ZDK Revival Chapel Literature

[Enlightment Shield]

INDIVIDUAL REGENERATION

Your Own Personal Return to God

In talking with many of my friends and associates, I am frequently told that they don't need to be CONVERTED. Instead, they feel fine as they are. (And, some even claim to be religious, anyway!) But, God is a Spiritual Being and dwells in a Spiritual World. So, if we are going to get to HIM, doesn't it make sense that we have to become a Spiritual Being, too? For we are material creatures, in a material world. Isn't it only logical that we need some process to transfer us from one world to the other: to convert us from material creatures to spiritual beings?

And, in fact, this is what Jesus told the learned religious scholar, Nicodemus: that you have to be born again, you have to be reborn into the Spiritual World just as you were born into this physical world (John 3:1-7). This process of REGENERATION, or becoming an angel-like creature is very important. For, you are not going to be able to RETURN to God without it. So, we are talking here about a Spiritual Process (not about joining someone's denomination). And, since the issue of CONVERSION into a Spirit Being seems so clouded (for some insist that Conversion is a Cultural, not a Spiritual process--to strip Jews and Arabs of their Hebrew Heritage and Middle Eastern Culture and make them Gentiles), let me try to set it forth, simply and clearly for you, herein.

GOD's ORGINAL DESIGN

In the beginning, when God created Man, God designed Man to be like (or similiar) to Himself. The Words of God declare to us:

And God said (to Himself): Let US make Man in OUR Image, after OUR Likeness (or similitude)...So, God created Man in His OWN Image: In the Image of God created HE Man--male and female created He them. (Genesis 1:25-27).

Therefore, as we see, God originally designed Man to be like HIM, to be god-like (as an Angelic or Supernatural Creature). This we refer to as being glorified (or illuminated), though the Scriptures tend to call them Sons-of-God (or Angels). Thus, it was God's original intention for Man to be in intimate contact, communion, and close fellowship with HIM, even sharing in HIS powers and priviliges as god-like beings! We were to be HIS Sons or children!

WOW! What happened! I mean Man is so mortal, physical, or carnal today. Whatever become of his god-likeness? Was there some dreadful disaster?

[Literature Shield]

MAN's POWER OF CHOICE

In order to be like God, God did NOT create Man to be a mere robot. Instead, God gave Man Free Will or the ability to choose to serve God or Not. The Scriptures plainly put this choice always before us, for it is written:

...CHOOSE ye (you) this day whom ye shall serve... (Joshua 24:15).

Man is not locked in to a pre-programmed course of action. Rather, Man has some real decisions to make on his own! So, for better or worse, we can choose our own path in life (though we may have to face the results of those choices). We are allowed by God to make up our own mind.

Unfortunately, Adam (the first Man) did not make a good choice. As the Scriptures relate that dim and early history to us, Eve (the first woman) chose NOT to obey God and she ate of the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat of. Worse yet, she even got Adam to disobey God and eat of the forbidden fruit with her! Because of their rebellion against God's Law (the Command not to eat of the forbidden fruit), they were punished by being exiled or cast out of Heaven (away from God), and lost their communion and fellowship with Him. Worse yet, they then became mere mortals and lost their god-likeness (and its associated supernatural powers). What a tragedy! This early event is refered to as The Fall of Man and it is greatly detailed in the Holy Scriptures (Genesis 3:1-24).

Thus, while Man was designed to be god-like or angelic, by a bad choice (disobeying God) he lost his immortality (as a Son-of-God) and became a mere mortal human being! WHAT A CRASH AND BURN!

OUR PROBLEM NOW

But, the biggest tragedy of all this is that since all of Mankind is descended from this first Man, Adam, we all have inherited Adam's Sin. We are under the influence of the ill effects of Man's first disobedience to God (as a massive kind of drug flash back caused by the forbidden fruit). It is in our genes! We inherit it! And this is what is refered to as Orginal Sin for it is the bad effects of Man's first or orginal Sin. And whether we like to admit it or not, we all, as humans, are afflicted by it. Listen to what God's Word says about it:

...For ALL have Sinned and fallen short of the glory God had intended for us! (Romans 3:23)

It is like some kind of tragic genetic defect that we inherit from our parents, fore-fathers, and from Adam, himself. We ALL have the nasty, natural tendancy to do evil or wrong!

This is terrible!

Oh, yes! But the worst is yet to come! For the Scriptures warn us that:

...the wages (or earned result) of Sin is DEATH! (Romans 6:23)

Thus the results of our own Sin (the harvest of the evil that we have sown in life) is DEATH. And this is not just physical death (like we now experience as mortal beings because of our humanness). Rather, it is also a Spiritual Death--the death of the remnants of our supernatural selves, or SOUL (inner man), that are left over from our god-like design. Thus, we will all come to our mortal end and die. And our soul will suffer a Spiritual Death, too, because of our Sin (it will be cast into Hell or the place of supernatural torment and torture). Thus, the unregenerated face an eternity of agony in their after-life (when their soul or spirit man will be forced out of its egg, our dead bodies). Consider well the Warning of God:

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear HIS Voice: And they shall come forth; They that have done good, to a Resurrection (or After-life) of eternal (god-like) Paradise. But they that have done evil (Sin), to a Resurrection of DAMNATION (eternal torment in Hell)! (John 5:27-28).

