Are You Confusing God's Promises With Facts and Facts With Promises? Anastasios Kioulachoglou

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

Facts of Faith

I was reading recently a very nice book from Chinese author Watchman Nee. The name of the book is “The new covenant” and in its first chapters the author explains the difference between facts and promises. I found his explanations very simple and enlightening. Many times we confuse promises with facts and facts with promises. It is really enlightening to know what is a fact and what is a promise. The promise brings with it the possibility that it will not be done unless certain conditions are met. That’s why it is a promise. We saw such a promise earlier in this issue: the promise of well being and long life. This promise is conditional on honoring your father and mother. On the other hand when God says that if we confess our sins He will forgive us and will clean us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9) this is not a promise. This is a fact. As soon as you have confessed yours sins, you do not need to think longer whether you are still carrying them or whether they are forgiven! THEY ARE FORGIVEN! This is not a promise. It is a FACT! Also when the Word of God tells us that those who believe in Jesus Christ are sons and daughters of God and they are born of God, this again is not a promise! It is a FACT! If you believe that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead you are a son of God and you are NOW! It is a wonderful fact! As a friend of mine was recently telling me the parts of the armor of God are all part of our identity in Christ. What the devil greatly fears is to see us walking according to what we are. What he greatly fears is that we realize the things the Word of God says that we are! Whether you feel or not righteous does not change the fact that you ARE righteous! It affects however the way you walk in this life. You may be righteous but if you don’t believe this fact or if you don’t know it then you immediately miss the breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6:14)! The focus of the devil is simple: to forget or deny by disbelief (doubt) what you are in Christ.

Facts vs. promises: an application with Romans 6:6

Returning back to the facts, here is one more: when the Word of God says that we must count our old man as crucified with Christ this is not a promise: you don’t pray for God to crucify the old man. The old man IS crucified. God cannot do something more! He has done it! He has crucified it! Your old man IS crucified NOW. “Why then do we still sin?” some will say. Here it is the answer Watchman Nee gives (emphasis is added)

“Some have asked “If this is the case, why do we sin again? If the old man has already been crucified and if we have the new man, why do we still sin?” This leads us to a new question. What should we do to realize God’s accomplished facts? A mistake that many people make is that they change God’s facts into promises. The old man has been crucified. However, some think that God has only promised to crucify the old man. They think that they should ask God to crucify the old man. Whenever they sin, they think that their old man is still not crucified. So they again ask God to crucify it. Whenever they encounter temptations, they think that the old man has not been dealt with, and they again ask God to deal with it. They do not realize that God’s facts are different from His promises. God has done many things. Facts are not things that God has promised to do.

Therefore we do not need to pray. We do not need to have more zealous prayers, but to believe. Toward God’s facts, we must only believe. If we believe, we will have the experience. Fact, faith, experience – this is the order that God has ordained, and this is a great principle in our spiritual life. We only need to do this: First, we should know God’s facts. God must reveal them to us through the Holy Spirit. Second, after we know God’s facts concerning a certain matter, we should lay hold of God’s Word and believe that we are alreadyaccording to His Word. God’s fact says it and we are what His Word says. Third we should exercise this faith and thank God that we are what He says we are and should live according to what we already are. Fourth whenever temptations and trials come, we should believe that God’s Word and facts are more reliable than our experience. All we have to do is fully believe in God’s Word; He will be responsible for giving us the experience. If we only pay attention to our experience we will fail. We should pay attention to believing in God’s fact. This is our only responsibility. We can commit our experience to God because it is His responsibility.

The basis for a Christian’s experience is Romans 6:6. All we have to do is to allow God’s Spirit to show us how our old man is crucified. Then we should lay hold of God’s Word and believe that we are dead to sin. After this we should live as if we are already dead. Even when temptations come and tell us that we have not died, we should still believe more in what God has done than in our feelings and experience. If we do this, experience will follow. We should note that God’s fact does not become real by doing this. Rather we do this because God’s fact is already real.

