Let’s first look at what important things Jesus truly truly told us. We have discussed these things. Because of their importance, please look at the details of this paragraph for yourself. I will not describe the outline here. Second, we discussed the relationship between Bible reading and logic in detail. We see that Christians must live by faith and believe that both the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God. Because the Bible is inspired by God, we believe that (1) what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, and (2) we do not discount the words of the Bible. Christians must use (3) logic under the premise of (1) and (2). Third, we see that Jesus mentioned that the testimony of truth comes from heaven. In it, we first pointed out that there can be found an original word G2919 (judge) that many Chinese churches have not noticed before. Then we saw that in the Old Testament, at least two people are indeed required to bear witness. We see that the one who witnesses with Jesus is the Father. We also see one difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament. Although in both, we cannot see the Father, in the New Testament, when people see Jesus, they see Father. Finally, let’s look at how hard people’s hearts are! In it, we discussed in detail a misleading translation of the Union Version from the original text. We also discussed in detail the meaning of the word “mind.” Now only the Holy Spirit can open our mind. “Do not quench the Spirit.”(1 Thessalonians 5:19)
1. What does Jesus truly truly tell us?
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”(John 5:19 – 29)
We have talked before, and here we want to emphasize again that when the word “truly truly” appears, we must pay special attention to what said. We first see what Jesus can do that the Father does. We have seen how the Father loves the Son, but what does this greater works mean? According to what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, I am not quite sure what it means now, so I will talk about it later!
In the next paragraph we see that one person of the Trinity, Jesus, has absolute sovereignty, so it is said here “…to whom He wishes.”(John 5:21), “and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.”(John 5:27) Therefore, according to what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, “.. a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, …”(Revelation 20:11), that one who sat upon Ii must be the Lord Jesus, because He who sits on it is the one who judges. The purpose is simple,
“so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. …”(John 5:23)
Here we would like to emphasize once again that Christians must live in faith and believe that both the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God. Because the Bible is inspired by God, we believe that (1) what God tells us through the Bible is consistent. Therefore, the inerrancy of the Bible does not refer to the words. If it is the words, there will be obvious contradictions. We have discussed this issue in detail in “1111 The True Meaning of Biblical Inerrancy.” Please go to “https://a- “christian-voice.com/” website, and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life.” And because the Bible is inspired by God, we must act on it and (2) not discount any words of the Bible.
It also says, “Truly, truly, …believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, …”(John 5:24) Doesn’t this passage just mean, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18) And once again we see “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, …”(John 5:25) Doesn’t this refer to the coming of New Testament era soon after Jesus’ death and resurrection? Aren’t we all born dead in unbelief? This is because we are descendants of Adam, we are tainted by sin at birth. God is always looking for people and giving them opportunities, but people reject Him until they can have an ear that can hear. Under normal circumstances, one can believe and be baptized and be saved. Just as the scripture says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”(Romans 10:9-10) This is the meaning of salvation. You can look at all the verses in the New Testament where the word salvation is used to understand the meaning of this word. Don’t over-interpret it!
A special case refers to a thief who was crucified with Jesus. “And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.””(Luke 23:43) Not every Christian is in the same situation as he was, who had no opportunity to be baptized in water. The Bible does not clearly say that every Christian will go to paradise to wait. Only God knows this. What we can be sure of is, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, …”(Revelation 20:12) These dead must include some Christians. If every Christian already knew that he would be in Paradise, we would just have to look at who was in Paradise, and there would be no need for the Book of Life. The Bible clearly says, “…books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; …”(Revelation 20:12) And God is not a God who does empty work, for example, ““For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”(Isaiah 55:10-11)
The purpose of reading the Bible is to have life, as Jesus Himself said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”(John 5:39-40) So it is not to pursue miracles, but to believe in the Lord and get a change in life and be conformed to the image of Jesus, as the scripture says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”(Romans 8:29) Therefore, Christians start with faith and embark on the road to sanctification. Generally, the road to sanctification takes a lifetime. In fact, there are exceptions to this. If you refer to Acts 7:54-60, you will know that what Stephen said before being stoned to death was similar to what Jesus said on the cross, and Jesus also stood to greet him, so he before that time had been conformed into the image of Jesus. Therefore, some hidden meanings in the Bible can be deduced by logic. For example, the Bible does not use the term Trinity God, but this concept can definitely be seen from logic. This scripture also explains why Jesus was given the authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.
