The Real Superheros
Tract #18 in the Truth For Science-Fiction Followers series
Version 1d, Dec. 1, 2005. Copyright 2005 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr.
Copyright 2005 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. All publication rights and mass-reproduction rights are reserved to the author, but internet users are given permission to duplicate this digital file and distribute it without alteration to friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances. Distribution is encouraged, and the file may even be printed out on paper for paper copies, but the text must remain unaltered and the total number of printed copies for each individual tract should not exceed 10,000 unless you have gotten permission in writing from Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. or a surviving member of his family. You may contact Ken Street (RKSJ) by e-mail using the web-mail addresses that follow: etracts@yahoo.com, or earthtrek1@hotmail.com, or eztraveller@netscape.net. Many more free teaching tracts by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. will be found at the internet sites WorldwideChristianTracts.net, OnlineChristianTracts.org, and Christian-Tracts.net. This note must be retained on all duplicate copies that you may make.
As a childish Earthling growing up in the U.S., and even later as a young man in college, I had an addictive habit in my enjoyment of superhero comic books, several of which I read regularly, month after month. This started at about age 11 and continued for at least 15 years or so. I confess this to be true, because I cannot do otherwise. Superhero comics were perhaps not such a bad influence on me, overall, because they almost certainly helped me to acquire a real and genuine love for reading. But I delighted especially in the reading of fantastic literature, so that it became a rather addictive habit and a preoccupation. There is little doubt that I ended up becoming excessively fond of that type of material.
It was becoming a passion for me by the time I was in 6th or 7th grade, and it just got worse as I got older. I was really hooked in a major way. I remember that, as a young child, I was also happily watching TV reruns of George Reeves starring in The Adventures Of Superman. Even as a toddler, I just loved that show. Later on, even in my 40's, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman was just about my favorite weekly TV series on network television. Before that it was the live-action Superboy series which appeared in syndication on TV for 4 years, from about 1989 to 1993.
As I write this tract material, I am currently 54 years old. I don’t read superhero comic books anymore. Well, not often anyway. Things are different now! I have tried to set “childish” things, aside, insofar as it is possible for me to do so. But I have to admit that I still like to watch Smallville every week, as each new episode appears on television.
Why am I still so fascinated with the idea of somebody being a great hero like Superman? I’m sure I’m not the only one who is dazzled by that imaginary character, because the Smallville program is doing quite well in terms of popularity and success, if one takes a look at its ratings. So are a vast number of superhero comic book characters, of which there is a seemingly endless supply.
One of the neatest things about the fantasy-character of Superman, I think, is that in these fantasies he is presented as a super-virtuous hero, not just one with a lot of super-powers. In the four Superman movies, they even tried to make him appear to be like some benevolent angel from outer space.
Christopher Reeve played Superman in those four movies. I was terribly shocked later when he become paralyzed, from the neck down, after he had a fall while horseback-riding in a nearby part of Virginia. I prayed at that time that our God would bring about a speedy healing and full recovery for Mr. Reeve, who was bravely enduring a really terrible form of physical distress at that time. But a full recovery was never to come about. Eventually Christopher Reeve died and went to meet his Creator.
Like all mortals, Chris Reeve was destined to someday come face-to-face with the truly powerful Superbeing who rules over this Universe in which we live.
I wondered, at that earlier time when I first learned of his condition, why our God had allowed such a thing to happen to this courageous and apparently good-hearted man. I knew this was merely an actor, a master of illusions who could pretend to be various characters for the film industry. Yet I admired him greatly after I saw his TV interview with Barbara Walters, long after the accident that had left him paralyzed. I was astounded to see that he remained so optimistic, so cheerful and courageous, even in the midst of this horrible trial which he was forced to undergo.
Christopher Reeve was injured by God’s Adversary in the lengthy process of his ever-continuing warfare against the human race. But I felt that God would undoubtedly use His Science of Transformation to turn that catastrophe to a good end, in order that Chris and his family— and even his friends for that matter— might ascend to a higher level of faith and spirituality. That was God intent, I suspect, in allowing this particular catastrophe to happen. Through this catastrophe, the people involved were perhaps able to grow upward to a level of greater love, virtue, and Godliness than they had previously known.
In Heaven, the greatest heros are surely those who suffered much affliction on Earth, and yet remained faithful to the virtues of Godliness.
But let us return to our subject. On Earth there are vast numbers of people who are still avid readers of superhero comics, just as I once was.
