Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34. Can you love someone, but hide the fact that they have a life threatening disease? Can you love someone if you constantly lie to them, so that they believe that lie because it came from you? Can you love someone, but not tell them that the investment that you sold to them 20 years ago, for which they have trusted with their future retirement, has crashed, and is now worth nothing? Can you really love someone, and not tell them that for your entire relationship of years you have loved someone else more than them? These situations seem ludicrous on the face, but this is happening every day, in real time, and in dramatic fashion between you and the God of Creation and the god of destruction. You have certainly been lied too by Satan, for the purpose of making you believe a lie as if it is the truth. That lie is that you are saved by grace through faith, and that keeping the 'Commandments of God, and holding ONLY to the testimony of Jesus" does not matter to your eternal life. You have a 'life threatening' disease that will surely someday kill you, and the God of Creation sent Jesus His Son to tell you how to cure this disease, but you won't listen to Him, because you believe someone that you love more than HIM. The Evil One has sold you an investment that he said would cost you nothing, but would deliever everything one day, and he told you that this investment was eternal liife. And we ALL believed him, every one of us. Yet the proof that the True God really loves you is that He sent HIs Son to bring you the truth, at the cost of His own life, and yet you ignore His words, and instead love the words of the enemy; words that sound wonderful, and easy, but will lead to destruction. You must choose life or death. Isn't is worth the effort to find the Truth?

Join Rick Sterling and the Spirit of Truth Ministry team as we research the facts about how salvation and eternal life are accomplished, using the Word of Jesus that He gave His eyewitness disciples as the source. We compare and contrast these words with the words of other Bible writers that explain salvation in a way that is totally different that the way Jesus presented the process of Sanctification to His own disciples. This is a fascinating subject, that we hope and pray will enlighten you to the Way, the Truth and the Life that is found in the His words.

Often when I go out for a walk with my dogs I randomly choose a past program from the archive of The Bible On Trial/The Revelation of Jesus programs of BlogTalkRadio.com/sot. This is what I did yesterday, and this was program from about 6 years ago, and Rich Humpal (the founder of The Bible On Trial program) was on the air with us that day. Rich brought up an interesting discussion about what constitutes Scripture, by asking, "Is the New Testament actually Scripture?" As usual, our discussion centered around the words of Jesus. We discussed the idea that Jesus confirmed confirmed the Law and the Prophets as Scripture in Matt. 5:17: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." Rich then asked this question; Did Jesus consider His own words to be Scripture? When Jesus was on earth Scripture was considered to be what we now know as the Pentateuch, the first five books of our Bible. There were also books that were historical records of Israel, Music/Psalms, and Wisdom. There was also the Talmud, which was writings of honored teachers in Israel, the writings of whom while not cosidered holy, were used as the starting points of discussion at the Temple or in Synogogues. Rich's conclusion was that the New Testament cannot be 'Scripture', because it was not already part of the Holy Writings of the Kingdom. So where does that leave the Words of Jesus? For that Rich pointed out Rev. 12:17: "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." Jesus words are TRUTH, just as are His Commandments. And it is these words that bring both the Old Testament and the New into clear relief as the ONLY words that can lead to Sanctification and eternal life.

Righteousness is NOT an option! Jesus said, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect". Yet other writers in the New Testament take exception to this concept by saying, "For the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation". This one text tries to remove the idea that righteousness has any part in salvation. This is convenient for those that want to live in sin, and yet still believe that they are saved by grace through faith. Jesus needs a Kingdom of Heaven on earth that is a RIGHTEOUS kingdom, in order to accomplish the works of righteousness. This is what Spirit of Truth is studying in our current series called 'Righteousness, Justice, and the Kingdom of Heaven'.  Join us today for our presentation and discussion.

Join Spirit of Truth Ministry for another dynamic and comprehensive study as to why the words of Jesus that He gave His own eyewitness disciples must take precedence over the words of any other New Testament writer. We will compare what Jesus said to the teachings of the 'apostle' Paul and show you the differences that can mean eternal life, or eternal death.

Join us this morning at 10 AM Pacific Time for a unique and challenging presentation, that will test EVERYTHING you think you know about Salvation and the Words of Jesus. Rick Sterling shows the differences between what Christians believe and what Jesus actually taught, and defines and demonstrates the method with which to do this for yourself, so you know that what you believe IS the truth. Many  people believe that just because they 'claim' Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they are IN the Kingdom of Heaven. Rick will show you the truth of how to actually enter the Kingdom of God using the words of Jesus that He gave to His own eyewitness disciples.

