WHAT YOU MUST DO TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

 

 

 

Roman Catholics, the priests teach you these things: ‘God gives the Paradise to the good people (….) By being good, by only our natural strength, we could not deserve the Paradise; we deserve it by the grace that God granted to us in the Baptism, by which grace our good works gain merit for the Paradise (….) Each one of us tries through many sacrifices and works to make for himself a good condition on this earth, to gain uncertain goods that we can suddenly lose, which cannot make anyone happy for they do not satisfy the heart and that anyhow we must leave soon because of death. Instead, first of all, think of earning Paradise’ and also: “Thus, because of the hope, we expect to receive from the Lord eternal life as well as all the necessary graces to deserve eternal life here on earth, but how can we merit it? By good works’, and again: ‘We hope we will save ourselves because God wants us to be saved, and we want, for our part, to do what is necessary to save ourselves, and as we say in the act of hope, we hope to receive from God eternal life and the necessary graces to deserve it through the good works that I must do and I want to do’. Are then the endless merits of Jesus Christ insufficient to save us? Yes, they are insufficient – your priests tell you – but not because they have not a sufficient value, but because Jesus Christ Himself wants the cooperation of our good works, for in order to impute to us the good works’ merit, He wants us to feel and desire together with Him, for He wants us to practice the Gospel and to live the Christian life’.

However, things are not as your priests teach you, for this doctrine which confers on good works the power to make men merit eternal life and to save men from hell and that you have accepted in good faith, thinking it was correct for it is taught to you by men who are called ‘priests of God’, is a false doctrine, a diabolic doctrine which has led to hell hundreds of millions of people so far. Yes, there are hundreds of millions of people suffering in the fire of hell – among whom also some of your relatives and even members of your family – because while they were on earth they had relied on the doctrine about salvation the priests taught them.

Now, I am going refute this doctrine and thus you will understand what I have said.

According to what the Scripture says, eternal life is not the wages God gives to the man who tries to earn eternal life, but it is a gift that God gives to the man who repents of his sins and believes in the name of the Son of God. For Paul says: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Therefore eternal life, since it is the gift of God, cannot be deserved or earned by good works, otherwise the gift is no more a gift. I ask you: ‘If God gave eternal life as a reward to those who work, that would mean that God is a debtor toward them, for Paul says: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” (Romans 4:4), but how can this be true since the apostle says: “Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” (Romans 11:35)? I ask you another question: ‘If by good works one could earn eternal life, why then did the Son of God come into the world to suffer? He could have remained in the bosom of the Father. Don’t you think? But you must understand this, that Jesus Christ came into the world for this purpose, to purchase eternal life through His blood, and thus to enable all men, both Jews and Gentiles, to receive it by grace through faith in Him. Jesus knew that men cannot earn eternal life for all men are under condemnation and deserve eternal punishment, and thus He came to die for us so that by His merits, and I say it again, by His merits, we might obtain freely from God eternal life. But I ask you another question: ‘How can you say that by good works one can earn eternal life when all good works put together cannot reach at all the value of eternal life? How can you say such a thing when Jesus said to His disciples: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10)?

I think that your statement ‘God should give rightly eternal life to those who do good works’ is arrogant! You may say: ‘Then must I believe only, in order to receive eternal life? Yes, you must only believe, for Jesus said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47) and: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40) and also: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).

As for these last words, I want you to know the reason why Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert and thus you will understand why Jesus mentioned that event in order to explain that a man must only believe in Him to have eternal life.

While the Israelites were in the wilderness, on the way to the land of Canaan, they spoke against God and Moses saying: “Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread” and so “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:5-9).

Now, Jesus compared His being lifted up to the lifting up of the serpent of brass made in the desert; and the comparison is really appropriate because just as the Israelites bitten by the serpents had to behold the serpent of brass lifted up by Moses in order to escape death (you should notice that those who were bitten had to behold the serpent of brass in order to escape death, they did not have to perform some specific rites or do some good works written in the law), so men, who are dead in their sins, must only behold the Son of God and believe in Him in order to be quickened and to obtain eternal life. They must believe on the One who was hung on the cross and after His resurrection was received up to the right hand of God. Yes, the only way that men can receive eternal life from God is through faith in Jesus Christ; not through good works as you are told by your priests, who are themselves dead in their sins and speak in this way because they have not yet beheld the Son and believed on Him. Also John the Baptist stated that eternal life is received only through faith, for he said: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36); as well as the apostle Paul who said: “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Timothy 1:16).

