REPENT OR PERISH

Dare I State It?

by Don R. Hender



"Behold, now I say unto you that he commandeth you to repent; and except ye repent, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. But behold, this is not all—he has commanded you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the earth; yea, he will visit you in his anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn away." ~ Book of Mormon | Alma 9:12


    In today's 'politically correct' world you just do not hear the call of the sinner unto repentance. Tolerance and political correctness fills the air. Whatever happened to clearly stating what is sin in the eyes of the Lord and what is not. Since the word of 'hate crimes' has been thrown about to include even the declaration of identifying what is sin and calling one unto repentance of their sins, the Constitutional rights of freedom of religion have began to be lost in exchange for the toleration of not just the sinner but also the sins as well. And it is further miscontrued by those who deceive and cheat concerning what is and what is not sin in the eyes of God by those who pretend to speak for God as though they are God's spokesmen who can tell God what it is that he ought to accept as righteousness and what God ought to not accept as righteousness. But in so doing they are cheating their congregation members in giving them a false sense of security concerning what they are doing, telling them basically it is alright for them to continue in their sins without repentence or worse still that what they are doing is not even sin.

What Does the Bible Say?

The King James version of the Bible has been the long standing standard of the Bible for those who are of traditional Protestant Christian persuasion. Of course it is written in 1611 English so not all clearly understand just what it says. There is a New King James Version that take the Old Engish of the King James Bible and puts it into today's words so that there can be little mistake as to what is being said. Not that the older Protestants had any trouble reading and understanding the Bible, but today's readers, who are not properly schooled in the language of King James, have taken some liberties due to their ignorance of the Old English translation. So a side by side rendering of some various scriptural verses in the 1611 King James 'prose' and then that of the New King James Version ought to be considered.

    "Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
    "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
    "Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

    ~ New Testament | 1 Corinthians 6:8-10

It seems that there was the disception of fraudulant teaching going on that was misleading the brethren of the church by what was being taught as acceptable behavior and what was actually sinful behavior. Now traditional older Christians have had no problem in understanding what is being said here in the list of items that the Corinthian saints were being 'defauded' about by such false teachers who were obviously 'liberals' who would bend the Word of God to suit their own purposes, whether to get gain of take advantage or just spread wickedness amoung the people of God. Now I understand what is said and meant by the standard Kings James Bible just referenced but so that there can be no question upon the matter the New King James Version will also be presented.

    "No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!
    "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
    "nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."

    ~ New King James Version | 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 (NKJV)

Now one could continue on down the Bible translations list and maybe they will find a corruption of the true meaning to their liking? How about the New International Version (NIV)? What does it state?

    "Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.
    "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with mena
    "nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

    Footnotes:
    a.1 Corinthians 6:9 The words men who have sex with men translate two Greek words that refer to the passive and active participants in homosexual acts.
    ~ New International Version | 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 (NIV)

I wonder what the Latin Bible of the Catholics says? But I don't speak Latin so I'll have to use and English translation of the Latin. In the United States that would be the Bible put out by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

    "Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.
    "* Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes* nor sodomitesc
    "nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God."

    ~ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Bible | 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 (USCCB)

    * [6:9] The Greek word translated as boy prostitutes may refer to catamites, i.e., boys or young men who were kept for purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the Greco-Roman world. In Greek mythology this was the function of Ganymede, the “cupbearer of the gods,” whose Latin name was Catamitus. The term translated sodomites refers to adult males who indulged in homosexual practices with such boys. See similar condemnations of such practices in Rom 1:26–27; 1 Tm 1:10.

Now hopefully the women are not attempting to exempt themselves as the scriptures speak in the male gender terms as though there are no females who exist. Certainly what the Bible states that applies to the 'Gander' also applies to the 'Goose' as well. That is unless women chose to consider themselves as not being of mankind and the human race. I suppose some women would plead such ignorance but in the eyes of God, who is a male, it will do them little good at judgment day. Now how about the Lutherian Bible. Now that's German 'high' language. Oh, that was alread done by the English is preparing the King James Bible, which is basically the Luther Bible in English. Well I guess one could continue to look until they find someone who has de-canonized the Bible and has freed themselves from the Word of God by making up their own version and what they do include and what they 'innovate' that the Bible 'should say' BUT DOES NOT.

"SIN IS SIN"

What God has defined as SIN by his scriptures and by his Apostles and Prophets IS SIN. Now whether someone does find a liberal skewwed take on the subject by some unauthorized source or not does not matter to God. God's Word is Law. And God does not use the 'liberal translation' of the innovating men or women of the world. They may preach that this is okay or that is alright, but they are only cheating you and themselves. For God will not hold them guiltless who do pervert the word of God. And they have their motives for so deceiving others, whether it is to be popular in the eyes of the world and/or it is to get gain of those whose ears itch to hear that they are not sinners before God, and that they will still get into heaven, which they won't until and unless they do repent of all their ungodly sinful ways.

