'IS REDEMPTION NECESSARY?' - A sermon by Bishop Carlton D. Pearson

THE SIGN OF THE RAM

It is fitting that of all beasts a Ram should be placed at the head of the Heavenly flock forming the Zodiacal band centuries before the Christian era, the pagans revealed this constellation. Godfrey Higgins states; "This constellation was called the "LAMB OF GOD' He was also called the SAVIOR and was said to save mankind from their sins, He was always honored with the appellation of Dominus or Lord, He was called the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world; The devotees addressing him in their litany, constantly repeated the words, 'O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us, grant us thy peace," Before Christianity was conceived as a religion by The Roman emperor, ancient man had the gospel preached to him from the heavens long before the axial age when empires and the major religions of the world like Zoroastrianism and Buddhism arose, this gospel was already established, no wonder then that the scripture speaks of Christ as the one who was slain before the foundation of the world, when the universe came into formation, the handprint of its Creator was left there for all to see, and ancient cultures from the four corners of the world could read and comprehend its meaning, no wonder then that our ancestors were always fascinated by the stars and other heavenly bodies and even modern man with his sophisticated technology has not quite figured out what lies beyond the observable universe, surely there is a lot to learn for the inquisitive mind. The first paragraph speaks of the Ram as the Head of the heavenly flock forming the Zodiacal band and while many today use the twelve signs of the Zodiac as a path for future predictions, they are unaware of the message of the ultimate message that the Zodiac proclaims, The Lamb of God' This is the subject at the head of the Zodiac, the RAM, In the Jewish old testament, a ram without blemish was required for blood sacrifice to cleanse the people of their sins, the ram sacrifice was a foreshadow of Christ who was slain and thus fulfilling the old Judaic covenant. Now it has to be said that Christianity does not have a monopoly on the Christ story, since ancient cultures from Kemet Egypt to Hinduistic India had very similar "savior" faiths or beliefs, the Egyptians for instance believed in the 'SUNGOD' whom they called "RA" He was believed to take the form of a Ram when he would set in the evening before travelling through the underworld and rising again in the morning, very similar to the Christian story of Christ dying for our sins then descending to hell and resurrecting from it, the ancient Hindus in India also had a similar belief in the story of Krishna, Krishna being the Hindi word for Christ, Krishna as believed by his adherents, was born of a virgin, crucified and resurrected just like the Jewish Christ was e.t.c. In the Christian bible in Acts 17:28, Paul the apostle of Christ was contending with the Athenians about their union with the one true God "for in Him we move and have our being" affirming the universality of Christ and His God, the WORD and His God, The LAMB and the ANCIENT OF DAYS.

CHRIST ALL IN ALL

1 corinthians 15:22 " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive", the case for the cosmic Christ can be made from several scriptures showing His lordship over all and the union with humanity, consider the statement of Paul " when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace to REVEAL HIS SON IN ME that I may preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood." Notice that Paul had the SON IN HIM all along when he was busy persecuting believers of the Way and this was the same message he gave to the Athenians in Acts 17:28 " For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'for we are also His offspring". this proves the case for the cosmic Christ who is all in all. What does this mean for the gospel then? why is it that many people don't know their savior? Perhaps its because they believe God lives off in some far away place beyond the milky way and He has to be called down to intervene in human affairs when He is needed not knowing that this same God took on the form of humanity 2000years ago and became EMMANUEL God with us, so the whole crux of the gospel should be one of UNION and not SEPARATION, we believe in Christ because He is our savior not because He is our POTENTIAL SAVIOR if we believe in Him but because He is ALREADY OUR SAVIOR. this can be seen in John 1:4 " In Him was life, and the life was the light of men", verse 9 " that was the true light which gives light to every man coming to the world." when men know that their savior is not some distant deity living off in some far away galaxy but rather He is their very life and their existence is in Him and not without, then the whole business of the gospel will take on a new meaning as it will do away with the whole religious charade that the world has come to know as Christianity and men will manifest Christ in all His glory and fullness thus fulfilling prophecies like Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:11 where God swears to Himself that EVERYONE shall know the Lord.

