The Mystery of God is Jesus Christ

 A mystery in the Bible is something that at one time was hidden from view. Often it was hidden in plain sight. The Old Testament promised a Messiah, and at the beginning of Jesus ministry the Israelites were looking for a conqueror, someone who would free them from Roman rule. When Jesus came into His own they dismissed Him as a troublemaker and felt He threatened their authority, so they had Him put to death.  Instead Christ came to save that which was lost. He came not as a conquering general, but the sacrificial Lamb of God. He came, “So that we may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that we may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

It has always been God’s plan that all of mankind should be heirs, partakers of God’s kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven was first offered to the lost sheep of Israel. When they refused to listen, the Kingdom was set aside for a while and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was shared with the rest of mankind. We are now at the end of the church era, and it will not be long before the news of the Kingdom will be preach just as John the Baptist did two thousand years ago.  This mystery is given to those of us who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. While Jesus walked this earth He was God and man at the same time. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;  and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:9-10 NKJV

Everything you see and hear Jesus Christ created. He is the glue that holds the universe together. Right now He is in control of the all and all of our heavenly Fathers.  When He puts everything under His subjection  He will return the all and all back to God the Father. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Colossians 1:15-17 NKJV  Can you just imagine the Creator of all things coming to earth and taking on a mortal body to be sacrificed on a tree for us. He paid the ultimate price so that our sins will be forgiven. He gave up everything so that we might regain a personal relationship with Him. How sad it is for us to ignore the  gift of salvation. How wonderful it is that he paid such a price for us and offers it to us for free.

Now Godliness is restored to mankind.

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among all peoples,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

Timothy 3:16 NKJV

The Mystery of the Church

  The New Testament Church is the bride of Christ and one day there is going to be “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” There, somewhere up in the sky, will be a wedding ceremony where the bride (the church), and Jesus Christ (the Groom) will marry. The fact is, marriage here on earth was based on the principles of the marriage between Jesus and the church. He gave us this ceremony as an example for us to follow, knowing that one day we will be “the bride of Christ.” The New Testament was written in ancient Greek.  “Ecclesia” the church. It means “called out”  a body of people called out by the power of God through the Holy Spirit to share with the wounded world the Good News of Jesus Christ.   And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. Colossians 1:17-19 NKJV  People who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, believe through faith, that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, crucified as a living sacrifice so that our sins are forgiven, three days later was resurrected from the dead, and now sits at the right side of our Heavenly Father waiting for His enemies to become His footstool.

Many people confuse the building where people worship with church. The church is made up of people who love the Lord and seek to serve Him.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:9 NASB Every person who is a member of God’s building is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our body is a temple of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,  in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:21-22 Jesus is the cornerstone that the builders did not allow, and we are the living stones joined together to make a spiritual home. When our membership is completed, the Body of Christ will be removed from this earth. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 NASB  Everyone has their own service to God. We are a living, breathing organism whose members work towards God’s plan. We love everyone and always try to do what’s right. We never think about ourselves, and we are always putting the needs of others first. Each of us has a specific service which we perform for our Heavenly Father. This service is revealed to us through our relationship with Jesus Christ. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 1 Peter 2:5 NASB

The Mystery of Christ Within You

  Through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Spirit of Christ was made available to all mankind. If you can say,” Jesus Christ is Lord,” then the Holy Spirit of God resides within your heart. He is there waiting to have a relationship with you just like a friend or family member. The only difference is He can’t be seen. The Bible tells us, “There are three Persons in the Godhead: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.  They are one nature, the same in Their attributes, in Their will and in Their purpose.” Scofield Bible.  He is within our hearts because of the finished work of Jesus Christ and He is there to help us in our weakness and infirmities. When we simply no longer know how to pray, the Holy Spirit will cry out to God on our behalf . And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:10-11 NKJV

Each and every believer is a partaker of divine nature.  The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.  To them God has chosen to make known among all people the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:26-27 NKJV  We read in Galatians 2:20,  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” NKJV  It is important that we don not say in our heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” because we bring down Christ from above through our lack of faith. For the instant we believe there is no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we are freed from our sinful nature and death because of the “Law of the Spirit.” The faith we receive through Bible study and prayer gives us God’s own unmerited righteousness. Because of our faith in Christ we stand before God just as if we had never sinned. We are no longer under the “law of sin” and “the law of death.” Our deliverance from sin has been paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Our lifestyle determines the position of our heart.  Those of us who follow after worldly lusts such as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life,” are against the mind of God.  Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit search after things of the Spirit and are not subject to the “Laws of God.” Whosoever will may come unto God, but everyone who comes to God must do it His way. That way is by faith through Bible study and prayer because “without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; No man comes unto the Father, but by Me.” John 14:6 NKJV   Please read Overcoming Disobedience.

