“In the highest heaven, glory to God! And on earth, peace among people of good will!” Luke 2:14
The above verse is a perfect example of how a word changed, can change the entire meaning. Because in the modern day translations it says peace and goodwill towards men. This is very different from saying peace among the people OF good will. The angel of God did not come saying goodwill to all men no matter who they are or what they have in their hearts. The Angel said peace to those who have good will, with good will being to do the will of the Father Adonai.
This might sound trivial but it’s not. We believe in our minds because of the false doctrine we follow that our way of living is good and acceptable to God. But when the Holy Spirit truly gets a hold of you and shows you who you are and who God expects you to be. And then you see these two men (or women) are not even close to the same. Then you will understand the difference of why it says men OF goodwill.
We cannot be pleasing to God in the flesh. We also cannot understand how that is because we live in the flesh from the first birth. No matter how much you read your bible, go to church, pray your prayers as a sinner. None of it matters, and why it is written “God does not hear the prayers of sinners.”
Yesterday that verse came up in a conversation with my wife. We were talking about how selfish people are in the ways they live, causing other people problems and then expecting others to take care of them. And if they do not do something exactly right they respond in a bad way. A lot of it is because of my wife dealing with her dad, and his unrepentant heart. But we see it in so many people, and some of it is the fact that before we could not see it because we also did many of the same things thinking it was normal because that is how people of the flesh live. And as mentioned many times, we as men find people who are similar to us and hang out with them. That way we do not get shamed for our wrong doing. Drug addicts hang out with drug addicts, alcoholics with alcoholics, sex whores with sex whores, gay with gay’s… I know because I used to do the same with sex and alcohol.
And the problem is when you start to change, and the friends do not want to change, it brings division. You find you no longer have anything in common. So back to the verse, because Yeshua said “I did not come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword to divide even families (or it should be said mostly families).
If you are not in the goodwill of God, then expect him to leave you alone, but if you decide to seek him, expect division. Just because you are finding out the truth and love the truth you are starting to live in. Does not mean others are going to be happy and excited and want to change with you.
When I first knew Yeshua and was changing, I was excited to tell people and thought they would also be excited. But no one was, not one. I would point things out in the bible to people and they would say something to justify their religious beliefs. Like my mom once when I showed her a verse from John 18:37 which Yeshua said “Every one who belongs to the truth listens to me.” She immediately said, “that was written by a man.” As if it is wrong, but her man she trust, the pope is not wrong. But who is wrong? Yeshua is the one to tell you that, and he said clearly in any translation that those who are of the truth will hear his voice.
This illustrates two things however. First is the bible is NOT the word of God, especially the twisted new versions because so much of it has been changed, maybe little words like the one above, but they have been changed.
Another verse so many “christians” love to argue with me on is from 1 John 1 as stated here “ If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth. But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin. If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing. If we claim we have not been sinning, we are making him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us.” This is from the CJB The NKJV says “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Note the little difference between the two where it says “ If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves.” Instead of “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” In both John is speaking of a past tense or maybe present situation. But the point he is making is we must acknowledge our sin and let the light of God shine into it so he can then wash us in his blood and cleanse us from that sin. The ‘christians’ believe the opposite where you will always sin (walk in darkness), yet you have fellowship with God. It is written clearly you are deceiving yourself, you are living the lie Paul wrote about, the great deception. Many quote 1 John 2 which says “But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik.” The modern day teachers twist the word Tzaddik into a lawyer on our behalf. But that is not what Tzaddik means. It really means a man who knows the torah and does everything possible to help the man seeking God to understand it and uphold it. Not a lawyer who is working to get us out of problems because we keep sinning.
IN 1 JOhn 3 it says “So no one who remains united with him continues sinning; everyone who does continue sinning has neither seen him nor known him. Children, don’t let anyone deceive you — it is the person that keeps on doing what is right who is righteous, just as God is righteous. The person who keeps on sinning is from the Adversary, because from the very beginning the Adversary has kept on sinning. It was for this very reason that the Son of God appeared, to destroy these doings of the Adversary.”
When you read this, and stop twisting the couple of verses above, you get the clear picture that God is a God of righteousness and justice. Not a god who accepts your sin and pretends it is not theirs. Or a god who expects you to go to confession once a week or month to confess them and then say a few hail marys to be clean again. Or whatever nonsense.
The problem is the adversary is very powerful, he has us believing the deception or lie. And he has the upper hand over Adonai because we do not want to hear what Adonai says, we prefer a god who tells us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. So when the men teachers educated by the system and the adversary come in telling us what we want to hear, we do not believe other men like me who have truly died unto themselves and have been taught by Yeshua, the only one we are to call our teacher. We do not listen to these men because it is not what we have been taught and who is this guy to tell me different? And it is not what we want to hear.
So we put the truth to death in our lives, and remain in our sin and then twist bible verses to justify our belief in a god who does not exist. Ignoring the true God who does exist.
The biggest problem will be that day when you meet Yeshua face to face, and no way to go back to do it over. And he hands down your judgment, which is based strictly on one thing. Did you repent and receive the Holy Spirit, or stay in your sin and ignore the light of the Holy Spirit. In that moment you will know what I am saying is truth, not because of me, but because of the one who taught me this truth, Yeshua himself. This is the opportunity to change so you sin no more, as it is written he always gives us a way out. This is the way out. Otherwise the adversary, the devil. He will keep leading you astray without you even knowing he is doing it. And in most cases he does not even need help from you, you do it yourself because the spirit of a man is not righteous in Adonais eyes. Only a man who has replaced his spirit with the Holy Spirit is going to be righteous, and not because he because Adonai no longer sees the sin, but because the man is changed. The man has worked out what Yeshua is working in him. He hears the voice of the shepherd and follows him and him only. And he starts to understand the men teachers are the men who sneak in through other ways and steal the sheep as said in John chapter 10.
So who are you going to follow? And are you going to change your heart so you have goodwill to find the peace of God? I have changed it and the peace of God is now upon me. When in the flesh I did not know I did not have the peace of God, and thought I did. But once you truly receive it, then you understand and know you never had it, and the reason you never did is because you stayed in the dark and your sin, believing the lie.