በኮቪድ-19 እና በዓለም አቀፉ የመላላኪያ አገልግሎት መዛባት ምክንያት ‹ነጻ የታተመ መጽሐፍ አገልግሎታችንን› ለጊዜው አቋርጠናል፡፡
በዚህ ሁኔታ ምክንያት በዚህ ጊዜ መጽሐፎቻችንን ለእናንተ መላክ አንችልም፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
Subject 27 : God's letters to us in the age of coronavirus
[27-6] Your Faith Is What Can Launch the Reformation of This Era ( Galatians 1:1-12 )
( Galatians 1:1-12 )
“Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me,
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
“Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me,
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ’s Gospel Word of the Water and the Spirit Is the Hope of Humanity
This world has now entered into the age of destruction and famine. We know intuitively in our everyday lives that the day of destruction is not far away for mankind, as we face worsening natural disasters stemming from climate change, famine, diseases, diplomatic conflicts, and security threats. It is said that tightrope walkers place all their expectations on the rope, for they know that they would die if the rope were to break. People throughout the world are like these tightrope walkers. Humanity is walking into a dense fog, unable to see even an inch ahead and without any guarantee for the future. In times like these, there is One who has shone mankind with the light of salvation and a single ray of hope, and His name is none other than Jesus Christ, who bore the sins of mankind through His baptism and has made the believers God’s own people. Humanity’s hope rests on this God, Jesus Christ, who has delivered everyone from sin.
Human beings are now living in an age when it is impossible to have any hope for the future without Jesus Christ. The blessings of the remission of your sins and mine are now found in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of the remission of sins that Jesus gave to mankind in AD 1-33. I believe that the true remission of sins for everyone comes by the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us. It is absolutely important for you to realize now that you must exit from the syncretic, religious gospel created by Constantine. From AD 313 to this day in 2022, we had all been deceived by the liars. Through His baptism, Jesus Christ bore all the sins of every sinner ever committed until the last day of humanity on this earth, and He has blotted them out once and for all with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. It is therefore our sincere hope and prayer that all human beings would believe in this gospel Word, and thereby find God’s grace to receive the remission of sins and be born again.
People all over the world ought to think of its impending end and live accordingly, placing their hope on the fact that the unbound blessings of salvation are found in our Lord Jesus Christ’s gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Even at this very moment, all human beings can still be delivered if they pin the hope of salvation on the baptism of our Lord and His death. Believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of the washing of sins that Jesus Christ has permitted to all of us, we must live with the hope of Heaven. We can see a brighter future only if we place our great hope on the remission of sins that Jesus Christ has given us.
Jesus Christ Is the Savior of Humanity
In Galatians 1:1 from today’s Scripture reading, the Apostle Paul says that he became an apostle neither through men nor by learning from them the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that washed away sins, but only by the revelation of God our Father who had sent Jesus Christ to this earth and raised Him from the dead.
It’s important for us to understand why the Apostle Paul called Jesus “our Lord Jesus Christ” in Galatians 1:3 instead of just Jesus. We need to think carefully about why the Apostle Paul spoke of Jesus as “Christ.” The Epistle that Paul begins with the name “Christ” carries a profound meaning. We should realize that whenever the Apostle Paul speaks of “Christ,” it is predicated on the fact that Jesus has the office of the High Priest of Heaven, and it also means that He is the King of kings, the true Prophet, and the Savior.
In the Bible, the word “Christ” means, first of all, “to be anointed.” There are only three occasions in which anointing of the head takes place in the Scripture: first, when there is a new king; second, when a High Priest is ordained; and third, when a prophet is raised. In the Old Testament, when a High Priest was appointed, a large horn was filled with oil and this oil was poured on the head of the person assuming the office of the High Priest.
The word Christ—that is, to be anointed—speaks of the three offices and roles that the Son of God assumed when He came to this earth. The anointed in the Bible took on gravely important duties, and that is why they were anointed, to indicate that they were to fulfill such duties entrusted by God.
Jesus Christ came to this earth entrusted with these three offices of the King, the High Priest, and the Prophet, and He fulfilled His duties to save all those who are now living in this world from their sins. The name Christ means that He has saved the sinners of this world from all their sins through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. As the “anointed One,” He fulfilled the three offices denoted by His name.
The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of God,” and this Spirit is given to all those in this age who have received the washing of their sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. We should never forget the fact that God gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who receive the remission of sins into their hearts.
Jesus “Christ” is the Savior anointed by God the Father to fulfill His three offices on this earth. When Jesus Christ came to this world, He was baptized by John the Baptist according to the will of His Father to bear the sins of the world on His own body. Jesus did this to fulfill His duties as the High Priest of Heaven. We should not forget that it is through the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist that He bore the sins of this world, and He has thereby become our High Priest. It was to blot out the sins of mankind once and for all that Jesus had come looking for John the Baptist to be baptized by him. In AD 30, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, all the sins of this world were passed on to His head, and the will of God was thus fulfilled for mankind.
In AD 30, long before we were even born, Jesus accepted the sins of mankind on His own body through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He was able to save us the believers by shedding His blood on the Cross. By coming to earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, and giving up His body on the Cross, Jesus was able to fulfill the purpose for which He had come as the High Priest of Heaven and carry out His duties.
Jesus came to this earth as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven to deliver His people from the sins of the world into which they had fallen. As the High Priest of Heaven, Jesus went looking for John the Baptist, the earthly representative who would fulfill his duties as the High Priest of the earth, and He told him that it was right for Him to bear the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. It is written, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). To save His people from their sins, Jesus bore all the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and that is how He could wash them all away. Jesus Christ is the High Priest of Heaven who, having been baptized by John the Baptist, gave up His body on the Cross to pay off all the wages of the sins of mankind.
Therefore, as the Lord Jesus has fulfilled His duties as the High priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, we must all accept the grace of the washing of sins that He is offering to whoever believes in Him, and thereby reach salvation from all our sins to enter Heaven. We will otherwise end up in hell, which is reserved only for sinners. This is because Jesus, in fulfilling His ministry as our Christ, bore all the sins of mankind through His baptism and laid down His life on the Cross to pay off the wages of the sins of humanity. This occurred in AD 33. It was around 2,000 years ago, long before we were born, that Jesus received the baptism through which He bore all the sins of mankind on His own body.
As such, if you accept into your heart the washing of your sins by believing now in the Word of the baptism and death of Jesus, the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, you will be saved from all your sins. This also means that all your sins were already passed on to Jesus 2,000 years ago, since that is when Jesus actually shouldered them through His baptism. It is absolutely indispensable for us to believe in the Truth that Jesus was baptized around 2,000 years ago to bear your sins and mine, and to thus receive the washing of sins into our hearts.
To be more precise, Jesus the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven personally bore all the sins of this world on His own body through His baptism 1,989 years ago and died on the Cross, and we the believers in this Truth of salvation have received the remission of sins into our hearts by believing in this righteousness of God wholeheartedly. Do you understand this now? It is crystal-clear that through His baptism, Jesus bore all the sins of this world, from the sins of Adam the first man to the sins of the last man of history, and that is why we have reached salvation from all our sins through faith today. Therefore, because your sins and mine were all remitted away once and for all thanks to the baptism of Jesus and His blood, it is through our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we have received the remission of sins.
Now, for all of us, it is only by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we are saved from all our sins. To save mankind from all sins, Jesus came to this earth looking for us with the office of the “High Priest of Heaven.” He then went to see John the Baptist, the only man on this earth who could minister as the High Priest of humanity, and the Lord was baptized by him. At the time of this baptism, Jesus accepted all the sins of mankind on to His own body, and then gave up His body on the Cross. In doing so, He made Himself the true sacrificial offering of all His believers, and thereby became their Savior.