Well, we have some good news for you! Our planet Earth has been for many centuries enjoying the presence of some real superheros who are genuinely virtuous, who are 100% real, and who yet possess many awesome super powers!
It was not until I was 29 years old that I finally grew up enough to start to realize who the real superheros are— because at that time I finally became a genuine believer of God’s Book, and I then returned to church after an absence of many years. I had not gone to church much after high school and had spent about 11 years or more as an evolutionist, a humanist, and an unbeliever.
But at that point in my life, I finally awakened from my fantasy-life of science-fiction addiction and superhero worship. . . and was then quite shocked to discover that all my greatly idolized superheros were quite totally unreal. They were nothing more than just frivolous, silly figments of a busy imagination. All of those comic-book guys were phonies. There was nothing real about any of them.
Yet I also discovered then, to my amazement and delight, that the history of our world does indeed contain a reliable record of the lives of some genuine superheros! I then discovered God’s Book, where I could find out about the true life-stories of the only real superheros who have ever existed in our world!
The only real superheros in our world are those of God’s followers whom God Almighty has empowered. Because they are real people and truly virtuous, they are worthy of our admiration.
The greatest heros of all our Earth's history are the outstanding figures of the Bible— men like Enoch, Noah, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and many others. In the Old Testament books, you also find heros like Joseph, Daniel, Samson, and David. In the New Testament books, you can find many more.
Almost all of these great heroic figures were given amazing super-powerful or super-natural abilities that came to them from the hand of the Lord God Almighty. The Lord God made miracles happen for them.
Because of their great faith in our God and the super-abilities that God granted them, each of these heroic men of God has a life-story that reveals a career distinguished by miraculous powers and sensational exploits. Yet the crucial difference is that in this case, these great men of God were real people with real powers that had been granted to them by God. None of the great heros of the Bible is a mere fantasy— they are real persons who lived in a historical reality. And that should be an exciting idea to contemplate!
King Solomon is a hero of the Bible whom our God blessed with a super-normal intelligence and a supernatural wisdom, as well as vast wealth and luxury, so it's very easy to admire his life.
The mighty Samson is one of the Biblical superheros that humans are often tempted to envy because of his vast strength and his ability to almost always get his own way through sheer brute force.
In a lot of ways, Samson is probably the prototype for a lot of superhero fantasies that have been contrived by our modern culture. The fantastic fiction about Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Superman, and a vast number of additional costumed superheros is probably descended from the ancient tale of Samson. But if you read the Scriptural account of his life closely, you'll notice that in many ways Samson was an unspiritual, undisciplined, and a rather immoral sort of super-warrior. He had many flaws, including one that brought him great distress in his last days on Earth.
One thing you should have discovered in God’s Book, however, and should have really taken to heart: There is at least one superhero who has an impeccable reputation. He is a fabulous hero of such spotless and unfailing virtue that humanity can say of him: "Here is one hero truly worthy of all our admiration, for He has never disappointed anyone with immoral behavior or a display of flawed character." He has no shortcomings whatsoever!
I'm speaking now of someone who is the most astounding hero to be found in all of the Earth’s present population, or even in all of our human history: I'm speaking now of God’s Own Son, of the God-Man Jesus Christ. God Almighty is truly proud of His Son, and is proud of Christ’s accomplishments on Earth. Certainly He should be so. Jesus was God’s chosen Savior, whom God Almighty sent to Earth to rescue humanity from its own destructiveness.
Here you have a superpowerful person who was not merely god-like in His powers or godly in His behavior— He was truly God in human form. He was the Son of God from birth, not just from the day of His baptism at age 30. The reason for this is not, as the false religion of humanism would foolishly declare, because of the devilish idea that God has mysteriously designed all human beings to be "godlings" and potential gods! No, Jesus was the Son of God because He was "the only begotten Son of God." He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and when He was born into our world, He was brought forth from the womb of a woman who was still a virgin at the time of her delivery!
So. . . you can see that Jesus had a "supernatural origin" long before any of the comic book superheros were ever conceived. Imaginary superheros in our modern-day comic books usually follow His lead in this regard; each one has his own individualized account of “supernatural origin.” Jesus is the Great Superhero of human history, preceding all the superheros of the comic books and their imaginary universes.
Jesus was not entirely from this Earth; He came partly from "another world," which was the world of God's Heaven... and from a position within the Trinity of God that preceded His human incarnation!
