Category Archives: apostles’ doctrine

December 28, 2011 · 9:20 pm

Understanding: To Depart from Evil

Step Five on the Road to Immortality: Repentance from Dead Works

“To depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28.   “Knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

Chapter 26 of the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

     So far we have taken some very necessary steps on the road to immortality.  We have discovered that Yahweh-Is-Savior is that Road to Everlasting Life.  We have learned how to be in awe of Him, which is the obtaining of wisdom.  We have learned His true name, His nature, and His eternal purpose and plan.

     But all these steps have amounted to the mere acquisition of knowledge—extremely important, of course, and necessary, but knowledge nonetheless.  In this next step, however, we must do and not just know.  We will learn to put this knowledge into practice.  We now start doing what we know to do.

     Talk is cheap; action is expensive.  “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them,” said the Master.  Conversely, if we gain knowledge of the holy things and do not begin to do them and walk in them, then we will not be happy. …The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. II Peter 2:21.

     Receiving knowledge of the high, sanctified, set-apart things of God is the gaining of understanding.  Now at first this does not make much sense to us because we have man’s definition of what understanding is, much like we had man’s definition of what wisdom was in step one.  When we think of the word “understanding,” we think of comprehending something—the ability of making sense of something. But this is man’s interpretation.  When we begin to attain knowledge of the holy things, the secret things, the things that the Supreme Being reserves only for those who fear Him and are awe of Him—that is understanding!  And this knowledge of the sanctified things, the things that the Almighty has set apart and reserved for only a few—that is understanding and that will bring us into the desire to flee the evil of our ways, to depart from the old life and get into the flow of His new life within us. …The knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10…To depart from evil is understanding. Job 28:28.  Understanding is knowing about His true ways which leads us to depart from evil.

     True knowledge about the Most High’s sacred truths will lead us into doing something about it; it will lead us to fleeing the evil.  But how do we do really ever be rid of the sin in our lives?

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October 16, 2010 · 4:52 pm

“Be Ye Perfect”–Christ’s Impossible Command?

Christ gave us this command to “be  perfect.”  And, of course, the knee jerk response comes, “Wait a minute.  With all due respect, that can’t be right.  Nobody’s perfect.  Nobody can be perfect.  So why would He give us a command that’s impossible to keep?”

This is where some will begin to toss Christianity into the trashcan, never realizing that ‘Be perfect’ is a paradox, which is ‘a statement seemingly absurd yet really true’ (Dictionary.com).

But some will dig down to a deeper level and find that one man was and is perfect–Christ.  And they’ll see that He was perfect because of the Spirit that filled Him.  And they’ll understand that He has now given His Spirit to the sons and daughters of God, who will realize that they can grow in faith where “it is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

And armed with this knowledge, they will see that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).  They’ll see that the glass is not half empty nor half full, but brim full and running over with the living waters of His Spirit.

It will dawn on these princes and princesses of God that “no idle word” proceeds out of the mouth of God.  They’ll take this admonition to heart: “Let us go on unto perfection” (Hebrews 6:1-2).  And they’ll learn that there is so much more to God’s spiritual house than the foundation of “repentance from dead works and faith toward God,” which are the first steps of “newborn babes in Christ.”

They’ll realize that they have received in their hearts the seed of perfection.  Christ is that Seed.  And now that Seed is growing, for “one plants and another waters, and God gives the increase.”  This growth is likened to a planted seed of wheat or corn.  It comes up, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.”  And then harvest will come when He will have been perfectly reproduced in us.  And we then in full maturity will have completed the life cycle of God.  And that is perfection.

The princes and princesses of God will realize this in the command: “Be perfect.”  For they will see these two words as His challenge to “overcome all things” and walk on down His road to the Heavenly City.  They will answer the challenge and embark on this quest for perfection.  Because He said to.              Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 1, 2010 · 6:57 pm

Churches Calling for Fire from Heaven–But Be Careful: God Is a Consuming Fire

Thousands of sincere people in churches across the land are asking every week, crying aloud to the heavens, that God would send His fire down, igniting a revival in the church.  Not just charismatic, pentecostal, full-gospel, and bible-churches are doing this, but many main stream denominational churches are, too.

But do they know exactly what they are asking?  God is not just a fire; He “is a consuming fire” [1].  Most of the sheep in the pews do not realize that the judgement of this fire first falls on them; it starts with the house of God, His body, His church.  The apostle Peter warns us of the fiery trial of our faith: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” [2].

