The word Gospel is not found ONCE in the Gospel of John. True or False? Please take a moment to respond at

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And now the answer to the LLM Question of 7-24-2011

Question: God had no Gentile Apostles. True or False?

Answer: TRUE! All of the Apostles were Jews! And out of the 679 responses we received 66.7% of you got it right! Therefore,

Today let us consider, A Study of the Epistle of James, pt. 3 of 3

All of these unscriptural Pastors, Preachers, and teachers who tell their disciples to look to the atonement for the healing of diseases….will die, if Christ does not come back within a reasonable time. Would they die, if healing of the body were in the atonement? No!

A child of God is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. He is a child of God because of the atoning work of Christ. And therefore, the “all things” that every believer has in Christ are because of His atoning work. But the theory of healing in the atonement as taught by the modern healers in the Church is absolute heresy.

Surely every true Christian believes in earnest prayer for the sick and should pray that God will bless every means that is being used to bring about the recovery of that sick one. Moreover, hundreds of God's people have been raised up from serious illness in answer to the prayers of God's Faithful children even after physicians have abandoned all hope. If THIS is what is meant by “Divine healing,” surely every sensible Christian believes in Divine healing.

However, the common “healing” heresy with which the Body of Christ is today troubled is that the miraculous sign healing of Yahuwshua of Nazareth and His apostles is still God's order for the Body of Christ, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” By “Divine healing” then in this heresy, is meant “spiritual healing of physical diseases,” without material remedies; other than anointing with oil.

There are several verses of Scripture which are often emphasized to support the claim of these people; but before we quote these verses we call your attention to the different words translated “sick” in this fifth chapter of James.

Is any sick? The word here used is “Astheneia”, literally, “without strength.” The very same word is used in Roman 5:6, “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Look what it says, when we were yet sick, soul-sick, sin-sick. And then in Isaiah, “The whole head is sick.” Isaiah 1:5. The prayer of Faith shall save the sick, and the word used is ”Kamno”, meaning “weary or tired from toil.” I will leave it to you to explain the why of this change of words.

Now, for the several verses, so often used in healing circles today:

“That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:17.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:17-18.

“By whose stripes ye are healed.” 1 Peter 2:24.

Now the last statement is explained by the other words of the verse in which it is found and has NO reference whatever to the body. This verse in the Apostle Peter's epistle we shall refer to as we proceed to study the statement in Matthew.

“Himself Took Our Infirmities, and Bare Our Sicknesses” Matthew 8:17. Yahuwshua of Nazareth was a man, approved of God by miracles and wonders and signs in the midst of Israel. Acts 2:22. However, “The Mystery among the Gentiles.” “Christ IN you the hope of glory” is quite different. Colossians 1:27.

“The Word was God”, Christ was in the form of God. The Word became flesh, which was ANOTHER form. The form of a servant, a Man, and a Jew. However, NOW, He is the resurrected God-Man; GLORIFIED. The same Person, but three different forms.

Healing the sick was a part of the Kingdom program of Yahuwshua of Nazareth. Two Greek words, “bear” or “bare”, are used in the New Testament Scriptures: “Anaphero” and “Bastazo.” Bare our sickness is “bastazo.” However, “Bare our sin in His own body on the tree” is ”anaphero.” 1 Peter 2:24. This Greek word “anaphero” is used only one other time in the Scriptures, as bear. “So Christ was once offered to bear (anaphero) the sins of many.” Hebrews 9:28.

These two verses speak very definitely of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary. For what? For SINS. Never is there any suggestion that Christ died for the believer's sicknesses. But time, and time again do the Scriptures say in many different statements that Christ died for our sins.

“Bastazo” is used many times in the Scriptures; Matthew 3:11, “bearing shoes”; Luke 11:27, John 12:6, Luke 14:27, John 16:12, “bear the saying of Christ”; Acts 9:15, Galatians 6:2, Romans 15:1 “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.”

How does one Christian bear the infirmities of another? Certainly not by making atonement; not by dying. Again, “Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” One law of Christ is the law of life for believers because of His death and resurrection. We have not power to lay down our lives and take them up again. This “bear” is the same “bear” used in Matthew 8:17.

