Roots of the Nazi Legal System

This article from creation.com covers the full gambit of why it is so important to know what you believe and why you believe it. The contents of this article show clearly the reasons why "Normative" is so passionate about right doctrine, and why we oppose the current raft of nonsense being spouted from the pulpit of a number of local churches. Please read it!!

In the light of the escalation of violence against Jews world wide including the murder of the Fogel family in Israel this understanding is becoming more and more important.

‘The leaders of the [German Christian] movement, Pastors Julius Leutheuser, Joachim Hossenfelder and Siegfried Leffler, strove to convince their fellow clergy that only a completely new interpretation of Christianity … could meet the needs of the new age. They sought to rid the Church of its ‘pre-scientific’ mentality and its archaic liturgies, and to substitute a new revelation as found in Adolf Hitler. The essential was not Christian orthodoxy but Christian activism that would follow the example of the ‘heroic’ Jesus … In the new creation of the Nazi Party, they saw a vehicle for their programme that offered fellowship which they believe to be characteristic of true Christianity. If Hitler could perform what they called Christian deeds, then orthodoxy could be abandoned.’

The full article is here: Darwinian Roots of Nazi Legal System

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Footnotes:

Augusto Zimmermann, Darwinian Roots of Nazi Legal System, downloaded from http://creation.com/darwinian-roots-of-nazi-legal-system 16 March 2011.

I have the right to be poor!!

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How refreshing to find this on a Church website:

The Church must be free to be poor in order to minister among the poor. The Church must trust the Gospel enough to come among the poor with nothing to offer the poor except the Gospel, except the power to discern and the courage to expose the Gospel as it is already mediated in the life of the poor…When the Church has the freedom itself to be poor among the poor, it will know how to use what riches it has. When the Church has that freedom, it will know also how to minister among the rich and powerful. When the Church has that freedom, it will be a missionary people again in all the world. When the Church has the freedom to go out into the world with merely the Gospel to offer the world, then it will know how to use whatever else it has–money and talent and buildings and tapestries and power in politics–as sacraments of its gift of its own life to the world, as tokens of the ministry of Christ.

– William Stringfellow - A Private and Public Faith (1962)¹

No prosperity Gospel or demands upon the purse strings to "honour" a member of a self-appointed clique. How real, how simple. I think I would like this Church. They even proclaim their articles of faith. How bold. How nice that they know what they believe. How sadly unusual. How...right.

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Footnotes:

1. Downloaded from Christ's Sanctuary www.christsanctuary.org.nz, February 21, 2011

Baptism

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For a full discussion of this topic please see Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum's paper The Ordinance of Baptism.

1. You do not have to be baptised to be saved
2. Being baptised is a decision for the believer to make
3. Believers should be baptised because:
• Messiah (Christ) commanded it, therefore it is the first act of obedient discipleship
• It is an identification with Messiah (Christ), the believer identifies himself, or herself, with the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus)
4. Baptism is by full immersion (Greek baptizo = "to immerse")
5. Baptism is in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mat 28:18-20)
6. Only believers (those who are saved) are to be Baptised

Apostasy

What is apostasy?

"The departure from the truth that one professed to have." The term does not imply that apostate has ever had the truth. They have however, by accepting an office of the church or some other mechanism professed to have the truth. How do you recognise an apostate?

Deeds and actions of the Apostasy

The Footsteps of the Messiah Page 71 - 72 b

1. Jude 17-19 - Mockery (results in division in the church)
   But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
   
   
2. Mocking of the fundamentals of the faith, verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, Virgin Birth, substitutionary death of the Messiah.
   
   

Mark of Apostasy

The Footsteps of the Messiah Page 70

1. 2 Peter 2:1
   But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
   
   

Teachings of the Apostasy

The Footsteps of the Messiah Page 70 - 71

1. 1 John 2:22-23 - denial of the Trinity
   Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
   
   
2. 1 John 4:2-3 - denial of the Incarnation
   Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
   
   
3. 2 John 7 - denial of the Incarnation
   For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist.
   
   
4. 2 Peter 3:3-4 - denial of the second coming
   Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
   
   

Character of the Apostasy

The Footsteps of the Messiah Page 66 - 70

1. 1 Timothy 4:1-3
   Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
   
   
2. 2 Timothy 3:5
   Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
   
   
3. 2 Peter 2:1-22
   But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgement now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forebad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, 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. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
   
   

Salvation II Old Testament

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There is only one way, has been only one way, and will be only one way, to be saved. Salvation is by Faith, and not by works.

Salvation in the Old Testament

Judaism has often been critisiced because of the Law. Was the law evil? Most preaching on offer might well lead you to conclude this. Scritpure, that is the Bible, says otherwise. Was Judaism in error to have kept the Law? Again, from most preaching you might well conclude this. But the Law was given to Israel by God. Scripture clearly makes the case that the Law is perfect. Therefore we must conclude that the Law is not evil, and that Israel was correct to have made every effort to keep the Law.

The question is raised therefore concerning the relationship of Law and Grace. How can the Law produce salvation if salvation is by Grace? How was salvation by Grace accomplished under the Mosaic Law?

Charles C. Ryrie says this:

[The] answer to the question of the relation of Grace and Law is this: The basis of salvation is always the death of Christ; the means is always faith; the object is always God (though man's understanding of God before and after the Incarnation is obviously different).¹

We believe... that the principle of faith was prevalent in the lives of all the Old Testament saints. However, we believe it was historically impossible that they should have had as the conscious object of their faith the incarnate, crucified Son, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and that it is evident that they did not comprehend as we do that the sacrifices depicted the person and work of Christ²

One must see two aspects of to this entire matter-the unchanging basis of salvation in the grace of Christ and the changing content of revelation, which affects the conscious object of faith.³

Atonement is only a covering of sin, not a removal of it. Fruchtenbaum says this:

...the blood sacrifices only covered the sins of the saints, but that did not remove them. AS Hebrews 10:1-4 emphasizes, it is impossible for that the blood of bulls and goats [the blood of animals] should take away sin. The reason the blood sacrifices, while sufficient to keep the Old Testament Saints out of Hell, were not sufficient to get them into Heaven is because the blood sacrifices only covered sind, but they did not remove it. Nevertheless, Abraham's Bosom, where Paradise was located, was a place of bliss for the immaterial part of the Old Testament saint or the soul of the Old Testament saint. ⁴

This is why that the Old Testament believers were resident in Abraham's Bosom, instead of Heaven. The blood sacrifices covered the faithful believer's sins, so they did not go to hell. The act of making the sacrifice was an act of faith, and a costly one for most observant Jews.

For a full discussion on "The Place of the Dead", please see Dr Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum's work The Place of the Dead at www.ariel.org.

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Footnotes:

1. Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism, Revised and Expanded, Moody Publishers, pp 140
2. Ibid, pp 134
3. Ibid, pp 135
4. Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Place of the Dead, pp 13

Salvation I What must I do to be saved?

For a full discussion of Salvation, what it is and what it means see the following papers from Ariel Ministries:

• The Condition of Salvation
• The Ten Facets of our Salvation

To be saved you must:

1. believe that Christ (Messiah) died to pay the penalty for your sins
2. believe that Christ (Messiah) was buried
3. believe that Christ (Messiah) rose again
4. trust Christ (Messiah) to save you

Yes, it is really that simple. All other additions to these conditions are false additions.

The Bible says:

John 3:16 - 18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.