“The fiery trial” is when God comes to us to purify us, which means that there is something in us that needs to be gotten rid of. 

God is fire; He is also the Word made flesh.  So the fire is His word.  And He will send His word through His five fold ministry offices.  These are His true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  They are a gift of God to congregations for their perfection and edification, “till we all come in the unity of the faith…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” [3].

And God will speak through them, and His word, like a fire shut up in their bones, will blast as a refining fire burning away the dross and impurities.  This will be a fiery trial–the getting rid of the childish things that are clung to.  Eventually, the blankies, pacifiers, and rattlers must be put away on the road to spiritual perfection.

Just like the prophet elijah

Elijah is a type of this.  He came and exposed Israel’s sin and corruption at the highest level, demanding them to repent.  But they just could not “abide the day of his coming” [4].  He was a fire burning up their impurities.  But what did the children of Israel do to him and other prophets?  They hunted them down like dogs, tortured them, and chased them into “dens and caves of the earth” [5].

They were persecuted by the very people they were trying to help.  For few want to change so badly that they will submit to the correction of God’s word of fire–especially spoken through just another man, who they feel is really no better than they are.  Anyway, “who made you a ruler and judge over us, Moses?” [6].

God, the consuming fire from heaven, wants to burn out the impurities of false doctrines, concepts and teachings about Him and His plan.  We are told to “purge out the old leaven that the lump may be holy.”

But who will be able to bear it–the correction, instruction and reproof–that the fire brings?  This is what the fire-word of God brings.  It cleanses and purifies His children, until they are no longer alive just to receive God’s “feel-good spirit.”

Joy, peace, and love will come, for they are the fruit of the Spirit.  But the true fruit of the Spirit takes time to develop, grow, and mature.  And few modern Christians have any aspirations to wait very long for it.  And so that is what keeps them coming back week after week, crying out for God’s fire, thinking that it is a feel-good spirit, not knowing that His word is like a fire that purges out all unrighteousness. 

But that is the nature of children.  They are mostly alive for what they can receive from their Father.  As Paul said, “And yet I show unto you a more excellent way” [7].  It is the way to complete the life cycle of God in you–the way to perfection.  KWH

  1. Deut 4: 24; Heb. 12: 29
  2. I Pet. 4: 12, 17-18
  3. Eph. 4: 11-13
  4. Mal. 3: 2
  5. Heb. 11: 34-38
  6. Acts 7: 27
  7. I Cor. 12: 31

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July 11, 2010 · 2:24 pm

His Faith–Once Delivered to the Saints

We have seen that we are to look upon the invisible things and not on the things that are seen with our earthly eyes.  Faith is one of those spiritual things that is invisible.  But there are many misconceptions as to what faith really is.  Everyone has their own imagination as to what faith is.

But faith is an invisible spiritual thing that has already been given to God’s elect.  It is a special gift from Him to His future sons and daughters that will help them grow up into Him.

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  Faith is a spiritual commodity that has been delivered to the people of God.  Who delivered it?  The Creator Yahweh did.  Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by us His people.  We rather must receive it from Him.  It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us.  “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts.  It is not something we manufacture out of our own will and effort that leads us to finally believe in Him.  His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart.  But what is it exactly?  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

“Things hoped for…”  What does Yahweh hope for?  What are the desires of His heart?  What has He purposed?   Long  before  we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery.  He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives.  He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass.  He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so.  He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition.  We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real.  We are His witnesses that He is God.  And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too.  He is our example.

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power.  All of His promises are “yes.”  Nothing negative flows from His heart.  He is positive; His attitude is positive.  In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist.  He said that He will be all in all eventually.  We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me.  This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.”  This is He.  This is how He thinks.  He is positive about His capabilities.  He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done.  And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation.  He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form.  This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah.  We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God.  His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed!  He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth.  He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.

A key scripture regarding the nature of His faith is Romans 4: 17.  It  sometimes is advantageous to read it in several translations.  God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. KJV.  God, who gives life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.  The Scriptures.  God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.  NIV.  God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.  TEV.

Nothing good exists within us—except His Spirit, if so be that we have received His Spirit.  By believing that He is—not only that He exists, but also that He is where He hopes, intends, and expects to be—in us.

