Beyond the Bible

The Bible has been the tool used for the quests of five types of people:

1) Religious rulers

2) Religious people

3) Scholars

4) Archaeologists

5) Men sent by God

Religious rulers have used the Bible for their own personal quest to control the masses drawn to religion.

Religious people have used the Bible for various reasons: the most ardent people truly desire to understand what is taught by the Bible, in an effort to get closer to God; while another group will only allow the Bible to substantiate the beliefs they have already determined are true. Then there is a fringe group that uses the Bible like junkies use heroin; and others who search it to find its flaws, in a vain attempt to disprove its authenticity.

Scholars use the Bible to glean ideas for new stories to write, or to discover clues about ancient history, or insights to its use of ancient languages, or to study its literary value and content as an ancient writing.

Archaeologists use the Bible in search of clues to indicate the whereabouts of hidden civilizations and treasures.

Men sent by God use the Bible as an instructional manual and a map — a map to guide them along the paths they must travel to accomplish the task set before them; and as an instructional manual to teach them the exact information they are bound to share with others.

The differences between all the above users of the Bible are as vast as the animal life on earth, and as separate as the planetary system in the universe. These differences keep all the various types of people, who use the Bible, from ever seeing the true wealth of information within its covers, with one exception: the men sent by God. Determining if a man is sent by God is covered in detail in the Bible.

If there is a God, who is the one and only God, then why would He need to give Mankind a book He indirectly wrote? Well, the Bible answers that question like this: No man has ever seen or heard God!

Therefore, the only way for God to communicate with us would be through the written word, which is a pretty good reason for the Bible’s existence. This prompts another question: Why can’t God speak to Mankind? Is He dumb?

Well, the creation (if He is really the One who created all this) is proof enough that God is not dumb, in the sense of being intelligent or not. This leaves us with only one other explanation: God is not interested in entering into a conversation with human beings.

Now on the surface, this explanation would seem to mean that God is not interested in the welfare of humanity, but this is easily overthrown by the fact that He went through the trouble of preparing a book for the Human Race. Then the question, Why a book? must be pondered. Once pondered, the answer becomes crystal clear.

It would be more difficult to twist the facts contained in a book, than the words given to a man. Yet, the original words recorded in the Bible were given to men, who eventually wrote them down. Then those writings were compiled into a book by other men, and eventually became the book we call the Bible.

This presents us with another problem. If the words in the Bible are truly from the one and Only God, then how do we know we can trust the men? How do we know the men actually wrote down exactly what God told them? The answer is also contained within the Bible itself. It is referred to as Prophecy!

Prophecy means an exact prediction about the future, not a generalization like what is found in Chinese fortune cookies, but information that you stake your life upon.

How many of you would be willing to stake your life upon a tip on a ten horse race? Some of you might be willing to chance thousands of dollars, and others might gamble a few dollars, but no one would bet their life on it. This is the most essential thing about the Bible. It is what separates the Bible from all the other religious and philosophical written works floating around the world.

There are plenty of religious and philosophical books that make claims about leading you to God, or preparing you for an afterlife, or even how to live this life successfully; but the Bible is the only written document in the world that has already proven it has the unique ability to foretell the future. This ability separates the Bible from all other books. It is the reason that Christianity is the only worldwide belief practiced in every country on the globe, and a following outnumbering all other religions combined.

The prophecies contained in the Bible have been paramount in proving to each succeeding generation that it is really a message from God sent to us on the backs of many thousands of Prophets. It is all those succeeding generations, since the cross, who have taught their own families to trust in the One and Only God of the Bible. Even though most of their descendants have forgotten or lost touch with the original prophecies that once served to make believers of their own forefathers, they still cling to that belief.

This is why most Christians today do not know about the Bible’s most potent power, and why they seem to be fringe believers that were born into their religion as opposed to people who have chosen it for themselves. Add to this, thriving groups who have set themselves up as adversaries, who have inherited lies and unknowingly carry-on the business of deception their forefathers began, and you have a Christianity waning and waxing, heaving to and fro under the strong winds of deception, which cannot fulfill the promises made to the children of God in the Bible.

Yet, the Bible predicted this would be the exact result of our world today, which is steeped in the love of money, because buying and selling would consume each waking moment of everyone on earth. The Bible foretold that the Human Race would one day exchange the love of God for the love of money. It even predicted when it would take place, and those prophecies have already been fulfilled.

A time when the decedents of deceitful religious rulers would be teaching the children of God that the Christ would be here or there, or in the desert or in a secret room. Even though the Christ taught you not to believe those reports.

