Deception
Never-ending torment in “hell” (as well as Annihilationism, among those Christians who have enough of a conscience to reject the idea of torture without end but still can’t see the full truth) and salvation based on a “free will” choice to believe the right thing are two of the various “orthodox” traditions that Satan made sure were taught in the Christian religion to keep one from eonian life under the Gospel of the Uncircumcision. If someone believes that anybody at all is still “dead” — be it actually dead or only figuratively dead — at the consummation of the eons, they don’t truly believe Christ actually died for our sins (which is referring to the sins of everyone, not just the sins of Christians, completely taking care of all of our sins Himself some 2,000 years ago), but rather believe that we still have to do something about our sins ourselves today. And if we have to do something about our own sins, even something as supposedly simple as making the right decision, it was we who finally dealt with our sins at the end of it all rather than Christ taking care of it all through His death, entombment, and resurrection. He only performed the first step; we had to complete the final step ourselves by making the right choice, making us our own saviours, or at least partial saviours. These weren’t the only traditions he made sure were taught, however. He also tried his best to convince those in Churchianity (which is what some of us call the Institutional Church and the “orthodox” religion known as Christianity — as opposed to the religionless/”heretical” doctrines that I now believe the Bible teaches are meant for the body of Christ) of the immortality of the soul. But if the soul is immortal, that means Jesus didn’t truly die, nor was He truly entombed, which would mean we are still in our sins and have no hope, because the Gospel of the Uncircumcision which tells us that Christ died for our sins, and that He was entombed, is a claim that would not actually be true if the immortality of the soul were correct.
Of course, coming to understand that Jesus actually fully died brings one to the realization that, in addition to misunderstanding the character of God, Christians have also misunderstood “the nature of God” (for lack of a better term), thinking that Scripture teaches God to be three people rather than one. Within Christianity it’s incredibly common to assume that one can’t be a true Christian without believing in the “orthodox” tradition known as the Trinity, which is ironic because not only is the Trinity a tradition that is completely contradicted by Scripture, but because belief in the Trinity actually keeps one from eonian life (since it means one hasn’t fully understood or believed Paul’s Gospel). The Bible teaches that, while there are many gods out there in the universe — it would be difficult for the Father to be the God of gods if there were no other gods out there to be the God of — there is only one Almighty God (who created all the other gods), who has no equals or co-equals. Can Almighty God have a God above Him? Everyone I’ve asked this question to has immediately and rightfully answered “no,” but Scripture tells us in many places that Jesus has a God — His Father — which means that, while as God’s icon He can use any title His Father has when representing God to us or when speaking on His Father’s behalf, He can’t actually be the Almighty God like His Father is since the Father is above Him, and nobody is above — or even beside, meaning equal to — Almighty God. And while it now (post-resurrection/vivification of Christ) might be technically accurate for certain people to call Jesus God (at least from a relative perspective, when He’s acting as God’s icon), or even for the rest of us to call Him a god, as far as those in the body of Christ are concerned we have only one God, the Father (in the passage where he tells us this, Paul is careful to differentiate Jesus Christ from God by saying Jesus is Lord for us instead, and by telling us that only the Father is to be understood as God, at least by those of us in the body of Christ), but not in all men is there this knowledge — in fact, practically not in all of Christendom is there this knowledge.
But even beyond the fact that the Trinity is simply illogical and unscriptural, as I mentioned already, the bigger problem is that one can’t even join the body of Christ while truly believing in this doctrine (because, again, it means they don’t believe Christ actually fully died for our sins, and was entombed, but that only His body did and was; God can’t die, so if one believes that Jesus is God, they can’t believe that Jesus truly died, nor can they believe that Jesus Himself was entombed), so I would posit that the reason it’s become one of the most important ideas in the Christian religion is because Satan wanted to make sure as few people as possible could become a part of the body of Christ and take his reign from him during the future eons.