Now, reflect upon what I am going to say: if faith were not sufficient in order to receive eternal life, eternal life would not be any longer a gift, for besides faith good works also would be necessary in order to receive it. In other words, the Scripture would contradict itself because a gift which needs to be deserved or earned is no longer a gift. I will give you an example. If you buy a present for a member of your family, what do you expect from him? You expect that he will accept it as a gift, don’t you? Therefore, you expect that when you give it to him, he will say to you: ‘Thank you!’. But let us suppose that you should say to him: ‘I give it to you but you must pay for it (at least you must give me a part of his value or price), could we still call that object a gift? Of course not. And the same is with eternal life, if God declares in the Bible that eternal life is HIS GIFT you must accept it as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ, and you must thank Him for this great gift. You must do no good works to receive eternal life, for God does not request good works from you, He does not want you to pay either entirely or partially for eternal life because Jesus Christ paid the full price of it when He died on the cross for each of us.

If God required from you to do good works, and not only to have faith in Jesus, in order to give you eternal life, He would be a double-tongued God; that would mean that Jesus Christ on the cross through His suffering and His blood did not do enough to purchase eternal redemption to us and therefore the sacrifice of Christ would be a little help, given by God to man, a little help given to him to allow him to receive eternal life!! In other words, it would mean that in order to have eternal life a man must have his own merits for the merits of Christ are not sufficient. But I say it again, at this point eternal life could not be called ‘the gift of God’ and the sacrifice of Christ would be of little value, or rather of no value.

Maybe, after you have read all these things, you will say: ‘As for me, I believe, I believe in Jesus!’ Well, then I ask you: ‘If – as you say – you believe in Jesus, why are you not sure you have eternal life? For – as you have seen – Jesus stated that whoever believes in Him has eternal life.’ I will tell you the reason why you are not sure, because you have not yet believed with your heart that Jesus Christ died for our sins and the third day He rose again for our justification. Therefore, I exhort you to believe with your heart that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again to justify us through His blood. Only then will you realize that your present faith is a false faith. At this point you may say: ‘Too simple to be true!’ But I say to you: ‘Why do you say that? Do you think that doctrines need to be complex in order to be true? Don’t you think this is not the way to understand if a doctrine is true or false? Listen, a doctrine is true if it is supported by the Bible, whether it is easy to understand it or not, whether it is fully comprehensible or not. On the other hand, a doctrine may be very simple or very complicated, but if the Bible does not support it, that doctrine must be rejected. The way to obtain eternal life may seem to you very simple, however one thing is certain, IT IS TRUE. We can say this to you because we have personally experienced the truthfulness of the words of Jesus.

Do you think we are presumptuous because we say we have eternal life? Well, then listen to what the apostle John (I remember you that John was a witness of the death and of the resurrection of Christ) tells us in his first epistle: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). Be careful, he did not say ‘these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may hope to obtain eternal life’ as if we believers did not have eternal life within us, but he said that he wrote these things to us that we may know that we have already eternal life. The same apostle says also: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:10-12). Therefore recognize that the words of the apostle confirm fully that we who believe have eternal life.

But I would like to ask you: ‘How can you say that a believer who has received Christ in his heart cannot say in full assurance of faith that he has eternal life, when Jesus Christ is “that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us” (1 John 1:2) and “he that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12)? Saying such a thing is tantamount to saying that an Italian citizen cannot say he has the Italian citizenship, for to say such a thing means to be arrogant! When you say such a thing is as you said that your son is arrogant because he says to his friends that you have given him a bicycle. Come to your senses! How can a person be called presumptuous because he says that he has received from God the gift of eternal life? If eternal life is a gift, do you think that if we say that we have received eternal life we are presumptuous? Do you think that if we say that we have asked for it and we have received it we are presumptuous? Do you think that if we boast of having received this wonderful gift from a wonderful God ready to forgive, we are presumptuous? I know that it was said to you: “If we claim to be able to save ourselves without any merit we are arrogant, and this arrogance offends the righteousness of God and almost mocks at it, as if God were to give us Paradise, or He were to reward us for some good we did not want to do’. But that’s untrue, for I have abundantly showed that eternal life is the gift of God. Actually, the persons who are arrogant are not those who, like us, say that they are sure they have eternal life by the grace of God through their faith, but all those who say, like you, that we are saved by good works.

