| (Copyright 06-21-2025) by Rod Reynolds (Wentzville, Missouri) |
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| Dear Friends and Brethren, The Bible tells us that Satan “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). How does he do this? One of the main tools that he uses is false religion, false teachers, false prophets, impostors, including those who come in the name of Christ, calling themselves “Christians,” but sowing lies, confusion, false doctrines, twisting the Scriptures to lead people into error (Matthew 24:4-5; Acts 20:29-30; II Corinthians 11:13-15; II Peter 3:16-17; Jude 1:4-5). So, the vast majority of people today professing Christianity are victims of deception, confused about Biblical doctrine, and believing concepts are taught in the Bible that are actually contrary to what the Bible teaches. Among beliefs commonly accepted by most professing Christians, is the belief that humans have “immortal souls,” that cannot die. And as a corollary, that upon dying one does not really die, but his soul as a conscious entity “goes to heaven,” or “hell,” as each is commonly imagined. A parable Jesus taught featuring “Lazarus and the rich man,” is often misconstrued to prop up such beliefs. For today’s message I have edited and re-posted a sermon titled “Lazarus and the Rich Man.” Many are puzzled or confused by the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Does this parable prove that some “go to heaven” and others “go to hell” when they die? That is, a hell where people are conscious and are tortured forever? In the sermon I show from the Scriptures what they tell us about the real meaning of the parable, and what it does not mean. Some may have wondered why I am re-posting sermons that have been posted before, and in some cases have been in our sermon archive for years. In nearly every case until recently, sermons were not edited before being posted online either on YouTube nor on SoundCloud. I concluded that this needed to be corrected for our audience, to eliminate excessively long pauses, and smooth out the delivery to make the sermons more listenable, more professional sounding, and in most cases shorter. It takes hours, usually an entire workday, to edit a sermon, and with other duties I have does not leave time enough in a week to prepare a new sermon, which takes even longer. So, I hope you understand my reasoning. I’m also posting these sermons on our website as I go along so that they show up as individual postings in our searchable title index (shown under the heading on our mast, “Search titles–See What You May Have Missed”). Many of the sermons in our archive have not been in the title index, as it did not include sermon titles until recently. Among other advantages having them as individual items in our searchable index makes it easier to share our sermons on social media. Eventually I intend that the searchable title index will completely replace the old title archive as I intend that every sermon available will be added to the title index after being edited. I hope you find the sermons, articles, etc., offered on our website helpful to your understanding and appreciation of the priceless word of God, which he has given us as a gift to inform us and guide our lives. It’s incredibly important to our welfare that we value it and understand it properly. In Christian love, Rod Reynolds Editor’s Note: We do not listen to video links or read print material that is linked to items we print, so we may or may not agree with those links. We only look at print material that is sent to us for print. Laura Lee ————————————————————————————- Reprinted with permission from: Messenger Church of God https://www.cogmessenger.org/ ————————————————————————————- |
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