Below is a summary of what I, personally, believe. I believe it is important to study the Scriptures. It is absolutely essential to always question what you have been taught or told by someone else, to ascertain the truth for yourself, causing it to become your personal and individual faith in God Almighty. You do so by examining and studying your Bible very carefully.

I grew up in our church’s youth group, called "The Bereans." We got our name, based on Acts 17:11 "Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." These people were from Berea (Acts 17:10), thus "bereans." I also grew up (physically & spiritually) under pastors and teachers, who always said, "Don’t take MY word for it! Look it up for yourselves."

This is the basis for what I believe today. I have not ‘inherited’ a religion from my parents or grandparents, but I have studied and examined Scriptures for myself, and I urge you to do the same. We can pass on a legacy of faith to our children, believing in the promises of God. We can also pass on our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:7) to our children. It’s extremely important that we do!

But ultimately, each individual must make up their own minds as to what they are going to believe; what God is trying to relay to us through His inspired Scripture. I think the mistake that most people make is this: Not caring enough to diligently study and know the truths that are in this magnificent, complicated, inspiring, encouraging book called the Bible.

I want to encourage you – go deep.

Print them off. Look up the Scriptures. See if they make sense. Although God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9), I think God desires for us to know and understand His plan of salvation – His Gospel. "(God) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (I Timothy 1:4) and "Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you." (Proverbs 1:23). God wants to be sought out and found! (Isaiah 55:6). He wants the mysteries of the Gospel of the Kingdom to be revealed and for eyes to see and ears to hear!!!

Matthew 13:44 says, "The Kingdom of Heaven (God) is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." And Luke 8:10, “And He (Jesus) said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” These truths are indeed hidden to the world, but a rare and precious treasure. Go DEEP and you will discover the mysteries of the Kingdom of God!

I believe that the Bible is true and its writings are inspired by God.

"ALL Scripture is inspired by God"(2 Timothy 3:16).

I believe that God alone created the heavens and the earth.

Isaiah 44:24 says "Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer and the one who formed you from the womb, 'I, the LORD, and the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens BY MYSELF and spreading out the earth ALL ALONE.'"

I believe that your body + the breath of life = living soul. Our soul is mortal. It will die.

• "God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (soul)." Genesis 2:7.
• “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal.” Genesis 6:3
• “The dead do not praise the LORD.” Psalm 115:17a
• “For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:5a.
• “For this perishable must put on imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality (at the return of Christ Jesus).” I Corinthians 15:53.
• Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• Revelation 22:12 tells us that the reward of eternal life comes when Jesus comes. Revelation 20:14 tells us when the second death occurs – after the return of Christ and Judgment Day. Read Daniel 12:2.
• Look at Genesis 6:17; Genesis 3:4; Job 19:25-27; Job 17:13-16; Job 14: 10-12, 14, 21; Psalm 13:3; II Corinthians 5:4; among many, many more! Too many to list!
• To live forever is a gift from God that we will receive at Christ’s return. We must accept Christ to inherit eternal life. That gift of immortality is received at the resurrection of the dead as stated clearly in I Corinthians 15. It is a day we all long for! Come Lord Jesus!

I believe that as heirs of Abraham, we will inherit the promises made to Abraham.

As the Scriptures state in Galatians 3:29, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise."

In Genesis 17:8, God promises Abraham, "I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."

I believe that Jesus was supernaturally conceived as the Son of God and is the Son of God Almighty. The LORD God is Jesus’ Father and God.

• "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the LORD God will give him the throne of His father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob, forever and His Kingdom will have no end."
• Luke 1:31-33,35 "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy child shall be called the SON of God!"
• “He (Jesus) will cry to Me (God), 'You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.'" Psalm 89:26 is David speaking a prophecy about Jesus. And in Matthew 27:45 Jesus calls out to God, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” God was Jesus’ God and Father.
• “I (God) also shall make him (Jesus) My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Psalm 89:27.
• Luke 9:35 "Then a voice came out of the cloud saying, 'This is MY Son, My chosen one; listen to him.'"

I believe that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah.