Does this explain the expression: “Greater Works Than These Shall He Do; Because I Go To My Father.” John 14:12. Yahuwshua of Nazareth fed five thousand hungry people with half a pound of food. What Christian has fed more than that number with the same number of loaves and fishes? What Christian has calmed the storm? What Christian has walked on the water? What Christian has turned water into wine by miracle? What Christian has died on a cross and abolished death and destroyed him that had the power of death; that is the devil? What Christian has said goodbye to his earthly companions and gone to heaven in a body?

All of the people whom Jesus Christ healed afterward died of the same, or some other, physical ailment. The death rate of the human race, saint and sinner alike, is still one apiece, regardless of the method of healing employed.

Ten lepers were healed by Yahuwshua at one time. Luke 17:14. To the only one who returned to him to praise God, He said, “Thy Faith hath made thee whole.” Were the others saved men? Surely not!

Some hours after Jesus gave sight to the blind man in John 9, He said to the man, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” The man said, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” “It is He that talketh with thee.” He said, “I believe and worshipped Him” John 9:35-38.

To the man sick of the palsy Yahuwshua said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee”, before he healed his infirmity. By the way, where is the Christian who can do a greater work than forgive sin? It is a far greater work to get a man saved from the damnation of hell than to get him healed of fever or rheumatism. By the way, this is the only case where Jesus healed sickness AFTER forgiving the sinner his sins. This case of the palsied man.

Yet, some of the healing preachers today are telling their hearers that they must accept the sacrifice of Christ for soul salvation before they can have physical healing. Is this according to the way Christ and His apostles healed? What saith the Scriptures!

Those who are doing “the greater works” today should not insist that sick people be saved before they can have Divine healing. If they are to prove that Ya-hweh Yahuwshua, the LORD Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today and forever by duplicating his miraculous works and thus demonstrating His Deity in the realm of natural science, they should not CHANGE the order He followed when here in the midst of the Jews; the Jews who require a sign. God’s “sign people”.

And these “miracle workers” should give to the skeptic public the right to choose the character of miracle to be performed; if they are to be convinced of the Deity of Christ by those who are doing the greater works. One will say, “feed five thousand hungry people with these few loaves and fishes, and I will believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Another says, “My brother died four days ago. I prefer to have him raised.” By the way, was it because of Lazarus' Faith that he was raised???

The miraculous sign healing of Christ and His apostles is quite different from the healing of Epaphroditus. Miraculous sign healing CEASED after the Apostle Paul said, “The Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles.” Acts 28:28. Otherwise he would not have told faithful Timothy to take wine for his oft sicknesses. 1 Timothy 5:23. This was not due to Timothy's lack of the Faith. The Apostle Paul praised him for his wonderful Faith. 2 Timothy 1:5.

There is another verse to be explained along with this one, “To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:9. The only sane and sure method of Scripture interpretation is to study Scripture in the light of other Scriptures. Violation of this principle will produce unbelief or fanaticism. We submit several facts for light on these Scriptures:

No GENTILE Christian ever had hands laid upon him for any purpose in the Christian Church, so far as the Bible record is concerned.

There is not one scriptural reference to one miracle performed by the hands of one GENTILE. God had no Gentile healing servants.

We quote Hebrews 4:4: “God also bearing (them) witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.” Read this last phrase, because there are certain false prophets who are teaching the people they ought not to say, “if it be God's will.” The miracles with which God witnessed the Apostleship of the Galileans who came down with Jesus to Jerusalem were “divers.” (diverse) Acts 13:31. The Hebrew Christians to whom this epistle of James was written were NOT performing healing miracles.

Miracles were the signs of an Apostle. 2 Cor. 12:12. God had no Gentile Apostles.

With the exception of Philip in Samaria where, “the people hearing and seeing the miracles which he did” and the case of Stephen who “did great wonders and miracles” among the Jews; either the Apostle Peter or the Apostle Paul was present in EVERY case of sign or miraculous healing in the Church mentioned in the Bible after the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul was permitted by God to perform a miracle similar to each miracle performed by the Apostle Peter. Ask yourselves, WHY?