Because Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world on His body by being baptized when He came to this earth, He fulfilled the God-established law decreeing that “the wages of sins is death.” He is the Savior who has thereby brought salvation to us. To bear the condemnation of the sins of mankind according to the Old Testament’s Word of prophecy, Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, died on the Cross for these sins, and rose from the dead again. He is the Savior who has thus completely fulfilled His duties as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For the salvation of sinners, God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to this world; and Christ, by bearing all the sins of mankind through His baptism and dying in their place, has brought true salvation to all those who believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation. Jesus has fulfilled our salvation perfectly so that we the believers in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit may be saved from all our sins and become God’s holy children. That is why the Apostle Paul is praising God in today’s Scripture passage, saying, “To whom be glory forever and ever.”
What Is the Different Gospel That the Apostle Paul Speaks Of?
In Galatians 1:6, the Apostle Paul explains what a “different gospel” is, saying, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel.” The phrase here, “turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ,” refers to those who deny that Jesus fulfilled His duties as the High Priest of Heaven completely. By washing away all the sins of mankind once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and by dying on the Cross, Jesus Christ has opened the gate of Heaven. Therefore, those who forsake this gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and try to be saved from their sins by adding their own fleshly work, such as circumcision, are betraying the true salvation God has given them.
At the time, even though the Galatian believers’ hearts had already been washed from their sins and they had become God’s people by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by the Apostle Paul, they were returning to their ancestors’ belief in circumcision and trying to obtain approval as God’s people by trusting in their circumcision. However, the Truth of salvation that the Apostle Paul had preached to them was the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, that Jesus Christ bore all the sins of mankind and washed them away once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist and dying on the Cross.
This Truth of salvation is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled when He came to this earth in AD 1-33. When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and believed in Him, the gospel Word that Jesus gave him was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet, in a betrayal of this gospel Word through which Jesus had saved mankind from the sins of the world, some people in the Galatian church were looking for another gospel. The Apostle Paul warned such apostates sternly not just once but twice that anyone who preaches any gospel other than the gospel preached by Paul would be cursed by God.
Paul was flabbergasted by what was happing in the Galatian church, and he pointed out just how foolish it was to advocate such false teachings before God. Although Jesus had already fulfilled the Truth of salvation that enabled them to be born again of water and the Spirit, the saints of the Galatian church, even after believing in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, were still trying to reach salvation by adding the Jewish tradition of circumcision and other legal aspects of Judaism to their faith. It was completely absurd.
Such people in the Early Church were obstructing the gospel ministry of the water and the Spirit that Paul was carrying out. These people are also found in today’s Church. While dwelling in God’s Church, they are indirectly hampering the ministry that our brothers and sisters, who have all been saved from all sins by faith, are carrying out with their hard work and faith to spread the gospel. Such people have no regard for the authority of the Church. All that they want is exploiting the Church for material gains. Their only goal is money. They seek recognition, and they want to be served by the saints and rule over them. Such people are like cancer in the Church. It is best that we stay far away from them. We should leave them and go on separate ways. We cannot associate ourselves with spiritual fraudsters.
When Jesus came to this earth as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, He accepted all the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist and fulfilled His priestly duties completely by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead again. For the saints in the Galatian church, it had not been even 30 years since Jesus’ ascension to Heaven. Yet, some of them were already following a different gospel, the gospel of circumcision, rather than the gospel Truth that Jesus had given them to be born again of water and the Spirit. Paul found this intolerable.
What Is the “Different Gospel” That the Apostle Paul Is Speaking of for This Present Age?
Sadly, such dogmatic beliefs are also found in the reformed faith of Protestantism led by the religious reformers of the 16th century. Although the Protestant reformers in the Middle Ages sought to return to God-given salvation and leave the syncretic gospel first made by Emperor Constantine, the fact of the matter is that these reformers, too, were still rooted in this syncretic gospel.
At the First Council of Nicaea, Constantine came up with the religion of the Cross by bringing together and mixing different religions of the world. Later on, when the Protestant reformers left Constantine’s syncretic gospel, they also came up with their own Christian doctrines by borrowing from the philosophy and humanistic teachings of the world just like Constantine. Reformers such as Calvin, Luther, and other Protestant leaders had their own beliefs and clashed with each other over dogma. Tapping into secular philosophical thoughts and infusing Christianity with humanistic ideas, they turned their self-centered beliefs into doctrines and misled the believers.
Now is time for all of us to return to the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Bible teaches us, and by this faith launch another religious reformation. Our Lord and the Holy Spirit will be rejoiced then. Let’s take a look at some of the Christian doctrines made by the reformers who were at the forefront of the Reformation during the Middle Ages. Influenced by Greek philosophy, their doctrines follow its logic. A good example is the doctrine of incremental sanctification, which claims that human nature can be changed gradually. However, when reflected upon the Word of God, we see that this doctrine is nothing more than an absurd and untrue philosophical notion of one’s own thought.
The doctrine of unconditional election is another ludicrous doctrine that makes absolutely no sense. This doctrine, too, is a product of one’s own foolish thoughts that put limits on God’s love and mercy. So, rather than just believing blindly in such doctrines made by the Protestant reformers in the 1500s, we should return to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord, the High Priest of Heaven, has given to all of us, and once again reform Christianity based on the written Word of God. All of us must return to the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled in 1-33 AD to wash away the sins of mankind and lead the believers into the Kingdom of Heaven, to the very gospel believed by the disciples of the Early Church era.
We must also realize, going further back in time to 313-325 AD, that the syncretic gospel produced in the religious council held by Constantine is not the Truth of salvation. From now on, all Protestant Christians ought to stop believing in the religious doctrine of the syncretic gospel passed on from the Middle Ages, and they must instead return to the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us, believe in it, and receive into their hearts the grace that washes away sins.
Having been born on this earth, Jesus Christ the Savior of mankind washed away all the sins of the entire human race once and for all by being baptized at the age of 30. We must return to this gospel that enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit, believe in it with our hearts, and thus become the Lord’s people and servants just as Paul and Abraham were men of faith. So, I urge you to completely uproot the religion of the Cross that is lodged in your heart, and return to and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The aforementioned “syncretic religion” refers to the religion that was made at the First Council of Nicaea held in AD 325. With the Roman Empire facing numerous difficulties, Constantine needed to bring unity to his subjects, so he concocted the Nicene Creed, and promulgated this syncretic gospel. When we examine the contents of this Creed, we can verify that it built a syncretic Roman religion, leaving out the written record of the baptism of the Lord through which He had accepted the sins of mankind on His own body.
The gospel proclaims that the Lord has saved mankind from their sins to be born again of water and the Spirit. To speak of the Lord’s work of salvation while leaving out the Word of the baptism from this gospel—that is, without preaching how Jesus Christ accepted the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist—is to commit a fraud, and therefore ultimately it brings nothing but death to people’s souls. When we compare the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given to mankind with the faith of today’s Christians who preach only the Cross, we can see that there are stark differences setting them far apart.
Constantine sought to integrate various religious beliefs of his subjects and create a single religion out of them, and he used this as a device to bring unity to the subjects of the Roman Empires, both Eastern and Western. So, it was absolutely necessary for him to come up with a single religion syncretizing different beliefs. Upon his ascension from a mere general to the imperial throne to rule over the Roman Empire, Constantine was facing an urgent political crisis, and he needed to adopt a policy that would bring grater unity to his subjects split between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. He therefore felt compelled to create a syncretic religion based on the beliefs of the Early Christians of his time and their ethical teachings, so as to find an anchor for the unity of his subjects across the whole Roman Empire, both the east and the west. In other words, for Constantine to build a unified Roman Empire without forcing his subjects to abandon their old pagan religions, he needed to syncretize them with “Christian creeds.”
