One of the profound statement in the bible that gives you an over view of the goal of the bible is:
RSV Matthew 7:13-14
13. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Jesus is described in multiple places as the Door, Gate or Keys. To get on the narrow gate is found in:
RSV John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
And further:
ASV Romans 10:13-15
13. for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15. and how shall they preach, except they be sent?
ASV Romans 10:17
17. So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
A preacher must be sent in order for anyone to hear the message otherwise that person will live their lives without even thinking that they need to change. Sometimes you need a seed planted in your head before you can accept the message since the bible is not easy to understand without guidance. That is planned because it’s written
RSV Matthew 13:10-16
10. Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11. And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
13. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
15. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.’
16. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
you may say that’s not fair that some people can’t understand but Jesus states
RSV Romans 9:21-23
21. Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?
22. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction,
23. in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory,
And:
RSV Proverbs 25:2
2. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
The bible says that all will spend eternity in one of 2 places: Heaven or Hell. The bible gives you the instructions to get on the narrow road to Heaven. This is why a preacher or teacher of the bible is needed to help guide you because there are different levels of understanding in the bible from the simple to the complex and Jesus wants his people to understand the complex as it’s stated
ASV 1 Corinthians 3:2
2. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able;
RSV Hebrews 5:12-14
12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food;
13. for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child.
14. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Unfortunately most people aren’t even getting good milk to drink. They are getting spoiled milk since the majority of churches aren’t teaching the basics. My parents didn’t teach me the true fundamentals, my catholic schooling didn’t teach me, my church attendance didn’t teach me. It took a preacher on the radio to finally get me to learn the basics. Once I read the bible cover to cover several times I graduated from drinking milk to begin to eat meat because I now understood the basics and now I’m expanding my scriptural knowledge, discovering deeper understanding. It should not have taken this long for me to get the ah-ha moment because the bible tells the parents in:
RSV Proverbs 22:6
6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Since people don’t know the basics, there is a rejection when it’s taught. Jesus lost all his followers except the 12 after giving a communion speech:
RSV John 6:60-69
60. Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
62. Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?
63. It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
65. And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66. After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.
67. Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”
68. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life;
69. and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus’ message was so counter-establishment that the Jewish leaders killed him and all his disciples and countless followers. The persecution of true Christians by governments and other religious groups are still happening today. Why was this message so opposed? Two reasons: The Jewish leaders had a lock in power and they saw Jesus a threat to that power as it’s stated:
RSV John 11:47-53
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
48. If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.”
49. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all;
50. you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
53. So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.
The Bible states that the religious rulers were corrupt and were not going to make it into heaven and go out and make sure others don’t as well.
RSV Matthew 23:13-15
13. “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Paul warned the people that he preached to that after he leaves others would come and try to get people to believe another message:
RSV Acts 20:28-30
28. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son.
29. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30. and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Why are they trying to prevent you from going to heaven:
RSV Joshua 23:11-16
11. Take good heed to yourselves, therefore, to love the Lord your God.
12. For if you turn back, and join the remnant of these nations left here among you, and make marriages with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,
13. know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you; but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, till you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
15. But just as all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you,
16. if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”
There is a more in depth coverage of this principle
RSV Deuteronomy 28:1-68
1. “AND IF you obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
3. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
4. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
5. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
6. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.
8. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
9. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways.
10. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of you.
11. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, within the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12. The Lord will open to you his good treasury the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13. And the Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall tend upward only, and not downward; if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, being careful to do them,
14. and if you do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15. “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
16. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
18. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
19. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20. “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and frustration, in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your doings, because you have forsaken me.
21. The Lord will make the pestilence cleave to you until he has consumed you off the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
22. The Lord will smite you with consumption, and with fever, inflammation, and fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
23. And the heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under you shall be iron.
24. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.
25. “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them; and you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26. And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
27. The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt, and with the ulcers and the scurvy and the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28. The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind;
29. and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.
30. You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not use the fruit of it.
31. Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it; your ass shall be violently taken away before your face, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and there shall be no one to help you.
32. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day; and it shall not be in the power of your hand to prevent it.
33. A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually;
34. so that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see.
35. The Lord will smite you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36. “The Lord will bring you, and your king whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.
37. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.
38. You shall carry much seed into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them.
40. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.
41. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.
42. All your trees and the fruit of your ground the locust shall possess.
43. The sojourner who is among you shall mount above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.
44. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you, till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.
46. They shall be upon you as a sign and a wonder, and upon your descendants for ever.
47. “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things,
48. therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he will put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.
49. The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you do not understand,
50. a nation of stern countenance, who shall not regard the person of the old or show favor to the young,
51. and shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; who also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
52. They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.
RSV Isaiah 5:24-25
24. Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and smote them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.
RSV Galatians 6:7
7. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
RSV Deuteronomy 32:21
21. They have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god; they have provoked me with their idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation.
RSV Deuteronomy 32:23
23. “‘And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend my arrows upon them;
RSV Deuteronomy 28:63
63. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you; and you shall be plucked off the land which you are entering to take possession of it.
RSV Jeremiah 9:9
9. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
RSV Jeremiah 9:12-14
12. Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13. And the Lord says: “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accord with it,
14. but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.
Sound depressing but there is a key on how to reverse all the curses
RSV 2 Chronicles 7:13-14
13. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,
14. if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
That is a strong motivation of the other heathen people to convert God’s people to their ways so God will destroy his own people and make the heathen nations stronger than the Godly nations.
RSV Matthew 25:41
41. Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
How is it possible to get into heaven
RSV James 4:7-8
7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,
RSV Hebrews 11:6
6. And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
As you get closer to God, you’ll begin to get blessings, there are many different blessing: spiritual, physical, mental, economic, national
I’m working for the blessing that determines my location of my retirement after I die
RSV Matthew 6:19-21
19. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal,
20. but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
In order to get the treasures in heaven you have to properly prepare yourself, you have to have a certain set of clothes as its stated:
RSV Matthew 22:1-14
1. AND AGAIN Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,
2. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son,
3. and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come.
4. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’
5. But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,
6. while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
9. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’
10. And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment;
12. and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
13. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.‘
14. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
My focus is having a wedding garment waiting for me after I die. This garment is described in:
RSV Luke 24:49-50
49. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.”
This power is our wedding garment. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came into the 11 apostles (it would have be 12 but Judas Iscariot hanged himself). Peter steps outside to the throng of people gathered and tells them how they can be saved:
RSV Acts 2:38-41
38. And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
40. And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
41. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Before you get baptized you need to believe the basic teachings of the bible
RSV Romans 10:9
9. … if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
RSV Matthew 10:32-33
32. So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven;
33. but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
I was sprinkled with water when I got baptized as a child and then had a confirmation when I was in high school. That is not the baptism that the bible was speaking about. First you have to believe, confess, repent then get baptized. You have to completely go under water since that is the definition of the word Baptism which is found in:
Strong’s Greek Dictionary
Strong’s Number: 907 Transliterated: baptizo Phonetic: bap-tid’-zo
Text: to immerse, submerge; to make overwhelmed (i.e. fully wet); used only (in the N.T.) of ceremonial ablution, especially (technically) of the ordinance of Christian baptism: –Baptist, baptize, wash.
RSV 1 Peter 3:18-21
18. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;
21. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
There is only 1 type of baptism that is allowed according to the bible
RSV Ephesians 4:4-6
4. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,
5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6. one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.
That is why I went and got re-baptized – full immersion, in the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins – Acts 2:38, that’s the decision that everyone needs to make, they should be taught it but aren’t.
Regards,
Called/Chosen + Hear + Believe + Repent + Confess + Baptize + Abide = Salvation -> Proclaim
Mt22:14 + Lk11:28 + Jn3:16 + Mk6:12 +Rm10:9 +Acts2:38 + Heb10:26 = 1 Pt 3:21 -> Mt28:19-20