The Mystery of Iniquity

  Those who choose the life  of lawlessness has been around for along time. The common ground of today is to lie, cheat, and steal. The way of the world has rejected the way of God and this state of anarchy will continue to get worst until the time of the end. The power of the Holy Spirit of God defends us until the time of our departure. When the Church has left the earth the Holy Spirit will pull back and all hell will break loose. And now you know what is holding him back, so that he ( the Anti – Christ) may be revealed at the proper time.  For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:6-10 NKJV

  There will be a time when a man walks upon this earth that will be the Devil incarnate, just like Jesus Christ was God incarnate. Satan’s Anti-Christ will work powers and  wonders upon the people of this earth. Many will be given over to strong delusions and will follow the Anti-Christ to total destruction. Even the elect will be fooled and all the earth would be destroyed if Christ doesn’t return to stop it.  For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NKJV  All those who receive the truth that Light (Jesus Christ) has come into the worldwill be saved. Those who by their own will reject the truth and refuse to walk in the light will become more  confused and in the end will totally reject Him.

I urge you with all great hast if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior get down on your knees and do so now. Please say this prayer with me.

Dear heavenly Father,

I admit I am a sinner and need your forgiveness; I believe that Jesus Christ died in my place paying the penalty for my sins. I am willing right now to turn from my sin, and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I commit myself to you and ask you to send the Holy Spirit into my life, to fill me and take control, and to help me become the type of person You want me to be. Thank you, Father, for loving me. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

The Mystery of the Rapture of the True Church

  The time of the dispensation of grace will soon be over. The opportunity to accept to receive salvation by grace through faith will come to an end when the true church is raptured up to heaven. After the church has left the earth and the tribulation period is over the Kingdom of Heaven will be offered as a way of salvation. This dispensation removes the opportunity to receive the free gift that Christ paid for our sins. The Kingdom if Heaven is spelled out in Matthews in the sermon on the mount. There will be echoed throughout the earth, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” During the tribulation period millions will turn to Christ and millions more will die for their faith.  For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,  how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?  Hebrews 2:2-3 NIV

  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 NIV  The next thing on God’s timeline is the removal of the true church from earth. There is not one prophecy which needs to be fulfilled before the second greatest event on earth occurs. Only our Heavenly Father knows the date and time when Jesus Christ will meet us in the air and snatch us away. We could be waiting on you to surrender your life to Christ. We may be just a few decisions away. We just don’t know for sure. We don’t have to wonder what is required to qualify us for the greatest journey in the history of the universe.

All of us who have come to the point that we are reading an article in The Millennial Christian have been exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of us who refuse to obey God’s word and surrender our hearts to God would be better off if we were born in the deepest, darkest jungle on earth, never hearing the gospel, because those of us who hear and refuse to submit to His will are condemned already. God is a righteous judge, and we will be judged by the light we have received and the opportunities we have had.  “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  John 3:18-19 NKJV  When we hear and refuse to obey we are rejecting God and calling Him a liar.  ^“He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

The Word of God is what brings the good news of salvation. It is what the Holy Spirit uses to convict us of our sins. The Bible and the power within it produces the new birth. Through God’s Holy Word we develop our service and ministry to others. Through daily Bible study and prayer we grow in faith and we agree to the terms of our forgiveness. We boldly walk with confidence that we are servants of Jesus Christ and sons of God. Won’t you stop this moment and reflect on your life and see what you are missing without a personal relationship with God. Time is running out. The church age is coming to an end, and the mystery of the rapture of the true church will soon take place!

The Mystery of the Whore and Babylon the Great

  This is a mystery that has not yet been revealed. Who is the Great Whore that sits upon the Beast. Who is Babylon the Great. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery: BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. Revelation 17:3-6 NIV We are given several clues to her identity.

1.)  The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. With her great wealth she controls the earth. Refusing to buy or sell from those who don’t obey her wishes. She builds the economies of those who support her, and destroys the economies od those who resist her. She is hated throughout the earth, and yet she is worshiped for her riches. The wealth she longed for is gone. All her glory and luxury has vanished never to be recovered.

2.) The kings  of the earth committed adultery with her. The kings of the earth lie in bed with her to share in her good fortune. Her economy is the greatest on earth and she consumes the resources of the earth at an alarming rate.  When the kings of the earth see the smoke rising from her they will weep and mourn over her. They will be terrified of her torment.

3.) The inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries. She takes that which is proper and perverts it with an improper use. In this case the Great Whore represents a perverted religion which she has prostituted for her own use. Rather than serving, it rules, and the false religion causes spiritual unfaithfulness. She has both spiritual and commercial aspects where she combines religion and politics. Her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

4.) She consumes mass quantities of luxury materials. The merchants of the earth became rich from the cargos of goods she consumed. All her luxury and splendor could not stop her destruction. The merchants who sold her the finest quality of goods, and gained their wealth from her, stood far off terrified of her torment.

5.) She is proclaimed to be, “The City that Never Sleeps.” Was there ever a city as great as this. That great place where she sat in need of nothing and yet in the end her torment and smoke with extend into the heavens. And with great violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down never to be found again. In one hour she has been brought to ruin. For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on others. Never again will there be a candle lit in her. She will be a place for demons and unclean spirits.

Look around you. Are you so blind that you cannot see her calling. Has Satan and materialism hid your heart from the truth. Is it not obvious who this Great whore is and where she resides. Who controls the wealth of the world? Who polices the nations? Who controls the monetary system and who has all the buying power at their discretion? Open your eyes and see what the Word of God is trying to show you.