At the time, Emperor Constantine himself believed in the sun god, and he was a priest of this religion. So, he was willing to do anything if he could unite the Roman Empire under one religion without having to abandon his own religion. The solution he came up with was fashioning a syncretic religion and using it to bring unity to his subjects. So, although Constantine appeared to do a great favor to Christians, in reality what he did was demolishing the faith of the Early Church and building a syncretic religion to achieve his political objectives. This religion is today’s Catholic Church. The word “catholic” means “universal,” and even now in the 21st century, the Catholic Church is the foremost champion of the ecumenical movement seeking to bring together all the religions of the world into one religion.
The advocates of the ecumenical movement are striving to unite countless religions of the world into one religion, from Buddhism to Christianity, the Orthodox Church, and even shamanism. However, this is a blasphemous endeavor, akin to the Book of Genesis’ account of the Babel Tower, for which mankind was cursed by God. God was not happy to see the whole of humanity coming together in unity under one language. Like this, the syncretic religion is standing against the Triune God. Under Constantine’s rule, the people of ancient Rome came to enjoy greater religious freedom within the bounds of syncretism. This was the kind of religion that the Romans wanted. So, even today, there are people who are looking for opportunities to syncretize different religions from all over world to pursue their own private goals.
Using the syncretic religion produced at the First Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed adopted there—this eventually became the Apostles’ Creed later on—Constantine was able to achieve his political objectives by bringing unity to his subjects under one religion. In this way, he was able to secure grand unity of the people of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, anchoring it in the syncretic religion of his own making.
The Apostles’ Creed reads as the following:
“I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.”
Missing here right before the phrase, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate,” is this: “He bore the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist.” We can see from this omission that the makers of the Apostles’ Creed deliberately left out the Word of baptism that enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit, so that they could produce a syncretic religion. We do not wish to become such worldly religious practitioners who believe only in Jesus’ Cross without believing that He bore all our sins. That’s because the Lord wants you and me to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that can wash away all our sins, just as the Apostle John believed in this gospel.
It is written in 1 John 5:5-9: “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.” Here, John is saying to us that even if we believe that Jesus was crucified to death and rose from the dead again in three days, if we do not have the Word of baptism through which Jesus bore our sins, we would have nothing to do with Jesus.
The situation facing Emperor Constantine at the time was dire. Externally, he needed to strengthen his army to thwart foreign invasion, and internally, he needed a religion that could unite his subjects’ hearts and minds. So, Constantine found it necessary to appease them by creating a syncretic religion anchored in the belief system of Christians. He therefore chose to create the Catholic Church, a universal religion syncretizing the creed of the apostles with the traditional religious and philosophical beliefs of his Roman subjects.
That the religion of the Cross is a syncretic religion is shown symbolically in the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. In the columns and the top of the high altar, image of serpents, the sun, and the Egyptian sun god “Amun-Ra” are engraved. And at the top of the pillars, there is Jesus’ Cross along with the sun god. Constantine originally was a priest of the sun god worshiped by his father, and he wanted to be the head of the church without renouncing his pagan beliefs. So, to this end, he held a religious council, and through this council he was able to create the Nicene Creed and make himself the head of this syncretic religion.
Emperor Constantine was successful at uniting all the religions of the Roman Empire, Eastern and Western alike, under the single syncretic religion of the Cross. Using this syncretic religion of the Cross, he deceived not only the people of his time but also the religious reformers and their descendants, the Protestants of the present age. Through this syncretic religion of his own making, Emperor Constantine was successful at deceiving countless Christians from AD 313-2022, and he was also able to fulfill his carnal lust and successfully achieve his political objectives. However, because of the religion he used for political purposes, Constantine ended up turning himself into a servant of Satan.
As a result, even though Christians throughout the whole world seek to be saved by believing in Jesus, because they are under the influence of a syncretic religion, they have fallen into idolatry instead and turned into Satan’s minions. As can be seen, Constantine is the man responsible for producing philosophically oriented Christian doctrines, misleading even the Protestant reformers of the 16th century, as well as today’s Christians, to believe in such dogmas. His immense influence reaches not only Catholic believers but also today’s reformed churches and their progenies.
Therefore, all those who think of themselves as Christians must cast aside the faith of the syncretic religion and return to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord gave in the Early Church era. They must be born again from all their sins by understanding and believing in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received to bear our sins and the Word of the Cross. Those who believe in the Christian doctrines put together by the religious reformers in the Middle Ages must realize that these doctrines are nothing more than man-made religious beliefs, and they must now return to the Lord and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit as the real Truth of salvation.
Today’s theologians all claim that their own doctrines are the true doctrines. However, we need to set such claims aside, and realize that it is time for us to open our hearts’ ears to listen to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that is written and spoken in both Testaments of the Bible, and to believe in this gospel. The Lord has given us a chance to be washed from all our sins. We ought to seize this chance now and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with thanksgiving. Indeed, you and I had been deceived by the evildoers. Deceived also by the religious reformers, we had still remained as someone whose heart was yet to be washed from sins.
However, even though we are living in the 21st century, our ever-righteous and holy Lord wanted to save us by washing away our sins with the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and by bearing the condemnation of our sins in our place. And the Lord is now offering us this grace of salvation through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. The Lord is the everlasting Savior who bore all the sins of every sinner through His baptism. By giving the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to everyone living on this earth, He wants to set all human beings free from the religion of the syncretic gospel and give them true salvation. To all those who yearn to be washed from their every sin, the Lord wants to give the remission of sins so that they may be born again.
Do you know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given you? Do you believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or do you believe in a syncretic gospel?
Returning to the Early Church era, recall how the Galatian believers preached a different gospel, claiming that salvation was reached only if one believed in and practiced circumcision on top of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Just like these Galatian believers, Emperor Constantine also sought to create a syncretic religion by mixing the faith of the saints of the Early Church with worldly religions. It’s absolutely critical for us to realize this and reject it. The Apostles’ Creed that Constantine spawned at the First Council of Nicaea is not the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord speaks of in the Bible, and therefore those who try to reach salvation by believing in this syncretic religion of Constantine’s making will all fail. Although the syncretic religion tried to corrupt the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit preached by the apostles of the Early Church, ultimately it failed to do so. That’s because the gospel of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by the Lord the Savior of mankind is the Truth that cannot blended with anything else.
The Word that the Apostle Paul preached to the Galatian saints in the Early Church era was the gospel proclaiming that because the Lord bore the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist when He came to this earth, He paid off the wages of the sins of the world by dying on the Cross while shouldering them. And the Galatian saints had believed in this Word. Paul was once again reminding the Galatian church of the gospel Word, that Jesus had saved mankind from their sins through His baptism and His death on the Cross.
Paul said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Paul here was speaking about how the Lord Jesus had taken up all the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. He was telling the Galatian saints the Truth, that Jesus accepted and washed away all the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received in the Jordan River from John the Baptist. The Apostle Paul was saying that by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of salvation, we can all be washed from all the sins that are in our hearts. It is therefore absolutely indispensable for us to realize and believe that the Truth that washes away all our sins and enables us to be born again is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
It is written in Galatians 1:8-9: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” Here the Apostle Paul gave very strong words of admonishment twice, saying that if anyone preaches any other gospel but the gospel of the water and the Spirit he had preached, “let him be accursed.” The Apostle Paul’s heart was infuriated. He repeatedly used the word “curse” here because he knew just how serious it was that some people in the Galatian church was preaching “a different gospel” claiming that they had to keep the Law and be circumcised like the Jewish people. This is why Paul was rebuking so harshly those in the Galatian church who were preaching “another gospel.”
Among today’s Christians, there also are many people who, despite not knowing the true Word of being born again of water and the Spirit, are deluded into thinking that they, too, are believers and already living a life of faith. We must realize here clearly that we can be born again only if we know the Truth that Jesus bore all the sins of the world and washed them away once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
However, there are many people who say blindly that they can be born again even if they just believe in a syncretic gospel and do not know the Truth of salvation through which the Lord bore the sins of mankind. Many such people are not only able to reach even the slightest understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Apostles of the Early Church believed in, but they have also not had any chance to hear even a single sermon teaching them how to be born again, let along comparing the true gospel with the syncretic gospel and explaining their differences.