We speak about lies and truth a lot here at Spirit of Truth Ministry. It is an ongoing conversation. Yet in our individual conversations with friends or strangers everyone seems to think that they, indeed, believe the truth, and don't seem at all concerned by our pointing out that everyone believes lies. The prevailing Christian understanding is that because God wants us to know the truth He would never allow 'His Children' to actually believe a lie, because if He did, then it would be His fault should someone be 'lost' because they believe that lie as if it was the truth. The base operation of this belief is that God is responsible for both lies and truth, it is therefore God's responsibility for seeing to it that 'His Children' believe the truth, and do not believe lies. Everyone agrees that believing lies is a BAD thing, but IF they believe 'bad things' they will not be held accountable for those beliefs, God will. And because "God so loved the world" that He gave His own Son to die for the sins/lies of that world, then there is nothing in 'heaven, or on earth, or under the earth' that can separate us from the 'love that is in Christ-Jesus, our Lord'. Can you see how difficult it will be for a person that says, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," (Rev. 3:17) with respect to spiritual things, will find it inearly mpossible to resist the draw of the 'easy money' of these beliefs? No amount of poking, prodding, cajoling, or threatening will be able get these people out of the rut of unrequited belief. Why? Simply because they believ by Fatih, and not by Trust in the Words of God, that He gave Jesus.

Unless a person is a sociopath, and has a mental disorder that manifests itself in extreme antisocial behavior toward people, and is totally without a conscience, everyone wants to know the truth, one way or the other. We have all heard stories in books, movies, or personal experience about people that go on quests to find a truth, and eventually find it, but only after a long arduous journey, overcoming many trials and tribulation along the way. Most of us find these stories inspiring, motivating us to go in search of our own 'holy grail'. We have also heard and been taught that this 'grail' is always found within us, and that our inner mind will always lead us to the correct truth for us. There is a subtul problem with these story lines, and that is that to find TRUTH that is singular and absolute we must look outside of ourselves and not within. Why? Because all of us have been preconditioned to believe that which we have already been presented and learned from childhood is the real truth, when in fact ALL of us have been taught lies as if they are truth. We have all been taught that our spiritual nature must and is based on faith in a religious practice, philosophy, or science. Getting ourselves 'out of the way' is the key to finding truth that is not based on faith, and this has been proven over the centuries to be nearly impossible. But it is NOT impossible if we look to the source of truth, the 'gold standard' that is able to answer all of our pressing questions and give us "the peace that passes all understanding". Join us here a Spirit of Truth Ministry as we learn how to accomplish this difficult but necessary task, and learn to overcome the thoughts and practices of the world, and grow into the Kingdom of the Heavens.

I am old enough to remember the days when cameras used film cassettes, film rolls, or sheet film (for view cameras), and you actually had to manually adjust the parameters of the exposure onto the camera in order to get the correct exposure. For 28 years I was a professional photographer, and I used not only a Nikon-F with a variety of lenses, but I also had a Mamyia RB-67 mediium format (6x7 centimeter) for studio work, and also for high end weddings. Each of these cameras had an iris ring that could either be opened or closed (called the f-stop ring) to adjust for lighting, and a speed knob where you could adjust the speed of the shutter-this setting controlled the depth of field. Today, most of you who read this will not understand a word I just said, because with modern stand alone digital camera, and even more common today excellent cameras in our cel phones, we never have to think about either of these parameters (f-stop, speed) when we take photos. Wonderful pictures just seem to happen, as if by magic. The other thing that you had to do with these older technology cameras is that with every exposure you would have to actually focus the lens (using the focus ring on the lens) on the subject in order to get the clearest picture. All of this took time; setting the exposure, judging the speed of the exposure, and focus. Today, we simply open the camera app on our phones, then point and shoot, and we get really incredible picture. Finding Truth, seeing truth, is unfortunately more like the former than the latter. We put our minds on 'automatic' and assume that what we are seeing is the truth, when manual adjustments to 'how' we view truth are needed in order to know that what we are seeing IS the truth. Seeing truth is NOT automatic just because we attend a church, or subscribe to a popular philosophy. Once you learn how to focus your mind you will be astonished at how clear truth becomes.

Join us today in learning a practical and unique method of study that allows a person of independent intellect to find the truth of salvation for themselves, without being given instuction by an overarching authority. The words of Jesus as given by His eyewitness disciples in the New Testament, and the words of God in the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament, are sufficient for this purpose. Words given by any other person, either living or dead, either in the Bible or in any other writing, are not needed for this purpose, but truely get in the way of the discovery of Truth.