Tapping into this faith of His will bring His Spirit down into us.  You cannot receive the Spirit by just keeping the law, or trying your best to keep the law.  Human effort in trying to keep the law (the ten commandments) will not bring His Spirit down into us.  The work of our selves, of our flesh, profits nothing in the end.  After all, it would be just us trying to accomplish a spiritual law made for a spirit to keep.  It is the spirit that makes alive…the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life…Does God give you His Spirit because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?  Gal. 3: 2.  NIV.

Paul is trying to tell the foolish Galatians that no amount of us trying to keep the letter of the law will bring His Spirit into us.  Trying to keep the law in our own strength will never perfect us.  Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?  3:3.

No.  We shall receive the Spirit by believing what we heard—by faith.  We have to be like Abraham, who believed in the promises without wavering.  Even as Abraham  believed  God,  and  it was accounted to him for righteousness. 3:6. Abraham believed the promises.  But what promise?  “I will walk in them and will be their God and their sins I will remember no more.”  Hebrews 8:12.  The promise we are to believe is the promise of God giving us His Spirit.

Some of us are so afraid of being like “them”—the mainstream denominations with their cheap grace.  But Yahweh is saying to us that you are not like them.  You have respect to my laws and ways and precepts and you know my name.  But although your conscious effort to keep my laws and honor my sabbaths are good intentioned, that alone should be the fruit of the state I want you to be in.  And that state is a state of your old nature not being there in the temple of your body, but rather my Spirit, my presence.  I have promised you my Spirit, my presence.  That is all you need.  When I am there in you, I’ll keep my laws in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Messiah he is none of His. You do not have to worry about that.  My servant Paul kept the feasts and preached law keeping.  He forbad sinning.  Shall we continue in sin that grace (favor) may abound? God forbid. Romans 6:1-2.

It is absolutely not the way to go to try to keep the torah and 10 commandments without first seeking to receive the promise of His indwelling Spirit.  The law, the torah, was given 430 years after the promise to Abraham—the promise that God would live in us and help us live righteously and godly. And the law cannot “set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise…” (Galatians 3:15-18, NIV).

What was the purpose of the torah (the law)?  It was added because of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise referred had come.  We are that seed—rather Christ in us is that seed.  When we believe, the seed germinates and grows within us.  The promise is receiving His Spirit by believing that He has given it to us—as we follow on in His steps.

We do this by faith.  We do this by believing His word about His faith, His nature. His faith works both ways.  If He has confidence in us before we ever bring forth the fruit, then we should believe in Him even though we have not seen Him in the flesh.  This is our trial of the faith.  Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8.

And during the time of our sojourning here on earth, we are to add His divine nature to the faith that He has delivered unto us.  His divine nature is built upon His faith.  No wonder not many have added it, for they have tried to add it to their own faith in Him instead of adding His divine nature to His faith. Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

The Word is the seed.  And that seed is growing in us by us believing His word that says that His word is growing in us.  This is the faith once delivered to the saints.  This is the way He thinks about His power to change our lives—by His Spirit.  Now we walk in His faith/belief when we believe the same thing about ourselves that He believes about us.  That is His faith.  That is His faith which was once delivered to the saints.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

[This is Chapter 19 of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God.  To read more go to the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

 

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February 6, 2010 · 8:51 pm

Ezekiel 38 Happens AFTER the 1,000 Year Reign of Christ

Many voices are trumpeting the soon-coming invasion of the Holy Land by Gog and Magog and Co.  Even Prime Minister Netanyahu recently said that the invasion was coming soon.   They cite Ezekiel 38 as proof that this war will be started by Russia and Iran in the very near future.

These claims are unfounded and untrue.  Footnotes in most Bibles for Ezk. 38: 2 sends us to Revelation 20: 8, where we see that same Gog and Magog leading other satanically deceived nations.  But when does this happen?  Verse 7 is the first half of the sentence, and it says, “And when the thousand years are expired [the 1,000 year reign of Christ], Satan shall be loosed out of prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations…Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle…and they went up…and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city,” Jerusalem (v. 7-9).

This is after the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth.  Gog and Magog, Russia and Iran and Co., will be used by God that way at that time.  Not in our day, not in our present time.

Here is more proof that the invasion of Jerusalem by Gog and Magog comes not at this time in history.  The Promised Land at the time of the invasion of Gog and Magog will be at total peace (read 1,000 year reign of peace).  The invaders shall find the population living in a “land of unwalled villages.”  They are “at rest” and “dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates” (Ezk 38: 11).