Such people have turned into religious practitioners who are only too happy to indulge in mere religious rituals. They are the same as those who believe in the universal, syncretic religion of Constantine’s making. They do not know the blessing of being born again of water and the Spirit. It’s so sad and pitiful. These people, too, must come into the Lord’s gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Only then can they also become God’s people as their hearts are cleansed white as snow. I hope and pray with all my heart that God will also give them such blessings to be born again. Hallelujah!
Because the descendants of the Protestant reformers living in today’s world believe in the syncretic religion that Emperor Constantine made, they do not know the true message of the gospel of the water and the Spirit believed by the apostles and saints of the Early Church. Since they do not know the baptism of the washing of sins that Jesus received from John the Baptist, they question how anyone can claim to have been born again. For everyone, faith springs forth in the heart only as much as one’s knowledge. Those who have known and believed in nothing but the syncretic gospel of the Cross to this day are completely ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and so how can faith suddenly spring forth in their hearts to be born again from something that they don’t even know? They do not know salvation, and their hearts cannot believe in what they do not know. Isn’t this the case? Your heart comes to have faith only as much as your knowledge of the true Word of salvation that enables you to be born again of water and the Spirit. This is only logical.
Just because you believe wholeheartedly in the syncretic gospel that Constantine came up with on his own, to say nothing of the Protestant reformers, it does not mean that you can be born again. Just because you know the Christian doctrines that are steeped in man’s philosophical thoughts, this does not mean that you have been born again through the God-spoken gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. By believing in any syncretic gospel according to one’s own thoughts, no human being can obtain the washing of sins to be born again from them.
For us to be born again from our sins once and for all, we must believe in the Word of salvation that the Lord came to this earth and washed away the sins of mankind once and for all with His baptism. When you come to know the true gospel that enables you to be born again, you come to believe in it without any prodding as much as you understand it. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the forever unchanging Truth of salvation. That is why Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Here in this passage the Lord told us, “You shall know the truth.” It is imperative for us to learn and understand the mystery of the Word of the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist to bear our sins and wash them away. What you must realize here is the Truth that the Lord has delivered you from your sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. And you must accept this Truth into your heart and believe in it. The Lord said that the truth will make us free. He did not say that a man-made, syncretic gospel of our own will set us free. Therefore, from now on, you and I must no longer be so foolish as to believe that Constantine’s syncretic religion can deliver us from our sins.
You should also do away with the notion that you can be born again through the faith of the Protestant reformers. This is because when we take a closer look at these reformers, we can see that they, too, were no more than religious practitioners, just like those who believed in the syncretic religion of Emperor Constantine’s making. Accordingly, the descendants of the Protestant reformers are also believers in a religious, syncretic gospel. There is nothing that sets them apart. They are exactly the same, like a mirror image.
When you look at yourself, do you think you are different from such people purporting to lead the adherents of the syncretic religion of Constantine’s making? They believe in the same Jesus Christ in whom you believe. They, too, have the same religious zeal that you have. Your church building look the same as theirs. Just as you do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so are they also ignorant of this gospel. How are you then any different from them to feel superior to them? You are the same. You, too, believe in a syncretic gospel.
The fact that you believe in a “syncretic gospel” raises an important question here: are you not believing man-made doctrines? In other words, are the doctrines produced by the Protestant reformers really based on the Word of the Bible? Even though they claimed that their doctrines were biblically sound, the passages quoted by them are different from what the Word of God actually says. The contents of their doctrines are patently different from the written Word of the Scripture. I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is for you to know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord is offering you and accept it into your heart.
Do you have the courage to accept the Word of God into your heart? The Bible says that the brave take Heaven by force, as it is written: “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:11-12). So, I ask you now to stop believing so stubbornly that you can be born again by believing in the syncretic gospel faked by Constantine and the Protestant reformers alike, and to waste no more time of what remains of your life. Instead, realize that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us is the Word of true salvation, and be washed from all your sins and receive new life by this God-granted faith.
Jesus told us that His gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit will make us free, and all of us ought to believe in and rely on this Word. The true Word of salvation spoken by the Lord is all found in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. We ought to know and believe according to what Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” When Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, He bore all the sins of mankind on His own head and washed them away, thereby fulfilling the righteousness of God. We must therefore apply the Word of the baptism of the Lord, the Word of the washing of sins, to our hearts and believe in it. We must realize the “Truth” that saves us from all our sins, and we must hold on to it steadfastly in our hearts by faith.
Do you now realize that Jesus shouldered your sins once and for all by being baptized? Does your mind now have this understanding? Once you realize the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, faith can spring forth in your heart as much as the knowledge you have in your head. Now that you know the mystery of the baptism of Jesus, you can realize that Jesus accepted your sins and carried the sins of the world to the Cross. This then means that you have now come to believe in the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to reach salvation. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the real Truth of salvation that delivers you and me from the sins of the world, and it is also the foundation of faith that brings true understanding to us so that we can believe with our hearts.
The teachings of the syncretic gospel you believe in are completely different from the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit spoken by the Lord. Laden with man-made thoughts, the religious adherents of the syncretic gospel today are telling you to be saved from all your sins by believing in the Christian doctrines of their own denominations, such as the doctrine of incremental sanctification. But, just because they are demanding you to have the conviction of salvation, can your heart suddenly attain this conviction? No, of course not! Their words are nothing more than useless thoughts of man taught by a syncretic gospel. All their teachings boil downs to little more than ethics and morals; they do not come even close to being the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that delivers you from your sins.
Right now, those who believe in the syncretic gospel think that their hearts are sanctified gradually over time. This, however, is not the case at all. The idea that people have to sanctify themselves is just their own thought. When people actually try to do this, they will realize in no time that it is nothing more than an impossible religious teaching. Vain religious doctrines and goals render the human soul empty. Just as all is vanity, man’s cluttered thoughts are all nothing more than vanity.
In contrast, the Word of salvation that Jesus speaks in both Testaments of the Bible is the true Word that enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit. We ought to receive the remission of sins into our hearts by believing that our sins were passed on to Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. The claim that Christians can reach salvation only if they are incrementally sanctified over time is just a religious doctrine taught by a syncretic gospel. No doctrine of Christianity constitutes the Truth of salvation. The real, true Word of salvation teaches us that we are born again through faith by understanding the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, and passing our sins to Him through this baptism.
The religion of confusion, created by Emperor Constantine in Late Antiquity, deceived mankind in AD 313-1500. Further cemented by the Christian doctrines created by the Protestant reformers in the Middle Ages, it has retained its dominance from AD 1500 to the present year of 2022. In the post-Reformation era, this religion of a syncretic gospel is once again deceiving us with its Christian doctrines. The man-made doctrines created by the Protestant reformers constitute a syncretic gospel, and their role is to deceive us.
The syncretic gospel made at the time of the Reformation cannot deliver today’s Christians from their sins, and that is why they are suffering and moaning under the heavy weight of their sins even as they are living by the doctrines of this syncretic gospel. Made of man’s own thoughts, today’s Christian doctrines mold people’s faith to fit into the doctrine of incremental sanctification, misleading them to hang on to the false hope that they can be sanctified in time. This doctrine of incremental sanctification has taught many Christians to think mistakenly that the goal of their faith is to sanctify their acts gradually until they are completely sanctified. Such Christian doctrines compel their followers to endure all hardships patiently in their lives of faith for the sake of sanctification, which is impossible to achieve in anyone’s lifetime.