Since we believers by the grace of God have eternal life dwelling in us, we are sure that when we die, of course if we will be found faithful, we will go to heaven to be with Jesus because Jesus said: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26) and also: “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be” (John 12:26). And since we have “the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13) and we say together with the apostles: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Yes, we have the same feeling that was in Paul who had the desire to depart and to be with Christ in heaven, which is far better than to stay on earth.

The Roman Catholic priests call this confidence insolent presumptuousness, for according to them, all those who die in grace must go to a place called purgatory to expiate all their debts of temporal punishment which remain to be discharged!! And woe to those who do not accept their doctrine, for the Council of Trent said: “If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema’ (Council of Trent, VI, canon 30). But that is untrue, for the Scripture teaches that when God remits sins to a man, He remits to him the eternal punishment as well. The thief who repented on the cross at the point of death is an example which confirms this, for Jesus remitted to that man all his sins as well as all the debts of temporal punishment in that Jesus said to him: “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus did not say to him that first of all he had to go to a place called purgatory to stay there for a period of time in order to purify himself from a part of the eternal punishment of his sins and then he would be able to enter Paradise, but Jesus said to him that he would go to paradise on that very day. Reflect upon this: is it not absurd to think that God remits all debts to the repentant sinner and then when he dies God will send him to a place of torment like the so called purgatory, that he may pay some of those debts, before letting him enter Paradise? Yet, that’s what the priests make you believe!

I don’t mean that we believers have reached perfection or that we are without sin, far be it from us to say such a thing, because we recognize that we are people with many defects who need to be perfected and to improve ourselves, and sometimes we do what we hate and thus we need to confess our sins to God in order to be forgiven. But I mean that by the mercy of God, by which God begot us again and gave us the power to become the sons of God and gave us eternal life, we are sure that God has forgiven us all our sins, that we are fully purified from our sins and thus if we die in Christ we will go immediately to be with Jesus in heaven.

Let the priests call our confidence ‘presumptuousness’, let the councils keep casting anathemas on those who – according to the councils – have the assurance of remission of sins and eternal life; as for us, we will continue to glory in the Lord for we have obtained the purification of our sins through the blood of Jesus, we will continue to praise His name for this, and we will continue to preach to men that in Christ Jesus there is assurance of remission of sins, in Him there is assurance of eternal life, while in the theology taught by the priests there is ambiguity, falsity and uncertainty; which produce nothing but doubts and anguishes.

Men and women, who are afraid of death and don’t know where you are going (you think you will go to purgatory but the Scripture denies its existence) for you have accepted the teachings of the priests, I implore you on Christ’s behalf, repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Do not reject the gift of God, or else when you die you will go into the burning fire of hell where you will suffer unspeakable torments.

Now is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time, tomorrow might be too late. Do not postpone your decision for Christ. Humble yourself before God, confess your sins to Him, and believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and immediately, instantly, you will be forgiven, reconciled to God and you will obtain the gift of eternal life and when you die you will go to heaven to be with Jesus Christ your Saviour and there you will find the saints (the true saints) who lived in the past generations, and those saints who are still alive, and all together we will praise and glorify God and His Son. Once you have experienced God’s forgiveness in your life and you have received the assurance of eternal life, since the Holy Spirit will be dwelling in you and will bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God washed in the precious blood of Jesus, you must be baptized in water because Jesus, before He was received up into heaven, commanded to baptize those who believe in Him, as He said: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). You must undergo water baptism in order to have a good conscience toward God for the apostle Peter says that baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21 - NASB). Through your baptism you will testify before the devil and his invisible ministers (as well as before the unbelievers who will be present or who will hear about your baptism) that you have become a disciple of Christ Jesus, that you have decided to live for Him who died and was raised again for us, that you have denied yourself and the pleasures of sin that the devil offers you through this wicked world. For you must understand these things: first, that when one is born again he is delivered from this world, which lies under the sway of the wicked one, and is conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of God; second, that before the new birth he served sin, but after the new birth he is a servant of righteousness. Water baptism is therefore an act through which a believer declares that he died to sin and to the world.