If our old man has not died, we could pray and ask him to crucify it. But if the crucifixion is an accomplished fact and we still ask God to accomplish it again, then there is nothing more to say except that we are entirely lacking in faith. May we have greater faith before God. I admit that if I had not personally passed through my sickness in the past three years, I would not have known what faith is. In many places I have seen many dear brothers. But I have seldom seen a person who believes in God. What is faith? Faith is believing that whatever God has said means exactly what He has said. It is believing that everything is according to God’s Word. God has said that our old man is dead. This means that our old man is dead. A fact is something that God has accomplished through Christ. No one can say anything more about it. God sent His Son to accomplish everything for us and told us, through the Bible, what He accomplished. Now what He has accomplished has finished; God can do nothing more, and we should do nothing more than accept it before Him with a humble heart and believe that His Word is real. May our hardened hearts and evil hearts of unbelief be removed so that we will receive God’s grace” (Watchman Nee, The New Covenant, Living Stream ministry, pp. 19-21)”

Faith is believing that whatever God has said that’s what He means! God has said that our old man is dead? This is the truth! God says in Romans 10:9-10 that if one confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in His heart that God raised Him from the dead he will be saved. Well then if you have done this, you do not need to find out whether you are saved or not. YOU ARE! It is a fact! When God’s Word tells us that those who believe that Jesus is the Christ they are born of God (I John 5:1) it means what it says! If you believe this, you are born of God! It is a fact! Here are some more facts from Ephesians 2 this time:

Ephesians 2:1-10, 19-20
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them….. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,”

What is described in the above verses are not promises or things that we may obtain or we may not. In contrast these are plain facts! It is not true that you are dead in sins! It WAS true! What IS true is that though dead in sins and trespasses “God made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. These are FACTS. These is what we are and where we are NOW! This is not something that you must pray for! This is something that you must thank God for! It is done! The same also for the following: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. You don’t have to wait to be saved. If you have believed in Jesus and in his resurrection YOU ARE SAVED! You are not a foreigner any longer! This is what you WERE! Now you ARE of the household of God! Confess it! Believe it! What the devil desires is that you never know who you ARE in Christ. Once you know what he is after is that you dismiss it by not believing it! Don’t fall prey to any of these. God’s fact are sureties and they are yours NOW. LIVE WITH THEM! As Watchman Nee said : “We should note that God’s fact does not become real by doing this. Rather we do this because God’s fact is already real.” Seeing is believing they say. You saw it in God’s Word, then believe it! You are what God says that you are! Nothing less!

       Anastasios Kioulachoglou

A Testimony. Believers Can Fall Away - Anastasios Kioulachoglou

Anastasios Kioulachoglou, has been a great blessing to me. He is very kind in his writings and does as the Apostles did many times. They would encourage, then warn of the dangers of falling away. Anastasios is not like most of the teachers in our day, who tickle the ears and do not warn the listeners of the many dangers the New Testament that we can fall away.

We see this in his introduction to his book, as follows.

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The Warnings of the New Testament
The message of many frequently avoided New Testament passages
Anastasios Kioulachoglou

INTRODUCTION

In Acts 20:26-27 we find Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders. Making a summary of his ministry, he told them: “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”

 Paul did not shrink, did not withhold from telling the Ephesians, and the church of God in general, the whole counsel of God. One could say that one more study on the matter of salvation would really be redundant, as salvation is something very fundamental and one would expect that we would all get it right. But I do not think we do. At least this is my own experience. I was born a Greek Orthodox, went as a kid to catechism and followed the liturgies etc. However, I was already a teenager and had never heard about salvation by grace through faith. My conclusion at that time was that God is a rather harsh figure waiting for me to do something wrong so that He can punish me. Of course this is not true and I found it out a few years later, at the age of 21, when I met the true, living and loving God. Then for the first time I heard about the Bible being the Word of God and about salvation by grace through faith. This was so liberating! God was not a distant figure any more. He was a real God, as real as I saw Him in the Bible.

The main teaching I received was that once a man believes he is immediately, once and for all, saved, regardless of what he will do with his faith in his life. However, in the more than two decades since then, I had various trials and temptations which made me realize that staying in the faith is not something automatic, something that can be considered as given right from the moment that somebody believed. What I understood is that faith is a rather continuous than a one-off decision. 