Therefore, propagating the syncretic religion made by Emperor Constantine and the Protestant reformers, Christianity today is teaching a false, confused faith. By teaching syncretic doctrines of salvation, such as the doctrines of incremental sanctification and election, its leaders are making their congregation suffer and perish under the prison of sin. They are making the congregation wait until the day their hearts, thoughts, and acts are ultimately sanctified. However, the doctrines of predestination and election espoused by the syncretic gospel make it inevitable for their followers to groan throughout their lifetime until the day they die, and turn them into believers without any conviction of salvation.
Today, the Christian doctrines of predestination and election are misleading those who believe in this confused religion to make these dogmas their goal in life and live their lives of faith accordingly. If all the doctrines taught by the confused religion have become the purpose of your faith, then I urge you to receive the remission of sins as soon as possible by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus the Savior has given us. Jesus has saved you from all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross, and I ask you to believe in this Truth and be delivered from those who stand in the way of the Truth.
You must now turn around from your confused religion and return to the faith that knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is no other way for you to return to God’s arms from this sinful world. All of us ought to now return to the Lord who loves us, believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that He has given us to be born again, and through this faith, obtain the washing of all our sins. By believing in the Truth of salvation, we must make our hearts sinless and live in God’s peace.
Without the knowledge of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, it is impossible to have faith in the Truth that washes away sins. That is I am preaching this gospel of salvation to you repeatedly. Jesus has blessed us to be washed from our sins once and for all, and I hope and pray that you would receive new life and enjoy eternal life by believing in the Word of the baptism of Jesus and His blood. We should all now realize that it is God’s will for us to be witnesses preaching the true gospel Word of salvation to all the people throughout the whole world who are living in darkness because they believe in a religion of confusion.
The Lord does not want us to live a holier-than-thou life with our acts as if we were special saints. On the contrary, He wants us to be freed from all our sins by believing in the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the cross, to live a happy life on this earth, to walk with Him in our everyday lives, and to enjoy everlasting life with Him when He returns to this earth. The only thing that Jesus wants from you is to receive the washing of sins into your heart by knowing and believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit He is offering you. You must realize now that the Lord wants you to live the rest of your life by faith in His gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and to have peace in your heart. We ought to set the bearing of our faith correctly with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and walk toward the kingdom of heaven that the Lord has blessed us to enter until the day we see Him face to face.
We please our Lord when we live with the knowledge of the Truth that enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit, and by the faith that can wash away our hearts’ sins. It is extremely important for us to have the knowledge of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and faith in this gospel that our Lord has given us. The sad reality is that too many people in this age remain unable to be freed from their sins because they believe in the confused religion of the Cross without any knowledge of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. This clouded religion of the Cross makes people’s souls even more confused than they already are, for it teaches them Christian doctrines made of man’s own muddy thoughts.
When it comes to solving the problem of people’s sins, the dogmas of the muddled religion of the Cross teach them that they should wash their sins away through their own prayers of repentance whenever they commit them. This doctrine of repentance espoused by the muddled religion actually pushes Christians into even greater confusion. Such jumbled religious doctrines obstruct us from receiving the washing of sins by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us to blot out the sins of mankind. Having no understanding of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us, this doctrine of repentance taught by the syncretic gospel emphasizes just our acts and misleads us to a legalistic faith.
Do you really believe that your own prayers of repentance can wash away your sins once and for all? Such a doctrine of repentance is a loop of lies that tangles people’s acts with the doctrine of incremental justification and binds them to the liars. Satan wants to imprison you in your sins with the religion of the Cross. Such muddled doctrines have been more than able to confuse your soul.
The alternative gospel that can free you from the religion of confusion is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and this gospel is the Truth written in the Bible. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is found in both Testaments of the Bible. The gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit proclaims that Jesus bore the sins of this world and washed them away with the baptism He received in the days of the New Testament, and none other than this gospel of salvation is the Truth that invites you into a world where your heart is made sinless. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the alternative path to salvation that guides you into the true light of salvation shinning bright like the morning sun, and the Lord is its Master.
The gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that the Lord is speaking to us is the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist when He came to this earth, and it is the Word of salvation declaring that the Lord bore the sins of this world once and for all and has washed away our sins once and for all. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the Word of salvation teaching us that Jesus bore the sins of mankind and washed them away once and for all with His baptism, and this gospel of the water and the Spirit is guiding you into the baptism of Jesus that makes you sinless.
The Lord Himself is refreshing your heart and mine with His gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us is the perfect Truth of salvation that is not only incomparably greater and purer than any Christian doctrine of repentance that you might be relying on today, but it is also so powerful that no word of man can describe it. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel of salvation that, being powerful like dynamite, is more than able to wash away your sins and mine once and for all.
By once again believing wholeheartedly in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that is constituted by the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, all of us ought to wash away all our sins and be freed from their darkness. By believing in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received, the Word that washes away sins, you can get the problem of your sins solved away once and for all. Do you now know the Truth, that the Lord has given the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation, to everyone throughout the whole world and has saved us from all our sins? Right at this very moment, you can get your sins addressed by believing in in the Lord’s true Word of the washing of sins. You ought to end all your sins and the suffering you are facing because of them by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. By relying on the Word of the baptism Jesus received and the death He suffered on the Cross, you can now end all your sins and solve them away once and for all. To do this, you must grasp the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. The Truth will set you free from the oppression of all your sins by the gospel power of the water and the Spirit.
In contrast, today’s confused religion claims that every time you sin, you must address it with your own prayers of repentance. But can you really deal with all your personal sins with just your own prayers of repentance? Can you get the sins you committed this morning solved away by praying to the Lord and repenting? Those who believe in the religion of the Cross offer prayers of repentances all the time, saying, “Lord, please forgive me for the sins I committed this morning,” and then they pray again later in the day, “Lord, I repent from the sins I committed this afternoon.” They then once again have to pray and repent from the sins they commit next. If you are trying to address your sins incessantly like this by offering prayers of repentance time after time, it is because you have acquired flawed knowledge from a muddled religion.
The doctrine of repentance and the doctrine of incremental sanctification that are now clouding your soul are nothing more than the dogmas of a worldly religion; they are not from the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given you. The prayers of repentance and the doctrine of incremental sanctification taught by today’s leaders of the religion of the Cross are no more than instruments that offer a fleeting sense of security, like drugs. Such are the doctrines of the syncretic gospel that countless Christians today believe in, and these doctrines constitute a dogmatic faith that muddles the souls of Christian believers.
What we must realize here is that the gospel written in both Testaments of the Bible that washes away sins is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Scripture by the Lord. This gospel Word of salvation is the true Word that contains the baptism the Lord received from John the Baptist, His blood and death on the Cross, and His resurrection. The Bible is telling us that the gospel of salvation that delivers and cleanses the sinful from their sins is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle Paul is saying in the Epistle to the Galatians as well that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the baptism of Jesus. Elsewhere, the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John alike also testify that the gospel that has taken care of and washed away the sins of mankind is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
“As Many of You as Were Baptized into Christ Have Put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27)
The Apostle Paul said here that whoever was baptized into Christ has put on Christ. From this passage we can see the Bible telling us that we can all be saved from our sins if we believe in the baptism of Jesus and His death. This is because, of Christ’s work, it is through His baptism that our sins were passed on to Jesus, and His death was suffered vicariously in our place. Therefore, those who were baptized into Christ can die with Christ and be resurrected with Christ, for they believe in His work.
Can we receive baptism from John the Baptist along with Jesus? This is possible through our faith in Jesus’s work. It is only by faith that we can return to the days of Jesus and receive baptism together with Him from John the Baptist. It is not possible in our flesh. However, by believing in the Word that Jesus bore all our sins once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, we can also be baptized and put to death by faith, and, through this faith in the righteous work of Jesus, be washed from our sins. In our hearts and by faith, we can now be baptized together with Jesus Christ by John the Baptist.
