Religion is like a very powerful medicine

A couple of years ago, I read that about 2000 children died in a region of Africa due to a vaccine.  The vaccine was a normal vaccine given to infants; however, many of those children were already infected with HIV.  What killed them wasn't the vaccine, but the reaction of the HIV towards the vaccine.  Later, it was heard that millions in Africa were saved by the application of vaccines.  Even the population growing rate went up due to the vaccines.  What would happen if we would say that the vaccines were more harmful than good due to the atrocity of the children who died for the vaccines?  Many more would have died because of the diseases.

Religion could be just like this powerful medicine called vaccine.


Religion has been wrongly held responsible for tyrannic governments, slavery, genocides, colonization from Europe to the rest of the world.  But religion has been indeed responsible for the creation of public schools, hospitals, hospices, orphanages, mental health houses and all sort of compassion projects as well as the wide spread reinforcement of ethic and morals, inspiration for total rehabilitation of cities, neighborhoods, families and individuals.  Many lives had been reconstructed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  More lives had been positively impacted by the effect of religion that those that had been harmed by the false pretended gospel.

The fact of the presence of evil, ignorance, and abuse religion as well as the  committing of atrocities in the name of God, doesn't make religion wrong.  The religion is good, people's hearts are wrong.

Should we condemned religion for having harmful side effects or when applied for the wrong purpose?

Like any powerful medicine, what religion needs is to get rid of falsehood, lies and abuse by those who lead.  All main stream religions have some good; the problem are the ones who use them for their own self interest and those who take advantage of the ignorance of the followers.

The Lord says, "my people perish for the lack of knowledge."

Here are some examples of anti-biblical doctrines infiltrated in some form of Christianity.  These false doctrines have no bible support; however, are sold as such to its followers (They appeal to ignorance portraying themselves as high knowledge):

"The myth of the lost tribes of Israel" to declare racial supremacy and racial inferiority.

"The cursed people of Canaan descendants of the grandchild of Noah and perhaps also Cain"

"The myth of the elect" applied to the rich and intelligent (prosperity gospel).

To use "Jesus said the poor would be always there" as an excuse to refuse to help the poor to improve their condition. 

"Unconditional loyalty to Israel".  The true is that God is actually very conditional, every promise of God comes with a condition.   God wants us to love Israel, but not to support when they do wrong.

"Christian covenant is under Israel covenant."  God's covenant is always with the faithful, whether you are Israel or the church.  The real condition to win in God's side is that your justice should be higher than those you are fighting against you.   If Israel justice is higher than the church; they would reign over the church and we have to submit.  But, if our justice is greater than theirs, the church would lead, and they have to submit.  The real king is God, nor the church neither Israel or anybody else for that matter.




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Religion according to God is the ultimate way to lead every important matter on Earth. 

Jesus mission as He read in the book of Isaiah at the beginning of His ministry was brake the joke and declare deliverance to those who were incarcerated, feed the poor, protect the widows and the orphans and to proclaim the good news of the kingdom.  This is still the mission of the church today.

The real command is to love, the covenant is to forgive as we had been forgiven.

The purpose is to bring God's kingdom to every man on Earth which is love, joy, faith, hope, goodness, peace, patience, mikeness, and self-control.

God is really a GOOD God.

Finding the right side

Real power

"And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you."

I used to belief that the Lord Jesus was talking about supernatural power of miracles, speaking in tongues, healing and all those things that excite every one.  Then, I noticed that the Lord Jesus early in his ministry send the disciples to cast devils and heal the sick.  The apostles have authority of doing many things while they were walking with Jesus.  But, the Spirit was not in them.

So, Jesus wasn't really taking about these things.  Jesus makes a promise to the believers in Mark 16:17-18.  This passage is controversial to many who deny the last 8 verses of the chapter 16 of Mark.  However; these verses are backup by Luke in the book of Acts when Paul was bitten by a serpent. 

