Mike,
Taken from last Sunday’s study…

“But just as the law of Moses is so often mistaken for the law of God, so too, those who subscribe to that law of bondage, as we all have in the past, are easily mistaken for the body of Christ. The Truth is that when we were in Babylon we hated the truths that Christ taught.”

How can you say… ‘when we were in Babylon we hated the truths that Christ taught?

We, while we were in Babylon thought we were following the Lord completely. We loved the Lord, as we knew Him… which is exactly the way He had us believe.

We know now that what we learned about the Lord, and how we acted, was wrong… but only to a point. We were doing and acting just as the Lord instructed us… running around trying to save the world for Him. We loved our ‘gifts of the spirit’… laying on of hands, etc.

I just can’t figure out why doing good works for the Lord while in Babylon was a bad thing. We had to go thru that or we could never begin to understand the truth.

Now, I have to admit that in running around saving people was working more for ourselves, not as much for the Lord as we would like to believe, but for our own glory, as to how many crowns we could earn… and showing others how religious we were, and how much we knew. But, nevertheless, that was also His doing.

So, how can you say… we hated the truth while in Babylon?

J____

Hi J____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

… how can you say… we hated the truth while in Babylon?

Yes, as you indicate, it is God who, via the agency of the Adversary, causes us to sin. The Adversary works through the “law of sin and death” which law God causes to work in our members.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

God is the only lawgiver that exists.

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

But God places that law of sin within us as earthen vessels simply because He is “seeking an occasion against” the flesh which He first made us to be.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [ it].
Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

What is it that “was of the Lord”? It was Samson’s marriage to a Philistine worman of Timnath, and that was contrary to God’s own law.

Deu 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, [ and] utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Deu 7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
Deu 7:4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But those words had proceeded out of God’s mouth and so Israel had to live them just as we to live out those words. All of God’s “Thou shalt not…” commandments are, in the final analysis, nothing less than prophecies of what we will do.

Jdg 3:5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
Jdg 3:6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Jdg 3:7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
Jdg 3:8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.

So there are really two separate creations, the first natural, and the second spiritual. But the second creation depends upon and is subsequent to the first creation. God makes us carnal, of the dust, earthy and naked, first. Then He destroys that earthen vessel and makes it again, as seems good to the Potter to make it (“a spiritual body”).

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

You ask:

I just can’t figure out why doing good works for the Lord while in Babylon was a bad thing. We had to go thru that or we could never begin to understand the truth.
Now, I have to admit that in running around saving people was working more for ourselves, not as much for the Lord as we would like to believe, but for our own glory, as to how many crowns we could earn… and showing others how religious we were, and how much we knew. But, nevertheless, that was also His doing.
So, how can you say… we hated the truth while in Babylon?

That isn’t what “I say”, it is what Christ says. The most insidious of sins is what we are guilty of while we are in Babylon. It is the sin of self righteousness. That was Job’s sin. Just read Job 29 if you have any doubt about that. Job is all of us with all of our own ‘good works’. It is our good works and our “righteousnesses” which “are filthy rags” to God.

Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

The fact that it is all predestined by God, does not change the fact that it is “an unclean thing” or a “filthy rag”, and the fact that we are predestined to think of “our [ Babylonian] righteousnesses” as ‘good works’ which will glorify God, does not change the fact that in reality we hate Christ’s doctrine. C
Isaiah doesn’t say that our ‘ un righteousnesses are as filthy rags’, he says they are indeed righteousness, but as long as we insist that they are ours and not His works in us, then we are guilty of that most insidious of sins, the sin of self righteousness. While in Babylon we all believed in the false doctrine of free will. We all refused to acknowledge that Christ’s doctrines are true, and according to Christ, we may believe on Him, but if we do not do what He says then it is Christ who tells us that is the same as hating Him and wanting Him dead.

Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

“Those Jews that believed on Him”, are a type of Babylonian Christians today who say they believe Christ, but will not do what He tells us all to do. Here it is, and it is right out of Christ’s own mouth:

Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

Yes, I too certainly thought Christ’s words were important to me while I was a Pentecostal, while I was in the World Wide Church of God, and while I was attending the Concordant Publishing Concern’s Bible conferences. But the Truth of the matter was that “Christ’s words had no place in me” while I was associated with those organizations which simply “were not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Mat 13:10-11).

Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Now look at that verse in its context:

Joh 8:40 But now ye [ Christians who claim to be Christians, and still teach people to kill their enemies] seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Why are we all first “of our father the devil?”

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

I hope that answers your question.

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Your brother in Christ,
Mike