You might find it interesting to note that Jesus of Nazareth also had a kind of "secret identity" for 30 yrs while He lived as a normal-seeming youth and a carpenter, until the day when He received His baptism from John, with the Holy Spirit then descending upon Him. He then started out on 3 years of ministry that lasted right up until His death on a cross— and even 40 days beyond that!— before He finally ascended to Heaven.
Possibly you have never really examined the list of super-abilities which Jesus displayed while He lived in human form. Let me point out a few of these for you, because these are some amazing things that you humans should consider.
Besides a Supernatural Origin and a Secret Identity for 30 years [as a normal-seeming youth and carpenter], Jesus also demonstrated to the world amazing powers such as these:
Power of Matter Transmutation. Jesus easily transformed water into wine at the wedding-feast in Cana. The Bible tells humanity that He also had the power to change rocks into loaves of bread— but Jesus resisted that temptation when Satan sought to make him transform rocks in this way. Jesus was then preparing himself for His mission through fasting and prayer while in the wilderness for 40 days, and He refused to be tempted away from it.
Power of Matter Replication. Jesus multiplied food-items in the case of the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fish that He used to feed 5,000 hungry people, or the incident of the 7 loaves and a few fish that fed 4,000 people on another occasion. Likewise, He was able to multiply the number of fish caught in 2 miraculous catches of fish that occurred on two separate occasions.
Power of Foreknowledge. Jesus had a prescient knowledge of the future, as when He predicted that Peter would betray him 3 times before the rooster crowed, and that Judas would betray him— and that He would go into Jerusalem to be put to death there, but would rise again 3 days later! Jesus also made many predictions about what the last days of the Earth would be like, and of His eventual return for the judgement of humanity and the creation of a New Earth.
Jesus also had a limited Power to Share In His Father's Omniscience. Jesus demonstrated this power when He "saw" Nathaniel under the fig-tree before He had ever come near enough to observe him with His physical eyes. Because of this feat, Nathaniel responded, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God!" And Jesus promised to show him even greater powers than that.
Power of Anti-Gravity Hovering. Jesus showed this ability to the world when He walked on water across the surface of the Sea of Galilee.
Power to Control the Weather. Jesus showed humanity that He had this power by making a storm vanish instantly when it threatened the lives of the disciples who were with him in a boat on the Sea of Galilee.
Power of Exorcism. Jesus was able to expel demons from demon-possessed persons, as in the case of the man with a legion of demons possessing him. Jesus hurled the demons into a herd of about 2,000 pigs, which then rushed over a cliff and killed themselves. And the man was set free of this affliction!
Power of Resurrection. Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, and brought Lazarus back to life after he had been in his tomb for 4 days! And then when Jesus himself died a torturous death by crucifixion, after 3 days in his tomb, Jesus came back to life again, returning to the world of the living in a physical body, because He then ate fish with His disciples while He was in this resurrected physical body!
Power to Pass Through A Solid Wall. Jesus did this in the presence of all His disciples while in a physical body after His resurrection!
Power of Flying Through the Atmosphere. Jesus demonstrated this ability when He finally left His disciples after 40 days of preaching in His resurrected body; at that time He ascended to Heaven through the sky, simply flying away from the astounded followers that He left behind! He was able to just float away to the clouds, even in the physical form of a human body! And the angels appeared to the disciples that remained behind, and said to them, "Why do you look so amazed? Someday, He will be flying back down to Earth again in just this same fashion!"
What an amazing list of super-powers we have already put together! But wait, there's more!
Jesus also had supernatural healing abilities: He healed the withered arm of one man, and He cleansed a number of people who had the terrible disease of leprosy. With His healing superpower Jesus gave new eyes to many blind men.
Furthermore, Jesus had superpowerful abilities to combat Satan and the realm of evil; He cast demons out of many people who were demon-possessed. The demons were afraid to see him coming, because they knew the magnitude of His powers!
The four gospels record at least 35 separate miracles that were performed by Jesus Christ. Matthew mentions 20; Mark, 18 of them; Luke, 20; and John, 7 of them. But Matthew also alludes to 12 occasions when Jesus performed a number of "wonderful works," and so humans know that the gospel-writers must have just selected from a very large number that Jesus performed.
Jesus Christ is the only person who ever existed who was able to make His actions live up to the high standards of His own teachings. His behavior matched His talk. He was no phony, no hypocrite: He was able to "walk the talk," as some people might phrase it today.