That is the cultural environment that Gog and Magog will find.  The Israeli state today is preparing for war, both its citizens and the army.  They are not dwelling safely and have many bars and gates on their houses and neighborhoods.  No rest and peace are found in the Israeli state.  Rocket attacks have become  a daily occurance.  Fear and uncertainty are a constant, present reality.

This is why I say that the Gog and Magog attack of Ezekiel 38 will be much later in history.

One more reason.  The inhabitants of the Holy Land, who are living in complete peace and rest, will come from all the twelve tribes of Israel.  Right now primarily Jews live in the Israeli state.  True Jews come out of the Kingdom of Judah, whose subjects were descended from only two tribes–Judah and Benjamin.  The other Ten Tribes of Israel  were “lost” to most after the Kingdom of Israel (Ten Tribes) was carried into captivity around 721 B.C.  Members from all twelve tribes will be present at the time of the invasion of the Promised Land.

Furthermore, after the 6th Seal is opened, 12,000 of each of the twelve tribes are sealed (Rev. 7: 3-8; 14: 1-7).  In other words, the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel will be found and will populate Jerusalem during the 1,000 year reign.  Christ said that He was sent to them.  The apostle James wrote to them; “to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting” (James 1: 1).  Paul said that  “our twelve tribes” were “instantly serving God day and night” waiting upon the promises of God (Acts 26: 7).

If there is an invasion by Russia and Iran, it will not be that which is spoken of in Ezekiel 38.

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March 30, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb

People are pressed down by this old world system.  The world’s economies are skidding down into a gigantic depression.  People are under extreme pressure, some even going crazy, killing their families and themselves.  They are losing their jobs, their homes, cars, their lives as they know it.

In lieu of all this, Christ’s words ring with the crystal clarity of truth: “In the world, you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

But here is a newsflash:  We shall overcome also!  But how do we overcome the world and all of its tribulation, trouble, and anguish?

The First Overcoming

The first overcoming, which leads to all of the overcomings, or victories in Christ, is the victory over sin in our lives.  It is a direct victory of the power of the devil in our lives, for “he that commits sin is of the devil.”  But to get rid of sin in our lives was the “purpose the  Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3: 8).

How is this done?  “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11).  Our victory over the evil comes through these two things.

Many talk a good Christian ballgame, but few deliver through the lives that they lead.  Many claim to follow Christ, yet they still do secret sins, which emanate from the dark recesses of an unregenerated heart–a heart that is old and carnal–a heart that has not climbed Calvary’s hill to submit to the death of the cross along with Christ.

By the Blood of Christ the Sacrificial Lamb

He is the sin sacrifice–the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He takes away the sin of the world. When He gets through, we don’t have it anymore.  But we must identify our old sinful heart with Him that day of the Lamb’s death some 2,000 years ago.  This is how the Lamb’s blood cleanses us.  When it drained out of Him, the life and energy and power of sin died out.  When His blood was all spilled out, then the lifeforce of sin in us drained out as well. This is how we overcame the devil.  It is from this cleansing of sin through the death of our old nature, of our old spirit, of our old heart.

Yet, sadly, chances are very slim that you will hear this in today’s church houses and Sunday schools.  It is “too strong, too harsh.”  It is not politically correct and is a sure fire way for the hired preacher to lose his pastorship.  But the old preachers of past centuries taught these very things I have shared here.  John Wesley taught it, yet you won’t hear this in a modern Methodist church.  Martin Luther taught it, but today’s Lutherans won’t hear it in church.  Spurgeon taught it, but most Baptists won’t hear this stark message in their churches.

But this is how we repent from sin.  The very first apostles’ doctrine was “repentance from dead works.”  Sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments, is a “dead work,” for it leads to death.  And getting rid of sin in our lives is the very cornerstone in the sure foundation Christ talked about.  Without this start in Christ, the foundation is shaky, and the house will fall when the devil winds blow.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Be sure to bookmark this site.  Share it with others.  Make a comment and share your thoughts about  these things with people worldwide.  To read more on this see “my books online” in the blogroll in the right column}

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March 4, 2009 · 10:11 pm

God’s Faith Once Delivered to the Saints

Faith is extremely important but often misunderstood.  It is not us believing in something.  That is not the true faith of God.   No.  The true faith of God comes from Him to us, not from us about Him.  It is His belief in Himself that He gives to us.