The last paragraph is about “…those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”(John 5:29) Isn’t this what the Book of Revelation says, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”(Revelation 20:12-13) “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”(Revelation 20:15) Christians in the book of life will also be judged for their acts of faith. This act of faith is what James says, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”(James 2:26) Here, we can also see that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent.
2. The relationship between Bible reading and logic
Let’s take a look at logic. Logic is composed of axioms and logical mechanisms, so different fields will start with different axioms, but the logical mechanisms are the same for all. Otherwise, researchers will not be able to publish papers, so here an axiom is a general principle that many people see in mathematics or science. In fact, it is similar in life. For example, for a normal person, killing is not good. When it comes to the choice of whether to kill, his logical mechanism will tell him to choose the good side and not kill. But for cannibals, the axiom is that killing people of other tribes is good. Their logical mechanism is the same as that of normal people. They must choose the good side, so they kill people of other tribes. From this simple example, we can also see that the logical mechanism is the same, but each person’s personal axiom for one thing is different.
When the Holy Spirit reveals us directly or through others, our personal axiom will change. For example, Elisha’s servant could not see chariots of fire and horses. This was his original personal axiom. His current personal axiom is his original personal axiom plus the mountains were filled with chariots of fire and horses.
This example is found in 2 Kings 6:8-17, which says that the king of Syria was fighting against the Israelites and sent chariots and horses to surround the city where Elisha was. The servants could not see the chariots or horses of fire, but “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”(2 Kings 6:17) The Lord enables his servant to see chariots of fire and horses, so in this matter, the servant’s logical mechanism has not changed, but his personal axiom has changed from “unseen” to “seen” the chariots and horses of fire all over the mountain. In short, the Lord Jehovah guides us in ways that change our personal axiom, just as what happened to the servant. Doesn’t the Bible say, “The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”(Psalm 119:130) When we see the light, our personal views on the matter will basically change.
So to avoid misunderstanding, I should say that a person’s decision is based on “his personal axioms” plus “the same logical mechanism that everyone has”, and the latter comes from God and is the same as God, but God’s axioms are different from ours. For example, His axioms have absolute sovereignty and can perform miracles at any time, while man’s personal axioms say that we can only become a channel for performing miracles with God’s permission.
Here we would like to emphasize again that Christians must live in faith and believe that both the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God. Because the Bible is inspired by God, we believe that (1) what God tells us through the Bible is consistent, and acts out (2) does not discount the words of the Bible. For a Christian, we have (1) and (2) in our faith, and when we have (1) and (2) as our personal axioms, we can use logic on a certain matter through the logical mechanism to reach the correct conclusion. For a non-Christian who does not believe in the Lord, without (1) and (2), just using the logical mechanism will lead to the agnosticism that whether God exists is unknowable. Therefore, Christians must use (3) logic under the premise of (1) and (2).
3. Jesus mentioned that the testimony of truth comes from heaven
““I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”(John 5:30-40)
We have discussed the word G2919 (judge) in particular before, because many Chinese churches have not noticed this. This is in “3. God loves the world, salvation and condemnation, and light” of the article “1114 Twice cleansing of the temple, rebirth, and God’s love for the world – Book of John (3).” Those who are interested in this article can go to the website of “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life.”