In these 25 years I have seen friends who were so happy in the beginning when I told them about Christ and were all for it, praising God, praying etc., only to get mad at me and God soon after, not wanting to hear anything about Him any more. Why? Because a girlfriend abandoned them or because a relative told them that all this was “heretic” etc. In time of temptation and tribulation because of God’s Word they did not hold up. I have also seen others who though they accepted Christ, were eventually carried away by their simultaneous love for the world, which choked, the seed of the Word exactly as the parable of the sower says. Thus Christ became to them someone they once heard about but the fruit or the difference He made to them nobody could really see. In addition, I came across many warnings and initially puzzling scriptures that did not appear to reconcile with the doctrine according to which a person who once is saved is always saved regardless of whether they later, for various reasons, essentially discontinue in the faith.

The present study looks at a multitude of Scriptures from the New Testament, that make clear that faith is more a race that has to be run to the end than a one-off event which upon happening it is guaranteed that will be valid forever. Staying in the faith, ending the race, is neither automatic nor it is guaranteed for all those who start the race. Some, as the examples I gave above, in the first difficulties and trials drop out. Others have a very strong love for the things of the world and they too move away. Only some of those who start the race really run it to the end. This, as we will see, is very clear from the New Testament.

Anastasios' "Warnings of the New Testament" can be found on my post. 01-04-15. There are 8 daily posts after that. A total of 9. His book is on Amazon.com

Future Sins Forgiven, Loss of Rewards, Saved So As By Fire - Dan Corner

Why Tithing Is Not For the New Testament Believer - Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament: Table of Contents

Why tithing is not for the New Testament believer

Defining the tithing, as the term is used today, I will just state here what I, as a normal believer, have perceived is the view in the 20 years that I have been a Christian. According to this view, tithing is to give 10 % of your income (pre-tax or post-tax – opinions are different) to the church organization with which you are affiliated (the church fellowship that you probably attend on Sundays). This money is then used to support the church budget (rent, bills, staff salaries, missions, etc). By many, not to tithe is considered a sin. Many times you will hear people reciting Malachi 3:8-12 that says:

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the Lord of hosts; And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land," says the Lord of hosts.”

Many use these verses to say that not bringing the “tithes and offerings” to the house of God (which they take it to mean the local church building) is a sin and withholds people from their “blessings”. The problem of using the above passage, as well as other similar Old Testament passages, to support the application of tithing is that this passage and the Mosaic law that this passage is based upon and was valid when it was written belong to the Old Testament. The Old Testament is wonderful and is part of the Holy Scriptures that God inspired. As Paul says in Romans 15:3-4

“For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, " The reproaches of them that reproached you fell on me." For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Whatever is written in the Scripture has been written for our learning. We can learn by reading Deuteronomy. We can learn by reading Malachi or any other Old Testament book. However, though all was written for our learning, not all is written for our application. The Old Testament is addressed to Jews that were living under the Mosaic law. Jesus Christ had not yet come. The price for the atonement of our sins had not yet been paid. The high priest had not yet arrived. As Paul says in Galatians 3:23-26:

“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

There was the time before the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord. This was the time of the law. And there is the time after the sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord. This is the time that we live in now. There are vast differences between these two periods, for the simple reason that what was valid in the first period, the law, is no longer valid in the second period. And what is valid in the second period - grace and being children of God through faith in Jesus Christ - was not available in the first period. Can we learn from what was valid in the first period? Definitely we can. Does it apply to us? Not necessarily. You can read the Psalms and the Proverbs and get guidance for your life today. It is God’s eternal wisdom that crosses time. On the other hand, you can go to law-specific passages, such as the passages about tithing, or the passages about the sacrificing of bulls or the celebrations they had in Israel. Though you can learn from these passages, they are not directly applicable to us. The same is valid for all that refers to Mosaic Law, for the simple reason that this law was abolished with Christ’s sacrifice. It is like reading the law code of laws that are no longer valid. You can learn from them but they are not to be applied, for they are obsolete. As Colossians 2:13-14 says:

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

And again Ephesians 2:14-15:
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.”

Now if the law is abolished, are we going to apply it again? We can learn from it, but it is no longer a law that is for our application. It is abolished! And tithing is part of this law too. Tithing is a word that occurs a lot in such books of the law as Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Here are some references:

Leviticus 27:30-34 “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wants at all to redeem any of histithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.' These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.”