Faith Is Not Something We Have to Muster Up

It is the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  Faith is a spiritual commodity from God that has been delivered to the people of God.  Who delivered it?  The Creator Yahweh did.  Faith is not something that has to be mustered up by His people.  We rather must receive it from Him.  It is something that originates from out of His nature and is given to us.  “For every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.” That includes faith.

 

It is His faith that is transplanted into our hearts.  It is not something we muster up and finally believe about Him.  His faith in us is the first part of His divine nature to enter into the human heart.  But what is it exactly?  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

God Has Assurance in the Things that He Hopes For

“Things hoped for…”  Because we are naturally egocentric, we think that it is the things we hope for.  No.  What does God hope for?  What are the desires of His heart?  What has He purposed?   Long  before  we were ever born, He saw us in our down-trodden state of sin and misery.  He also saw us rise with Him by His Spirit to vanquish sin and death in our lives.  He believed that this was a reality—that this was substance—having not yet seen it come to pass.  He believed and so therefore spoke and said that it was so.  He believed the best about us and His plan—not having seen the evidence yet of its fruition.  We as changed individuals are evidence that the invisible Supreme Being is real.  We are His witnesses that He is God.  And if He believes in His work in us before it comes to full fruition, then we should, too.  He is our example.

 

His divine nature is positive, full of faith and power.  All of His promises are “yes.”  Nothing negative flows from His heart.  He is positive; His attitude is positive.  In fact, He calls those things that are not, that do not exist as yet, as though they did exist.  He said that He will be all in all eventually.  We should then, right now, begin to walk around as if He already is all in you and me.  This will take belief that “it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”

He is positive, giving “life to the dead and calls that which does not exist as existing.”  This is He.  This is how He thinks.  He is positive about His capabilities.  He has absolutely no doubt about His reserves and His resolve to get done what He wants done.  And what He wants done is the multiplication, the reproduction of Himself, within His creation.  He is an invisible Spirit; He wants to see Himself in action in human form.  This is the witness that He talks about in Isaiah.  We are to be His witnesses that He is the invisible Spirit/God.  His faith believes that not only we can change, but that we will change—that we are changed!  He seeks people to worship Him in this spirit and attitude and in this truth.  He needs people to worship Him in this way—to believe the way He believes.  

And it is to this faith, His faith, that we are to add several more  spiritual qualities as outlined by the apostle Peter (II Peter 1: 5-8).  These are the more advanced facets that the Holy Spirit gives to those going “unto perfection,” which is full maturity in Christ.                Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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{This is an excerpt from my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God, which you can read here:  YahwehIsTheSavior.com/sonsch19.htm }.

 

 

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December 3, 2008 · 7:20 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What Is Sin in God’s Eyes?

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“Just what is sin then?” I asked the Seer.  We had been talking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the “sin” question had come up.

“Sin is the breaking of the law,” he said (1).

“Which law?”

“The Ten Commandments.  If you are breaking one of them, then you are in a sinful state.  The apostle Paul of Tarsus proves this when he wrote, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (2).  Here he equates sin with breaking one of the Ten Commandments.  Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions or wife is a sin, prohibited by the Ten Commandments.  There are nine others.  Breaking any of them is sinning.”

“But I’ve been taught that sin can be anything from dancing to drinking wine, from getting angry to not doing something that I am supposed to do.”

“Shuffling one’s feet on a hardwood floor does not necessarily mean one is sinning.  Remember King David, flooded with complete joy, danced in the streets; he did not sin.  The Savior Himself drank wine in the homes of sinners and publicans (3), yet He committed no sin.  He also got angry at the moneychangers at the temple, yet without sin.”

“Why don’t the preachers teach this?”

“They either do not know the truth, or they have turned from the truth and continued on in man’s traditions.  I do not judge them.  We all have a Judge who will examine us in light of the knowledge given us by Him.”

“You mentioned dancing and drinking wine.  Why would that not be sinning?”

“God looks on the intents of the heart (4).  If dancing is used for sinful and lustful purposes, then it is suspect.  Same goes for drinking a glass of fermented grape juice.  Righteous indignation is not the same as selfish anger.”

“Sin then is a spiritual condition.”

“Yes.  It is a spiritual condition of the heart, of the core of a person.  But sin does not have to be permanent in the human being.  A ‘new heart’ composed of His Spirit can be transplanted into the human being through repentance and faith toward God (5).”  He saw that I had enough to chew on, so he stopped speaking.