If we know that the baptism of Jesus Christ and His death are the Lord’s work of salvation through which He accepted our sins, we can also believe in it, die with Him, and rise from the dead again with Him. In other words, if we believe in the baptism of Jesus Christ and His death, at that moment all our sins are passed on to the body of Jesus once and for all and washed away, and it is also made possible for us to die on the Cross with Him by faith. By faith, we can therefore put on the garment of faith to be baptized with Christ, die with Christ, and rise from the dead with Christ.
We can now transcend our flesh and be born again by believing that Jesus bore our sins through His baptism and died on the Cross while shouldering the sins of this world. Through the written Word we can transcend all time and space and believe in every work of salvation God has done for us. Without any knowledge of the work of the water and the blood, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, faith cannot spring forth in our hearts to believe in the Truth. So, we can believe in the remission of sins wholeheartedly only if our faith is grounded in the knowledge that the baptism that our Lord received from John the Baptist was our atonement and our washing of sins. That is why our Lord said to us, “You shall know the truth” (John 8:32). Unless we have the knowledge and the faith to accept that Jesus bore all the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, we cannot be washed from all our sins.
Therefore, insofar as we know the Word of the baptism of atonement that Jesus received, we can all have faith in this Truth. By realizing the Truth that all our sins were passed on to Jesus once and for all and washed away from our hearts with the baptism He received from John the Baptist to bear our sins, you and I can also come to have the true faith. That is because every Word of God is true.
All the sins of this world were passed on to the body of Jesus once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Righteousness is “δικαιοσύνη(dikaiosúnē)” in Greek. It is written in Matthew 3:15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” It is by understanding the Word of the baptism of Jesus that we can accept and obtain the remission of sins in our hearts. By grasping the Truth that all our sins were passed on to Jesus, we can now be blessed to have them all washed away by Jesus and partake in the remission of sins by faith.
The Bible says, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). This passage means that faith can be said to have sprung forth in our hearts based on the Truth only when we realize and recognize that the baptism of Jesus has washed away the sins of mankind. Therefore, we are able to be washed from all our transgression only by knowing and believing that the baptism of Jesus written in the Bible is the Truth through which He bore the sins of mankind once and for all. It is thus by knowing and believing in the Word of the baptism of Jesus that we can have the faith to be baptized into Christ and put on Christ.
By believing in the Word of the baptism of Jesus, we can have the faith to walk with Christ and also be washed from all our sins. In this way, all of us can have the faith to be baptized with Jesus Christ our Savior, be crucified with Him, and rise from this death with Him. By partaking by faith in the passage that says, “as many of you as were baptized into Christ,” all of us are made God’s redeemed children. What the Apostle Paul is saying here, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” is achieved by understanding and believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
What Is the Gospel of the Washing of Sins Believed by the Apostles?
Countless disciples of Jesus in the New Testament, from the Apostle Paul to the Apostle John and the Apostle Peter, were able to get their hearts washed from their sins with the baptism of Jesus. However, in AD 313, long after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to Heaven, Emperor Constantine spawned a syncretic religion with the Edict of Milan. Since the adherents of this religion had no knowledge of the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, they did not know that their sins had already been washed away by the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and therefore they could not attain the faith that would have enabled them to be born again.
Likewise, today’s believers in the syncretic gospel neither know nor believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Word that washes away the sins of mankind, and therefore they cannot preach this gospel Word that enables one to be truly born again. This is because they are blind, for they do not know the meaning of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist—that is, they do not know that Jesus bore and washed away their sins with His baptism—and therefore they cannot preach it, either. As a result, those who believe in the religion of the Cross are incapable of preaching about how people can wash away their sins with the Word of the baptism of Jesus. Because they know nothing about the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, they have no faith in it, either. So, when they come across biblical passages speaking of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, they struggle to explain them or misinterpret them according to their fleshly thoughts.
However, the Apostle Peter bears witness of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist as the following: “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). Here Peter testified that the “baptism” Jesus received from John the Baptist is not about the removal of the filth of our flesh, but the washing of the filth of our hearts. The Apostle Peter was testifying his faith in Jesus’ baptism here, for he knew that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River was not to cleanse our flesh, but to cleanse the filth of our hearts by bearing our sins.
When the Apostle Peter confessed his faith that washed away his sins, he grounded his testimony in the baptism that Jesus received in the Jordan River. We can see this biblical foundation in Matthew 3:15: “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.” So, the Apostle Peter is demonstrating his faith to us here, all based on the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, which is also what we now believe in and are preaching by faith.
Who Was Emperor Constantine in Late ntiquity?
Let us now turn to Emperor Constantine in Late Antiquity and take a closer look at the background behind the formation of his syncretic religion in AD 313. My discussion below is from the information that I have compiled from publicly available Internet resources on Constantine.
Constantine was born on 31 August 274 and died on 31 August 337. Also known as Constantine the Great by Christians, he became emperor in 306. The Eastern Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint. Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He decreed tolerance for Christians. Ending the persecution of Christians, he recognized Christianity as the de facto state religion of Rome. He is famous for adopting religious policies that advanced Christianity, including returning confiscated church properties, compensating Christians for their loss, and summoning the First Council of Nicaea in 325.
Constantine I is commonly known as the first Christian Roman emperor. Lactantius, a famous theologian of his time, was his Christian advisor and teacher. Constantine’s shift in religious policy marked an important turning point in the history of Christianity. With the Edict of Milan in 313, he declared tolerance for Christianity, ended its persecution, and gave it legal status. He also returned confiscated church properties and issued state compensation. Although Galerius, one of the preceding emperors, had already declared tolerance for Christianity similar to the Edict of Milan, Constantine I pursued policies that actively favored Christianity, establishing its privileged status in the Roman Empire.
There is no consensus among scholars as to when Constantine became a Christian. One possibility is that he converted to Christianity as a child while growing up under the influence of Saint Helena, his mother, while another possibility is that he converted gradually as he went through different stages of life. Although the mother of Constantine I, Helena, is known as a devout Christian, Constantine did not call himself Christian until the age of 40, and he was not baptized until he was in his deathbed.
An alternative view of Constantine is that he should not be seen as a Christian, given the fact that he used Christianity as an instrument to consolidate his own political power, and his cruel acts, which included killing his own innocent son and wife, were far removed from the teachings of Christianity. It should be kept in mind, however, that these killings could have been motivated by an illicit sexual affairs, either real or falsely alleged, between Crispus, Constantine’s eldest son born from his first wife Empress Minervina, and Empress Fausta, his second wife. One of the factors supporting this speculation is that Empress Fausta’s execution, ordered by Constantine at the prodding of Saint Helena his mother, was carried out by suffocation in an overheated bath, which was unheard of Rome as a form of execution but common at the time as an abortion method. Both Crispus and Fausta were put under damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) by Constantine, and therefore all their records were eradicated and any mention of them was strictly prohibited.
In his letter to Christians, Constantine made clear that he owed his success to God’s help. During his reign, he provided financial support to the church, built numerous basilicas, promoted Christians to high offices, and returned all properties confiscated during the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians. His influence on Christianity was profound, as seen from the fact that he was the first emperor to use the labrum, constructed the Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, and generated countless legends about himself and his mother Helena.
Constantine’s policy of promoting Christianity was politically motivated to a large extent. Having come to power after waging numerous civil wars, he did not tolerate any threats to his throne. He established the principle that Roman emperors were divined sanctioned by the authority of the church and God, and therefore they could not be challenged by any man. His power was consequently secured.
Constantine is also well known for advancing Christianity by summoning the First Council of Nicaea in 325. For this, the Eastern Orthodox Church venerates Constantine as a saint and celebrates May 21 as a holiday dedicated to him and Helena.
After relocating his imperial capital, Constantine I enacted various decrees and statutes.