• Jesus was the Messiah about whom in Psalm 110:1 David prophesied, "The LORD (Jehovah) said to my Lord (Messiah): 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'"
• And in John 4:25 when the woman at the well said to Jesus, "'I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One (Jesus) comes, he (Jesus) will declare all things to us.' And Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am he (the Messiah).'"
• “I (God) will establish your (David’s) seed forever and build up your (David’s) throne to all generations.” God’s promise to David is that his seed or descendant, Jesus, will sit upon his throne of the everlasting kingdom. Psalm 89:4
• Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This fact was what led to his crucifixion. "The Jews answered him, 'We have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God.'" John 19:7. To claim to be the Son of the Living God was considered blasphemous to the Jewish people.
• Jesus, himself said, in John 8:28, "'When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he (the Messiah – the prophesied Christ of the Old Testament) and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me.'"
• This fulfilled Deuteronomy 18:15-18, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me (Moses) from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ The LORD said to me, 'They have spoken well. I (God) will raise up a prophet (Jesus) from among their countrymen (Jewish people) like you (Moses), and I (God) will put My words in his (Jesus’) mouth, and he (Jesus) shall speak to them all that I (God) command him (Jesus).'"

I believe that Jesus preached and taught the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

In Luke 4:42, Jesus says it himself, "I must preach the Kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." "Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the GOSPEL of the KINGDOM and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness." Matthew 9:35. It’s all over the Bible after you notice this little, but important fact!

I believe that by believing that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, you will inherit eternal life.

This is found in many Scriptures such as John 3:16 , John 3:36, and I John 5:11. Romans 5:8-9, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his (Jesus’) blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him (Jesus)."

I believe when Jesus returns, the Bible tells us that we, who are in Christ, will receive our immortality. We are not automatically immortal. Immortality - the gift of eternal life- is a gift from God through his Son, Jesus - inherited by us at the time of Christ’s return.

• Thessalonians 4:13-17: "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep (dead), so that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring to life those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (died). For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them (those who were just resurrected from the dead) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, (and usher and greet Jesus as he returns to the earth), and so we shall always be with the Lord (as he begins his reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem)."
• Ephesians 5:14 "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
• Psalm 17:15 David said, “As for me, I shall behold Your (God’s) face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.” David dies and when Christ returns, he will awake from the dead.
• Daniel 12:2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, those to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
• John 6:40, Jesus says, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I, myself, will raise him up on the last day.” On the day Christ returns, you are resurrected from the dead and you will receive that gift of eternal life!
• Psalm 71:20 “(God) will revive me again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth (the grave).” David believed in the resurrection of the dead.
• I Samuel 2:6-7, 10 "The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol (the grave) and raises up. The LORD makes poor and rich; he brings low, He also exalts. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and He set the world on them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to His King (prophecy about Jesus!), and will exalt the horn of His anointed(Jesus)."
• Luke 18:29 - 30 “And He (Jesus) said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much at this time (now) and in the age to come – eternal life!”
• Job 14:12, 14 "So man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, (until the end of the ages that Jesus preached about!) he will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle, I will wait until my change comes."

What change?

I Corinthians 15:51-53 "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep (some of us will still be alive when Christ returns to the earth), but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality (the ability to live forever), THEN will come about the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"

I think that it is a common misconception that people assume that when they die, they will go to someplace to spend eternity immediately. This is not Biblical and not found in the Scriptures. This is just a comfortable thing people want to believe in...to think that they go to heaven when they die. The Bible is quite clear, through the Old and New Testament, that when we die, we cannot praise God or see God while we’re dead. It’s as though we are asleep - we know nothing. That is why the Bible’s hope of a resurrection from the dead is such a big deal. Upon our resurrection from the dead, we will be given a new and glorious body that will never die again. We become immortal. Imperishable.

It makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? We are looking forward to being with Jesus and getting to finally see God, to live eternity with them. Why would we even care, if we are already in heaven with God, and His only son Jesus? Our hope is the day that Christ will return to the earth. Our hope is to receive eternal life. Our hope is not stated as our immortal soul reuniting with our fleshly body to put on immortality. It’s a nice thought, but not Biblical.

