In defence of the Gospel of Christ, which leads us to true salvation..

a reply to: Lazarus Short

Hi Lazarus,

Thanks for your response, I most appreciate it. At the end of the day, we all must do our best to provide hope & encouragement to the people in our sphere of influence, and as for myself, I engage with more people here on ATS than I do in real life, so I figured it was about time I provided an explanation of my beliefs, and tried to pre-emptively answer some common questions about the faith while I was at it.

Funnily enough, it got me thinking when I saw your signature line - several years ago (around 2013) I came across information in a book named 'The Alphabet that Changed the World' by an author named Stan Tenen, which discussed hidden elements of the Hebrew language which were immensely fascinating, and which included very important insights into the whole 'name of God' mystery, regarding the Tetragrammaton, YHVH. I felt that this was such important information that I simply had to share it online, and so I created a fairly lengthy Facebook post which detailed the revelation of the "Behold the Hand, behold the Nail" mystery. I was pleased with the succint nature of my post, I felt it conveyed the mystery in a fairly brief & yet fully detailed manner, so I posted it online, and left it at that.

Imagine my surprise, when a full year later, a post popped up in my News Feed from an American friend whom I didn't correspond with much, which I discovered was in fact my original post, quite significantly edited in numerous 'Chinese Whispers' edits, yet still recogniseable as that same original post, mutated through who knows how many edits & how many Christian users had participated in sending this 'chain letter' around the world in the preceding year! I felt humbled that God had used what I wrote, and sent it along the newswire, hopefully blessing hundreds or even thousands of users in the intervening time. Certainly that information (the hand, the nail) is now more commonly recognised than it was when I wrote the original post, which was based on a fairly obscure book that very few people would have read at the time.

In the same way, when I write on ATS, it is always with the faith that what I write could well have a similar effect, because it takes only one other user to pass along information into an entirely new ecosphere, hence our simple words can have a huge effect on the world at large. I always write with that in mind, and I would exhort all Christians to write regarding their testimony & examples of faith moving mountains, wherever they can, because God can use it to do great things. I always enjoy reading your own posts of a similar nature, so thank you for also spreading the Word as you have done so consistently for many years.

God bless,



FITO.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Thank you for sharing your joy here. I have tried to get away from the discipline of the Word, and I cannot, especially when confronted by vehement anti-Christ types, haha. It proves the choice, and everything else.

Case in point, Christ's response in Saint John 18:38.

A child looked on while men gathered yellow leaves, naked dead branches, scooping up ash, sand, and dust while putting them in bejeweled glasses.

What are they doing?

A man came along..

They believe they shall be saved, he said.

The child was surprised and asked: How can they be saved by that which is dead?

They will not be saved, said the man. The dead will not find life in death.

The man put his arm on the childs shoulder and said: You my child are one of the Living.
Let them gather dead leaves and read into them. Seeking word of life in that which lives not.
Let them drink dust and think that it is water of life.
Let them eat sand and believe that it is the
bread of life.
Let them warm themselves by the ashes and believe that it is the fire of life.
Let them build with dead branches and make images while stepping on that which lives.

The man looked at the boy and said: Salvation is for the Living not the dead and only Living God saves.
Then they both went away leaving the dead with the dead.