In addition, it’s likely that belief in the Trinity keeps one from enjoying the sort of eonian life that one experiences under the Gospel of the Circumcision as well, since belief that Jesus is the Son of God is required for salvation under that Gospel, and the Trinity teaches that Jesus is “God the Son” (really nothing more than a title for a certain part of God; and yes, logically, that is what it has to mean, despite any protestations to the contrary by Trinitarians who might be familiar with the Christian creeds and the “orthodox” heresies declared by the supposed leaders of the religion) rather than the actual Son of God (Jesus can’t be both God and the Son of God at the same time, because that would make Him the son of Himself). Scripture speaks of the Son of God and the Spirit of God, but never “God the Son” or “God the Spirit.” Sadly, the true deity of God, and what this actually means, is a doctrine that has been lost to pretty much all of Christendom. It’s important to remember that Scripture puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, and on how one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God (particularly those saved under the Gospel of the Circumcision), so much so that claiming He has an identity not found in Scripture — “God the Son” — is teaching another Jesus.
Now, some like to claim that the Trinity is “a mystery” that isn’t meant for us to understand, but nowhere in Scripture do we find this assertion made, so they have no foundation on which to lay this claim. Besides, if the Trinity is a “mystery” that can’t be understood, what basis do we have for believing it in the first place? Was the idea that God is a Trinity prophetically told to be true to the trinitarians at Nicea (yet with how the concept is supposed to work, exactly, never actually being explained, as is made clear by the fact that nobody seems to be able to do so without resorting to teaching Modalism or other ideas that are considered heretical to “orthodox” Christians)? I don’t recall that claim ever being made by any Christians. In fact, the reason the doctrine of the Trinity came to be accepted by the Christian religion as truth is because the position won in a vote, not because any actual prophets at the Council of Nicea revealed the doctrine to be true, which means that trying to defend the doctrine by calling it a “mystery” doesn’t help the position at all. (Although, before moving on, I should quickly say that Trinitarians are right about one thing, which is that the Oneness doctrine, also known as Modalism, is incorrect; although not for the reasons they claim, but rather for the most important reason listed above that Trinitarianism is wrong: because it also denies Christ’s actual death and entombment.)
Ultimately, belief in any of these traditional “orthodox” doctrines seems to mean one hasn’t fully believed Paul’s Gospel and has not joined the body of Christ. Basically, if something is an important teaching or practice (or is considered to be an “orthodox” tradition) among the majority of the followers of the Christian religion, it’s generally safe to assume it’s a doctrine of demons and that the opposite is true instead (particularly if it’s a major tradition, doctrine, or practice taught by Rome — for whom never-ending torment, salvation based on a “free will” choice, the Trinity, and the immortality of the soul are all extremely important doctrines). While Jesus’ statement that “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” is likely referring specifically to the Gospel that Jesus was teaching to the Israel of God, it is still true that very few people, including Christians, ever join the body of Christ, so it likely still counts as a trans-administrational truth, which means that there’s no way a religion with as many followers as the Christian religion has — about a third of the human population of the planet — can possibly be the “narrow way” that few find, as I’ve mentioned before. Really, when it comes right down to it, there’s relatively little that the Institutional Church gets right about God or Scripture. Although some denominations do occasionally stumble upon parts of certain truths seemingly accidentally, it’s extremely rare, and no one denomination within Christianity ever seems to get more than a few things at most somewhat right — and even then, they rarely understand even a small portion of the full implications of the parts they sort of appear to grasp. It’s questionable whether one single member of the Institutional Church could ever give a satisfying, or even remotely biblical, explanation as to why God created humanity and allowed — or, really, arranged for — sin and evil to enter creation (when one studies the Scriptures concordantly, they discover that sin and evil didn’t derail God’s original intentions for the universe at all but are actually 100% necessary for the completion of His purposes, and that this is, in fact, exactly how God always operates). It seems (from a relative perspective, at least) that Satan works hard to keep people in these denominations from joining the body of Christ, and also to use these churches to keep the rest of the world from learning spiritual truth as well. Paul’s remonstration against Israel in his epistle to the Romans that, because of them, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the nations,” is today almost better applied to those in the Christian religion who give the world contradictory messages about God that keep people who think about these things from believing in such an apparently confused deity, telling people that God loves everyone unconditionally, as long as they meet certain conditions; that you are saved by grace alone and not by any actions of your own, as long as you act now and choose to become a Christian before you die; and that God is the Saviour of all humanity, yet will fail to save most of the humanity He’s supposedly the Saviour of, who will actually be tormented in hell without end (or will at least be burned up and permanently cease to exist if the Annihilationists are correct) rather than be saved. Thanks to these false expressions, those who are able to recognize the hypocrisy hear these things and think, “The god of the Christian religion says one thing but apparently means something else altogether, so why would we want anything to do with this seemingly dishonest deity and contradictory religion?”
