The Great Controversy

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<td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> THE GREAT CONTROVERSY</div> <bR> <div> ON THE UNSEARCHABLE DEPTH AND RICHES OF GOD'S GRACE</div> <div> "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law shall have dominion over a man as long as he liveth" ( Romans 7: I ).</div> <div> Romeo Samudio</div> <div> ====================================================================================</div> <div> During the time that had elapsed since the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, many new ideas contrary to the gospel had wormed their way into the Christian congregation. The clever enemy had successfully infiltrated for the purpose of undermining the faith and destroys if possible the very foundation of sound doctrine left behind by the Author of life. Oppositions and trials, however, both from within and the outside failed to check the growth of Christianity.</div> <div> It was during this most delicate of times when followers of Christ were introduced to new lines of thinking that somehow appeared appealing to our human rebellious sensibilities. On the other hand, God's true called out individuals are endowed with a powerful discerning power capable of distinguishing mere myth from truth and religious facts from religious fictions.</div> <div> How will the brethren be alerted and placed on guard against all these forms ofdanger? The letterofJude, vigorous and robust in its forthright declaration provided the answer. Jude himself stated his position clearly in verses 3 and 4. He said, "Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ,ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." In his letter, Jude argued strongly of putting up a hard fight for the faith. His message is as timely today as it was back then.</div> <div> One of the great controversies that had gained ground and created some kind of friction among Christians is in the area of our understanding between law and grace. The whole Christian world differs in their understanding of this vital Bible truth. It is contended that there is only one way by which man can be reconciled to the Almighty God and in the end gain eternal life.</div> <div> Grace advocates believe that salvation is by grace and grace alone. They contend that there is no way Christians can be saved by their good works -- no matter how good their works might be. To this group, their faith and complete reliance and trust in God without obedience anymore to God's commandments are enough to deliver them from eternal damnation. God's grace justifies or makes them right with God, strengthens them, gives them lasting hope and saves them eternally.</div> <div> They often cite the examples in the Holy Bible on the offensive lives of King David and Saul who later became the Apostle Paul. Their life stories reflect one of the most incredible display of unselfishness and unsearchable depth and riches of God's grace which would seem unacceptable from the established standard of fairjudgment in the societies of the ancient world and even today. It's a scandal when anyone found guilty of a serious crime goes unpunished. In some countries the party involved is beheaded, electrocuted or suffer the penalty of death by lethal injection.</div> <div> King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then conspired to have her husband, Uriah murdered. The story is told in 2 Samuel II: 1-12: 25. Through God's grace, after David had repented, God forgive him of these sins. Nonetheless, he did suffer the consequences of his actions.</div> <div> The same holds true with another offensive sinners like the Apostle Paul. Paul's hatred towards Christians led to the jailing and torture of a large number of Christ followers. "lam verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as ye all are to this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believe on thee" (Acts 22: 3-4, 19).</div> <div> The Bible did not mince in telling us that Paul himself personally witnessed the death of Stephen. "And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him"(Acts 22:20)These were realities Paul had to live with for the rest of his life. But his sins were forgiven under grace. "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace ofour Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe Him to life everlasting" (1 Timothy 12-16).</div> <div> God hates anything that runs contrary to His Royal Law. God hates adultery including any act of separation and divorce. God hates murder. These are serious violations of God's way of life. Yet, can God forgive murder, adultery and divorce? Of course, He can. God can forgive all forms of sin and He does so under His free and unmerited grace no matter how despicable, hellish and brutish our sins are.</div> <div> It is further asserted, that you and!, spiritually speaking, are not </div> <div> capable of earning anything but death. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "For the wages of sin is death....." (Romans 6: 23). Whether we like it or not, all of us are spiritual bankrupt, without hope, and without any spiritual merit at all. Each of us has a debt of death that can never be repaid. We all stand sinners in God's holy presence. According to them, no amount of obedience to the law could make us right in God's sight. All the good works in the world and the law- keeping can never justify us of our sins. They say God's grace does it all. It is a free gift, period. No ifs, ands or buts.</div> <div> It is also claimed, that this belief is strongly substantiated by the parable described by Jesus Christ in Luke 18 beginning with verse 9, "And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican". Then he recounted the many good works he has done in life. "I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess" (Luke 18: 10-12). He failed to see that He owed God a debt that can never be repaid. If anything, it was God who seemed to have owed him something.</div> <div> "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. </div> <div> I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalteth" (Luke 18: 13-14).</div> <div> The publican understood well the intricate world of financing but he asked for something unusual in the handling of our economy. He simply asked God for mercy and nothing else but mercy alone. He got it. All he fervently sought for was for his un-repayable debt to be completely forgiven. And it was. He was accepted freely. If you are in Christ, they strongly insist, your debt too will be cancelled. There will be no more record of your unpayable sins in the Book of Life. Because of God's grace, you are now reconciled to the eternal God regardless of whatever breach of God's basic law of love you may have broken. Thus, you are now a free man and saved from there on.