The Bible mentions Paradise, but that is another misconception. Paradise does not refer to a "heaven where souls go when they die" but rather it is another term to define the Kingdom of God; the restored earth. Revelation 2:7 speaks of the tree of life in the Paradise of God, then states in Revelation 22:2 that the tree of life is located on either side of the river, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the city of Jerusalem which is on earth, indicated in Revelation 21. It’s the topic that Jesus preached, proclaimed and was passionate about: the Gospel of the Kingdom of God! If you ‘spiritualize’ this concept, so that it is not a literal Kingdom with Jesus sitting on the throne of David, then you miss the whole message and our hope that is so very simple and clear in the Bible!

This may be new to you...something you’ve never heard before. You have to ask yourself, who would I rather believe - tradition of feel-good, old time religion, or the inspired Word of God which is full of truth when examined more carefully?

I believe that Jesus is in heaven, sitting at the Right Hand of God. He is our mediator between us and God. Jesus will someday return. He’s coming back to earth to reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem. After Christ’s one-thousand year reign, in which he puts all his enemies under his feet, God Almighty will come down to dwell among us, here on the restored earth.

Right before he ascended, the disciples asked him in Acts 1:6, "Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?" and Jesus answered them in verse 7, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority." Jesus is asked basically the same question in Matthew 24:3, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus goes on to explain some of the signs and events which will preclude his return to earth, then adds in verse 36, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." And in verse 44, "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will."

I Corinthians 15:24-26: "Then comes the end, when He (Jesus) hands over the Kingdom to God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he (Jesus) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death." And then in verse 26, "When all things are subjected to him (Jesus), then the Son himself (Jesus) also will be subjected to the One (God) who subjected all things to him (Jesus), so that God may be all in all."

Which ties into Revelation 21:3, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He (God) will dwell among them, and they shall be His (God’s) people, and God Himself will be among them.'"

"That He (God) may send Jesus, the Christ (Messiah) appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time." Acts 3:20-21

Revelation 11:15 "The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our LORD and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."

Hebrews 13:14 “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is TO COME.”

Revelation 21:2 "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband."

The End

That’s how the story ends! It’s a happy ending for those in Christ! We have victory over death, sin and Satan. The ‘rest of the story’ begins here! We get to live on the restored earth with God for an eternity. It’s called the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. You, too, can enter the Kingdom if you believe Jesus is the Son of God and obey His Word. Don’t miss it. It’s not some harp-playing on clouds kind of existence of a floating spirit or soul! It’s the story of mankind who will be resurrected from the dead to inherit a glorious body that will never die. Here’s the secret for living forever! It’s the mystery of the Kingdom of God. We won’t be bored! We will be co-heirs with Christ, helping him reign, rule, manage, administer and judge, among other things!

Other Scriptures for ya if you’re ambitious & want to take on the challenge to going deep into God’s Word!

Deuteronomy 6:4 Isaiah 44:6,24 Deut. 4:35-39 Luke 18:18-19 Deut. 32:39 I Timothy 1:17 John 17:3 I Timothy 2:3-5 Col. 1:3 James 1:13 Psalm 2:7 Matthew 1:1 Acts 13:32-33 Luke 1:35

Philippians 3:20-21 Luke 17:28-30 2 Timothy 2:18 2 Peter 2:6 Zeph. 1:14 James 5:1 Mark 1:14-15 Matthew 4:17-23 Acts 3:20-21 Psalm 2 Isaiah 11 Genesis 12:2-3 I Corinthians 15 Isaiah 35

Genesis 13:14-17 Matthew 13:19 John 3:3 Genesis 22:16-18 Mark 15:32 John 11:27 Hebrews 11:9 Isaiah 9:6 Rev. 5:10 Romans 9:6-8 John 3:5 Matthew 19:24-25 I Chronicles 17:11-14

There are so many more Scriptures. I have not the space, nor the time! Perhaps I’ll add more at a later time, if you are up to studying along with me! Thank you for your time. I hope you been “granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven (same as Kingdom of God)” (Matthew 13:10)! Hear the word, understand it; and go bear fruit! (Matthew 13:23).

Love In Christ Jesus,
Angela

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