All men [and women] must repent of their sins before God. And that cannot wait until the day of Judgment. Sinfulness is a lifestyle and is habit adictive. If one has lived their lives in sin all of their days, they are not going to suddenly change at the bar before God. That same spirit which they possess on earth will be that which will be their's in the hereafter. And if they sinned before God all of their days, then they will be sinners still. The Apostle Paul told it like it was. One must live the righteous life of sin-free living in order to inherit the kingdom of God. And sinners just do not enter there in, UNLESS the have repented of their sins and forsaken them and are now living righteously after being forgiven by Christ who doeth impute his righteousness for them in their stead.

There is one out take from the quoted line of Joe Louis and to straight forward one liners. First the 'out take'. Joe Louis said, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." The out take is, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but not everybody wants to live God's Commandment." With that said, here are the two ending one liners:

"LIVE TO LIVE WITH GOD"

The scriptures teach us that type of life we live here determines and matches the life that we will live in the hereafter of eternity. There is a saying that a lepord does not change his spots. Put into our context, those traits of personality that we develop here will govern and determine what we will be there. If we are sinful and rebelious here then that nature will translate into the type of being that we will still be there. Now back to the lepord. Can a lepord change his own spots? In terms of human beings the answer is yes. And we have a great assist and assistant in that effort. We can change that carnal and sinful nature of the natural man who is an enemy unto God. It takes our recognition that we are indeed in a fallen state and that there is a better godly way to live.

Actually our nature as mortal beings consists of two opposing poles of existence. Within this tabernacle of clay, which is our physical body, there is the soul of man. That soul^^ consists of the eternal intelligence of truth and light combined with our spirit body we received as spirit children of our Father of Spirits in Heaven and our Mother in Heaven. That soul within us has a great influencial power upon who we are. It has brought with it what type of person we were in the preexistent heaven before we were born on earth. And it can give us feelings of recognition and longings through out our life if we will but be cognizant of it. Often the basic needs and desires and wants of the physical man will 'trump' or be of an 'overbearing' nature to the point that these inner feelings and promptings go unnoticed. And our mental conscious remembrances have been wiped from us by what is referred to as a veil of forgetfulness. But there does remain is us what we were in our subconscious soul, in that intelligence bound to our spirit body soul.

    "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
    ~ New Testament | 1 Corinthians 2:14

This is partly the reason why there are so many 'transcendentalists' among us who have only failed in their inner searches by the fact that they have not completely tied it to God and his true religion here on earth. It actually is those inner intuitive longings and seekings that can be met by that guiding spirit from God that we have come to know as either the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of the Holy Ghost. In truth philosophical meanderings can easily go astray when only coached by one's own innovative skewed biased perceptions tied only to self and one's natural man's enticements, which has been and continues to be the great wide flood of so many philosophical varieties and completely opposite and opposed positions of interpretations of life and its meanings.

In truth, there is only one truth philosophy, and that is that which entails the true religion of God as set out by God in his correctly interpreted scriptural word as guided by the true spirit of God given variously to man in a number of ways. Lehi identified this concept when he had received and saw the vision dream of the Tree of Life (1 Nephi 8). In it he saw that there was a 'rod' or 'line' of truth [the Word of God] that if grasped upon and held to would lead man in a straight and narrow path of life that would lead man to eternal life, God's love and Jesus Christ as represented by that Tree of Life. All the other 'paths' so ever as they may come have come into existance, be it philosophically derived or just merely randomly set upon as governed by no more than the natural man's uncontrolled physical wants, needs and desires of the flesh. And of course that one true path for man is that which will lead him back to his eternal parentage of being a spirit child of God.

Now back to the point to be taken here. If one is to come to live in the kingdom of God in the life to come, they need conform their life to living by God's divine Word and guidance. They must hold to and live by God's Commandments. To eventually live with God, one must be on the narrow path of living a godly righteous live that lead to the life style of God. One cannot live a life of sin and adiction to the deprived natural man's debortuary here in this life and then turn completely about and be able to live righteously in the presence of God. Such a case would make both that man and God miserable. The righteous glory of God would not allow any such unclean thing to even enter His presence. In short, if one is to eventually live with God, they need to be living and seeking to live by the Godly truths and commandments of God. Obedience to that course is paramount. One must live in that manner in which God lives.

But man is not yet perfect by any means, but there is a difference in seeking out and living by the ways of the Devil and that of seeking out and living by the ways of God. There is a righteous way to live and a wicked way to live and that broad difference is becoming ever more evident in our world today. And the dividing line between the two is the diference between those who are righteously seeking after the ways of God and those who are corrupting or denying the Word of God so that they may unempidedly live their sinful wicked life preferences over that life and those standard that God has set out for man to live. One must live righteously to live with God. So what does it mean to 'live to live with God?' It simply means to live reighteously according to God's Word.

"REPENT OR PERISH"


'Image from A Free Methodist Preacher Site'

Now since man is not perfect, man has, does and will make mistakes and will have his failings. It that case of man's weakness before God, there is given the course of repentance. And one must continually repent in order to raise one's self to the perfected level of God's perfection. No man living on earth as born by woman in this temporal state is perfect. That is just a part of the fall of man. It is given that man must repent in order to return unto God. For God's ways are not man's ways, neither are God's thoughts man's thoughts. So much higher are the heavens than the earth. Again man is to strive to comform one's life unto that of godliness.

What is that pattern of godliness, well it simply begins by living the commandments of God, beginning with one's understanding of the concepts of the Ten Commandments and even the Two Great Commandments of God. Then with that 'beginning' one is to live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And were does a person find that word? The scripture contain much more than just the 10 Commandments and the Two Great Commandments upon which those 10 hang. Consider our Lord's Sermon on the Mount for such additional guidance in how man is to live. In that Sermon Jehovah, who Condescended to come to earth as Jesus Christ, taught what it means to live by the spirit of God's laws. And he set out just how much 'higher' God's expectations are than just the 'one liner' statements of the raw 10 Commandments are. Consider just one such elboration set out by Christ there:

    "¶ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
    "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

    ~ New Testament | Matthew 5:27-28 (27-32)

The concept here is that at God's level there is much more than merely physically living the law of sexual morality. Christ does not take time to list all that is included in 'adultry' as does such as Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9 (8-10). Christ takes it directely to that next level that God further expect on not to even 'lust' after another sexually, whether it be a man after a woman, or even worse a man after a man or a woman after a woman or a human after any such other thing that may be. All such, even the 'mental' act of consideration is evil and sin in the eyes of God. And so did set out that living by the spirit is a higher level of living the way of godliness that just physical singular living by the leter of the law of such as the ten commandments.

So what is left for the carnal natural man to do? Basically what is left is for man to repent, and continue to repent continously, all the while raising one's self up step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little until eventually man has brought himself up to the level of God. That is on the one hand. On the other hand, God knows that fallen natural man by his very nature and inherent weakness will never be able to raise himself to that highest level of God's way of life. So as the Book of Mormon states it, 'it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do' (2 Nephi 25:23). And this is by that process which is accomplished by and through the mission and atonement of Jesus Christ, that after our forgiveness of our sins, it is by the process of the righteousness of Jesus Christ being imputed unto man and further raising him up that highest standard of God.

But that being said, we cannot just stand idly by wasting away in our sins. That will never do. We must be activly seeking and living the commandments of God. It is only after we have done all that we can do, that we are further to be saved by grace. And that path to God is set out by a course of continuous repentance and humility before God ever seeking his forgiveness of our sins. In short we are to continue to repent of that things that we are able to repent of until we are accepted by God and further raised up to heaven by the grace of God. So REPENT OR PERISH is the continuous word of God unto his people. Certainly you can always find any number of things to repents of and stop doing that will bring you closer to God. No one is perfect, all are subject by that internal weakness of man that Paul was also plague with in his search for being perfect before God. by the actual grace of God that man is to be saved.'



^^ Soul: The development of the 'soul' of man is that which has occured in stages. In the preexistance there is, was, and always will be that which is called 'intelligence' which is light and truth, and it was not created or made but is that which is eternal (D&C 93:29). That intelligence was combined with the spirit body at the time of the birth of God's spirit children, who we are. That is who we are beyond this tabernacle of clay in which we are currently housed. That combination of 'intelligence' and 'spirit child of God' was in fact a living soul and is what is the living part of the human temporal body. In fact the spirit body of man has head, shoulders, knees and toes; eyes, ears, mouth, and nose; just as the temporal physical body does have which houses the spirit body which is was designed to fit (Ether 3:13-16).

Soul expanded: When the living spirit soul of man was place by Jehovah, who is the same as Jesus Christ, into man's tabernacles of clay—as Adam was so 'created' or 'formed' or 'organized' by placing into the tabernacle of clay or elements so made the living 'soul', or spirit bound to intelligence—was placed or 'breathed' into that tabernacle and the scriptual text identifies that combination of living intelligence, spirit body and phsyical body as the soul of man also. It should be here noted that without the 'spirit and intelligence' which was placed into that tabernacle of clay, the taberancle of clay was not a living soul as being Adam, who was a spirit son of God. That is the situation of the body when the 'spirit and intelligence', that 'living soul', is removed from the physical body in death, it leaves the remaining physical body 'dead'. Thus the actual 'creation' of the natural body with the spirit and intelligence combination is really not a permanent living 'soul' as is that of the 'living soul' of spirit and intelligence alone that gives life to the physical creation.

It will not be until the resurrection and even then the final judgment that the combination of immortal body of flesh and bone combined with the spirit body and intelligence of man, that the combinantion of 'tangible body', 'spirit' and 'intelligence' will be eternally bound together as a Celestial or otherwise body of glory depending upon one's finalized jugdment. And at that time that 'soul' would be a Celetial immortal soul.

With all this being said, a 'soul' can be defined relative to that stage and level at which a particular stage of development is attained. In terms of the temporary combinantion of natural body of flesh, blood and bones combined with spirit and intelligence, that is not a permanent or eternal state of phase of the soul of man, but a mere mortal temporary phase or stage. Beyond this understanding the exact detail of such creations or organization of God are not further revealed.


ver 8 January 2016