</div> <div> In recent times, the Worldwide Church of God under the leadership of Pastor General Joseph W. Tkach Sr. and now taken over upon his death by his son Joseph W. Tkach Jr. had undergone vital tragic changes -- far from the biblically anchored teachings of its founder, the late Pastor General Herbert W Armstrong. Gone are our obsession with the so called legalistic interpretation of the Old Testament, our belief in American and British Israelism and other blood related neighboring countries. Instead, they have embraced the traditional celebration of Easter and Christmas. Gone is our long held view of God as a family - of multiple spirit beings into which humans maybe born to compose the Kingdom of God. Instead, they have adopted the understanding of this world of a one God who had existed eternally in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They now teach salvation by grace based on faith alone, without resort to works of any kind.</div> <div> And worst, they now have abandoned past teaching that true Christians observe the seventh day Sabbath as holy time to include the observance of the seven annual festivals commanded to Israel and true converted Christians in the Books of Moses particularly Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The Sabbaths, according to them, are no longer the criterion of Christian identity. The giving of tithes/offerings and attendance at festivals which has been believed to be essential for salvation are now merely helpful but optional practices.</div> <div> In the same token, the world at large will now be glad to know that they are no longer considered by the WCG among the harlot daughters of the great whore constituting the infamous Babylon the Great with Mother Rome at the helm of leadership. The new teaching declares also that there is none such thing as unclean food anymore. The list of these doctrinal changes is endless. They say, the leadership and faithful members of the WCG are deeply grateful for God's mercy in leading them into the light. Notwithstanding, the harm and damage done to the former body of God's church is devastating and incalculable.</div> <bR> <div> The speed and scope of changes adopted by the Worldwide Church of God is enormous. It is no longer the Church of God that we used to know before. It has completely gone back to the ways of this world and the tragic results of these doctrinal changes have now reached the point of no return.</div> <div> It's clear that the Worldwide Church of God has changed its thinking about Herbert W. Armstrong. But did you know that many of these catastrophic changes and great falling away have long been prophesied in the Holy Bible? Search</div> <div> the Scriptures as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11), and prove all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21). With the guidance of God's Holy Spirit you will find that they have long been written there to warn us of the impending disaster. Being so, what more could we expect? As it is written, so it shall be done.</div> <div> A Christian is a person who follows Christ. But would the Son of God lead His church in the wrong direction? No, He certainly would not. If God's church goes astray, Christ rebukes it. If they fail to repent, then He removes the lamp and raise up another church. In a number of times, this is what He did in past history (Revelation 2 and 3). Christ said, ".....I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). So we know that the Church of God Christ leads is somewhere on this earth and we have the responsibility to be in that church.</div> <div> Mr. Armstrong already saw the unpredictable behavior of church member departing from the truth in his lifetime. He said, "rather astonishing, isn't it, that people who have heard God's truth preached for many years --people who first accepted it in the love of God, professed it, started out practicing it -- should through the years, fall away from the truth..., and begin to embrace false doctrines and errors.... " Then he cited Hebrews 6:4-6 as a stern warning to all."</div> <div> At this juncture, allow me to raise a simple question. How could so few deceive so many -- giving up so much in so short a time? The simple answer lies on the famous quote of the German dictator Adolf Hitler when he said, "What luck for ruler that men do not think" with the exception, of course, of a few who bothered, if I may add.</div> <div> However, in so far as the subject of God's grace is concerned, what they claim are all true and valid. Up to that point, they certainly are absolutely right though I'm afraid if one digs a little dipper, in the end, their folly will surely be exposed to their own shame. They did not realize that what they have seriously considered was only half the truth and half lies. They failed to see that there are two sides of discipleship -- faith and spiritual works. The two operate together in the life of a Christian under grace. Each is useless without the other. As the younger half brother of Christ said," What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say, he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works" (James 14-18).</div> <div> Christians, of course, are not saved by their good works. That is true. As the apostle to the gentiles have said, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, (living faith) and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2: 8-9).</div> <div> They failed to see that grace - the ultimate expression of God's divine mercy is only granted to people who have sincerely repented of their sins like King David and Paul. From that day on they now acknowledge thejuridical ascendancy of God's all encompassing law of love over their lives." Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" (Romans 7:1). They now stop breaking the law by obeying the law. Some people who have faith (dead faith) abandon all efforts to obtain God's blessings or salvation by doing religious deeds. They completely trust in Christ and rely on God. To them, God's grace does it all, period.</div> <div> In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." When we live a new life in Christ, belief and deeds work together. True believers demonstrates, by God's grace, an on- going action pack response to the grace He gives. We are not passive observers of grace. Because Christ lives His life in us, we do good works even though we are saved by grace alone. "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:1 10).</div> <div> Such is the unsearchable depth and riches of God's grace. The extension of God's unmerited mercy to King David and Apostle Paul go far beyond the acceptable standard of fair and sound human judgment. If at all, it defies logic. It goes without saying that God alone can do so. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55: 8-9).</div> <div> The people of God know there is a grand designed and noble purpose for this momentary blindness. And thank be to God who has called us out of a darkened world. We now enjoy living in the light with an opened mind through Christ Jesus, our Lord.<B> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Heb 6:4-6:</B></div> <div> “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>