In the Old Testament, at least two people are indeed required to bear witness. As the scripture says, ““A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.”(Deuteronomy 19:15) Therefore, the scriptures explain why Jesus did not bear witness alone at that time. This is because the Father and Him are two persons. Both the Old and New Testaments are one God, and the principles of doing things are exactly the same. In the Old Testament, “He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.”(Psalm 103:7) Therefore, when reading the New Testament, you must read His ways as much as possible. The New Testament also says, “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”(John 8:15-18)
In the New Testament era, Paul also said the same thing as in the Old Testament, “This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”(2 Corinthians 13:1) Furthermore, “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.”(1 Timothy 5:19) Doesn’t the book of Hebrews make it very clear? “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”(Hebrews 10:28)
Here we talk about the reason why people like John the Baptist. He is just the forerunner of Jesus. He only gives the baptism of repentance (see Mark 1:2-4, Acts 13:2; 19:4). Jesus clearly stated that His testimony of the truth comes from heaven, and there are many things He has to do. We can get a glimpse of it from this scripture, “this man (Nicodemus) came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.””(John 3:2) But the most important thing for us is this. Death and resurrection completed the plan of salvation so that we could be saved. “He (Jesus) who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”(Romans 4:25) So was crucified and died for us, and He was resurrected so that we might live.
The Lord Jehovah said to Moses, “…You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”(Exodus 33:20) In the Old Testament, it was impossible for them to hear His voice or see His face. Like, even in the New Testament. The difference in the New Testament is that when “Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”(John 14:8-9) Because “I and the Father are one.”(John 10:30) Jesus now lives in our hearts in the form of the Holy Spirit, so He said in the great mission, “…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28: 20) It is so in this life, and even more so in eternity, “I saw no temple in it (New Jerusalem), for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”(Revelation 21:22).
It is also clearly stated here that the reason why the Word is not in their (Jewish) hearts is because “…you do not have the love of God in yourselves.”(John 5:42) We have already shared the end part about having life, so we won’t say more.
4. How hard is the human heart!
“I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?””(John 5:41-47)
Basically, people “…receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”(John 5:44) “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him (Jesus), He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”(John 7:18) We see that people’s hardness is because they do not have the love of God in their hearts. No wonder the Lord said in the Old Testament: “He said, “Go, and tell this people (H3820): ‘Keep on listening, but do not(H3820) perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise (lest, G3379) they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.””(Isaiah 6:9-10) The translation of the Union Version says both to make them, as if God did this on purpose! If we look at the original text, we will know that it is not referring to making them. The New Testament points out more clearly that God did not deliberately cause the hearts of these people to be filled with fat, etc. Their hearts were already hardened.
In the New Testament, it is more clearly pointed out that God did not deliberately cause the hearts of this people to be fat, etc., their hearts were already hardened.
“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise (G3379) they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’”(Matthew 13:13-15)
It was Moses who as finally said would accuse them because they did not understand what he said about Jesus in his book because they did not believe. After Jesus rose from the dead, “And He said to them (the two disciples on the way to Emmaus), “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”(Luke 24:25-27) Finally, “And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them.”(Luke 24:33)
“Then He opened their (all those present) minds (G3563, Greek nous) so that they could understand the Scriptures.”(Luke 24:45) In the Luke 24:25-27 we just quoted, it is clearly stated that Jesus explained it clearly, but it did not say that they understood it, but now they definitely understand it, because they were enlightened together with the people.
This original text G3563 appears 24 times. Since it only appears once in the Gospel of Luke, we must look at the other 23 times to see its meaning. We can see it from the following three typical verses. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (G3563), so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”(Romans 12:2) and “What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind (G3563) also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind (G3563) also.”(1 Corinthians 14:15) So Paul would say, “Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind (G3563) is unfruitful.”(1 Corinthians 14:13-14) The third verse is, “Here is the mind (G3563) which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.”(Revelation 17:9) Now only the Holy Spirit can open our minds. “Do not quench the Spirit.”(1 Thessalonians 5:19)
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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