BTZ Blog

Why I am an "ism-less Believer". Am I a Right-Winged Christian or Left-Winged Christian? Well how is this for a confession...I am neither a...right-wing or left wing Christian...That is not the worst of it, I am not even a religious "Christian". Well don't look so shocked, neither was Jesus!...OK, NOW YOU CAN BE SHOCKED!  Jesus has been depicted as the prime unshakeable icon of Christianity since the man-made religion was established. Have you ever pondered the possibility that Jesus wasn't a..."Christian"? Did Paul and other New Testament authors paint Jesus as the icon and founder of Christianity? Did Jesus view Himself the way religion has Christianized Him? I put it to you that Jesus did not coin the word, hear the word, say the word, invent the word, name His followers by the word, teach His followers to be the word...CHRISTIAN...that so dominates the thinking of religious people today. By the way...Jesus was not ...

Part 18 In closing out this series, let's consider a different purpose what the for the flood story of Genesis ? Whether this event was literal or not, the lesson to learn from it is the same. Many people will say "God sent a flood to kill everybody" because of His judgement and He will send people to hell because of His judgment. Why did God judge the earth. Is it possible that the flood story was a redemption of people plan and not a destruction of people plan. God did not send all the people who were killed in the flood to hell. Could God have used the flood to restore righteousness to the earth. There is no doubt that the world had become wicked. Gen 6:11-13 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; a...

Part 17   Paul repeated the testimony of Jeremiah, concerning God's covenant with the house of Israel; "all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." (Heb. 8:11) This is a pledge of the previous salvation of the Gentile world. Scripture assures us, that the Gentiles shall be fellow-heirs with the Jews, of the blessings of the Gospel. God says, "all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." ALL the children of Israel, ALL the descendants of Abraham; not those who may happen to be upon the earth at that particular time, but the people of ALL time. This is similar to what Paul declares in Rom. 11:26. When God chastens His children "for our profit," causing all chastisement "afterward to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Heb. 12:10,11) How, then, can the doctrine of endless punishment in hell be true? If God's chastisements afterward yield the peaceable fruits of righteousne...

Death...the last enemy, will be destroyed. 1 Cor. 15. 26. If death is the last enemy, and if death shall be destroyed, there will be no enemies to  relationship with God for man remaining after the resurrection, Paul, in his account of the resurrection, does not teach the existence of sin. "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption...it is raised incorruption...it is raised in glory...it is raised in power...it is raised a spiritual body." 1 Cor.  15: 42-44. The victory cry by Paul, "O death where is thy sting?" That surely means, that sin was absent, for "the sting of death is sin." Paul records, "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. 5:19) Notice It does not say, that God was in Christ reconciling Himself to the world, for He was never un-reconciled to the world; but God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. By the phrase "the wo...

Part 15 Peter saw, in the vision of the vessel like a sheet knit at the four corners, that all men came down from heaven; that they are all encircled in the kind care of God, while here on earth; and , that "all will be drawn up again into heaven." See Acts 10; and 11) We are not to call unclean what God has called clean. Paul says that the free gift of life is given to ALL people, as the sin of one was inflicted upon All people. "As, by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:18) Wow, what a Savior. It teaches us, that the free gift of eternal life affects ALL as the sin of one man did affect ALL. On the one hand we are told, judgment came upon ALL men by sin; on the other we find, that "the free gift came upon ALL men unto justification of life." This free gift is eternal life, see Rom. 6:23. Paul also says, "For ...

Part 14 Isaiah said, "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and ALL flesh shall see it together." (Isa. 40:5) This is the declaration of God, for the prophet adds, "the mouth of the lord hath spoken it." If the Lord hath declared, that ALL flesh shall see his glory together, it will be done. Isaiah represents the Gospel as being completely successful in accomplishing the purpose for which it was sent into the world"...that, as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and return not thither, but water the earth, and cause it to bring forth and bud, so shall the word of God be; it shall not return void, but it shall accomplish the divine pleasure, and prosper in the thing for which God sent it. (Isa. 45:10,11) Therefore, if we believe that God sent the Gospel to benefit ALL mankind, will not that  be  completely accomplished. If any reject the Gospel, and are lost forever, can it be said in truth, that God's word does not return unto Him void? Isai...

The prophets have spoken of the restitution of all things. "And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of ALL things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began." (Acts 3:20,21)  "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, (but who hath been crucified, and hath ascended unto heaven, and ) whom the heaven must receive (or contain) until the times of restitution of ALL things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of ALL his holy prophets since the world began." The "restitution of ALL things" begins in this life; but it will be completed and finished in the life hereafter. It is the putting of things back into God's created original condition. A. Clarke, on this passage says. "Man was originally created in God's image; but the divine image has been obscured by sin; and men now bear the image of...