Therefore you must immediately leave the Catholic Church you are attending and look for a community of believers in Jesus Christ, and ask the pastor or the elders of that community to baptize you (Acts 8:36-38). And then stay with the members of that community for they are born again too. They are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, whom you must love in deed and in truth (1 John 3:16-18), because that’s what Jesus Christ commanded us (John 15:17), with whom you must walk together while you wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven. Attend the Church meetings, look for the brothers also when there are no official meetings and stay with them to talk about the things pertaining to Jesus and to His kingdom, to pray, to sing, and to do all kinds of good works to the glory of God (Acts 2:41-47). In this way you will increase all the more in strength and you will grow spiritually.

Of course, your new birth will be noticed by your parents, by your wife or husband, by your sons, and by all those who know you. What should be your attitude toward them? Tell them what happened to you, that is, how the Lord had mercy on you forgiving your sins and how He begot you again unto new life (Luke 8:39), do that in order to win them to Christ. Do not be ashamed to declare the work that God has wrought in you, as Jesus was not ashamed to die for you on the cross (Mark 8:38). Furthermore, you ought to set an example for them in speech, in love, in purity, in life, so that they might see in you the light of the Lord (Matthew 5:14-16) and of course in order to win them to Christ.

That means you must abstain from every fleshly and worldly lusts of which you were slave before your new birth, and also from all idolatrous and superstitious practices, such as the worship of pictures and statues, the rosary, the processions, the worship of the host. Stop killing, sinning against nature, fornicating, committing adultery, being effeminate, robbing, blaspheming, saying lies and bad words, loving money, being arrogant, haughty, impolite, violent, quick-tempered, stop wearing expensive clothes as well as tight and provocative clothes - If you are a man stop wearing shorts and putting yourself bare-chested in the presence of others, stop watching television, listening to worldly music, going to dance, going to bar to play cards or wasting time in some other ways, stop going to football, soccer, basketball, baseball and boxing matches, going to the beach or to the swimming pool to get tanned and to amuse yourself. - If you are a woman stop wearing trousers, miniskirts, low-necked dresses, transparent dresses, tight dresses, expensive clothing, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings (1 Timothy 2:9-10), and stop wearing make-up. In other words, whoever you are, you must abstain from every form of evil (Titus 2:11-14).

You may ask why you must abstain even from many things which are not considered any longer evil things: well, the reason is because through the new birth one becomes the temple of God ( 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:18-20), that is, his body becomes the spiritual house where God dwells, and since God is holy he must offer the parts of his body in slavery to righteousness and holiness, and not in slavery to impurity and vanity (Romans 6:12-23), and he must control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). And those things the world says you can do, are perverse things in the sight of God. He doesn’t like them and because of these things cometh the wrath of God from heaven.

Be zealous for good works, help those who are in need especially those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10), orphans, widows and the poor among the saints; support materially the pastor and the elders who teach you the Word of God, they are worthy of your support (Galatians 6:6; 1 Corinthians 9:7-11,14; 1 Timothy 5:17-18); read the Holy Scripture and meditate on it (2 Timothy 3:14-17), pray continually to God in the name of Jesus Christ giving thanks to Him in everything (Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18) but pray in faith and wait patiently for His answer.

Pray for your brothers and sisters, that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that they may walk worthy of the Lord (Philippians 1:8-11; Colossians 1:9-12); and pray also for sinners, that they may be saved (Romans 10:1 and 1 Timothy 2:1-7). Pray to God for the governing authorities, that He may keep, help and bless them (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Ask God to give you wisdom ( James 1:5-8), in order to walk in wisdom; the baptism with the Holy Spirit, through which the believer is endued with power from on high (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:13; Acts 1:8; 2:4), and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are given for the edifying of the Church (1 Corinthians 14:12).

Proclaim the Gospel to all men: Roman Catholics, Jews, Hindu people, Buddhists, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons etc.; tell them about the grace of God which is in Christ Jesus so that they may be born again.

Finally, remember that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who did not commit any sin and who sought the good of the people, was hated by the world; so do not marvel if those belonging to this world will hate you and persecute you once you have passed from death unto life (John 15:18-25; 1 John 3:13-14).

Suffer afflictions as Jesus Christ suffered afflictions; and rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for His Holy Name, which is blessed for ever (Matthew 5:11-12; Acts 5:40:41). Stand fast in the faith unto death and you will receive the crown of life.

 

 

 

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