He decreed tax exemptions for Christian clergy. In a departure from the past, he also granted the clergy private property rights.
Although he outlawed gladiatorial games, it is said that this law had hardly any effect in reality. Gladiatorial games continue into the end of the 4th century.
He banned crucifixion as a method of capital punishment and replaced it with hanging.
He made certain occupations, such as butchers and bakers, hereditary for generations. This tradition of keeping the same occupation for generations continued into medieval Europe.
He enacted a decree to turn tenant farmers into serfs, and this is considered to have laid the foundation for the feudal economy of the Middle Ages.
These are not my own claims. I am instead merely relaying to you what is widely written about Constantine from reputable sources that are publicly available. Among Constantine’s policies that favored Christianity are issuing the Edict of Milan, ceasing religious persecution, not taxing the clergy, and returning to Christians their properties that had been confiscated during earlier periods of persecution. He also summoned the First Council of Nicaea, and through this gathering of Christian bishops, he produced the Nicene Creed that eventually became the Apostles’ Creed, thereby creating a syncretic religion.
What we need to realize clearly here is that the Nicene Creed promulgated at that time lacked the knowledge of the Truth of the baptism of Jesus and the washing of sins. This means that the Apostles’ Creed, which is traced back to Constantine’s Nicene Creed, does not share the faith in the Word of baptism that Jesus’ disciples preached in the Early Church era, and instead reflects the new, syncretic religion of Constantine’s making. This syncretic religion created by Emperor Constantine was a corruption of the apostles’ faith, fusing it with Constantine’s pagan worship of the sun god. Not only this, all the other pagan religions of the Roman Empire were also included in the creed. It is critical for you to realize here that the Apostles’ Creed made by Emperor Constantine and his followers was a syncretic religion, and, moreover, the Protestant reformers also inherited this syncretic religion. Those who had no understanding of the mystery of the baptism of Jesus and their followers came up with the Apostles’ Creed, produced a syncretic religion, and spread it all over the planet earth; and in doing so, they diluted the faith of those who feared God. This was not the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that the apostles of the Early Church believed in from their own lived experiences, having walked with Jesus and seen His every work with their own eyes. This is an undeniable fact.
From now on, we must preach the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world by faith, and no longer stand against the Truth with any syncretic gospel. How painful is it that people must live the rest of their lives as sinners despite believing in Jesus as their Savior, all because they believe in the syncretic gospel made by Constantine and the Protestant reformers? We want to return to the written Word, understand and believe in the Word of the baptism of the Lord, and thus receive the washing of sins into our hearts and live in peace.
How wonderful is it that even now, all of us can be born again by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit? Let us all believe in the true gospel Word that can wash away all our hearts’ sins. When our Lord returns to this earth looking for those who have become sinless by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, let us show Him our faith in the gospel that has cleansed away our sins. When Jesus returns to this world as the Lord of the Second Coming, let us glorify Him by showing Him our faith in His baptism, sacrifice and death on the Cross, and resurrection, through which He has given us new life.
I admonish all the clergy and laypeople of this present age to believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Even now, let us believe in the Word that the Lord has washed away our sins with His baptism, and let us thank Him with this faith. I believe that even among today’s adherents of the syncretic gospel, many people will come to follow the Lord by faith as shown by the written gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. So let us also believe in the written gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, stand in the file of faith, and praise our Lord with glorious hymns.
I believe that when the age of martyrdom comes, countless people will be able to glorify our God by embracing martyrdom by their faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Bible. We must now turn around from the mistaken faith in a confused religion, believe instead in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us, and thereby transform ourselves into someone who is able to please God. By believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the apostles believed in and preached in the Early Church era, we must wash away all our hearts’ sins, and with this faith glorify God for the rest of our lives.
The “Gospel of Christ” Preached by the Apostle Paul
The Apostle Paul said, “If anyone preaches any other gospel than what I have preached to you, let him be accursed.” The Apostle Paul ministered in AD 34-70 approximately, and during this time he preached the Word of the baptism of Jesus that washed away the sins of mankind, along with the way of the Cross and resurrection. He was God’s servant whose time was well ahead of Emperor Constantine by no fewer than 270 years, when the Edict of Milan was issued in AD 313. The “other gospel” that the Apostle Paul was speaking of here was a gospel that added the Law and the act of circumcision on top of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and he rebuked such beliefs and preached the pure gospel faith of the water and the Spirit.
The Early Church had the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit along with the apostles. The gospel that the apostles believed in and preached was the gospel of the water and the Spirit proclaiming that Jesus bore the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and the saints of the Early Church all believed in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by the Lord. All the saints of the Early Church believed purely in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they bore its witness throughout the whole world in their lives. That is why we are now also living by our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
In this present age, we are preaching the Word of the baptism that Jesus received to wash away the sins of this world. The Lord has blessed us to cleanse away all the sins that are in our hearts with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Even now, therefore, the Word of salvation that washes away the sins of mankind is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. As we know, because Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized, He could be crucified to death, and, having risen from the dead again, He has become the Savior who can give true salvation, the true washing of sins, and truly new hope to all of us who now believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
However, Emperor Constantine and the Protestant reformers in the Middle Ages corrupted the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood, replacing it with a muddled religion. People believed in the syncretic gospel, and as they spread this syncretic faith, even more people were deceived by their religious doctrines only to remain as sinners. So many people living in the 21st century are still being deceived by the syncretic gospel that has dominated Christianity for over 1,700 years, and as a result, its adherents are still sinners even though they believe in Jesus. How could they have known the mystery of the baptism of Jesus, given the fact that, having been completely deceived, they have replaced the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given to mankind with the religious doctrines of the syncretic gospel, and they believe in these doctrines instead? How can they ever be freed from their sins when they believe in the syncretic gospel?. It is such a tragedy. You cannot allow yourself to continue to be deceived by the doctrines of the syncretic gospel and believe in them, only to end up standing before God as a sinner.
Even though the Jesus whom we believe in and rely on is the God of love, if you stand before Him with your hearts’ sins still remaining intact, He will deny knowing you. You will then say to Him that you have prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and done many wonders in His name. However, if your heart still has any sin when you stand before God, Jesus will not be able to shield you anymore. So, while you are still living in this present world, I ask you to be washed from your sins by believing with your heart in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ is offering you. And I hope and pray that you would from then on live the rest of your life for the glory of the Lord until you stand in His presence.
In my view, practically every Christian living in this present age is a believer in the syncretic gospel. I am preaching the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to you now because I have compassion for your soul. The syncretic gospel that you believe in today was once passed on by Emperor Constantine, and then once more by the Protestant reformers to this very day for over 1,700 years. You are now believing in the syncretic gospel of the religious reformers’ making. These reformers neither knew nor preached the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has bestowed on you and me.
You should have realized by now that no matter how ardently you might believe in such a syncretic gospel, it is completely useless for washing away your sins. You and I must then believe in the Word that when Jesus Christ came to this earth, He bore your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist in AD 30. If you set aside this Word and put the medieval Christian doctrines that have been developed from AD 1500 to this day above the Word of the Bible, then you will have nothing to do with Jesus, for your sins will not be washed away. After all, if one can be made sinless by believing in Christian dogmas, it would render the Scripture needless.
From AD 33 to 313, the apostles and the saints believed in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. However, as Constantine corrupted this true gospel, countless people from Late Antiquity (AD 313) to the present have been misled to believe in the syncretic gospel of his making. It breaks my heart to see that so many Christians, deceived by the doctrines of the syncretic gospel of Constantine’s making, have perpetuated this false faith to this day, only to create a wave of anti-Christians.