Sign healing was general. There was no hit and miss proposition with either Christ or His Apostles. Therefore the healing movements of today are not genuine. Here’s what the Scriptures say, “And healed all that were sick.” Matthew 8:16; “Healing every sickness and every disease.” Matthew 9:35; “He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them.” Luke 4:40; “The shadow of Peter.” “And they were healed every one.” Acts 5:16.

One of the modern healers whose nefarious traffic is being supported by some splendid Christians, whom he has deceived, or rather whom Satan has, failed with about nineteen out of twenty of the poor unfortunate deluded victims who responded to his invitation at the close of one of his services. And he too supports his healing with, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”; and CONTRARY to the plain instruction of the Apostle James, the minister of the circumcision, he uses oil on Gentiles.

And here is Satan’s TRAP! Just think of the reaction when those who think these healing preachers know the Bible and are preaching true Biblical Christianity, find that the healing is but a foolish theory and sorcery, and then many of them will reason that Christ's atonement for the soul is also a false doctrine.

May God help every true saint to stand firmly AGAINST these healing heresies in this day of apostasy, and say with the Apostle Paul, concerning Satan, “We are not ignorant of his devices.”

Fully trust the LORD in health and in sickness and know that all things work together for good to the Faithful child of God. And be ready to say with the Apostle Paul, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Cor. 12:9. “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Cor. 4:16. BUT, are you willing to say: “The LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21.

Now, let me close this 3 part series of messages with this: Mental Science has long since passed the experimental stage, Psychology has worked wonders with many people. Truly there are many imaginary cures of real ills, and many real cures of imaginary ills, Psychic healing. Satan put sickness upon Job. He bound a daughter of Abraham for many years. he said, “all that a man hath will he give for his life” Can Satan perform miracles? Can Satan heal? Now go read 2 Thessalonians 2:7-11.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short

Some time ago there was an evangelist who announced that he was going to speak on The Fifth Gospel. He read Romans 2:16, Romans 16:25, and 2 Timothy 2:8, in which verses the Apostle Paul called the Gospel “My Gospel.” Then said the evangelist, “if you insist upon calling Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, “The Four Gospels,” I will call Paul’s Gospel, “The Fifth Gospel.”

So just as “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” has been erroneously called “The Revelation of Saint John the Divine,” the Apostle John’s Record of the life and ministry, the sayings and doings, the death and resurrection of the Eternal, Divine, Omnipotent, Omniscient, sinless LORD Jesus Christ has been erroneously called, “The Gospel of John.”

Some theologians and Bible expositors tell us that in John’s Record we have a combination of “the Gospel of the Kingdom” and “the Gospel of the Grace of God.” But most of them THEN say that there is NO difference between “the Gospel of the Kingdom” and “the Gospel of the Grace of God.”

It is very interesting to note that the word ‘Kingdom’ is found in three verses in John’s Record: John 3:3, and John 3:5, and John 18:36. And that the word ‘Grace’ is also found in three verses: John 1:14, and John 1:16, and John 1:17. But what may be a surprise to many is the fact that the word ‘Gospel’ is not found ONCE in John’s Record.

The LORD directed John to write five Messages or Books; namely, the so called “Gospel of John,” his three Epistles, and “The Revelation.” In the first four of these Books the word ‘Gospel’ is not found; and only once in “The Revelation.” In Revelation 14:6 a very strange evangelist is preaching “the everlasting Gospel,” (an angel in the midst of heaven). The minister of Christ is supposed to be, expected to be, a Faithful steward of the Mysteries of God. (1 Corinthians 4:1-4). The minister of Christ who contends that the “everlasting Gospel” of Revelation is the same as “the Gospel of the Grace of God” (Acts 20:24), which was given by special revelation from the RISEN Christ to the Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:11-12; Ephesians 3:1-3), is certainly NOT a steward of the Mysteries of God, but rather a workman who needeth to be ashamed because he does not rightly divide the Word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15).