A time when deceitful men are teaching God’s children that the Christ is coming back as a human being. This is the teaching falling from every preacher’s lips, and being accepted by the children of God because they rather love money than God.

The sole purpose of the Bible is to present God’s arguments to Mankind concerning the singleness of humanity’s character on earth: self willed! Self-willed means human beings rather do things their own way. Jesus taught the world,

“Not My will Father (God), but Yours (God)”

Every story in the Bible follows one theme in particular: the self-willed nature of Mankind! The men in the Bible who stand above the others are the ones who have decided to do things God’s way instead of their own way. These men are labeled prophets in the Old Testament and apostles in the New Testament, and the chief apostle being Jesus, the Christ!

The entire purpose of having a written record to confer with (the Bible) is so Mankind can circumnavigate the cunning deceitful descendants of antichrists, who knowingly or unknowingly (it does not matter) are actively and successfully working against Christ; who if told they are antichrists, will arduously disagree with you, because they refuse the truth of God and love a lie! The truth of God is located right in their Bibles, but they being blinded because of their unbelief which is spawned by their love of money, cannot see the simplicity of God’s truth even though they read it for themselves; and therefore, must teach their lies which will judge them when the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.

The Bible is only a stepping-stone to reach the rock of our faith, upon which is chiseled the secrets from the foundation of the world. Secrets that are only revealed to those sent by God to allow Jesus’ voice to speak from within themselves, so His sheep can hear it and follow Him. These are those who follow the Lord wherever He goes beyond the Bible.

Going beyond the Bible is a journey into the Kingdom of God, which is right here on earth.

A journey of untold adventures.

A journey that leads many to their God, to wipe away their tears, their fears, and their guilt.

How to Make Your Dreams Come True

Have you forgotten how to talk from your heart?

Have you shifted how you look at things?

It’s just as easy to see things from a negative point of view, as from a positive point of view. Then I have to ask: Why do people shift the way they think from positive to negative?

An old-timer once asked me: How can I keep working hard at things and lose, then try again?

The answer is Hope!

All my life I have seen, inside my brain, the things I’ve hoped for. In doing so, I, more than most people, have enjoyed the realization of my dreams. Surely, there have been failures, but the successes have outweighed the losses. No one, not even my stupid parents, was successful on trying to thwart me from the Hope residing in me, because I’ve never forgotten the successes.

Why have you allowed your brain to think in the negative?

A sure sign of a negative thinker is the negative dampening of an idea, an act, or a dream. I’m sure you’ve heard people that suffer from being negative. A negative person is simply a person whose dreams dissipated. Perhaps their dreams were based on total unreality, or perhaps they just never saw their dreams come true because they were too lazy to work at making their dreams come true.

In my case, I suppose I’ve had more dreams than other people, because they stop dreaming after the first experience of loss.

My many, many dreams have mostly been fruitless, but by the sheer number of dreams I’ve dreamt, have caused the successes to mount along my road of life. The mountains of successes, although small when compared to the mountain ranges of dreams, have lifted my brain to a height high enough to see over the sea of fallen people, whose dreams failed, who allowed their spoiled dreams to defeat them.

Once I reached the height of the clouds, and could see over the top of the fallen people, I realized how easily anyone could make a dream come true. It became so easy for me to reach any dream that I began trying to help people to their feet, so they could realize their dreams. Yet, my quest has been defeated too often because the fallen ones have never learned that a dream is only the drawing that lays out the plan a person should follow, without which success can never be realized.

The only reason people do not reach their dreams is they’ve never learned that dreams only come true if a person is willing to work hard following the dream planned to achieve it. No dream happens on its own! And lazy dreamers will never see their dreams come true, and negative thinkers are doomed to destroy dreams as surely as acid destroys…

If you’re a negative thinker, ask someone who loves you to help you repent (change). If the one you live with is also a negative person, then you’re in trouble because you will pull each other down into the quicksand of despair, which is a bottomless pit.

This is when a couple living together needs help from the outside. Help that is positive because enough negativity exists in a family without Hope. Yet, a negative family often suffers from having pride also, which keep the pair bottled up because of fear. The fear overtaking the negative pair is letting other people know their secret.

The Bible teaches us to confess our sins one to another. Negativity, despair, and fear are sins, because they are destructive. Anything destructive is sin. It’s wrong and no one should be the victim of destruction. There is only one destroyer, who perpetuates destruction.

God is life, and life is full of dreams, and dreams come true, if you are willing to be truthful and work hard at making your dreams come true.

-Elijah

The truth about Jesus’ last supper – Part 2 of 2

In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we see the apostle Paul writing this letter to a church which is having disputes, divisions about doctrine, and how and what customs are acceptable, such as: shaving one’s head, covering women’s heads, men with long hair, etc.