I thanked him for the visit and walked away with some answers, but they seemed to germinate and sprout into more questions–questions for another day.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I John 3:4

2. Romans 7: 7

3. Luke 19: 2

4. Hebrew 4:12

5. Ezekiel 36: 26-27

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September 15, 2008 · 4:39 pm

“Baptized into His Death” Frees Us from Sin–The Doctrine of Baptisms

The early apostles’ taught their third doctrine–the “doctrine of baptisms” with an “s.”  For there are several baptisms in the Christian walk–not just the one with water.

The first baptism mentioned was John the Baptist’s “baptism unto repentance.”  He encouraged the people to repent of their sins, be baptized in water, thus pointing them to the Lamb of God, who would soon become the Sacrifice for all men’s sins.  “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I…he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mt. 3:11).  Here we have three baptisms in one verse.

The baptism in water is symbolic of the death of our old sinful heart (see post on this at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/baptismempty-ritual-or-symbol-of-death-of-self/ ).  Paul taught that it was symbolic of being immersed into Christ’s death.  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6: 3).

Just How Are We Immersed into Christ’s Death?

     Just before Christ died, this perfectly sinless man took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future.  Sin was transferred onto this sin offering, and He died with all our sins upon Him.  Consequently, when He died, my old self died.  When He died that day, our old selfish egos died.

When He was literally buried in the tomb, our old lives were buried.  Gone.  Over with.  And when He rose from the dead, we rose from the deadness of our sinful existence, into a brand new wonderful life, energized with God’s Spirit now within (for more on this, see “Introduction” of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God  found at the top of this page).  All this has already been done for us by God.  We have to only believe it when we read it in Romans 6: 3-7 :

     “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

     We are now free from sin–if we really believe it.  Free!  We are no longer slaves to the pulls, urges, and demands of that old spiritual nature that held us in bondage to do sinful acts!  I’m talking about revolutionary freedom here!  We were dead to sin, but now we live unto God by faith in the Spirit that He has given us.

     Water baptism is just the symbol of this immersion into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Believing and walking in this truth is the reality.  But God has promised his sons and daughters more and greater baptisms–the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire, which takes us into the very presence of God’s transformative power.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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September 9, 2008 · 2:26 pm

“Faith Toward God”–The Second Apostles’ Doctrine

    We are told to repent from our old life in the first apostles’ doctrine, but how do we do it?  How do we really change our old selfish ways, and let the old self die?  The second apostles’ doctrine teaches us how to do it. 

     How do we get rid of the old sinful life and get into the new life in Christ?  We reckon it done by faith/belief.  How do we start walking in a brand new life?  We reckon it done by faith.  Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ (Yahshua Messiah). Rom. 6:11. 

     We’ve got to reckon it done!  The word “reckon” is #3049 in Strong’s.  It means “to account it, to count it as such.”

     God wants us to reckon it so, but He does it first! When we turn to Him, then He counts us righteous in His eyes even in our imperfect state.  It is His nature to “call those things that do not exist as though they did.” Rom. 4:17, NKJV. If He is this positive, then He would want His children to be the same.

     He wants us to follow in His footsteps!  God “accounted” righteousness to Abraham because of his belief—before Abraham was righteous!  “Accounted” here is the same word as the one translated “reckon.”  We are commanded to RECKON some things done.  Now we have to reckon our sinful self gone—by belief—as though it were already done—for that is how God looks at it!  By belief!  Reckon it done through Him and His faith.  He said it.  Let it be done.  For what saith the scripture?  Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.  Rom. 4:3.  Yahweh imputed, reckoned to Abraham the ability to live in a upright manner, keeping Yahweh’s laws and not sinning, by just believing that Yahweh had done it!  We make it so hard through our hard heart of unbelief.  He is looking for childlike faith, the belief of a small child.  All we have to do is just believe that Yahweh has provided a way for us to actually put the old life to death and start living a new life in Him (read more from my book on this subject at   http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/yahch30.htm ). 

     When Christ died, our old sins died with Him that day.  When He was buried, we were buried.  And when He arose, we arose with Him.  It is already done in God’s eyes.  We just have to receive this new life by faith and belief.  It hinges on our belief in Christ’s resurrection.  By us believing that He was raised from the dead, we are raised with Him to walk in a newness of life. 

      The old ministers of centuries past knew this and  preached and wrote about this–Luther, Wesley, Murray, et al.  But in the last days, there will be a departing from the faith–the faith that reckons it so, believing in the life-changing power of the cross experience.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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