CHAPTER 6; OF THE FALL OF MAN, OF SIN, AND OF THE PUNISHMENT THEREOF Paragraph 1. Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof,1 yet he did not long abide in this honor; Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given to them, in eating the forbidden fruit,2 which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory. 1 Gen. 2:16,17 2 Gen. 3:12,13; 2 Cor. 11:3 Paragraph 2. Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all:3 all becoming dead in sin,4 and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.5 3 Rom. 3:23 4 Rom 5:12, etc. 5 Titus 1:15; Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:10-19 Paragraph 3. They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation,6 being now conceived in sin,7 and by nature children of wrath,8 the servants of sin, the subjects of death,9 and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.10 6 Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:21,22,45,49 7 Ps. 51:5; Job 14:4 8 Eph. 2:3 9 Rom. 6:20, 5:12 10 Heb. 2:14,15; 1 Thess. 1:10 Paragraph 4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil,11 do proceed all actual transgressions.12 11 Rom. 8:7; Col. 1:21 12 James 1:14,15; Matt. 15:19 Paragraph 5. The corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated;13 and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified, yet both itself, and the first motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.14 13 Rom. 7:18,23; Eccles. 7:20; 1 John 1:8 14 Rom. 7:23-25; Gal. 5:17
CHAPTER 7; OF GODâS COVENANT Paragraph 1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.1 1 Luke 17:10; Job 35:7,8 Paragraph 2. Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace,2 wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved;3 and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.4 2 Gen. 2:17; Gal. 3:10; Rom. 3:20,21 3 Rom. 8:3; Mark 16:15,16; John 3:16; 4 Ezek. 36:26,27; John 6:44,45; Ps. 110:3 Paragraph 3. This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman,5 and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament;6 and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect;7 and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency.8 5 Gen. 3:15 6 Heb. 1:1 7 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2 8 Heb. 11;6,13; Rom. 4:1,2, &c.; Acts 4:12; John 8:56
CHAPTER 8; OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR Paragraph 1. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man;1 the prophet,2 priest,3 and king;4 head and savior of the church,5 the heir of all things,6 and judge of the world;7 unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.8 1 Isa. 42:1; 1 Pet. 1:19,20 2 Acts 3:22 3 Heb. 5:5,6 4 Ps. 2:6; Luke 1:33 5 Eph. 1:22,23 6 Heb. 1:2 7 Acts 17:31 8 Isa. 53:10; John 17:6; Rom. 8:30 Paragraph 2. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was complete, take upon Him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities of it,9 yet without sin;10 being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures;11 so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.12 9 John 1:14; Gal. 4;4 10 Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14,16,17, 4:15 11 Matt. 1:22, 23 12 Luke 1:27,31,35; Rom. 9:5; 1 Tim. 2:5 Paragraph 3. The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure,13 having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;14 in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell,15 to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled,16 and full of grace and truth,17 He might be throughly furnished to execute the office of mediator and surety;18 which office He took not upon himself, but was thereunto called by His Father;19 who also put all power and judgement in His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.20 13 Ps. 45:7; Acts 10:38; John 3:34 14 Col. 2:3 15 Col. 1:19 16 Heb. 7:26 17 John 1:14 18 Heb. 7:22 19 Heb. 5:5 20 John 5:22,27; Matt. 28:18; Acts 2;36 Paragraph 4. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake,21 which that He might discharge He was made under the law,22 and did perfectly fulfill it, and underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have born and suffered,23 being made sin and a curse for us;24 enduring most grievous sorrows in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body;25 was crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption:26 on the third day He arose from the dead27 with the same body in which He suffered,28 with which He also ascended into heaven,29 and there sits at the right hand of His Father making intercession,30 and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.31 21 Ps. 40:7,8; Heb. 10:5-10; John 10:18 22 Gal 4:4; Matt. 3:15 23 Gal. 3:13; Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet. 3:18 24 2 Cor. 5:21 25 Matt. 26:37,38; Luke 22:44; Matt. 27:46 26 Acts 13:37 27 1 Cor. 15:3,4 28 John 20:25,27 29 Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11 30 Rom. 8:34; Heb. 9:24 31 Acts 10:42; Rom. 14:9,10; Acts 1:11; 2 Pet. 2:4 Paragraph 5. The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God, has fully satisfied the justice of God,32 procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto Him.33 32 Heb. 9:14, 10:14; Rom. 3:25,26 33 John 17:2; Heb. 9:15 Paragraph 6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ until after His incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein He was revealed, and signified to be the seed which should bruise the serpent's head;34 and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,35 being the same yesterday, and today and for ever.36 34 1 Cor. 4:10; Heb. 4:2; 1 Pet. 1:10, 11 35 Rev. 13:8 36 Heb. 13:8 Paragraph 7. Christ, in the work of mediation, acts