In verse 16, “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.” Meaning, there is no custom of quarreling among believers nor among the apostles, so why have you adopted quarreling as a custom?

Then Paul says in verses 17-18, “I am angry there are divisions and heresies.”

In verses 20-22 Paul says, “We did not institute the ‘Lord’s Supper’ to be used as a drunken orgy, gorging yourselves with food and drink.” It was meant to share dinner for the purpose of eating together, so you could remember Jesus and give thanks for all He gives us – the food, the drink, our money, brothers, homes, etc.

In verse 22 – “What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?” He’s astonished at the brawling behaviour of the orgy and is saying, if you cannot contain yourselves, then eat at home! “or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?”

Remember, the word “church” means only “body of believers”, not a building. So he’s saying, “or do you despise the body of believers of God and by acting like this, do you think you are shaming unbelievers into being like yourselves?” Their behaviour was only befitting unbelievers, so why should an unbeliever join them – they were not different.

But in this we see that eating supper together was the mainstay, the occasion, not a ritual of breaking or eating a piece of bread in a building called a church. Jesus was establishing a replacement for the feast of passover that night. Instead of celebrating a feast to remember God once per year, Jesus was saying, “Every time you eat or drink anything – every meal you have – remember me.” This seems more to the point! Then we would be reminded three times a day (or more) of our saviour who died for us. In that case, it would be pretty difficult to forget Him and sin easily. A once-a-month or once-a-week ritual to remind us, is certainly not enough for the human race.

I am not suggesting, as Jesus never suggested, turning your meal times into a ritual. Keep it simple! Give thanks as before and simply remember the broken body and spilled blood of Jesus.

In Acts 2:42-46, we see the apostles adding thousands of Jews to the church (the body of believers).

Verse 42 – “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Believers are coming together to learn true doctrine, sharing with one another, including meals and prayer.

Verse 45 – “And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat…”

Now if breaking bread was a ritual done at church (a building), why then do they “continue with one accord (with one purpose) in the temple” and then go to a different house each day to share the “breaking of bread”? Because they are eating! And to eat, you must have a fireplace, dishes, pots, food, utensils, tables to recline at, etc., and these were only found in houses.

In John 13:1-4, the apostle John speaks of the Last Supper quite unspecifically, as if the meal itself were non-chalant in character. His thoughts rest upon Judas’ betrayal and Jesus showing them how to serve others, not upon a ritual which was just instituted as an extremely important sacrament to be religiously adhered to, in the future.

In the past when God wanted the Jews to follow specific rituals, He was quite specific in exact details. If He wanted us to do the same, there would be exact instructions. I only see a symbolic system of faith portrayed in Jesus’ doctrines such as:

*Baptism – just proclaiming your faith in Jesus publicly, in some sort of physical announcement to the congregation.

*Marriage – just sleep with the woman with whom you marry, but prior to bedding down, proclaim your intentions to the congregation.

*When eating – proclaim Jesus to the people you are eating with and remember Him.

Atonement is over! Jesus made the final atonement for all sin on the cross; why do we complicate matters and try to crucify Him over and over ritualistically? He only said, “When you break bread, when you eat together or alone, do this in remembrance of me.”

The truth about Jesus’ last supper – Part 1 of 2

This is one of the deep, dark mysteries which seemingly befuddles the masses. If we approach the subject from this point of view, we are certainly going to wind up in the same mess as the church did during the dark ages.

First, let me say that all scripture is easily understood, if we will just apply the miracle of the brain that God gave us! If at this point I seem cynical – you’re right! I’m deliberately being cynical, so as to focus attention on the absurdity placed upon this ritual of breaking bread for two thousand years.

Let us begin by thinking as Jesus did, for He came to earth to show us exactly how we should behave and think.

When Jesus had gathered little children about Him, He said: “Unless you become as one of these little ones, you shall not see the kingdom of heaven.” His meaning is simple: Be simple, do not complain.

Children are simple creatures. They will tell you something and then say, “My Father said so!” They accept teaching without question. They do not complicate matters by reasoning and forcing their own will into the matter as an adult would, thus complicating the matter.

Now let us deal with “the Last Supper.” First of all, the name is really wrong, but it will serve the purpose. The word “supper” means supper! Were the apostles in prison? Perhaps on bread and water… oops! Wine! Seriously. They were dining. They were eating supper together.

In ancient times, the custom of asking someone to have dinner with you was termed “breaking bread”. It is still in use today and means “let’s have supper, or lunch, or whatever meal, together.”

When Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me” concerning the breaking of bread, He was symbolically breaking a piece of bread and passing it around the table (not an altar), so the apostles could share what He had… the bread.

Examine the bread a little more closely. What type bread are we discussing here? Italian, or maybe French bread? Perhaps white bread, rye, or Russian black? Maybe it was pita or bagels or English muffins? Pretty silly when we examine it a little closer, isn’t it? To find the answer, examine the scriptures.

In Matthew 26:2 – “ye know that after two days is the feast of passover…”

In verse 26, Jesus breaks the bread. Now we know they were celebrating the feast of passover, a very Jewish feast which does not allow – EVER – any leaven to be used in the baking of bread. So the bread was unleavened bread. No other bread may be substituted.

In Luke 22:1, we see affirmation of this fact! – “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called passover.” In verse 19, Jesus breaks the bread.

Thus we establish three facts:

1) Jesus and the apostles celebrate the Jewish feast of passover and never mention “doing away” with it. On the contrary, when Jesus says “do this in remembrance of me” He re-affirms that we are to “break bread together”, meaning believers are to become as a family and eat, at least some of their meals together, if not all.

2) The bread used is unleavened bread and may not be substituted by any other type of bread.

3) This feast includes the eating and drinking of other foods besides bread and wine, such as lamb.

Now if Jesus was telling us to institute a ritual in memory of Him, as some churches believe and teach, it must be a feast of many foods and drink, celebrated at the prescribed time of the year (Spring time) and the bread must be unleavened bread. The exact formula for this feast is described in Exodus chapter 12 and Leviticus chapter 23, for all the details.

The missing years of Jesus

Question:

“Where was Jesus after he was 12 years old? He turns up at age 30, so 18 years of his life is missing out of the Bible. Can you answer this question?” -Kurlene

Answer:

Dear Kurlene,

Matthew 13:1

“The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.”

The house was in Capernaum, where they lived, which is on the sea of
Galilee. Jesus lived at home in Capernaum for the 18 years. He was
commanded to be obedient to His parents when they found Him confounding
the Pharisees at 12 years old. Jesus lived with his mother Mary and his father
Joseph, working as a carpenter. The proof of this is the Pharisees’ statement
in Matthew 13: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary?
and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? “.

To understand it, you must read Matthew chapter 12 and 13 as one story to get the context correct. Jesus had already began His ministry, and was already attacking the Pharisees.

-Elijah

Was Mary really a virgin?

Question:

“Do you believe in the virgin birth of Christ? Was Mary a virgin?” -Robert

Answer:

Yes! Mary was a virgin. The problem lies in the understanding of the different words depicting “virgin” in the Hebrew language, which is worlds’ apart from the use of today’s word virgin.

In the Hebrew world of Jesus, a woman does not lose her virginity because she marries. A woman only loses her virginity through unfaithfulness. Hence, Anna a prophetess who was widowed (in the book of Luke) was still called a virgin even though she was married.

Mary’s virginity is referred to as a different word: alma. This is a special virgin who has her father’s and her husband’s permission to never sleep with a man and only serve the Lord. This type virgin was put to death by the community if she broke her vow of abstinence from sex! Hence, Joseph’s concern to take his “wife” as told by the angel.

Looking at the conditions, Joseph thought the people would kill her if he consummated their marriage contracted from birth (which was their right). The Apostle Paul addresses this topic in 1 Corinthians 7.

-Elijah

How does prayer work?

Question:

“If I understand you right, God does not interact with this world and has the world in auto-pilot (cause and effect). Then how does prayer work? Are you actually making contact with God or Jesus? What are your thoughts on prayer?” -Steven

Answer:

Your understanding of cause and effect is correct.

Since God lives inside every person and Jesus is right next to Him, and therefore is inside every person also, prayer is our internal communication ability to either God or Jesus.

Do not confuse the auto-pilot system (as you put it) with the idea that God abandoned His creation. Therefore, God can interact with us, but does not unless it’s absolutely necessary. You pray and they hear, but the Bible teaches you: before you even decide to pray, your Father knows what you need.

Therefore, since God knows everything, the auto-pilot is prepared for your prayers before you pray!

-Elijah

The Second Coming of Christ

Two questions were emailed to The Underground Bible on this subject.

Question #1:

“Maybe the resurrection was the Second Coming and the graves that opened the 144,000 saints that slept?” -Austin

Answer:

Sorry Austin! No cigar_since the Scriptures cannot be broken, your estimation is incorrect.

1) The Second Coming refers to Christ’s return as a spirit named The Comforter.

2) For the Second Coming to occur, Christ cannot be a man.