Anyhow; the point of the matter is that the power the Lord was talking about was to be efficient on destroying the works of the devil.  Then the author of Galatians tell us that the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, peace.  In other words, this is what the Spirit of God produces in us.  And then Galatians 5:22-23 says that against these fruit; there is no law.  In other words, by living constantly bearing spiritual fruits of love, joy, peace, faith, goodness, patience, self-control, meekness, we had overcome even the law (And by overcoming the law, we overcome what separate us from God and what produces death).

The only purpose of receiving power is to destroy the works of the devil.  "Love covers multitude of sins."  If our love can turn people from the wrong path into the right one.  All this fruit of the Spirit can turn bad into good and have power to destroy the works of the devil with faith, peace, patience, etc.

Belief or works

Romans 1:17

¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith

Acts 6:31

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household."

Belief is the only requirement for salvation.  God is the one who digs into the hearts. 

Salvation is by the grace of God.  We do not choose God; but rather God choose us.

Well, if we are saved by faith alone; what is really faith?

The author of Hebrew makes a big explanation of what is faith on Hebrews 11 and 12.  He starts by saying "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. "  But James tells us that faith without works is death or null.  In other words; if your faith does not produce works; it's no faith.  It's vain.  It's nothing.  Jesus says that faith is like a grain of mustard seed that in size is insignificant; but once you plant it; it produces a big tree that grows and gives shade to many.

So faith implies more than simply say that you belief.  It's to act upon trusting with certainty.  Faith is what causes you to walk knowing you won't fall when you stand.  It's to know that the front leg will go forward and allow the other left to stay behind and go synchronizing your walk.  You do not have to worry about the details.  You know you can walk; therefore you stand up confident without fear of falling.

To truly belief you need to experience God in your life.  A question must be answered, you must see or hear something or something has to touch your soul.  A real commitment must be produced withing you.  Something must happen. 

Jesus said to a man who went to visit him at night: "You must be born again to enter the kingdom of Heaven."

How to belief can save us?  To simply belief won't save us; but to belief in Jesus will save us.  What is to belief in Jesus?   First is to listen to what he says, understand what He did and get fascinated by his teachings and legacy.  Jesus is not like any other teacher or historical character.  The more we learn about Jesus, the more amazed who become.  

Jesus is a man capable of crying for a city; the city where he was born, the city of the people of God.  Jesus is the man capable to scream out in the midst of a multitude saying "Come to me whoever is thirsty and I will give you to drink rivers of living water.  He is the man who felt compassion of poor widows and sick homeless people.  At the same time, the rich come after Him offering Him dinners, wanting to follow Him, seeking for favors.  Jesus talks and do as if all His movements were extremely well calculated and at the same time he seems like talking nonsense.  Then later you realize how wise was every word he said. 
When you start seeing Jesus as the manifestation of God Himself; then you understand. 

Nothing about Jesus is about a man; but God.  God came to us in form of man.  He was rich and made himself poor.  He was the Almighty and lived as a servant giving His own life as a ransom for many.

To know about Jesus is very exciting; but when Jesus come to your own life; is when everything truly changes for you.  When you see that Jesus is not just a historical character; but a living being with whom you talk and whom answer prayers.  When the Spirit of God starts dealing with you.  This is our journey in the path of true faith.

Trinity versus One God

The first commandment given to God's people is
"Listen oh Israel, the Lord your God is One God."

Trinity contradicts the first commandment of God.

Then Jesus says in Matthew 28:19 to go all around the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  This drives the listener to think that our Lord Jesus is taking about three different names of three different personalities called Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is probably where the idea of trinity comes from.

The true is that the command of Jesus is to baptize in one single name.  And this same name seems to be given to the Father, and also to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. 

So, what is the name of the Father?  In the old testament we believe the name of God is Jehovah.  The name of the Son, we are sure is Jesus, but what is the name of the Holy Spirit? 

In the book of Acts; we then see that the apostles baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus inherited a name that is over any other name and that every knee shall bow before him.  Jesus teaches us to ask everything in His name, and them the apostles also teaches us to do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Should we use the name of Jehovah as the name of the Father since the Father is greater than the Son?