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM vs. THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD

We have mentioned above the fact that the word ‘Gospel’ is not used in John’s Record; that the word ‘Grace’ is found in only three verses; and the word ‘Kingdom’ is found in only three verses. What we want to know is this: According to the documentary evidence, the written Message which the Holy Spirit directed John to write, what Gospel IS presented in John’s Record?

We may, of course, turn to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and learn what Gospel Christ and His apostles preached during the years of the public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God by miracles and signs in the midst of Israel. (Acts 2:22). We learn in Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, and Matthew 10:5-8, that John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and the twelve apostles ALL preached: “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then read in Mark 1:14-15: “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the Gospel.” We read in Matthew 4:23 and Matthew 9:35, “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom,’ and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

In Matthew 10:3-8 and in Luke 9:1-6 we learn that the LORD Jesus instructed and empowered His twelve Apostles to preach the same Gospel and to perform the same miracles. But let us keep in mind the truth of Matthew 15:24 and Matthew 10:5-7; that the LORD Jesus plainly stated: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, and, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Years after the LORD Jesus had died, resurrected, and gone back to heaven, He appeared to the Apostle Paul in the temple in a vision and said. “I will send thee far hence to the Gentiles.” (Acts 22:17-22). Several years later Paul testified, in Romans 15:8 and Romans 15:16-21, that Jesus Christ, while here in the flesh, was a Minister of the circumcision with a ministry and message which was in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, but that he, Paul, was a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

In this same Epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul declared that there was NO difference between the Jew and the Gentile (Romans 10:12-13); that salvation was sent to Gentiles when and because of the ‘FALL’ and ‘CASTING AWAY’ and ‘DIMINISHING’ of Israel. (Romans 11:11-15). (Romans 11:30). Reconciliation and Divine mercy were offered to the Gentiles. Then the Apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) wrote; “the Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). He wrote, in Romans 16:25, that members of the Body of Christ were to be established by “MY Gospel”, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery kept secret since the beginning of the world. (Romans 16:25).

Surely we recognize a most radical change between the day the LORD Jesus instructed the twelve apostles to go to Israel, preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, AND, the day the RISEN, glorified Christ instructed the Apostle Paul to proclaim the Grace of God at hand for all men and to establish members of the Body of Christ with Divine truth NOT mentioned or contemplated by Old Testament prophets.

Surely every spiritual, intelligent, Spirit taught member of the Body of Christ knows that Israel is God’s ‘Kingdom’ nation. They should know that God’s spiritual program for the human race, for Jew and Gentile, CHANGED when and because God set aside His ‘Kingdom’ nation (albeit temporarily); that, when and because of that great change, God ushered in “The Dispensation of the Grace of God for Gentiles,” which Paul called “The Mystery of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:1-3). But now back to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

In 19 of the 27 Books from Matthew to Revelation the word ‘Gospel’ is found 104 times, (yes, I counted). Then the Greek word translated ‘Gospel’ is translated several times ‘glad tidings.’ In 8 of the 27 Books the word ‘Gospel’ is not found. In ALL of the Apostle Paul’s Epistles he mentions ‘Gospel,’ except in Titus. Yet in Titus the wonderful, glorious, blessed, Gospel of Salvation by Grace, without works or religion, is presented. Any spiritual, intelligent, Spirit-led student of the Scriptures who will compare the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, from Matthew 4:23 to Matthew 8:5, “the Gospel of the Kingdom” and the more than fifty religious requirements and obligations in these Scriptures, with Titus 3:3-8, should certainly say, “what a difference between the two Gospels!”

The New Testament Scriptures have much to say concerning “the Kingdom.” The word “Kingdom” is found 155 times in these 27 Books. In the Apostle Paul’s Epistles he mentions “the Kingdom of God” 12 times and “the Kingdom of Christ” 4 times. In Paul’s Epistles we learn that members of the Body of Christ inherit “the Kingdom of God and of Christ” (Ephesians 5:5); that members of the Body of Christ have been transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love. (Colossians 1:13-14).