Notice in the last verse that tithing is part of the commandments, part of the law that God gave to Moses for the children of Israel on mount Sinai. This was the law that was abolished by the sacrifice of Christ. And tithing, being part of this law, was given not for general application but for the children of Israel, till its cancellation by the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are some more passages about tithing:

Numbers 18:20-32 “Then the Lord said to Aaron: "You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. "Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, 'Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.' Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: 'When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe. And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord's heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.' Therefore you shall say to them: 'When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.”

The passage of Leviticus we read previously dealt with the commandment to the children of Israel to tithe. Where were these tithes supposed to go and for what would they be used ? This is answered by the above passage of Numbers: As verse 21 told us:

Numbers 18:21 “Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.”

The tithe was to go to the children of Levi, the Levites, that were making up the priest tribe of Israel, the 1/12 of it. It was to be their reward for the service of the tabernacle and later of the temple. Numbers 18:31 says it clearly: “for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation”. It was to be counted by them as “the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress” (Numbers 18:30). In fact the Levites had to give their own tithe from this. This was given to Aaron and was to be the Lord’s heave offering. Many take the above passage and they wrongly try to apply it in the New Testament era, in our age, saying that we should continue to tithe to pay the salaries of the priests, pastors and the clergy in general. But this view cannot be correct as in the New Testament there is simply no special class of clergy and priests. As Peter and John tell us, speaking to us, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ:

I Peter 2:5 “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

I Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people”

Revelation 1:5-6 “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Also as the Lord said speaking to the disciples:

Matthew 23:8-12 “But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

These passages do not refer to some special class of people but to all believers. All believers are made priests by the Lord Jesus Christ to His God and Father. Does this mean now that we should not financially support believers that move for example from town to town establishing churches and serving the Lord as missionaries ? It does not mean this and we will see it later in this study. What it means is that support and gifts in the New Testament are no longer regulated by the law of the tithe. Instead there are other principles in place for the New Testament gifts and giving and we will see these as we move on in this study. This part of the study focuses on what the Bible does NOT say for us concerning giving –even though people may say it. As we move on, we will focus on what the Bible does say for us.

Back to tithing; was the above – the tithe for the Levites - the only tithe? It appears that it was not, as in Deuteronomy 14:22-29 we see again tithing mentioned but in another context and for what appears to be another purpose. As we read in this passage, every year the Israelites were to take “the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks” (Deuteronomy 14:23) and go to the place that God would define and there: “you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household” (Deuteronomy 14:26). If they were far away they were allowed to sell the various items, get money and “you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires” (Deuteronomy 14:26). This appears to be a festive tithe. People would take this tithe and use it to eat and drink before the Lord in the place he would define. Notice that this tithe is used by the people themselves. This is different from what we read in Leviticus and Numbers earlier, where the tithe was going to the Levites. It is therefore a different tithe. In fact, every third year this tithe was to be used differently: at the end of that year this tithe was to be collected “and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 14:29). Furthermore every seven years the land was to have a Sabbath in which nothing was sown or reaped by the owner of the land (Leviticus 25:1-5) but all people were entitled to eat whatever the earth was bringing up on its own (Leviticus 25:6-7) as well as from the big surplus of the sixth year that God had promised to give (Leviticus 25:20-22).

Conclusion.

Let’s summarize what we have learned up to now. As we have seen, tithing was part of the Old Testament law, part of the ordinances that God gave to the children of Israel through Moses. As it appears to me, there were two tithes. The first tithe was going to the Levites while the second was used by the people themselves in rejoicing before the Lord or in the third year it was collected for the poor and (again) for the Levites. Tithing is part of the law and as such it belongs to the same category as animal sacrifices and the many and various regulations this law dictated. We further saw that the New Testament makes it emphatically clear that the law with its ordinances was abolished by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this we are not sacrificing animals today. If somebody asks why we don’t do this, we correctly say “because this is part of the Mosaic law and this law is no longer valid. Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross, abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. We are no longer under the law”. The same reason that we use for not sacrificing animals is also true for tithing. Tithing was, along with animal sacrificing as well as other ordinances, part of the Mosaic law. Whatever is valid to the one is also valid to the other. The Mosaic law became obsolete about 2000 years ago, with Christ’s sacrifice. Together with it, animal sacrifices, tithing and the other ordinances of the law became obsolete too! We can learn from them, but they are not meant to be for our direct application. Is therefore tithing biblical? Yes it is. It is biblical as it is in the Bible. However, is tithing relevant and valid for the Christian ? Here the answer is no! What is for our direct application concerning giving is what we see written in the New Testament. And what we see there is not tithing and tithers but cheerful giving from the heart, according to the ability of each one. Let’s now turn to this.

         Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament: Introduction - Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament: Table of Contents

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament: Introduction

Tithing is a hot topic, maybe partly because whatever has to do with money has the potential of becoming a hot topic. I would like to take the opportunity to review this topic together with the topic of giving in general. Is tithing for today? Is tithing valid in the New Testament era, in the age of grace in which we live, or is it obsolete? What does the New Testament say about giving? Starting from the first question, by looking at what is taught today from the pulpit of most of the churches one could easily conclude that tithing is a principle to be applied today. This is something so much established in the ecclesiastical order and thinking that we no longer hear about gifts and givers but about tithe and tithers.

As much established as this view may seem, there is, in the minds of many ordinary believers, a discrepancy between what they often hear from the pulpit and what they see in the New Testament. In the New Testament there is simply nothing mentioned about tithing, as there is nothing mentioned about sacrificing bulls or following other similar Old Testament laws and practices. At least nothing is mentioned in the sense of keeping and going along with it. What the New Testament speaks about is givers, free gifts and support of the poor saints through these voluntary and happily given gifts. But let’s look at these matters in more detail.

        Tassos Kioulachoglou

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament - Tassos Kioulachoglou

Brethren, at the the bottom of this post is a book by Tassos Kioulachoglou , a Greek. He has been a blessing to me and if you have not read his book The Warnings of the New Testament, which is also posted on my blog, you must read it also.

Several years ago, and after great pain in my life, the Holy Spirit revealed to me, I did not believe much of what the New Testament said. Instead, I believed what my teachers had told me the bible meant. They had twisted the scriptures, I had trusted them, and I had been so very deceived.

It took me many years, going over and over the NT teachings, to get free. I would ask myself ,when I came to a teaching and say "Warren! Do you believe what is written and is it evident in your life.' I tear up to this day. What I found was over and over I had not been applying the passages to my life as I was "saved" and the serious warnings did not apply to me, BUT, I had not finished the race yet.  Brethren, it was a war to change my mind and my old nature, and be inline with what Jesus and the Apostles said to do and what they said not to do.

Over the years I sought out the warnings in the NT for myself and was planning a book until I found David Pawson and then Tassos Kioulachoglou had done so. They are very blessed with great minds and passion for the truth.

We are in apostasy. This deception we are in goes back to Paul's warning to us as he was about to die. Men such as Constantine, Augustine, their spiritual offspring and others, quickly devastated the believers with false teaching.

Then the Protestant movement came and Calvinism told the people that Jesus was shredded with whips, went to the horrible cross, suffered in agony and did it to force His bide to accept His grace as she had no choice. This only one of their similarities to Islam..

Paul, about to die, tells Timothy:. (Truly brothers and sisters, does this sound like you and I?)

24“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

25“And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face.26“Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. 

28“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 

29“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

31“Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.32“And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Acts 20 NASB 

These verses clearly describe their day and our own. False teachers now overwhelm the pulpits with false doctrines as they fleece the sheep and get wealthy.

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Tithing, Giving and the New Testament: Table of Contents

