IntroductionMany people, both Christian and non-Christian, are being misled by false doctrine and teachings that are being taught by the majority of churches today. This apostasy (abandoning what was originally believed in) in the church was predicted in the Bible thousands of years before it happened (Daniel 7) and was also warned about by the Apostle Paul (2 Thess 2:3).
The Papal system was responsible for most of the false teachings that were introduced into the church. The Reformation marked the turning point back towards the truth, but some false doctrines are still held onto even today, even though the truth has been known for over a hundred years. People still blindly believe what they are told without studying the Bible themselves to check what it says.
We can be confident that we have the truth when all scripture is brought into harmony. If any one scripture is not in agreement then we must suspect that our interpretation is incorrect (or that the confusion is due to a possible poor translation, so consulting other translations may help).
This article is a very brief outline of the true Bible message.
CreationGod created, or begat, Jesus (as a spiritual being), and Jesus created the universe and all life (spiritual as well as physical) according to God's design. All creation was created by God through Jesus.
AdamAccepting the Bible teaching that Adam was the first man is key to understanding the whole of the Bible. If Adam is not accepted as being the literal first man, created by God, then it is difficult to understand the rest of the Bible.
After God had created Adam, Adam was put on trial to see if he was worthy of eternal life. God told Adam not to eat the fruit of a certain tree in the middle of the garden of Eden, or else he would die. Satan (an archangel, or high ranking spirit being, who rebelled against God) deceived Eve into eating the fruit, telling her that she would not die. Adam, being perfect, had perfect love for Eve, and fearing that she would now die, in his despair he chose to die with her. And so Adam willingly disobeyed God and also ate some of the forbidden fruit. As a result Adam suffered the penalty (death) as God had foretold him. He and Eve (they were considered one flesh) started to decay and eventually died (Adam lived 930 years). Satan has continued to deceive mankind and has tried to keep man from obeying God.
Because Adam and Eve did not have any children until after they had started to decay, their children were born in an imperfect and decaying state, and their children even more so. Therefore the average lifespan of humans slowly declined. All of humanity are descended from Adam and Eve and are all born with a sinful and imperfect nature.
The principal theme of the Bible is God's plan to restore mankind and the earth to perfection, with eternal life for all.
Jesus - the redeemerAdam sinned and all humanity is suffering as a result. God is perfect in every way and therefore demands perfect justice. In order to redeem Adam, and therefore all of mankind also, he required that an equal price was paid, i.e. the life of a perfect human. No human being was perfect, but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son as a sacrifice to save the world.
Jesus underwent a change of nature and became a human. He became fully human just like us, but because the father of his human body was God (his mother Mary became pregnant by God's holy spirit, not by a man) Jesus was a perfect man just like Adam was before he sinned. Jesus lived a perfect life (he did not sin) and willingly gave his life as a ransom, or substitute. By paying the full penalty for Adam's sin and for all mankind's sins by sacrificing his perfect life and the potential race of people in his loins, he bought back, or redeemed, the lives of everyone.
God then resurrected Jesus, bringing him back to life as a spiritual being. God rewarded Jesus for his obedience and sacrifice by making him an immortal divine spirit, the express image of God. Previous to that only God was immortal (had inherent life and could not die).
Millennial ageHaving redeemed all of mankind, the promise is of a Millennial age, a period of a thousand years during which all of mankind will be resurrected and Christ will rule, guiding, teaching and disciplining people until they are restored back to perfection. This Millennial age will become their trial (or judgement day - a 'day' of a thousand years). This trial will be more favourable than the trial which Adam first underwent, because during this time Satan will be bound up (so they will be without his corrupting influences), everyone will have full knowledge of God and Jesus, and all will have benefited from the experience of the effects of sin (this is why God has always permitted evil).
At the end of the Millennial age Satan will be freed for a short time, and will once again try and turn mankind away from God. Those who fail this final trial will perish. This is the second death from which there is no resurrection, it is an eternal death. Those found worthy will then have eternal life. Satan will be destroyed and there will be no more death, or pain, or unhappiness.
Gospel ageThe Millennial age did not immediately follow Jesus' sacrifice for a good and wonderful reason. During the Gospel age (since Jesus' baptism) a "little flock" is being selected to share in Jesus' reign over all living beings (human and spiritual beings) during the Millennial age. This relatively small number of people who devote their lives to God and are overcomers of the temptations of this sinful world, will become the "bride of Christ", or the "body of Christ". They will become adopted sons of God and brethren of Jesus. They will receive immortal divine spirit bodies (like Jesus') and will reign with Jesus. The Christ that reigns is Jesus as the 'head' and the "little flock" of overcoming Christians as the 'body'. These will then have the job of helping the rest of mankind back to human perfection during the Millennial age. Christians who are not selected to become members of the body of Christ will nevertheless be resurrected with a spirit body (but not having the immortal divine nature), and will be before the throne of God, and serve him.
TodayToday we are in the overlapping period between the Gospel age and the Millennial age. Jesus has begun to exercise his power and authority and we are seeing the gradual overthrow of unrighteousness.
False doctrinesThe two main false doctrines that are keeping people from knowing and believing the truth of God's word are the doctrine of the Trinity and teachings about hell. Both of these deceptions of Satan attack the very heart of God's plan and nullify it.
TrinityThe doctrine of the Trinity, which did not start to evolve until the second century and was not formulated into doctrine until the beginning of the fourth century, claims that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit "are one in person, equal in glory and in power". This is in contradiction to the scriptures which clearly state that God is one god (not three), and that Jesus was the begotten son of God who "came not to do his own will" but his Father's will. Jesus also declared that "The Father is greater than I".
If Jesus was God then he could not have died because God is immortal. If Jesus was God and he died then he could not have resurrected himself - if he was able to do something after he was dead then he could not have been dead by definition! If Jesus did not sacrifice a fully and perfect human life then he would not have supplied a suitable ransom to redeem mankind and God's plan will not work.
The "Holy Spirit" is God's power in action. It is not a living being.
HellTraditionally Christians are taught that when we die our life does not cease but that we continuing living in either heaven or hell. Heaven is a paradise and hell is a place of torture. This implies that the judgement day for everyone is the day he dies (which is not what the Bible says), and that we are immortal and cannot die and so must go somewhere as soon as we die. The first lie and deception of Satan was that Adam and Eve would not die, and he still tries the same deception today. The Bible clearly states that the penalty for sin is death, so we could not live eternally in a place of torture or anywhere else. If we were immortal then we would not need God's plan to redeem (buy back) our lives.
The correct meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as hell is 'the grave'. The Bible teaches that when we die (when we are in the grave) our thoughts, feelings and ability to do anything cease. If that is the case then being sent to a place of torture or to a paradise will be pointless and nonsensical!
To imply that God would send people to a place of torture for all eternity for maybe just a few sins committed during a short human life is a great insult to God's loving and just character and is unscriptural. Hell, as a place of eternal torture, does not exist and will never exist.
Further readingFor a more detailed study on the correct interpretation of the Bible I thoroughly recommend the "Studies In The Scriptures" series of books, in particular the first volume "The Divine Plan Of The Ages". This can be bought from Dawn Publications, East Rutherford, NJ 07073 for just two US dollars. All of the volumes are available online at http://www.eskimo.com/~billz/Truth/Volumes.