Who/what is the bride of Christ? 

 

 

 

A bride keeps herself pure and betrothed to one man/husband, engaged to him before the wedding day. A whore or prostitute sleeps with the richest and moves on and on, never satisfied trying to fill a void likened unto a bottomless pit never content and wanton. In the last days the man of Sin of (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4), will raise himself up above all that is worshipped; so that he as God will sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is god (2Thes 2:4), saying that he is the Messiah, which fallen Israel who rejected Christ Jesus their true husband will accept, apart from a small number of elect being set apart in the day of Jacobs trouble: I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive (John 5:43).  The scriptures are designed by God to call His people into the promised seed of the woman (Jesus the Messiah) and out of false religions which are leading to the man of Sin who will shortly appear on the world scene. Jesus the messiah/Christ who was and is the Messiah that the scriptures testify of (John 5:39), the anointed one that was spoken of by Moses and the prophets of old: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27); Jesus of Nazareth who came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23). Who was born of a Virgin:  Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us (Mat 1:23), Jesus died on the cross: And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots (Mat 27:35).  as the spotless lamb of God who died to take away the sins of the world past present and future: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and who on the third day rose from the grave and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures (1Co 15:4). with a resurrection body: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead (Acts 10:40-41). That whoever believes in Him shall not perish and return to the dust of the earth and then cast into the fire:  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). 

 

 

What does it mean to be born again?

 

 

 

 John chapter 3 is the first mention of "born again" in the Bible as spoken by Jesus while teaching Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee. The “traditional Jewish understanding” of the promise of salvation was that being rooted in "the seed of Abraham" Matthew 3:7-12, referred to physical lineage from Abraham. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that this was not so—that every person must have two births—the natural birth of the physical body, the other of the water and the Spirit.

 

John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

 

This discourse with Nicodemus established the Biblical belief that all of mankind—whether Jew or Gentile—must be "born again" of the spiritual seed of Christ in order to understand His word. The Apostle Peter further reinforced this understanding:

 

1Peter 1:23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

 

Jesus used the metaphorical corn of wheat to explain the principles of what it means to be born from above as He always did through Parables for this reason, that only those who are born of God will understand them...

 

Mat 13:14-16  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

 

We were born once in the flesh by the will of man but a second birth has to occur in us in the spirit: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). Flesh and blood cannot stand before God nor inherit God’s kingdom (1Cor 15:50), because of our fallen sin nature which we have all inherited through Adam (Romans 5:12). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God but only those who have been born of God’s Spirit. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit in corruption (1Co 15:50). If we are not born again from above we will not see (John 3:3), nor enter (John 3:5), the kingdom of God, except we are born of water and of the Spirit.

 

 

What is earthly will return to the earth and what is heavenly will return to heaven. The first man Adam, was made from the dust of the earth and from there his body will return. Not annihilated as some cults teach but awaiting the great white throne judgment at the end of time.

 

Rev 20:11-15  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

 The second man, the Lord Jesus Christ, came from heaven and was made a quickening spirit (1Corinthians 15:45) and there He/Jesus has returned and all those that have not died in their sin: I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins (John 8:24). The earth rejected Jesus because He was not from her at His death and therefore was resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit as those who are in Him shall also. Believers in Christ Jesus have already been judged at the pint when they understood the cross

 

 

Gal 3:11  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.