A Letter to My Brother-in-Law

I received an email from my brother-in-law yesterday. He's a great guy, that I love a lot. He's had his ups and downs with his religion much as all of us raised in the church. The email was a link to a video found on YouTube. When I played it, I was sort of surprised. It was a video called "Are You Ready". It showed a minister preaching to a group of people. He topic was Matthew 24. His message was about the "rapture". Using the KJV, he was telling the audience that Jesus could return anytime, and that we all had better be ready. He could come in a flash,like lightning.Then, suddenly, there was a loud boom and bright flash. When the blinding light faded, the minister and about half the audience were gone, obviously "raptured" to heaven. The people who were left stood and looked around with puzzled looks. One of them, finally realizing what had happened, fell to his knees and began weeping. The video came to an end. I thought to myself, why did Bill (not his real name) send this to me. It just didn't fit with his style. Maybe he was reaching out, asking me for an opinion on this event. About a year ago, we were sitting in his backyard, when I broached the subject of religion. I was early in my search for God's truth and my explanation of what was happening in my life was probably poorly explained. when I told him I felt all humanity would be reconciled to God, and would be with God in heaven, he mentioned that he wouldn't won't to be in heaven if Hitler was there. So, I dropped the subject for the time. I hadn't really thought about our conversation until this video showed up. I wrote Bill an email about the video and thought I would share it with you:

Bill-

Thanks for the video. But the event of which Matt. 24 speaks has already taken place. It happened in 70 AD with the fall of Jerusalem. This video is typical of the scare tactics used by the church today to frighten people into the church; to scare the "Hell" out of them, to strengthen the church's hold on them; to prevent them from learning the Truth about God. The Kingdom of God has come Jesus told his disciples that, they just didn't understand. The Old Covenant with Israel is complete. The New Covenant of grace is in effect because of the cross of Christ.. Maybe that's what the writer was speaking of in the hymn, AMAZING GRACE. The fall of Jerusalem was foretold by Jesus in Chap 24 of Matthew. This is not some future event, but one that took place over 1900 years ago when the Romans surrounded, stormed and destroyed Jerusalem and with it the old sacramental system of the Jews who rejected Him. After His ascension to the Father, He chose the most unlikely man to take the real "good news" to "the nations", the gentiles, you and me. That man's name was Saul (Paul). Paul, receiving a revelation from Christ on the Damascus road, afterwards he went into Arabia for three years, where I believe he received the real gospel, the gospel of grace. The good news that you and I are reconciled to God thru the cross of Christ. The work has already been done. Everyone is redeemed, many just don't realize it. Paul tells us that the covenant with the Jews has not been voided and eventually, all Israel will be saved in spite of their stubbornness and refusal to accept Christ as the Messiah. After all, the Jews are to reign with Christ in the millenial kingdom along with the ones who believed in this eon, before the millenial kingdom begins). After the millenium comes to a close, in some future eon, Christ will have defeated all His enemies, the last to be defeated is death,. He will then turn over the keys of the kingdom to His father and God will be "ALL IN ALL". If there is work to be done now, it is to let everyone know that Christ paid the price, our past, present, and future sins have been erased, taken care of. Now we can enjoy a full relationship to the Father, who "graciously" took care of it all for us and showed us the true meaning of LOVE, whether we know it or not. Paul's writings are the real "good news" Read Romans 5 and you will find that as a result of Adam's disobedience ALL were condemned; thus also it is thru one just act (by Christ) ALL shall be made just in the eyes of God. I Cor 15:22 states it again: "for as in Adam ALL are dying, thus also, in Christ , shall ALL be made alive.." In the letter to Timothy, (may possibly not be Paul's hand, but certainly his theology) it says: "for all this are we toiling and being reproached, , that we rely on the living God, who is the Saviour of ALL mankind, especially (which means but not exclusively) of believers". Check out Rom. 11:32, "For God locks up ALL together in stubbornness, that He should show mercy to ALL".

Bill don't be fooled by what you've been taught all your life by the church. Do your own thinking and seek the Truth. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to it. He will show you if you truly desire it. took me 58 years to learn the Truth. Check out my blog at: http://searchforlife-don.blogspot.com/

Read as many of my posts as you want, I encourage you to do so. I am telling you these things because I love you and don't want you to spend another moment suffering guilt and disappointment when you find you can't live up to what the church tells you to do in order to be "saved" and "get to heaven". There are more atheists in this world because of Christians than any other reason. On my blog, there are links to other blogs which I read regularly and to other websites which will add to your understanding of the "real gospel", the gospel of grace.
You probably remember one time when I was out at your house and we spoke briefly about this subject. I was only beginning to study the subject and I have a long way to go, but it has changed my life. I will never "go to church" again. I canceled my church membership and haven't looked back. Out of respect for my mother, I would not tell her what I have experienced for at her age, like your mother, she would never understand. (my wife) has been reluctant to join me, but that is fine, you see there is no rush with God. If you check, you will find that Jesus never got in a hurry to "evangelize" the people He met. He simply told them that "the Kingdom of God is among you".(my wife) is happy with totally ignoring the church. Right now, she doesn't have the desire to search for Truth. God gave me that desire about 2 years ago, and He was faithful to show me many, many truths that I had never seen before, even though they were right in front of me and in the scriptures. Christianity has done a great job of hiding the truth from us for 1700 years. A great change is coming. I don't know how long it will take , but Christianity is about to undergo a tremendous change. Interestingly enough, THE INTERNET is the vehicle God is using right now to spread the truth of the gospel of grace. Finally, the internet is being used for good. I guess we should thank ole Al Gore.......

Please take me seriously here, I love you and want you to be truly happy in a wonderful relationship with our Father, God,who loves us even more that we can ever,ever, imagine. And nothing, absolutely nothing will ever change that love He has for us. Remember the verse "GOD IS LOVE"...

Don