Tithing, Giving and the New Testament Preface

I became a Christian in early 1991 in a home fellowship in Thessalonica, Greece. The fellowship very strongly emphasized the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God and had an equally good balanced view on the Holy Spirit. There I heard for the first time that to be saved it was enough to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9). There I heard about salvation by grace, about becoming a child of God, about asking God freely as my Father and receiving from Him. The Mosaic law was no longer valid, I learned. Christ had fulfilled it all. It was such a great time and such a great fellowship. I was born again and believe me it felt like this! Then, on one of the shelves of the fellowship leader and dear friend Dimitris - who was spending, with love, all the time needed to answer the dozens of questions I had - I saw a small book speaking about the “tithe”. I was wondering what was this. The word “tithe” was unknown to me and I hadn’t seen it in my reading of the New Testament (now I was soaking the Word like a sponge, reading and taking in, several chapters per day). I borrowed the book and I started reading. I was startled to find that it was full of Old Testament quotations from the law, supporting that the tithe was still valid and that as a Christian I should give 10% of my income (barely enough at that time to pay my rent and food) to church organizations. I felt pretty guilty after reading the book and this was the first time I felt so in the few months I was a believer. Though we did not apply tithing in our little fellowship (Dimitris, the leader, despite all the time that he was spending with us, young believers, he was also a full time worker plus a student, earning his living with hard work) the question remained. Here was this organization that appeared to have a clear understanding of the Word of God and yet they were preaching about the Old Testament principle of tithing. But, I thought, if tithing was still valid why was the sacrificing of bulls was not valid too? Were not both parts of the same law? I put the matter aside but the questions remained. Since then I changed locations and visited various churches. What I invariably found is that though these churches were in many things different, they had at least one thing in common: they were pointing out the tithing or believed in the law of tithing. The reference to the tithe was less frequent or even absent (though it was the acceptable principle) in big or medium size congregations but very frequent, almost weekly, in small congregations. Apart from that, though our fellowship in Greece didn’t have a budget, many of these churches had budgets that were hundreds of thousand dollars strong! Enormous amounts. However, most of these budgeted amounts were for staff salaries, building expenses and bills. This also didn’t sit well! Didn’t the New Testament say to help the poor? Weren’t we supposed to support missionaries that spread the Word? And yet out of these enormous budgeted amounts, only a meager portion was for missions and almost no portion at all for the poor. That was a second hit. Then early in 2008, I got a question from a reader of my online magazine, the Journal of Biblical Accuracy, concerning this very matter, the matter of tithing. I set out then to see this matter from the perspective of the Word of God and settle this, years old for me, question. This book contains the results of this study. It is done to throw light from the Word of God concerning the validity of tithing and what the New Testament says about giving. How should we give and what were the first century churches supporting with their contributions? I’m fully aware that this book is going to be considered controversial by some. But I also hope that it is going to be liberating for some others, who may have struggled with the same questions as me concerning this matter. It is to them that I would like to devote this study.

Tassos Kioulachoglou

Body, Soul and Spirit. Is a Man Just Body and Soul? - Anastasios Kioulachoglou

This is a must read.

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

Body, soul and spirit

Is it a man just body and soul or is he body, soul and spirit? This I believe is one of the most fundamental questions that somebody needs to have correctly answered. I consider the subject of body, soul and spirit as one of the most important subjects dealt within this magazine. Therefore I would like to ask you to please pay close attention as we go through the Word to find the answer not only to the matter of body soul and spirit but also to some other equally important questions related to it.

1. Body, soul, spirit: what died in the day Adam and Eve sinned?

To start approaching the topic of body soul and spirit we need to go to the first book of the Bible, the Genesis. There, after God made man, He imposed a restriction on him, making also clear the penalty, for the case that this restriction was violated:

Genesis 2:16-17 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die".

The restriction that God imposed on Adam was that he should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for the case that this restriction was violated was: "in the day [pay attention: that very day] that you eat of it you shall surely die". Two very significant things have to be noted in that penalty. The first is that if Adam ate from the tree death would happen immediately, in that very day. The second is that this would happen surely. The phrase "you shall SURELY die" has exactly the purpose to put emphasis on the fact that death would happen 100%, surely, in that day.

Now from Genesis 3:1-6 we all know how Satan deceived Adam and Eve to violate the only restriction God had imposed on them, and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After eating from that tree and according to what God had told them in Genesis 2:17, they should have died at that moment. The problem here is that Genesis 5:5-6 says about Adam:

"After he [Adam] begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died."

Therefore, according to the Bible, Adam continued to have life in his body for many years after he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On the other hand, God had said that if he would eat from that tree he would surely, 100%, die, in that same day. So what really happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from that tree. Did they die as God said, or they did not die? Who will solve us this "problem"? Man's ideas, theories, religion and tradition? No! Only one can give us answers, and this is no other than the Word of God. And if you want this Word to give you answers, you have to leave it to speak for itself (self interpretation).