In the Apostle John’s Record we find the words of the LORD Jesus to Nicodemus, recorded in John 3:3 and John 3:5, that no person can see or enter the Kingdom of God without regeneration; that the person who BELIEVES in Christ, Who was lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, is born from above, born anew, born of the Spirit, born of water. (John 3:6-15). Aside from John 3:3 and John 3:5 the only other verse in John in which we find the word ‘Kingdom’ is John 18:36. In this verse we have the words of Christ spoken to the heathen judge, Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world: If My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My Kingdom not from hence.”

Ok, but now here, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we find the word ‘Kingdom’ 119 times, in 119 verses. In Matthew we find the ‘Kingdom’ mentioned 55 times in 55 verses. In the first 13 chapters of Matthew we read much about “the Gospel of the Kingdom,” about “the Kingdom of Heaven.” We have in the 14th chapter 7 ‘Kingdom’ parables. In the 6th chapter we have the ‘Our Father’ prayer, with the petition, “Thy Kingdom come.” In the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Matthew we find the “Beatitudes,” “the Sermon on the Mount,” the “Golden Rule.” In those chapters we find more than 50 commands of Christ, including various religion ceremonies and ordinances given for the obedience and practice of Christ’s disciples and other Israelites.

Now by way of comparison and contrast, from John 1-13 of John’s Record, we find NOTHING of the sayings and doings of Christ, His Apostles, and other Israelites WHICH are recorded in Matthew 1-13, EXCEPT in the thirteen chapters of Matthew and the thirteen chapters of John the record of the life and ministry and message of John the Baptist, which was FOR Israel. (Luke 1:16; Luke 1:80; Acts 13:24; Acts 18:25; Acts 19:4).

Even in this recorded ministry of John the Baptist more than 50% of the facts related in John’s Record are NOT recorded in Matthew. Matthew mentions the name ‘JOHN’ 26 times; 23 times referring to John the Baptist, 3 times to the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee. More than 70% of what Matthew tells us concerning John the Baptist is NOT found in John’s Record. John mentions the name ‘JOHN’ 20 times in his Record; all 20 times referring to John the Baptist. The Apostle John does not mention himself by the name ‘JOHN’ in his Gospel or in his three Epistles; but he does 5 times in Revelation. In John’s Record the Apostle John calls himself, “one of the disciples whom Jesus loved,” “that disciple whom Jesus loved,” “that other disciple.” And this is very interesting: inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is presenting, in John’s Record, the eternal Incarnate Word as the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (Hebrews 3:1), the disciples of Christ are NOT called ‘apostles’ in John’s Record.

Again by way of comparison and contrast, whereas in Matthew, the LORD Jesus imposed upon His disciples and other Israelites more than 50 ceremonies, religious observances and commands, (which had their rightful place under the reign of Law), the principal thing that the disciples and other Israelites were to do in John’s Record was to “BELIEVE.” The word “BELIEVE” is found 100 times in John’s Record. We do learn in John 3:22, in just one short verse, that the disciples of Jesus were baptizing. We do not have any record of what they preached or what they were told to preach, as we have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In John’s Record we do not have any mention of miracles performed by the 12, as we do in the other three Records.

Instead of laying down the law to Israelites as in the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule and the Kingdom parables, we read these words in John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto Him (Jesus), What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye BELIEVE in Him Whom He hath sent.” Then in John 16:7-10 we learn that the Holy Spirit was to be sent to convict condemned sinners of the sin of unbelief; “because they believe not on Me (Christ).” The Holy Spirit was to convict or reprove them of righteousness, because Christ was going back to His Father. (John 16:10). Here we might mention the fact that this future ‘righteousness’ in John 16:10 is the only mention of ‘righteousness’ in John’s Record. Salvation is mentioned just once, in the words Jesus spoke to the woman in Samaria; “Salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22). Jesus is called ‘Saviour’ just once in John’s Record, and that by Samaritans, who were saved during Christ’s visit to their city: “we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” (John 4:42).

We certainly learn in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that sin is the transgression of the Law. But in John’s Record we read the words of Christ, “if ye BELIEVE not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins”, and, “he that BELIEVETH in Him (Christ) is not condemned; but he that BELIEVETH not is condemned already, because he hath not BELIEVED in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 8:24 and John 3:18).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short