There is nothing telling us that the name of Jehovah is greater than the name of Jesus.  But the scripture tells us clearly that there is no other name under Heaven in which we can be saved neither greater. 

Did the apostles used the name of the Lord Jesus as the name of the Father and also the Holy Spirit when they baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit?

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We are trying to follow the bible literally.  Then Matthew 1:18 "she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."

Here the father of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. 
In the upper Room Philip tells Jesus show us the Father it is sufficient to us.  Jesus responded "So long, I've been with you and yet you do not know me?"  Jesus said "whosoever had seen me; had seen the Father"  He also said: the Father and I are one.  Jesus also said; the Father is greater than I.  Jesus also said: "The Lord your God is One God."

Jesus is also called the Anointed One; "The Christ"
Jesus will be called Emmanuel which is "God with Us" because indeed He was God with Us.

Is it the Pentecostal Movement really based on emotion?

Is it the Pentecostal Movement really based on emotion?

As an outsider, this could be the immediate conclusion of anyone based in the failing rate of those who claim healing powers, new birth, etc.

After my years of experiencing Pentecostal Groups, I can say emotion does play an important role, especially among new converted.  Sometimes, even ourselves may think that some experiences may had been lead by emotion. 

But the true is that you can't deliberately come with a genuine manifestation of the Spirit by faking it.  People can gibberish, but they can't not overcome with joy, suddenly start crying with tears and feel compassion for others the way the Spirit does in a true manifestation of the Spirit.  People hug each other like children, all worries, conflicts, sadness are wiped out in a true Pentecostal service lead by the Spirit.  Tongues are not just talking, but also emotions transmitted to you to intercede for others.  You know it's not from you and you don't say what comes to your mind.  In a way, you are like an spectator, where you allowed yourself to be used. 

Sometimes, it feels like fire.  Some other times feels like love, like peace, like joy.  It can come with tears, with desire to pray, with feeling grateful, with deep sorrow for someone else, with tongues that you can stop or that you can't stop, with praises and worship, with dancing or kneeling down. 

We often see so called ministers in the pulpit forcing a revival by screaming, enticing the people to move or falsely promising that God is going to do something that in reality will not happen, because God did not say anything.

We see that frequently in many if not all Pentecostal churches.  Some old fashion experienced pastors are very jealous with their congregation and quickly would kit out a person who try to fool their churches.  But, because of business relations, and some other modern rules nowadays, you do not see this type of pastors any more.  Prayer meetings are not the main thing as they used to be.  A complete transformation and a direct calling from God are not requirements to enter ministry any more.

If you had been in the Pentecostal church long enough, you will know that it's not up to you.   God decides when and how people receive the Spirit.  Some people pray for years.  Some others just enter the church. It can come while praying, while worshipping or any time.  I had heard stories of people who just came to laugh at expenses of the church.

A true Pentecostal Church would be lead by the Spirit.  It means, you don't try to force praises, dancing in the Spirit, healing or any other manifestation of the Spirit by other means than prayers, call for sanctification and obedience to God.

God gives the Spirit to whoever he wants; the main requirement is repentance and sanctification.

There is a traditional Pentecostal phrase for this " God does not dwells in dirty vessel."

What makes Pentecostals so unique?

Pentecostals belive that the stories of the bible are all true and they still apply to believers. 2 Timoty 3:16

We believe in fasting, praying and over everything in obeying and believing the word of God (The bible). Matthew 17:21

We believe that God speaks to men in many ways as he did before. Hebrews 1:1

We believe that God does not change. James 1:17, Psalm 102:27

Pentecostals believe in a living God and having a personal relationship with Him. Romans 9:26

Pentecostals believe that to know Jesus is to have an encounter with Jesus allowing him to transform our lives. John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17

We value God's anointing, knowledge of the holy scriptures and holiness over human wisdom and academic preparation. James 3:15

Traditional Pentecostals consider an honor to be called servants of God and his church. 1 Timothy 3:13

And finally, speaking in tongues, power of healing, prophesies, are all manifestations of the power of God through The Holy Spirit. Mark 16:17-18