That’s not to say all Christians who believe in salvation from never-ending punishment based on a choice we make will definitely miss out on eonian life, however (although a pretty large number of people who call themselves Christians very likely will). A few Christians might still experience life in the kingdom of heaven. It’s just that, due to their ignorance, those Christians are unknowingly under the Gospel of the Circumcision instead of the Uncircumcision. (Alternatively, they might end up in the kingdom based on how they treated believing Israelites during the Tribulation instead.)
In fact, while they’re definitely in harmful, authoritarian cults, and it’s doubtful that their leadership will be included in this based on that factor alone, there’s a possibility that certain lay-members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — more commonly known as Mormons — might actually end up living in the kingdom of heaven on earth (although they should still leave their cults if they can), since they do seem to qualify for salvation under the Gospel of the Circumcision as far as Romans 10:9-13 goes, and since they aren’t disqualified based on a Trinitarian belief, they might actually be believing in the true Jesus (yes, I know about the “pre-incarnation” beliefs about Jesus they hold to, but they believe He’s now actually the Son of God, which almost no actual Christian does), and do also follow up their faith with works, so while I’m not dogmatic about this, I personally suspect that a lot of Christians are going to be surprised when they find out who actually ends up living in the kingdom of heaven (as well as who ends up living in heaven itself, of course).
So, while Christians aren’t a part of the body of Christ and will miss out on celestial blessings in the next eon (and even in this eon), an extremely small number of them (along with the aforementioned cult members) might still get to enjoy the impending eon here on earth if they follow the requirements of their particular Gospel and don’t try to mix their Gospel with Paul’s Gospel, since it’s either one or the other. Just as the body of Christ is not Israel, those saved under the Gospel of the Uncircumcision aren’t the bride of Christ (and, in fact, the term “the bride of Christ” isn’t even a biblical one), and those under the Gospel of the Circumcision weren’t and aren’t a part of the body of Christ either. The justification of those in the body of Christ is quite different in nature from the justification of those the “Circumcision letters” were written to is as well. As Cornelius demonstrated in the book of Acts, even Gentiles can be saved under the Gospel of the Circumcision (no, he wasn’t saved under Paul’s Gospel, contrary to the assumptions that many who still don’t truly understand how to rightly divide mistakenly hold to, although it’s sometimes easy to understand why some might be confused). However, they might not experience the full blessings that Israelites saved under it will, so if they are able to believe the Gospel given to us by Paul instead, they’ll be much better off (and can stop trying to base their theology and churches on the Circumcision teachings). But as far as those of you who have now learned how to rightly divide the word of truth go, and know what salvation actually is (both sorts of salvation), you’re ready to also dig deeper into the rest of Scripture with a framework that will make it that much more clear what else the leaders of the Institutional Church might not have taught you thanks to their pre-existing assumptions about what Scripture says.
Before moving on to the next chapter, though, while their viewpoint won’t keep one from eonian life the way believing some of the other doctrines I mentioned above will, you should be aware that there is another deception leading even certain members of the body of Christ astray recently, some of whom some of whom I do link to in places in this book (because otherwise their teachings are pretty sound), and this deception is known as the Acts 28:28 movement (also known as Acts 28 Ultradispensationalism). Sadly, this teaching has caused no end of confusion among the body of Christ, and has also stolen the blessed hope of the Snatching Away from many, so it’s important to recognize it when we see it and realize that the dividing line is indeed mid-Acts (the correct view generally being known as Mid-Acts Hyperdispensationalism) rather than Acts 28 (or Acts 2, as most traditional Dispensationalists believe), so please read the articles linked to in this paragraph to learn why this doctrine is incorrect as well.