In our case, since God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19) in the day that Adam and Eve ate from that tree they really died. Actually, it was the Devil that said, when he deceived Eve, "you shall not surely die". Thus, if they did not die that day, as God said, then Satan was right and God was wrong, which is simply impossible. However, that's exactly what many teach today when they say "actually when God said that they would surely die He meant that just the sperm of death would be planted". The Word of God does not need such kind of defense. Actually it does not need any defense at all for it is truth and truth can stand by itself. Returning to our topic: SINCE GOD SAID THAT THEY WOULD SURELY DIE THAT VERY DAY, THEY INDEED DIED THAT DAY. However, since they continued to have life in their bodies even after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it is self-evident that they must have had another form of life, in addition to the life of their bodies, that was lost in the day that they ate and for this reason it was death (absence of a form of life). So, we have to search the Scriptures to see how man was created and what were the parts of his being. Knowledge of what composed the life of the first man will also enable us to see what was lost in that day.

2. Body, soul and spirit: the body and soul parts.

Starting our research on how the first man was created, let's go to Genesis 2:7. There it says:

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground........"

Which part of man did God form of the dust of the ground? His body. That's why the elements of the human body can be found in the ground. So one part of the first human being was the body. But let's continue:

Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul [soul = nephesh in Hebrew]"

We saw that God formed man's body of the dust of the ground. However, this body did not have life. It was just formed, without life. Then, the Word of God tells us that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul". Therefore, what is soul? Soul is what gives life to the body. The fact that people do not understand the simple truths of the Word of God described at that point has caused no end of confusion. Here the Word of God tells us that soul is what gives life to the body. Without soul the body is dead. Where is the soul, the life of the body, the life of the flesh? The Word of God again is very precise:

Leviticus 17:11, 13-14 "For the life [nephesh in Hebrew] of the flesh is in the blood.....Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust; For it [i.e. the blood] is the life [nephesh] of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life [nephesh] of it: therefore I said to the children of Israel "You shall not eat the blood of any flesh: for the life [nephesh] of all flesh is its blood"

We saw in Genesis 2:7 that soul (nephesh in Hebrew) is what gives life to the body. Here in Leviticus we see that "the life of the flesh is in the blood". In the above passage the word “life” is a translation of the Hebrew word "nephesh" that is translated as “soul” in Genesis 2:7 as well as in 471 out of the 753 of the places where it occurs. Therefore, what is “nephesh” or soul? According to Genesis 2:7 soul is what gives life to the body. Where is the “nephesh”, the life of the body, the soul? According to Leviticus 17:11-14 it is in the blood: "For the life (nephesh, soul) of the flesh is in the blood". How this soul life passes from generation to generation? Through the blood. That's why Acts 17:26 says:

"And He has made from ONE BLOOD every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth".

The "one blood" of this passage is the blood of Adam which passes from generation to generation and actually is the blood that all of us have.

Actually, soul is not something that only man has. Animals have also soul which again is in the blood. Although this is immediately understood from the above passage of Leviticus, where we are told that the life of all flesh is in the blood let's go to Genesis 1:20-21, 29-30 to see it there as well:

Genesis 1:20-21 "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature [nephesh, soul] that has life [nephesh, soul] and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature [nephesh, soul] that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good"

Genesis 1:29-30 "And God said "Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yield seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul [nephesh in Hebrew] I have given every green herb for meat:" and it was so."

Therefore, not only man but also the animals have "nephesh" i.e. "soul". This is not strange at all, if we understand that soul is what gives life to the body. When you die there is no more life, no more soul. The same happens with the animals. Soul is for them the same that is for man i.e. what gives life to the body. Although, there is no problem about what is defined as soul in the Bible, the problem is created when we go to the Bible with the preconceived idea that soul is immortal. If soul was immortal, then really the souls of the various animals would also be immortal, since they have "nephesh" as man has "nephesh". Soul is not something immortal. It just gives life to the body. When you stop having life in your body, you have no more soul.