according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture, attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.37 37 John 3:13; Acts 20:28 Paragraph 8. To all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal redemption, He does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them;38 uniting them to Himself by His Spirit, revealing to them, in and by His Word, the mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey,39 governing their hearts by His Word and Spirit,40 and overcoming all their enemies by His almighty power and wisdom,41 in such manner and ways as are most consonant to His wonderful and unsearchable dispensation; and all of free and absolute grace, without any condition foreseen in them to procure it.42 38 John 6:37, 10:15,16, 17:9; Rom. 5:10 39 John 17:6; Eph. 1:9; 1 John 5:20 40 Rom. 8:9,14 41 Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:25,26 42 John 3:8; Eph. 1:8 Paragraph 9. This office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God; and may not be either in whole, or any part thereof, transferred from Him to any other.43 43 Tim. 2:5 Paragraph 10. This number and order of offices is necessary; for in respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical office;44 and in respect of our alienation from God, and imperfection of the best of our services, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God;45 and in respect to our averseness and utter inability to return to God, and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to His heavenly kingdom.46 44 John 1:18 45 Col. 1:21; Gal. 5:17 46 John 16:8; Ps. 110:3; Luke 1:74,75
Because I have never seen a church that really does that. So.. you get together and confess sins and weaknesses to each other and become more righteous and are healed of all sorts of physical and emotional conditions?
Yes and No. You see it is God whom chooses to heal or not to heal. We are called unto obedience and that means that if there are any sick among you you are to call for the Elders of the Church and they are to pray for the individual. WE are also called to confess our sins one to another and encourage each other towards righteousness. You have to remember that God is sovereign and can do whatever is his will. Whether he chooses to give life or to take life away it is his doing and not ours. In short, we have an extremely high view of Holy Scripture.
It says unequivocally that you should confess one to another and pray and you will be healed. I find this to be true. I find that people that do that become righteous and their prayers are heard. They get healed of nearly everything imaginable. That is what the passage means about the prayers of a righteous man avails much which people quote so often. There are a couple dozen of us in So. Calif. that do this every week, it works just fine. I tell my church buddies about our meetings and I get reviled and the are talking behind my back but hey, 1) we are doing precisely what scripture tells us 2) good comes from it every, single, time 3)we have to have our own meetings because no church will do this even though it is plain as could be in James. People that don't do this say things like what you say. Basically you are not doing what the scripture tells you very plainly to do and then you believe lies about God, how he heals people when he feels like it basically. Catholics come close to getting it right, but they don't really spend much time at it, it is more like a formal ritual but they tell me it is very hard for them to go to confession. I take that difficulty they experience as evidence that the devil knows that confession and prayer will dismantle his kingdom and he opposes it like crazy. Your theology is evidence of that same fact actually, just the devil's obfuscation of plainly stated truth.
Look at the third chapter of Revelation, the letters to the churches. People have figured out that these churches represent the ages of the church. Jesus tells the last one that they think they are fine but they are really messed up. I find that the confession and prayer meetings are the only way for this church, the current age, to overcome the problems of blindness, etc. I mean if you cannot see what is plainly written in scripture, that pretty much qualifies you as blind, right? I find that the Charismatic church is worse off than your style of church. Your style corresponds more to the sixth church in revelation, the one where not much is asked of them and nothing is said against them. Your church comes out of history about 200 years ago, maybe, along with the original methodists and holiness, maybe? I find that the Holiness church fits the description of the sixth church really well and the Charismatic one fits the description of the seventh church really well. In any case, I don't know of any church that has prayer meetings 4 times a month that sometimes run from 11am to past midnight. Once you get it right you are not fidgeting around looking at the clock, believe me. We have the meetings near an airport so people can fly in, it is fun to watch Baptists and people like that sit there with their jaws dropped for hours on end, watching things happen that their theology tells them is impossible. Nobody has ever refuted what we do from scripture either and we have 2 hours of lecture in the morning, from scripture.
More scriptures found Here Gospel of Judas tonight on National Geographic channel. "Biggest find in 60 years".
What kind of things happen? Last night I saw King David channeled by the reincarnated St. Peter. Apostle Paul was on keyboards. I got a hug from John the Beloved. And I sat next to Hathor, wife of Horus, daughter in law of Isis. No jaws dropped.
THE JESUS MYSTERIES. Was the "original Jesus" a Pagan God? Timothy Freke@Peter Gandy A must read for Christians