morbo3000 wrote:This is obviously very important to you. Everyone on here hungers for the word, as you do, but haven't grasped so hard on one topic. So I'm wondering your personal context
Morbo...........
You are asking me for my testimony. I'm sure most here would be bored by it, so I will give you a Reader's Digest version:
In 2002 I had a moment of crisis -- a death in the family. I was a Judeo-Christian at that time like most. However I always had doubts at what I was being told versus what I was reading in the Scriptures. But love for family and friends was more powerful - Matthew 10:37. However this time -- this moment of crisis -- was different. I had asked the Lord to reveal Himself to me despite the cost. I met a man who recommended that I take a trip all by myself with just my Bible and a concordance. He then asked me to underline every passage from cover to cover which implied a "conditional" approach to the Father. By the time I finished reading the bible, cover to cover my bible was filled with pencil. It seemed every page had an underlined passage. It was then that I realized the teaching of Eternal Security was heresy.
.............I most likely opened another can of worms..........................
Once I realized that the Lord's Salvation was one of a "continuation"..............a perseverance...............I recognized how important it was to be holy. Jesus said that he who "keeps" His commands is he who loves Him -- John 14:21.
So I vowed to keep His commands. I was living with a girl during this time, so when I returned home I knew I had to "marry" her. But I didn't trust the church to tell me what was required to be married. This is when I began my journey to discover "marriage".
To wrap this up.........................it didn't take me long to learn that to marry was simply to have sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse is the vehicle in which two flesh become one. When a virgin girl has sex with a man she is known by that man. She is now 'joined' to that man. Civilization SHOULD recognize them man and wife. Society's failure to recognize them man and wife is not the fault of God or the lack of information in the Scriptures. Leah and Rachel is a good example of this. Jacob labored for Rachel. Rachel was given to Jacob as a wife by contract. However, Laban inserted Leah into Jacob's tent. Leah was now Jacob's wife because they had sex; however the "agreement/contract" was for Rachel.
Joseph and Mary is another example. Mary was considered Joseph's wife by property - agreement/arrangement/contract etc. However, Mary broke the rules of the contract and was found to be with child -- no longer a virgin. Joseph and Mary had yet to sleep with each other, but the Scriptures and society thought of them as husband and wife. You can have legal marriage without sex; but you can't have Heavenly marriage without sex. Sexual intercourse is the 'marriage' of two flesh into one.
I spent the next few years focused on exposing the heresy of Eternal Security. The past few years I have shifted my focus to reveal that most people, who believe they are actually married; are in reality - not. Most are adulterers and are unaware. Just as Jesus said,
"not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."
How many 'married' ever bothered to fully explore the Lord's desire for a righteous marriage??? The majority just trusted the church to define it.
There is certainly more to this story and I won't waste space. If anyone is interested they can email me --
hobsroy@gmail.com
Thanks for your time.