3) Since Jesus was a man between birth & death, then this discounts his life as the Second Coming.

4) Since Jesus was resurrected from the dead three-and-one-half days after his death and remained with the apostles 40 days and nights, and he was once again flesh & blood (a man) this discounts this as the Second Coming.

5) Since Jesus said he would return after his 40 day period ended, this is when the so-called Second Coming began. So-called because Jesus never used the term “Second Coming”. It is only written, “those who believe on him will see him a second time“. This statement is an open ended phrase without end.

As for the 144,000 this is a reference to 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, which refer to the future apostles.

-Elijah

Question #2:

“I haven’t read your whole book but I was wondering who do you believe Elijah is? Do you believe he has come or is to come? We know that he HAS to come before the second coming of Jesus due to Mal 4:5,6…” -Caleb

Answer:

First, let me applaud you for your knowledge and faith about Elijah, since so many Christians are ignorant of the fact that Elijah must come before Jesus! The answer to your question is: Yes, Elijah is here, which means Jesus isn’t very far behind. Elijah wrote The Underground Bible to reveal how the Second Coming really works. The reason for this book is to reach the entire world with the good news as opposed to standing on a rock at the Jordan River. I’m sure the book will answer most of your other questions.

Is Jesus Christ God?

This question is frequently asked and even now, is circulating around the Internet. Here’s the scoop, taken from The Underground Bible.

Chapter 16, (1d):

God’s Spirit is a multiple Spirit able to be inside everyone at the same time. God’s Spirit is giving us life and operating our bodies. When Jesus’ personal spirit was glorified by God fifty days after the crucifixion, Jesus’ personal spirit was multiplied by God and became the Holy Spirit to enable his spirit to live inside all living human beings from that moment forward; and it doesn’t matter if a person believes it or does not believe it. It doesn’t matter if a person is black, green, white, yellow or red; or if a person is a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, non-religious or other religion. Jesus is our Conscience, all the time, at the same time, and everywhere. The Bible says Jesus’ throne is right next to God’s throne. It even tells us it is on the right side of God’s throne. Since God’s throne is inside us, then Jesus’ throne is inside us right next to God. Hence, Jesus sits at the right hand of God.

Chapter 36, 1(e):

God the Father knew Jesus’ personal spirit from the beginning. He was a very special spirit commissioned to carry out a very special job on Earth; but birth would wipe out all memory of eternity where he had traveled from to be born on Earth. The baby Jesus would be like any other baby born. He would have no special powers or understanding, and would have to grow and learn like all human beings. Liars would have you believe otherwise because that would inhibit you from believing you could reach the same heights of faith and power that Jesus had accomplished as a simple man. This is why the Bible tells us Jesus did not consider it robbery to make himself equal to God; and it is enough for the student to become equal to the master, but we can never learn more than the master, Jesus.

Chapter 36, 2(b):

Do not err. The Holy Spirit is a different Spirit than the Spirit who is God. The word ‘Holy’ is derived from the English word ‘wholly’. It means completed or 100% as opposed to a spirit with a lesser percent of completion. Therefore, the title ‘Holy’ tells us that this spirit was completed by some means, and was not totally complete prior to its completion. Since God was never completed, and God has always been 100% whole, we see that the Holy Spirit is not God the Father. Since, the Bible tells us that Jesus didn’t consider it robbery to make himself equal to God the Father, we see evidence that Jesus was not equal to God the Father, and therefore was completed by his trials on Earth as a man.

Chapter 36, 2(c):

Jesus is the Christ when he was a man living on Earth. He becomes the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter, after his execution on the cross for a crime he did not commit. Then the Bible tells us, Jesus sits on the right hand of God, which is another reference to his being second to God the Father. Another proof is located in 1 Corinthians 11:3 where the Apostle Paul said:

“I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”

Simply analyze Paul’s statement and you will see it is speaking about three types of marriage relationships:

1) A human male married to the Christ.
2) A human male married to a woman.
3) A human male named the Christ is married to God the Father.

The Apostle Paul parallels these three relationships to show us how it works. The way a man marries a woman, is an example of how a human being must marry the Christ, and the two become one. Also, the same way that Christ marries a human being, the Christ married God the Father, and the two became one. The idea behind these relationships is dictating who the head of the marriage is, and who has authority over the subservient one. It dictates who makes the rules and who must be obedient to the rules.

Chapter 36, 2(d):

It also shows us that a man and woman are not the same person, neither can a man marry himself; nor is a man and the Christ the same person; neither is Jesus and God the same person; nor can Jesus marry himself. Therefore, Jesus became exactly like God and didn’t rob God by doing so!