So here in Jesus Christ you find a man who had the most astonishing superpowers that our world has ever beheld in any living creature! The life-story of Jesus is filled with accounts of His superpowerful miracles, the incredible wonders that He performed on Earth. . . wonders more fantastic than any others ever beheld by the eyes of humanity, whether before or after His earthly term!
And how wonderful it should be for humans to realize these facts: that He is risen, He lives today, and today He still has vast superpowerful abilities that are far-ranging enough to easily boggle the mind and stagger the imagination. He has powers enough to impress even the more tired or exhausted minds of Earth. . . even that jaded modern mentality of our present societies on Earth.
Best of all, this great hero is fully able to rescue all humans from the destruction that His evil adversary [the Enemy, Satan] has planned for the inhabitants of our world!
Jesus is willing and able to rescue humanity from a very dangerous situation, a grave jeopardy that you face while you are on Earth. As with those others that He healed and raised, Jesus can likewise save contemporary humans also from the gruesome reality of death, restoring you to health and vigor in a new world of eternal life with God.
We humans have to be very careful of our actions, though, because there is spiritual warfare going on that is devastating the surface of planet Earth. And you must remember that there is also another super-powerful entity in our world as well. You must realize that the world's greatest superhero, Jesus Christ, has a superpowerful Arch-Enemy whose name is Satan. Our God expects all humans to take part in the warfare against this great Enemy, and against the evils that the Adversary has produced.
You should also know that you have been promised in Scripture that— someday in the future— the glorified, super-powerful Jesus Christ will return again to Earth. Coming from His present position at the right hand of the Father, He will descend through the atmosphere of Earth with brilliant glory, with awesome power, with a vast army of angels at His side! Surely these angels will all be thrilled in ecstatic anticipation, eagerly advancing in order to win the destined final victory in the cosmic battle for planet Earth!
Talk about a superhero flying down to Earth on a rescue mission— hey, can you imagine that re-entry scene? What a spectacular event that will be!
These things are marvelous to conceive.
Think about it. What a marvelous knowledge is here. What a terrific superhero can be found right here in our powerful Savior, our awesome and mighty Lord Jesus Christ!
Think of God’s Own great heros: the saints of the Old Testament books, God’s Son Jesus, the saints of the New Testament books. Think of God’s servant Paul and all the hardships he was forced to endure. Consider God’s servant Job, and God’s servant Richard Wurmbrand.
Remember also God’s virtuous angels: Michael, Gabriel, and many others. All these are the outstanding superheros of God’s Universe.
Wouldn’t you like to be a superhero of that type?
Interestingly, the theme song of Smallville has a lyric which declares with each new episode, repetitiously, “Save me... save me....” The chorus repeats it again and again: “Somebody save me...!”
It’s rather as if even the creative-writers and makers of Smallville are aware, perhaps subconsciously, that our tired old Earth is greatly in need of a Savior... a superhero who can save anybody— and everybody— from all the perils and dangers of our world.
I’m here to tell you that the Only Superhero Who can save you from death and Hell is Jesus Christ. Only He can give you Eternal Life with God in Heaven... and only He can save you from “the second death” of Hell, so that you will never be “cast into the outer darkness.”
Instead, you will fly off one day to a City of Light... the New City of Peace... where Jesus Christ is the only source of Light. He’ll be the Light in that city (which the Bible calls “the New Jerusalem”), and it will have no need for any other sun.
It’s a marvelous place... one that will be far more miraculous than the imaginary planet “Krypton,” that exotic place which is supposed to have been the birthplace of Superman. And it’s far more real too! There the saved saints of God, rescued from their often terrible plights on Earth, will bask in the Divine Light of Jesus Christ; and there they will find that they are imbued by Him with new powers and abilities... far beyond those of mortal men.
You think Superman got some “awesome super powers” and “strange new abilities” when he traveled as a baby from a planet with a red sun (Krypton’s star) to a different planet that basked in the light of a yellow sun? That’s nothing compared to what the born-again followers of Jesus will receive when they reach the New Jerusalem and bask in the Divine Light of Jesus Christ!
For those who are unaware of the original background story of Siegel and Schuster’s Superman, it was initially proposed by the creators (and maintained for a great many years afterward) that the light of a different-colored star (Earth’s yellow sun) is what gave the superbaby from Krypton his miraculous powers.