By now, we have seen that the Bible teaches that God formed the body of man of the dust of the ground, and that He gave to that body life i.e. soul. The same is also true for the animals. They also have body and soul. Every man in the world, believer or unbeliever, has body and soul. It can therefore be concluded that since Adam died 930 years old, when he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he obviously lost neither his body nor his soul. Thus, since something had to die for Adam that day, he must originally have had at least one more part, which was lost, died, when he ate. So, let's continue searching the Scriptures to see what they say about that.

3. Body, soul and spirit: the spirit part.

To continue our inquiry let's go to Genesis 1:26-27. There it says:

Genesis 1:26-27 "Then God said "let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.... So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them"

According to this passage, God created man "in His own image". Here is a very critical point, a key point, if we want to understand not only what happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but also other passages of the Bible that are affected by what is said here. Reading the above passage, the question that has to be asked is what is the image of God? What does He look like? John 4:24 tells us:

"God is Spirit"

God is not flesh but Spirit. That is His image. Therefore, when the Word of God tells us that God created man according to His image, it means that in addition to body and soul man also had that which is the image of God i.e. spirit. In order to understand better the usage of the phrase "in his image" in the above critical passage, let's see another place where this phrase occurs.

Genesis 5:1-3 "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, In the likeness of God made He him; Male and female created He them ; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth"

This passage says that Adam begat a son "in his own likeness, after his image". What does it mean? It means that as Adam was, so his son was i.e. as Adam had hands so Seth had hands. As Adam had feet so Seth had feet etc. As Adam was body and soul so Seth was body and soul. Similarly, when the Word says that God created man "in his image", "in the likeness of God", what it means is that as God is, so Adam was. God is not flesh. He does not have feet, hands, head. He is spirit. So as God is spirit so Adam had spirit. One could ask, why did God make Adam apart from body and soul, spirit as well? The simple reason is that without spirit Adam could not communicate with God Who is spirit. God being spirit, cannot communicate with the body and soul. They are different things. You see, you cannot receive the messages of a radio station unless you have a radio receiver. You may have a washing machine. But the fact that you have a washing machine does not make it possible for you to receive the messages of the radio station. You need a radio receiver. Similarly, God is spirit and to communicate with Him you must have spirit. Body and soul are enough for things of the five senses. But when it comes to the things of God, what you need is spirit. This truth is also explained in I Corinthians 2:14:

"But the natural [psuchikos in the Greek] man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him: nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

In this passage, the word translated "natural" is the Greek adjective "psuchikos", which comes from the noun "psuchi" which means soul. So, psuchikos means "a soul man" i.e. a man with body and soul only¹. According to that passage a man who is only body and soul "does not receive the things of the Spirit of God". As it was said above to receive "the things of the spirit of God", to communicate with God you need the appropriate receiver i.e. spirit. That's why the passage says: "nor can he (the man of body and soul) know them because they are spiritually discerned". The man of body and soul is impossible to know the things of God for the simple reason that such things have to do with the spirit, "they are spiritually discerned", and since he lacks spirit he cannot know them.

Summarizing all the above, Adam had body, formed from the dust of the ground, soul that gives life to the body and spirit to communicate with God. He was body, soul and spirit. Having established that, there is no question about what happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had told them that in the day that they would eat from it, they would surely die. Bearing in mind that death means the absence of a form of life, we can now see what died that day. Adam was body, soul and spirit and his body died many years after the day that he ate. Now since without soul a body has no life, Adam had body and soul even after he ate from that tree. On the other hand, since God is always right in what He says, something had to die that day. Since Adam was body, soul and spirit before he ate and since, as we saw, he continued to have body and soul after he ate what was lost for him that day, was the spirit that God gave him. He continued to have body and soul but he did not have spirit. The spirit departed from him and this was death for him since spirit, a form of life that he had before he ate, was no more there.

You see, how clearly the Bible settles the things when you leave it to interpret itself. It was actually this loss of the spirit that was restored in the day of Pentecost where holy spirit was made available, so that today after believing in Jesus Christ you are again body, soul and spirit. That’s why then Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We now, after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection and receiving the gift of the holy spirit, we are no longer just body and soul but body, soul and spirit.

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

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1. The same word, phuchicos (soul man, a man of body and soul) is also used in I Corinthians 15:44, 46, James 3:15 and Jude 19.