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priests completely MISunderstood
Jesus' Gospel Message. They
knew He proclaimed a Govern–
ment that would take over and rule
ALL NATIONS of the earth. What
they MISunderstood was the TIME
and NATURE of that Kingdom of
God. They assumed Jesus was a
subversive, intending Himself, im–
mediately in His human lifetime,
to overthrow the Roman Empire
and set up His own Kingdom.
Jmmediately they feared being
accused of sedition and disloyalty,
losing their jobs and probably being
executed as subversives. So they
opposed and denounced Jesus.
The world has really never
understood this basic reason for
Pharisaical opposition and perse–
cution of Jesus. The Pharisees
included unscrupulous politi–
cians.
At the time of the first Pass–
over to occur during Jesus' minis–
try, the spring of A.D. 28 (almost
exactly 100 time cycles- 1,900
years- before 1 kept my first
Passover), Jesus went up to Jeru–
salem for the Passover.
While there, a notable Phari–
see named Nicodemus carne to
see Jesus secretly by night . He
feared having fellow Pharisees
know he had talked personally
with Jesus.
Nicodemus said, "Rabbi, we
know [we Pharisees know] thou
art a teacher come from God."
The Pharisees KNEW J Esus
WAS THE MESSIAH! They were
familiar with lsaiah 7:14, lsaiah
9:6-1,
lsaiah 53. The Pharisees
KNEW Jesus was the prophesied
Messiah. But the·y understood
only one Messianic appearance.
So they supposed He was plan–
ning to overthrow the Roman
Empire
then!
Of course Jesus knew what
they were thinking. So He
Jaunched immediately into the
fact that the KINGDOM OF Goo,
ruling all nations, could not be set
up
VNTJL
the time of the NEW
SPIRIT BIRTH-the time of the
RESURRECTION!
Jesus answered immediately,
" Verily, veri ly 1 say unto thee,
except a man be born again he
cannot see the kingdom of
God."
42
But Nicodemus did not under–
stand this. He knew that being
born again was an actual BIRTH–
parturition from the womb of the
mother. Today's theologians do
not know even that!
Nicodemus said, " How can a
man be born when he is old? can
he enter the second time into his
mother's womb and be born?"
Jesus now made the meaning
PLAIN-but Nicodemus did not
receive His PLAINNESS of speech,
nor do theologians or religious
leaders today.
"Verily, verily," replied Jesus,
"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 /S
FLESH;
and that which is born
of the
~pirit
/S
SPIRIT"
(em–
phasis mine- John 3:5-6).
The Pharisees knew about
water baptism. They had used it
for years in converting gentile
proselytes to Judaism. They knew
of John the Baptist's baptism-a
baptism of repentance " for the
remission of sins" (Mark 1:4).
Jesus' meaning should have been
PLAIN to N icodemus- that water
baptism was an initiatory rite pre–
paratory to the start of being
BORN of the Spirit.
Jesus made it doubly PLAIN
when He said, "That which is
born of the fl esh /S flesh." That
which is born of humans ISmortal
HUMAN-composed of flesh and
blood-composed of MATTER
from the ground. That which is
born of the Spirit /S SPIRIT-no
longer human but composed of
SPIRIT, immortal! No longer com–
posed of matter or ftesh.
Jesus explained even further.
"Marvel not that 1 said unto
thee, Ye must be born again."
Then He compared one born
again to INVISIBLE WIND-ÍnVÍS–
ible to human eyes. "The wind
blows where it wills, and you hear
the sound of it, but you do not
know whence it comes or whither
it goes; so it is with every one who
is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8,
Revised Standard Version) .
But Nicodemus d id not under–
stand such plainness of speech,
nor do religious leaders today!
Our free booklet
What Do You
Mean, Born Again?
should be
read by every reader of this
book.
To this representative of the
Pharisees Jesus referred to the
"salvation" or "spiritual" phase
of the Kingdom of God.
That
Kingdom wi/1 NOT be composed
of mortal humans!
It
is NOT
composed of mortal flesh -and–
blood persons who have "ac–
cepted Christ" and joined a
church of their choice! Yet mil–
lions of church members are
deceived about that today.
These millions of church mem–
bers do not understand WHAT the
Church
/S,
nor WHY-its PUR–
POSE- the REASON for it!
Compare Jesus' explanation to
Nicodemus with the "Resur–
rection c hapter" of the Bible,
1 Corinthians 15: "And so it is
written, The first man Adam was
made a living [mortal] soul, the
last Adam was made a quickening
spi ri t. Howbeit that was not first
which is spi ritual , but that which
is natural; and afterward that
which is spiritual. The first man
is of the earth, earthy: the second
man is the Lord from heaven. As
is the earthy, such are they also
that are earthy; as is the heavenly
such are they also that are heav–
enly. And as we have borne the
image of the earthy, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this 1 say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the
Kingdom of God ..."
(1
Corin–
thians 15:45-50) .
lt was shown in chapter 6 that
the Kingdom of God is NOT the
Church. It is to be the world–
ruling FAMILY OF Goo, ruling
earthwide with the GOVERNMENT
OF Goo!
It
will be a Kingdom of
IMMORTALS!
1 repeat again and again, Goo
IS REPRODUCING HIMSELF!
The popular teaching in church–
es today is that THE CHURCH is the
Kingdom of God. But "flesh and
blood [mortal humans] cannot
inherit the Kingdom of God"
(1
Corinthians 15:50).
But
WHAT
then , /S the
Church? And
WHY
i s the
CHURCH! Why should there be
the Church of God? o
(To be continued)
The
PLAIN TRUTH