The born-again babes of Jesus Christ will travel to a new world that’s heavenly, exotic, and utterly miraculous! It’s a place so wonderful that it is almost beyond the capacity of an Earthling to even conceive it.
If you are an evolutionist, you are a person who finds it very hard to believe that God Almighty is capable of a miraculously sudden Creation of the Universe, so it’s not surprising that you also find it hard to believe that human beings described in the Biblical record could ever do any miracles on Earth.
As an evolutionist, your line of reasoning dictates that you must also find it difficult to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, or even in the miracles that Jesus Himself did while visiting Earth in His human incarnation.
If you can’t conceive a miraculous Universe, then you probably also find it difficult to conceive of a miraculous afterlife. But Jesus’ entire life was full of miracles— that’s what made Him the wonder of the Earth, and later a person of worldwide renown! He was still doing miracles even after He died on that cross in Jerusalem. After his corpse lay for three days in a tomb, He suddenly arose from the grave, coming back to His disciples and followers in a glorified Resurrection Body... and He kept right on working miracles before the awe-struck eyes of all His human followers!
For those unaware of the background story behind Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I suggest that you start reading the Bible more frequently, so that you can start learning how to pick up some miraculous powers of your own!
*
You’ve heard the evolutionary explanation of Universal development for a great many years, with all of its elaborate details... ever since you were a child. You’ve surely encountered its advocates in every arena of the academic world and in every arena of everyday life. Its proponents are everywhere, and they have already proselytized much of the Earth. You are doubtless thoroughly accustomed to that way of thinking.
But what is the Biblical scheme of Earth's history and direction...? It’s the alternative explanation that God has given us in His Holy Scriptures.
A lot of people on our planet, even some Christian theologians, have tried to make the Bible compatible with their own evolutionary beliefs. But can that really be done? Such people reduce Biblical history to insignificance beside the enormity of their faith in the grand Theory of Evolution.
The Bible paints a very different picture concerning the history and future destiny of the Earth, and it is quite at odds with the beliefs of those who have faith in Evolution.
In the Holy Bible, God offers you a different and superior view of Earth’s development and its future fate. From the Holy Scriptures of the Bible we learn that Jesus Christ makes known to us the great secrets of the Universe— secrets not revealed on Earth from the time of Creation until the time of His arrival on our planet.
Here’s the Truth about the Universe, its progress, and God’s ultimate goal for the human race... the establishment of a paradise that God plans for the people of the Earth...
What is the Biblical scheme of Earth’s history and direction?
It’s a long-range plan by which God will transform and re-populate the planet Earth...
It's a vision of vast scope and mind-boggling predictions...
God's developmental plan for our Universe is an astounding program of transformations ...!
Here are 20 stages of ascent that should lead you to a genuine comprehension of your purpose and destiny in the Universe. These will help you to reach a higher level of consciousness, a lofty place where you will better understand of the history of the Earth and God’s goal for humanity...
1. A theme of WARFARE runs through the many books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We see evidence of angelic warfare, of historic military warfare between God's chosen people and the ungodly nations.
There are predictions of further warfare between the elect of Christ and the anti- Christian forces, and of a final great battle of Armageddon.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE devastates this planet until Christ's Kingdom comes !
2. A theme of APOCALYPTIC DESTRUCTION and RE-CREATION runs through the books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We see this in the Genesis record of Noah and the Great Flood, and in the predictions of the Old Testament prophets.
Jesus himself speaks of this in great detail as he is quoted in Mat. 24, Luke 17:24-37, and other places in the gospels. There are many such references in the epistles, and the final book, John's Revelation of Jesus Christ, is devoted almost exclusively to this subject.
3. A theme of the SURVIVAL OF A REMNANT who are loyal to God runs through the many books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
4. Rather than the Darwinian concept of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" (meaning the strongest) in a scheme of evolution, God's system of development is quite different!
God's plan is that there will be "DIVINE ELECTION" of all those who have chosen to accept His system of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, and His plan calls for a "SURVIVAL OF THE LOYAL" instead.
5. In this scheme which God Himself has formulated, it is not the STRONGEST who survive, but rather the SUBMISSIVE!
(In this regard, it is certainly true that God can make the weak person become strong. But a person who is too strong and egotistical God may choose to crush, in order that he— or she— will be humbled and will become submissive to the will of God!)
