THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD - PART 317

JESUS being the only head of the Church commissioned the following message to His disciples. That is “repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name amongst all nations beginning at Jerusalem." Note specifically the words that state repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His Name. So the question is - what is His name? His Name is JESUS. This explains why the apostles did not preach in any other name. Because at no point in the scriptures were the apostles commissioned to preach in any other name.

But as we also know, satan comes along as usual - like in the wilderness when Jesus was tempted while fasting for 40 days and nights. There satan tempts JESUS with his distorted translation of scripture. Conversely, JESUS who is the VERY WORD of God never quotes from a revised edition. Neither was Jesus tempted to change the Word to please others.

However, along come the church fathers with their revised teachings. Indeed, as the historical record alludes, these same church fathers admit to changing the scriptures Matthew 28:19, rendering the wording to state "in the name of the father, son and spirit." This is in complete contrast to the original teachings of the apostles. Further, if one researches this point, they will find that all encyclopedia’s refute Matthew 28:19 as it is currently presented. In fact, even the present day pope admits that the roman catholic church altered the scriptures at some point.

The difficulty is that this rendering of the scriptures was adopted by all of the reformation churches. Thus, while their adherence and later admission to teaching scriptural error is commendable, it has done little to erase the error. It has not helped either that there exists, even today those indoctrinated adherents who stubbornly uphold their denominational error even when the truth is known. The confusion becomes more entrenched when another presentation is made that emphasizes correct Biblical teachings. Doctrines and teachings such as salvation can be only be found in the Name of JESUS. Or the message that the same God who created us would become one of us because He loved us so much.

Instead, often what happens is that these same religious folks try to justify their teachings rather than adhere to the scriptures. How many times have we heard in reference to baptism that you are not being baptized into Jesus the Christ but rather you are only being baptized upon the authority of Jesus the Christ. Apparently, this new rendering of the scriptures justifies the use of "in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit" when baptizing, even when none of these descriptive titles resembles a name.

But the reality is this. Nowhere in the scriptures was there ever any person or family baptized using the titles. Sure, many of us have went along with this erroneous teaching, primarily because of our own ignorance of the written Word of God. And perhaps, that we simply trusted the ecclesiastical system. But now that we know different, what will we do?

Remember, Adam and Eve also transgressed God’s instructions in the Garden. Look where they ended up - as strangers and foreigners to God. Still, the good news is that we originally were created of God to be His property. God made us! God loved us! And indeed, loved us so much that He redeemed us back to Himself even though we originally God’s property.

A redemptive price had to be paid. A hefty price. In fact, the cost of our redemption meant the death of a righteous man. But as we learn from the scriptures, there was not to found amongst Adam's fallen race one righteous man. So instead the humanity of God prevailed on our behalf. God Himself veiled Himself in flesh. Yes, God laid down His life as a Son, purchasing free redemption for all who come to Him.

this is why we need to adhere to the scriptures. When JESUS COMMISSIONED his disciples to preach the altar call was Acts 2:38. During that first alter call, 3000 persons repented, believed, and were baptized into the name of JESUS for the remission of their sin. The question now is this. What hinders you from repentance, believing and being baptised as JESUS commissioned?