's blame, all of this is done under the guise, that my Bible interpretation is right and here's the scripture to prove it! Never mind that they interpreted the scripture in light of what they believe rather than letting the scripture formulate what they believe. Proof-texting...lifting Bible verses out of context to prove man-made beliefs...is the traditional weapon of choice some religionists use because it allows the sainted-soldier in "God's army" to wield the sword to destroy (as far as they are concerned) their enemy with a single verse...

I wwwooonnndddeeerrr ... If we accepted the words of Paul in the above scripture a s tru e , would that mean: If we refuse the truth of the gospel for man-made delusions of the gospel as truth, would we not be found accepting deception as truth and our ability to spiritually mature would be drastically impeded? If we discredit and diminish the love and grace of God because of religious man-made traditional beliefs, would we not be found discrediting and diminishing Jesus? If we are justified in condemning people for the company they keep, should we not condemn Jesus Christ for being a "friend of sinners"...for attending a wedding party where the guests got drunk and after all the wine was gone made new wine for them to drink...for associating with a prostitute...and associating with a tax collector and swindler? I wonder...would Jesus befriend homosexual's and the seemingly hopeless, or would He be found judging and condemning them by...

Most, if not ALL religionists believe in a outcome that includes ALL people because of the sin of a mere man named Adam; but when it comes to "The God Man"...Jesus...regarding His sacrifice and His ability to affect ALL people, most religionists believe in a outcome that does not apply to ALL people?  Is ever possible that believers fail to realize they are giving more reliability and ability to a fallible man than they do to the infallible God Man...Isn't th ere something drastically wrong with that kind of thinking! Believing Jesus died on the cross "for us" is commendable...but...believing we died on the cross with Him "...as the scriptures do by declaring we were crucified with Him, rose with Him and are seated with Him in heavenly places...is a somehow not believed by the religious world!  Jesus fully became man. But He was still God and everything He accomplished on the cross applied to ALL people! God forbid we should we bel...

People who are Hell-Bent on telling people they are Hell-Bound are: More Fear-Conscious than Love-Conscious. More Devil-Conscious than God-Conscious. More Sin-Conscious than Jesus-Conscious. More Human Teacher-Conscious than Spirit-Teacher-Conscious. More Self-Righteous-Conscious...than Christ-Righteous-Conscious. More Religion-Gospel-Conscious...than Christ-Gospel-Conscious.

The words of one escapism artist are: "Why do I know the Gospel is about escaping. Because I believe the grace preacher Paul and reject the modern day grace preachers that doesn't have an escape plan." "Paul says if we don`t murmur and complain when we are tempted God will provide a way of escape." The escapism artist then follows the pattern of quoting Bible verses to back up the Escapism Gospel, one of which is: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1Cor. 10:13 The CONTEXT of this portion of scripture is not about escaping hell, it is not even about escaping going through trials...it is talking about providing a way out of the trials one will go through. This sort of contextual illiteracy is common among Bible literalists. Many people consider the goa...