6. God is continuously harvesting the Earth as His ever-progressing plan of DIVINE SELECTION goes forward, through a wise and millennia-long program of evaluation— through interminable testing of people and a very lengthy developmental process of SELECTING and REJECTING.
7. Thus, a theme of DIVINE SELECTION through a LONG-RANGE, millennia-spanning DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM becomes evident.
8. This calls for a MAJOR SHIFT IN THE WORLD-VIEW that is held by any individual.
It truly requires a COPERNICAN REVOLUTION IN THE MIND-SET of a human being.
9. You must comprehend with an entirely new way of looking at the Universe— for to be among the redeemed, to be among the survivors who are granted eternal life with God, you must place JESUS CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE, in the very place where once YOUR OWN EGO had ruled supreme!
You need to put the Sun of Heaven inside your heart! Once He is there, He will illuminate your mind and all areas of the Universe with the bright Light of His Presence. His Light will be radiant in your face, in your life, and your actions. Just as Moses’ face was radiant after he was in the presence of God, the follower of Jesus reflects the brilliant Light of the Lord Christ! His Holy Spirit will be inside you forevermore, making you aware of His Lordship and His Truth... giving you eternal access to His Divine Wisdom.
10. To be among the rescued, you must be a part of the Chosen Remnant of humanity that God will save from the Old Earth. A person must first become a believer of God, one who believes all God's words (His open communication to the human race), as revealed through Holy Scriptures and through God's only true Son, Jesus Christ.
God will show us mercy and forgiveness of our sins only when we come to Him through the sacrificial death of His one true Son, Jesus. God has made provision for grace (leniency and forgiveness), but He offers it to us only via the substituted sacrifice of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
11. Jesus has willingly agreed, already, to receive all your preordained punishment, in order that you may be spared from the Judgment fate— a destination in Hell. That punishment is what a person's sinfulness will otherwise deserve. . . and it will be found inescapable. . . at the great Judgment Day of God, when God will ultimately evaluate and judge the deeds of all souls.
12. Any soul can be spared on the basis of God's own painful sacrifice, by a belief in the salvation God offers through His chosen Messiah, His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ.
Those souls that are spared will be the ones that have opened the door of the heart and have allowed Jesus Christ to come inside. Through His Holy Spirit, He can take up residence inside you as the New Center of the Universe. . . as a brilliant light at the center of the spiritual "solar system." After that, everything in the Universe will revolve around God in an orderly and logical fashion. The progress of the Universe, and of God’s Plan for it, will from that time forward seem logical and orderly to your mind.
13. Are you still living as the only focal point of an Earth-centered universe? It’s time for you to stop making this Earth the center of it all!
Could a Christ-in Revolution change your mind-set. . . and establish instead the reality of a God-centered Universe?
You can move away from humanism if you so desire, move on to a higher level where you worship the True God, the Creator of our Universe. Do you really believe that Man is the center of all things... the measure of all things? God is the One Who will ultimately measure and evaluate the deeds of every human being!
You need to put the Sun of Heaven inside your heart. Jesus Christ is “the Sun of Righteousness,” and through His Holy Spirit, He can put some of His righteousness inside you. More importantly, God credits the follower of Jesus Christ with the Holiness and Righteousness of His Son. You need to place Him on the throne of your heart, declaring Him to be “the Sun King” of your life!
14. The brilliant light of Jesus Christ can give you an "internal guidance system" for your heart. . . and this will provide orderly direction for the "planetary system" of your personal worldview.
When you put Jesus on a throne in your heart, He provides a warm "sun" for that great void in your internal universe, and it will then burn continuously to dispel all the darkness/ coldness that would exist there without His presence. After that, you will have a logical "solar system" for all the interactive elements of your life.
15. Those souls who are not to be spared on this basis (those who have rejected God's words, His truth, His light, and His sacrifice) will suffer eternal separation from God. They will be cast instead into what Jesus calls “the Outer Darkness.” They will be forced to endure an eternal separation from God and God's final achievement— the recreated Paradise that will then be revealed as His ultimate objective.
This will be a NEW EARTH produced by God for all those persons whom He has rescued (or harvested) from the present world. God will populate it with those He has chosen through His millennia-long DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM of DIVINE SELECTION.
16. This is God's final goal— His objective is to produce an entirely different world, a new and totally restructured world that will be vastly superior to this present world of distress and disorder, of countless evils and sin-produced chaos.
It is certain that the NEW EARTH will be immensely more pleasant than this present one, which will eventually be rejected and replaced!