Today, most Christians’ faith is in the syncretic religion that Emperor Constantine made in AD 313 and the doctrines of the syncretic gospel that the Protestant reformers made by adding their own thoughts to the Word of God. Although the Reformation arose in Europe in the 16th century, thanks to the Protestant reformers spearheading this movement, the doctrines of the syncretic gospel were established even more firmly and became even more active in this world. It is no exaggeration to say that the doctrines of the syncretic gospel produced by the Protestant reformers have made it easier for you to be deceived even more completely and misbelieve even more. Having thus believed in this syncretic gospel to this very day, you have lost the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord spoke to the Early Church. Those who now believe in the syncretic gospel are not the believers in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirt that the Lord gave to the Early Church, and therefore they have nothing to do with the holy Lord and still remain in this world as sinners in God’s sight. So, we need to once again examine closely the history of the making of the syncretic gospel, and expose the deviousness of the work of Emperor Constantine and the Protestant reformers for all to see.
Emperor Constantine, a Roman, is the man responsible for corrupting the gospel of the remission of the sins of mankind in AD 313—that is, the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit—that Jesus made and fulfilled in AD 1-33. Since he issued the Edict of Milan in AD 313, he has been widely venerated by not only Christians but also secular people to this day.
Why, then, did Emperor Constantine go out of his way to not only end the persecution of Christians but also summon the First Council of Nicaea to produce the Nicene Creed and, through it, a syncretic religion? Why did he spearhead the effort to corrupt the Word of the baptism through which Jesus bore and washed away the sins of mankind? It is because he sought after power and used the syncretic religion of his own making to extend his rule. He did all these things because he wanted to integrate various religions into his own syncretic religion and rule over its followers.
From the very beginning, Emperor Constantine was a politician whose goal was bringing all the religions of Rome into the fold of a single religion. He wanted to syncretize all religions and bring them under the religion of the Cross. So, in creating a universal religion, he sought to demonstrate that he was the head of this syncretic religion. On account of Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus told him that He will give him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, saying to him, “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew16:18). In effect, Constantine sought to elevate himself high like Peter, as though he were the successor to Peter’s faith.
Ultimately, Constantine knew that if he became the head of his syncretic religion, his position could be justified as having been ordained by God, not by any man, and therefore no one would be able to challenge his power. So, Constantine reigned over the syncretic religion of his own making, and his followers are still doing so to this very day.
Emperor Constantine’s promotion of Christianity was a deceptive device to create a syncretic religion and assert himself as its head for political purposes. It was ultimately a way to base his power in the realm of the syncretic religion. In making such a syncretic religion, Constantine was acting like the fallen angel, God’s enemy. Having created this syncretic religion, he sought to reign over its adherents.
Much like Emperor Constantine, the Protestant reformers who launched the Reformation in AD 1500 also made themselves heads of their respective sects. Insofar as these reformers misled people into their own syncretic gospel, they committed the same sin that Constantine committed. Like this, Constantine’s desire was making a syncretic religion through a religious council and making himself its head, and he was ultimately able to achieve his goal.
We can see similar corruption when we look at the history of Christianity during the Middle Ages, following Emperor Constantine’s creation of the syncretic religion. During this time, European monarchs were under the rule of the Catholic Church and its Pope. In the 16th century, for instance, King Henry VIII of England sought to divorce his wife and remarry, but European monarchs in this era could not decide on divorce on their own. At the time, any divorce had to be authorized by the pope reigning over the syncretic religion. Even kings in this era could not get divorced on their own unless the pope gave them the permission. So, Henry VIII sought the pope’s permission to divorce his wife, but the pope rejected the request, saying that the Bible prohibited it. This caused a long-lasting conflict between Henry VIII and the Vatican, and in the end, Henry broke away the Catholic Church and established a new church called the Church of England, more commonly known as the Anglican Church these days. The Anglican Church practices most of its rituals along the Catholic line, but its sermons are preached in the Protestant way. This is how the Anglican Church came into being.
The Era of the Persecution of Protestantism
Let’s return to the emergence of the syncretic religion. To secure his power both religiously and politically, Constantine headquartered his syncretic religion in Rome and placed bishops under it, and through them, he spread the syncretic religion all over the world. How, then, has this syncretic religion created by Constantine been passed on to this day in the 21st century without being undermined? It is because anyone who rejected it was suppressed ruthlessly. During the medieval Dark Ages lasting for a thousand years, anyone who rejected the syncretic religion made by Emperor Constantine was labelled a heretic and became a victim of witch-hunting. In that era, to be labelled a heretic was to be condemned to death. So, to avoid being accused of heresy, people did not utter a single word against the syncretic religion. The people of this age lived with their lips sealed.
For that reason, historians call the thousand years of the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. It was the era of the syncretic religion and popes, an age of darkness. Historian says that more people died from torture and massacres perpetrated by the medieval adherents of the syncretic religion than the number of people who died in World War I and II. An example of this is the massacre of the Huguenots in the night of St. Bartholomew’s Day.
At the time, France was going through continuous civil war fought between Catholics and Protestants. Queen Catherine de’ Medici, a Catholic, had arranged her daughter Margaret to marry Henry of Navarre, a Protestant. This was not an ordinary marriage. It was a royal marriage between a Catholic bride and a Protestant groom, laden with schemes, conspiracies, and murderous intentions. Many people gathered to celebrate the wedding, but before the days-long wedding festivities ended, massacres began to sweep across Paris on St. Bartholomew’s Day under the authorization of Catherine and Charles IX. Soldiers surrounded the Huguenots, and they slaughtered countless Protestants, including women and children, using all kinds of cruel violence. This unfolded during the night of St. Bartholomew’s Day. At that time, secular laws were useless and superseded by the medieval church’s religious laws, and horrible atrocities were committed in the name of this syncretic religion.
Even now, the pope is selected and his authority vested by the Catholic Church, and therefore no secular ruler can force him out of the papacy. The point I am trying to make here is this: Emperor Constantine created the syncretic religion officially at the First Council of Nicaea, the Protestant reformers cemented its dominance with their Christian doctrines, and as a result, the adherents of this religion still remain powerful and wealthy to this day.
Before the syncretic gospel’s emergence, the apostles and saints of the Early Church believed in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by Jesus—that is, they believed in the baptism, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Due to the heavy persecution by the syncretic religion that began with the Edict of Milan in AD 313 and lasted until AD 1500, the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth to be forgotten completely. However, in this present age, God is once again raising believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world.
God has made those who now believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit raise the torch of the gospel of salvation high and make it known throughout the whole world, for the time of the last harvest is near. We must realize that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is all about His baptism and His suffering on the Cross. We should never forget that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that we believe in and are preaching is the gospel that was made by the Lord no less than 300 years before the syncretic religion was made by the universal church beginning with the Edict of Milan, and that this gospel was with the Early Church.
Although the most universal and syncretic religion is the religion made by Constantine and his followers, you should realize and believe that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that both Testaments of the Bible speak of is the Truth of salvation, that Jesus washed away the sins of mankind once and for all and saved them by being baptized by John the Baptist when He came to this earth. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is the Truth that Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, was crucified to death, and rose from the dead again; and this gospel is the true Word that, even in the present age, brings the washing of sins and the blessings of eternal life to all who believe in it. This true gospel of life is the light of life that, just as Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, enables everyone to be born again of water and the Spirit.
All of us must therefore now preach to today’s Christians who believe in the syncretic religion of the Cross alone that they can be saved only if they return to the light of life, the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit with which Jesus has saved them and washed away the sins of this world once and for all, and believe in this Word with their hearts. In these end times, we are now the witnesses preaching the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord made and perfected long before the Protestant reformers.
God has given the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to all of us, so let us preach it now. Let us launch another religious reformation again so that more souls can be washed from their sins. Let us stop the wave of anti-Christians from proliferating around this world, and let us heal their wounded hearts with faith in our Lord’s gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Our Lord has given you the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. I hope and pray that you would all know and believe in this gospel, and thus be blessed to be born again from all your sins. Hallelujah!
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission