DOES GOD HAVE FRIENDS? FROM ERASMUS OF AMERICA - OCT. 10, 2013

DOES GOD HAVE FRIENDS? FROM ERASMUS OF AMERICA - OCT.  10,  2013

     "BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS CALLED TO GO OUT INTO A PLACE WHICH HE SHOULD AFTER RECEIVE FOR AN INHERITANCE, OBEYED; AND HE WENT OUT, NOT KNOWING WHITHER HE WENT." - HEBREWS 11:8.     

     Albert Einstein On The Gospels: "No one can read the Gospels without feeling the central presence of Jesus. His personality is in every word. No myth is filled with such life." 

     Charles Spurgeon (1832-1892) called the "Prince of Preachers" was a golden orator of Christianity. His sermons were powerful and drew large audiences in England. He has remained popular among many denominations because he brought Christianity down to the common level where all understood Christianity better than before.

     Does God have friends? Yes! In his enlightened book "Being God's Friend," he showed that to be called a friend of God is a great honor for anyone, but it is not just reserved for saints like Abraham or Moses but for you too if you will accept this honor. In this inspiring book of his, he shows the key to becoming friends with God is obedience to the faith offered us by Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, His yoke is light to carry. As Jesus summarized it and early Christianity taught, to love your neighbor as yourself and love God for real and not just lip service were the two main foundational commandments to Christianity and making us friends with God for real. Spurgeon reveals once you accept God on His simple terms, then God can reveal His complete love and commitment toward you for all eternity.  You can become His true and intimate friend through being devoted to Him and His ways which are based upon these two simple foundational commandments given us by Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us the New Covenant which is what the New Testament represents and once we accept Jesus as the atonement for the sin nature of Adam born in all human flesh and let the moral law govern us that God has given us as instinct and simply stated as "Love Your Neighbor As Yourself" in how we act towards others and love God totally as how we act towards God, then we have become true friends of God and God awaits us to join Him for all eternity.

     How amazing what Jesus said! He did not say to love your neighbor and hate yourself! No, he said to want good for your neighbor as you want good for yourself. He said to want good for your neighbor's family as well as you want good for your own personal family. He wanted you to practice the golden rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Jesus summarized in the New Testament as His followers those who were a peculiar people zealous of good works. In other words, they loved and wanted good for their neighbors, not just for themselves in life. Jesus said to respect the things belonging to God in this life and respect Caesar representing government in the things belonging to Caesar (government). But if a clash of authority should occur between the authority of God versus the authority of man in government, then the authority of God should be respected over the authority of government run by man. He didn't say that you could not earn a good income in life nor live in a decent house nor drive a decent car. But if you want these blessings for yourself, create a society where your neighbor being your fellow citizen in this case can also for himself or herself also be able to earn a decent income and live in a decent house or home and also drive a decent car if they want that for themself in life.

     I do not understand why there are those who love evil so much and hate good so much. They want to war against God which seems to me to be so stupid in life and the fruits of these diseased evil souls is stupidity for all eternity called damnation for those who stuck their tongues out at God and said, "I do not want you God to be my friend now or all eternity as I am not your friend and hate you God!" God honors their request and so sends them into damnation which is eternal loss of the friendship of God offered to all of mankind and accepted by part of mankind and rejected by part of mankind. Should I hate God for giving me life on earth? I think not! Should I hate God for giving me talents and everyone gets different talents as gifts from God that we are born with? Should I hate God for giving me the opportunity to develop a character that I can take with me for all eternity and hopefully I can rise to the God-given potential that God put into me as well as all other humans on earth? I was born a free and independent personality like billions of other people on earth! God never had to create me but I was a thought in the mind of God and He decided to give me life to hopefully join His family for all eternity after this life is over. Should I hate God for giving me a free soul with the free will to choose either good or evil in my life and develop my character by the moral choices I make in life? Before God the widow who only has two mites and gives it away for good has given and sacrificed more and is more honorable before God than the rich man who gives away a large sum of money for charity and makes sure that everyone knows that he did it so he can be praised for his charity which did not hurt him financially and therefore was no sacrifice for him to make. Jesus suggested to make your gift for good in secret so God may praise you rather than man for this act!

     If we want proofs of God, the proofs are huge in number and available to our naked eyes or else can be found by listening to or else reading the works of Christian scholars good at research work and have obvious proofs of the existence of God that we can understand. Jesus performed some spectacular Miracles of God which touched the hearts of good people and provoked hatred in those who hated the supernatural manifestations of God in our lives. We have in every age of Christianity those who touched the heart of God and so He performed great Miracles of God through them. They admitted that God did the Miracles of God, not them, and they were probably as touched in heart by these Miracles of God as those who received these supernatural manifestations of the love of God for mankind if mankind would accept God as their friend and supernatural Father for those wanting to join His family for all eternity. In modern times we have recently canonized Saint Padre Pio of the Roman Catholic Church who was a Catholic priest and monk who received and had the stigmata (the wounds of Christ) on his body for 50 years and on an apparently daily schedule had stunning Miracles of God occur when he prayed for them such as the girl with no pupils to her eyes suddenly at the age of 7 could see after he prayed for her and publicized all over Italy. We have Ernest Angley of Akron, Ohio and Brother David Terrell of Texas, both Protestants, who also have had many stunning Miracles of God occur when they prayed in the name of Jesus for the healing of people. The Roman Catholic Church is historically descended from the Apostle Peter as well as the Greek Orthodox Church which are divided halves of once a united original Apostolic Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ. But when the New Testament promises to faithful followers of Jesus that some can have stunning gifts of healing when praying for others and the Roman Catholic Church is too guilty of trying to suppress lay ministries of healing, so they pop up in Protestant circles instead because the promises of Jesus in the New Testament will not be suppressed by even His formal original historical Church on earth. As Tertullian around 200 A.D. wrote, churches even when not founded by the Apostles sprung up in the Roman Empire, they were also Apostolic Christian churches when they taught the same basic Christian doctrines as the original churches founded by the Apostles in Antioch, Smyrna, etc. However, it was understood that they would join in unity with the other earlier founded Apostolic churches once they could. And the effective government of early Christianity was the councils of bishops convened when necessary and the bishops elected by the city mother churches and then ordained by other bishops from other city mother churches so all the bishops and clergy ended up with the original ordination set up by the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

     I took the pen name of Erasmus of America to honor an earlier Erasmus of Europe who saw Christianity needed some reform but not divided into formal schism as unfortunately happened to Europe because the Vatican got too headstrong and did not reform on a few points that Martin Luther was right on such as the sale of indulgences was an abuse of an Apostolic privilege originally given to the Christian churches. However, Martin Luther himself commented that the Roman Catholic Church was not wrong on all that it taught and if it made some reforms that matched what early Christianity practiced, then he saw no further reason to divide Christianity after that. 

       In the spirit of an earlier Erasmus, I wrote my book on the earliest teachings of Apostolic Christianity as recorded in early Christian writings and books. This book is "The Early Roots Of Apostolic Christianity" which is on my website and got a very good reception from both Catholics and Protestants who read it. I also had in my book as well on my website my report on Miracles Of God which covered about all the arguments of atheists why not to believe in God. And I by answering them knocked their arguments out of the ballpark as people judged. I knocked the theory of evolution down to smashed pieces as it was a gross misrepresentation of key discoveries with fossils, dating systems, etc. and the real scientific evidence overwhelming points to God creating this earth, life on earth, and the Genesis account of creation fits within the realm of scientific credibility all the way. I showed hidden aspects of Bible prophecy where the Bible has many more prophecies than the public realizes and some defied odds of billions to one to have come as prophecied centuries to thousands of years later. God had to issue those prophecies as no man is smart enough to predict all this future history correctly as the Bible did. The Miracles of God are clearly documented in this book and I step on many toes when I report on Catholic miracles which sure sound like they came from God and report on Protestant miracles which sure sound like they came from God. When any church gets in the way, God will not be stopped and Miracles of God will occur wherever they occur. But real Miracles of God show that God loves us and is rooting for us to come to God and join the family of God for all eternity. I have over the years interviewed several people reporting seeing the life hereafter after dying and then coming back to life. I myself died for a brief time when young and God gave me back my life. I know what death is and don't want to make the mistake of not being the friend of God on earth.

     This is a brief introduction into what Christianity is and why people with some brains and common sense should believe in God and not be suckered into con propaganda against belief in God by those who pass off lies as truth and twist the facts into presentations that do not match the truth and reality. 

     A brief comment here. Islam does not have the Miracles of God in it that Christianity has. It is not loaded with thousands of prophecies that have all come true in its religious book like the Bible has done and is documented with. Its conversions were mainly by the threat of the sword while Christianity won by reason, facts, and good moral example which won huge multitudes to belief in God and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives     

     If Christians live well enough by the two Foundational Commandments of Jesus Christ, then whether there is a Purgatory or not would not likely be a question to worry about. But if they live as very lightly committed Christians or with the doctrine that Christianity is a license to commit sin and get away with before God, then read the following Catholic book on Purgatory. This is "The Biblical Basis For Purgatory" by John Salza , www.saintbenedictpress.com . This is the only Catholic book I have seen which gives a powerful, credible defense for the Catholic stand on Purgatory quoting both sections of the Bible and some early Christian writings are quoted also. Let the scholars debate, but I think this book at least provokes you to think whether Christianity is really a license to commit sin or not! It does cover other key Catholic teachings under this cover topic, and if Christianity is to have its wounds healed and reunited at some point, each side needs to understand the other side and let the Holy Spirit guide Christian scholars until truth triumphs and the truth is obvious to all sides     .

     Well, like Erasmus of before, I call all sides to admit truth and let's see if we can straighten out key misunderstandings hurting the unified front of Christianity to stop its enemies from trying to wipe out Christianity in America and across the world. As even Bishop Fulton J. Sheen freely admitted, there were good Christians on both sides, but we needed to understand each other better and hopefully then God could do the rest with Christianity as needed.

     My website is www.fastboomamericaneconomy.com  My email is fastboomamericaneconomy.com@gmail.com  My mailing address for any orders to be placed by mail instead of through the website is NIFI, P.O. Box 1465, Seneca, SC 29679. Make any checks, etc. out to NIFI and tell what the payment is for. Also emails appreciated with mail orders if available. Pass this report around and maybe we can get Christianity back on its feet in America and then the world after that and resume the real leadership for Western civilization on earth.

     Yours for God and Country, Erasmus of America (pen name for one who believes that common sense can end our key problems in society!).