17. You gain an Eternal Life with God when you put the Sun of Heaven in your heart. You can do this by placing Jesus Christ, Who in the Trinity of God created our Universe, upon a throne at the center of your heart! He deserves that position and that kind of respect. He was first God The Son, but when born in human flesh He became the only sinless and righteous person who ever lived. Yet He sacrificed Himself on a cross for your sake, taking all guilt and sins upon Himself— for you and for me, for all people everywhere— so that whoever wishes for salvation might be rescued from the due punishment of sins.
18. If you will do this, you will gain a new contentment and peace as you accept God's organizational plan for the Universe. . . because you'll be letting God be the Ruler of All Things in this world. . . and in your own life.
The Sun of Heaven will then reign in your life as the supreme Power that governs all things. The Bible calls Jesus Christ both “the Sun of Heaven” and “the Sun of Righteousness.” When you place Christ in your heart, He will lead you to a new life of righteousness. The Holy Spirit will start to rebuild you in the image of God, making you more like Jesus. You’ll become a brother (or sister) to Jesus Christ!
19. All it really takes is a simple but sincere little prayer— one that you should make up in your own words. The prayer for deliverance and for God's leadership should come from your own heart!
Some important elements that you might include are:
1) your desire to turn away from the wrongness or evil of your past life, and your remorse over the sins of your previous life,
2) your desire for God's forgiveness and mercy through the act of sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ),
3) your desire to know God's leadership in your life,
4) your desire to learn more of God's truth through Bible study,
5) your desire to find fellowship with genuine believers.
After accepting forgiveness through Jesus Christ, you must sincerely seek to turn away from evil, to the best of your ability; and you must further seek to gain knowledge of God's will through a diligent study of the Holy Scriptures of the Bible. Also, you must not neglect to maintain a fellowship and communication with God through the device of daily prayer.
20. This Sunday, don’t just worship the sun, like the followers of Baal, the Roman polytheists, and the pagans. You shouldn’t worship nature like the pantheists and the animists. The supernatural does exist, because God’s Spirit is above and behind the natural world... and superior to it. So don’t worship the sun and the stars like the naturalistic science advocates, the humanists, the evolutionists, and many of our modern-day science-fiction fans!
Don’t go out to worship the sun and stars this Sunday. Instead, go out to a good Bible-believing church and worship the Holy One Who is the Sun of Heaven— Jesus Christ, Who is both the Son of God and God The Son. Jesus Christ is the Sun of Heaven, and He is the Light of the World!
When you accept Jesus into your heart, His Light will transform your own mind and heart. Your purpose and goals will be changed, because you’ll want other people to learn about the good news of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. You’ll want to share the light, and you’ll want to worship the Sun of Heaven in a house of God!
This Sunday, bless the Father in Heaven by honoring His Son, of Whom He is very proud.
Jesus said of the people of God that "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that God has cast into the sea, and it gathers of every kind: When it is full, it will be pulled up on the shore, where they will sit down to sort the catch, and they will collect the good fish in baskets, but the bad things will be thrown away. This is the way it will be at the end of the world: The angels shall come forth, and they will separate the unrighteous persons from among those justified by God. . ."
Excerpt from the Book of Matthew, who was a constant
companion of Jesus and his devoted disciple [13:47-50].
Jesus spoke of the people of God as being like a seed that is growing secretly, saying, "As for the kingdom of God, it is as if a person should cast seed into the ground; and then he sleeps, and he rises up night and day to see that the seed is springing forth and always growing up, although he knows not exactly how. The Earth is bringing forth fruit from itself; first the blade, then the ears of corn, and after that the fullness of the ears of corn. And when all the fruit of the Earth has come forth, immediately God will use the sickle to reap the fields, because the harvest-time has come."
Excerpt from the book of Mark [4:26-29].
It's also important for all of us to remember this:
1) WE SPEAK TO GOD by our prayers.
2) GOD SPEAKS TO US by the words of Holy Scripture.
So we must try to read His words and His Book just as often as we possibly can!!
God wants to bless you for all your long efforts to understand this very confusing and difficult Universe in which we live so let Him reward your search with the grace of His forgiveness and enlightenment!
THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU BY. . .
Ken Street, a baptized follower of the Way.
Copyright 2005 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr.
This is one of more than 50 Street Tracts available at Christian-Tracts.net, WorldwideChristianTracts.net and OnlineChristianTracts.org...!
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