THE FATE OF THE SEA

The SEA throughout the scriptures, is a type of the raging restless, surging masses of unregenerate humanity, tossed about by the inner storms of the turbulent character of the carnal mind. Isaiah 57:20-21'' The wicked are like the TROUBLED SEA, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace saith my God, for the wicked", Jude 13 " These are RAGING WAVES OF THE SEA foaming out their own shame". In Rev 20:13, we read that the SEA gave up its dead (the wicked) along with DEATH and HELL(HADES) who also released their dead,all these entities are symbols used to describe the fallen state of humanity; Ephesians 2:1 says that God made us alive, who were once DEAD in trespasses and sins, but as we have seen in Revelation, this state of affairs will not go on forever since the last enemy of Christ to be defeated is DEATH and HELL IS THE ABODE OF THE DEAD therefore the SEA is the realm of DEATH and HELL; Gen 1: The earth was without form, and void; and DARKNESS was on the face of the DEEP. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the WATERS", The DEEP and WATERS mean the same thing. In Revelation 17:15 it says that the WATERS where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, the people in whom the god of this age has blinded so that they cannot see the glorious light of the gospel. The end of the SEA will come in Rev 21:1 where we see the advent of the NEW EARTH and the NEW HEAVEN for the former had passed away, and also there was no more SEA, for the SEA had been consumed in the LAKE OF FIRE which is the SECOND DEATH, THE DEATH OF THE FIRST DEATH, In 2 Peter 3:6 and 7 it states that the the world that then was perished with water as through the flood, but the heavens and the earth which NOW are; are kept in store by the same word, reserved for FIRE until the day of judgement and perdition of UNGODLY men. normally we see that it is water which puts out the fire, but with God it is the opposite for our God is a CONSUMING FIRE just as He consumed the water of Elijah's sacrifice in 1 Kings 18:38, He will consume the WATERS through the power of His resurrected life for this is the gospel promised of old to Abraham" You shall be the Father of MANY NATIONS where God will be ALL IN ALL.

THE WATERS AND THE SEA

Scripture has a lot to say about water and the sea in accordance to the works of the Lord and also regarding the affairs of man in his long history on this planet, in Genesis 1:2 we see the earth being formless and void and the darkness was on the face of the deep (an abyss) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the WATERS. In Revelation 17:15 we read that the WATERS represent nations, peoples, multitudes and tongues symbolizing the collective world system that is devoid of God's wisdom and knowledge, a world which is ruled in darkness, the spiritual darkness that has clouded the minds of men who are under the power of the Evil One; see 2cor 4:4. In Genesis 1:3' God said "let there be light and there was light and the light was DIVIDED from the darkness. God called the light DAY and the darkness He called NIGHT' Please let it be understood that no one can understand the full depth of the gospel unless one has recognized the enormity of God's work in these opening verses of Genesis for a lack of understanding of the book of genesis will render it impossible to understand the book of revelation which has a lot of symbolic language to describe the whole workings of God right from the book of Genesis to the unveiling of the City of God where the TREE OF LIFE dwells. in 2cor 4:6, it is written that it is God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, who has shone shone in our hearts to give the LIGHT of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ", and again in John 1: we read of the Light who is the Life of ALL people see ACTS 17:28. The Light in the book of Genesis 1:3-5 is not the physical as is erroneously believed but it speaks of the SPIRITUAL LIGHT that brings forth those who were predestined before the foundation of the world to walk before Him in the light of Son see Colossians 1:13. The realm of Light is the domain of the living while the realm of Darkness is the domain of the dead, in Ephesians 2:1, it says that He made us ALIVE who were DEAD in our trespasses and sins. this is the true meaning of the light shining out of the darkness, the DAY separating from the NIGHT. The DAY in the scriptures is always representative of Christ who is the Light and the life of righteousness within us while NIGHT is the darkness, realm of every foul thing where the dead are (HELL). Now we come to the earth in Gen 1:2 of which we read was formless and void, in several verses in the scriptures, we see the earth is the place where the devil has his carnal worldly system at work whereby it rules over the affairs of men; religion, politics, entertainment, economics e.t.c. the world has experimented with different systems of governance and economy: capitalism, communism, democracy, dictatorship but none of these seem to work and will not work since the scriptures in Jeremiah 17:9 have declared that the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Is it any wonder then that we have many starving children in the world ,yet many wealthy individuals the world over collectively own close to a quarter of the world's GDP, Institutions like the United Nations have failed to bring about world peace and solve the world's problems yet they keep spending several billions of dollars a year trying to quell suffering and turmoil that they were supposed to prevent in the first place, think of the Rwandan genocide and the wars that have taken place in the last 50 years, the heart of man is evil indeed and the only deeds he does are evil. the earth therefore is the realm where the masses ruled over are subjected to a carnal, religious, worldly system which on the surface appear good even having a form of wisdom, I often wonder why christian leaders are so eager to share platforms with "successful" people whether they be bankers, entrepreneurs, presidents e.t.c to educate young believers on how to grow and supposedly "conquer the world for Christ" using steps, strategies and methods learnt in these forums and meetings, even men who are teaching the kingdom message claim that a believer can use steps and strategies to conquer sin and lust in their lives and many are utterly convinced that they can indeed follow these steps and strategies to overcome the world, yet our Lord emphatically declared that His kingdom is not of THIS WORLD and so if we are going to teach the kingdom message using THIS WORLD'S ways of thinking and strategy, then we are doomed to failure for what relationship does righteousness have with unrighteousness, what communion has LIGHT have with DARKNESS, why do we the separated ones want to go back to that from which we were delivered from, for the wisdom of THIS WORLD IS FOOLISHNESS WITH GOD, If we want to be wise, then lets hear what the SPIRIT OF GOD IS SAYING TO THE CHURCH, only then can we walk in wisdom, the wisdom that is from ABOVE, the wisdom that is heavenly and not earthly for we are supposed to seek the things which are heavenly and not earthly, we are not of this world so let us stop using the wisdom of this world to teach the kingdom of God. What then will be the outcome of the "waters" that Rev 17:15 says are the peoples and multitudes, nations and tongues? we see the answer in Rev 20:13 where the SEA gave up the dead who were in it and DEATH and HELL/HADES delivered up the DEAD who were in them, we see Three entities being forced to give up their dead, the SEA, DEATH and HELL; If we look at Rev 13:1, we read of the BEAST rising up out of the SEA, this sea is the waters mentioned in Rev 17:15. The SEA,DEATH and HELL are all related as they are all the realm of the dead, the world of darkness where the prince of the power of the air has blinded the hearts of men to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, note He says that in Rev 1:18 that He has the keys of Death and Hell and He will release the prisoners there and cast them into the lake of fire, now contrary to popular Christendom opinion, the lake of fire is not a huge physical lake of fire that will roast alive or annihilate its inhabitants, but it will be a purification process, this topic deserves a more detailed explanation in a future blog, but to sum it up the lake of fire will be the DEATH OF THE FIRST DEATH, that's why it is called the SECOND DEATH, the final blow to everything that is opposed to God this is the reason why in Rev 21:1 we read of a new heaven and a new earth where there is NO MORE SEA which gave rise to the BEAST who was given power by the dragon to rule the world, in the new Jerusalem, only the Lamb rules and it is important to point out the fact that it will be the LAMB and not the DRAGON that will be in charge for the present world is under bondage to the dragon's beastly system of oppression and greed but the Lamb will have mercy on the downtrodden and will provide and care for the hungry and the dejected, will be posting updates on similar topics soon.

THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

The scriptures in John 4:4-42 speaks of an encounter that our Lord had with a certain unnamed woman from Samaria, this was a woman who clearly had issues with keeping a husband since by the time she met Jesus at the well, she had had five of them clearly something was amiss in this woman's life that Jesus needed to go through Samaria for the specific purpose of meeting an "immoral woman". Keep in mind that Jesus was a Jew and Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Mount Gerizim which the Samaritans believed was the original holy place of Israel while the Jews believed Jerusalem was the only place to worship God. Cuthah was the original place of the Samaritans and they were initially called Cutheans referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. The King of Assyria brought people back from Babylon, Cuthah and other regions to settle in Samaria. Samaria was in the region of the northern kingdom of Israel which had been conquered by the Assyrians and its people; the ten northern tribes of Israel driven out of their lands. the people who came to inhabit the Samaritan region were largely Gentiles who came with pagan customs and got punished for it see 2 Kings 17:24-41 for the Samaritans worshiped God and other gods. Both the Jewish and Samaritans religious leaders taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group and neither was to enter each others territory but Jesus went against the Jewish teaching and went to Samaria which is in line with the parable in Luke 15 where the good shepherd goes to the wilderness to find the lost sheep and bring it home which is what Jesus did in the case of the Samaritan woman and her fellow Samaritans for they did not know God and didn't know how to worship Him in spirit and truth. After the Christ had ministered to the lost Samaritans, they concluded that Jesus was indeed the savior of the whole world for the scriptures so declare in John 4:32 that His food is to bring salvation to all both Jew and Samaritan, that is the food of Jesus and just like we humans eat to our fill, even so the Savior of the world will not rest until he has saved everyone He came to die for because that is the food He came to eat. Some have believed that Christ will not save everyone but will fry sinners in hell forever and this is indeed what is taught in most churches today, but this is not so, just like the Samaritan woman and her fellow Samaritans were lost in their hell and darkness, the light of God's only begotten Son came and illuminated them and this is what is going to happen to all of creation including those whom we think are nonredeemable. this is the hope of the world for without this hope, then everything we do is in vain for what is the point of spending eternity in the fundamentalist's heaven if billions upon billions of people will be fried forever in hell? this is not the food that the Body of Christ should eat but rather our food is to seek out the lost and save them because this is the will of our Master and let us not be timid to break boundaries and cultural as well as religious prejudices in seeking out the lost for Jesus Himself did not care about Jewish and Samaritan cultural and religious sentiments against one another but went in and talked to a woman who most men both in those days and even today would not want to be seen with in public. God loves everyone and that's why He commanded us to love our neighbors including our enemies for there is no way we can save people we don't love and when we love, then we show the face of Jesus to this lost and dying world for Love never fails. stay blessed.

Eternal life

Does eternal life mean waiting to go to heaven when we die or perhaps it starts here on earth and then it continues on after death, I don't think so, eternal life is knowing Jesus Christ and His Father John 17:3. Eternal Life is eternal because the ONE WHO IS LIFE IS ETERNAL; Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life in John 14:6, When we receive by faith the righteousness of Jesus, we have eternal life because eternal life is none other than Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:6 says we sit together with Christ in the heavenly places meaning we are not sitting around waiting to go there but rather we are there with Him. Believers in Christ have been called the body of Christ meaning we are the arms, legs and feet of Jesus on this earth meaning His Life is ours, His thoughts are ours and His works are ours, we are one with Him, He is the head and we are the body, we have eternal life right here and now. Amen!