Consider this: there is a huge event coming to town, and everyone in the town wants desperately to attend it. It is a one-time affair, and is the greatest event that anyone in the town could ever hope to attend.
There’s just one problem—there is a $100 fee to attend.
Now, there are two people who both desire to attend the event. One guy is broke, so there is no way that, by himself, he would ever be able to attend. The other guy has a $100 bill set aside to attend the event, and is planning to attend. If he didn’t have that $100 bill, though, he wouldn’t be able to go either.
Here’s the kicker—that guy’s $100 bill is a counterfeit, but he doesn’t know it.
Enter a third person—and this guy has a way that folks can obtain $100 to attend the event. The two guys need to believe that he can show them how to get the $100 to go to the event.
Which person do you think he’ll have an easier time convincing they need to believe that he has the only way that they’ll be able to obtain the needed $100? Will it be the guy who has no money, or will it be the guy who already believes he has the cost of the event covered with his counterfeit bill?
The guy who has no money doesn’t have the issue of the counterfeit bill that he will have to overcome in his understanding. He has no belief that he already has the admission fee covered. He will either believe that he can obtain the $100 by listening to the third guy’s explanation for receiving it, or he will simply not be able to attend.
The guy who believes he already has the $100 will have to first come to the understanding that what he is holding onto is a counterfeit bill. Now, good counterfeits are very difficult to differentiate from the real thing, so one would have to know exactly what reveals that the counterfeit is a fake, and the difference between the counterfeit and the real thing.
He will first have to give up belief in the counterfeit by understanding that it will not get him into the event, even though he has completely believed that it would.
This is the difference in sharing the truths of the Holy Spirit with those who have never held to any false spiritual teachings, and those who believe the false teachings about salvation that are disseminated by the many different flavors of christianity.
Those who have been taught that salvation is their own decision, and that it is received by any of the myriad different christianese euphemisms, like “accepting Christ,” or “praying the sinner’s prayer,” or “repenting of all sins,” or “obeying commandments,” and many, many others, are simply deceived by the enemy.
Unfortunately, for those who refuse to let go of the counterfeit, they won’t learn it’s a fake until they try to gain entrance into the event (eternal life). We see them in Matthew 7:21-23. And, what is even more unfortunate is that most of those who are clinging to the counterfeit have no desire to know WHY it is a counterfeit, or to learn what the real truth is.
So, they will often spend their time arguing about, and defending to the very end, the counterfeit that has deceived them. They will refer to scripture after scripture after scripture that they don’t even understand, because they are missing the foundations of the faith through which the scriptures were given.
When christianity, the counterfeit of the faith, was invented in the early centuries after all the New Testament apostles had died, the Father’s traditions were abolished (even outlawed) because of hatred of the Jews.
By discarding the traditions, the progenitors of christianity threw out the true path to salvation that the traditions teach, so christianity had to invent its own path, making it something that man decides and declares, and falsely claiming that written words in an English translation of the scriptures are their evidence of salvation (which is not even possible).
The Passover shows the path to salvation, but christianity opted to ignore the Passover, and rather, to celebrate a pagan fertility ritual, and claim it has something to do with Messiah (which is what “taking His name in vain” actually means).
The priestly progression in the tabernacle, from the Outer Courtyard to the Holy of Holies is a mirror of the Passover journey, but christianity chooses to remain aloof to what that progression represents, claiming that the tabernacle (and temple) were “under the law.” Such teachings are symptomatic of spiritual ignorance and blindness, which is a common trait in many of christianity’s teachings.
There is no decision of man that is salvation. Man’s belief in Messiah is not salvation, but the first step on the path to salvation, which comes by the Father’s will alone, and is received in His timing.
Believe in Messiah Yahoshua, confess Him before men (which is to endure in belief), and then await the giving of the covenant. When someone receives the covenant because of his belief, he will be told directly by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will testify to the spirit of the believer that he is a child of Yah (Romans 8:16, 1 Corinthians 1:6-8).
How does the Holy Spirit testify to the spirit of man? One need look no further than how the Spirit testified to the prophets in the scriptures. The Holy Spirit has NEVER changed!
For more information: Why I Am No Longer a Christian