Thus, the Sin you inherited (not to mention the evil things that it may have caused you to do in your life) will cause you to die a supernatural death in the torments of Hell!

This is awful! Is there no escape? Isn't there anything that we can do?

FUTILE ATTEMPTS OF SOME

Down through the eons, Man has come up with all kinds of ways to deal with Sin. But, almost all of these have turned out to be scams: duping people into false hopes in order to exploit them (or get something out of them). This is how many of the World's great cults or false religions got started. And, unfortunately, they all seem to rely on the same mistaken method (only applied in different ways) and that is to just do these few good things (or avoid these few bad things) and you will be all right in your After-life. However, the Words of God sternly warn us:

There is a Way (Religion) which seems right unto a Man, BUT THE END (or result) IS STILL SPIRITUAL DEATH! (Proverbs 14:12).

Do not be deceived! Sin will not just go away. It cannot just be ignored or explained away. God will remember it!

And, while most of the World's religions claim to show you a way to God or a short-cut to Paradise in Heaven (for a good After-life), you had better consider what God says about the matter. Give ear to what is written:

But your iniquities (evil deeds) have separated you from God; And your Sins have caused Him to hide His Face from you so that He will not hear you (nor regard you)! (Isaiah 59:2)

So, don't try to RETURN to Him by just being good or moral! He will not take you as long as you are tainted by Sin. And, if you die with Sin in your life, He will not take your soul to Heaven!

For, while many try to hide their Sin or cover up their evil deeds by a few moral displays (or even deny that they do anything wrong), the Bible plainly declares:

...all our own righteousness (or morality) is as as filthy rags in His sight... (Isaiah 64:6)

So, we can't just cover it up, for He knows that we have done great evil! And, just punishment will be meted out. The wicked will pay for their Sins by their punishment in Hell!

Oh come on now! There must be a way out! Didn't anyone find anything that ever worked against Sin?

[Messianic Shield]

THE OLD TESTAMENT TREATMENT

Luckily, God so loved Man that he took pity on him. And, in due time, He called Moses to regather the Tribes of Israel in Egypt and institute (or start) an new method for the TEMPORARY Treatment of Sin. This method was atonement or blood sacrifice, where a special animal was to die as our proxy (or instead of us) in order to make annual payments on our debt of Sin. For the Word of God declares:

...without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (payment or temporary cure for Sin). (Hebrews 9:22)

Thus, every year the High Priest (descendants of Moses) was to make a blood sacrifice of a special animal (The Lamb of God) to make payment for the Sins of the People of Israel that year. But, it soon became apparent that this was too temporary of a treatment: that Man was so Sinful (and under its evil influence so much) that he could not even keep up or maintain the sacrifices needed to make the payments on his debt of Sin. And, if he couldn't make the payments, then God had to foreclose! And for their Sins (or disobedience to God), Israel was divorced, like a wicked woman, by God and given over to conquest (and ravishment) by her enemies--and dispersed among the Gentile Nations.

A sad ending to a hopeful start!

Oh, come on! There must be a way! Isn't there anything that can work more permenantly against the effects of Sin?

[Scandia Shield]

THE NEW TESTAMENT CURE

Luckily, God had a Plan, for it is written in the Holy Scriptures:

For God so loved the World, that He gave (sacrificed) His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish (in Hell), but have everlasting (or eternal) life (with God in Paradise) (John 3:15).

This is the Gospel or GOOD NEWS, but what does it mean? Its message is really simple. Just listen, carefully.

God sent His Son (or a part of Him), refered to as Y'ShuWaH or Yeshua (Hebrew), Isse or Isa (Arabic), and Jesus (English): to be the promised Messiah or Christ, by a miraculous birth through a virgin. (See Matthew 1:18-25 for the details.)

Now wait a minute! Why a virgin? Why couldn't He have been born like all other men?

Because, if He had been born naturally, from a mortal father, then He would have inherited Adam's Orginal Sin, too (just like all the rest of us). But, by being born miraculously through a virgin, He didn't inherit any Sin and thus was Sinless (and worthy of being sacrificed).

Okay. But why a Christ? What is that?

A Christ is a King or Chief of all High-Priests (one who is in charge of all the High Priests, down through time) especially in making atonements, or sacrifices for Sins.

Well, then, what kind of atonement did HE make?

Consider the Words of the Scriptures:

The next day John (the Baptist) saw Jesus coming to him and said: Behold, the LAMB OF GOD which takes away the Sins of the World! (John 1:29).

In other words, Jesus played the role of the sacrificial lamb, and shed His own blood on the Cross, to pay for our Sins (permenantly)! For this is what the Bible teaches:

...God commends (shows) His love for for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died (on the Cross) for us! (Romans 5:8).

He was our proxy: He died in our place, paying for our Sins! For that was His job as Christ, to offer up a worthy sacrifice to God to atone for ALL of our Sins! Consider the Words of God:

For Christ has suffered ONCE (permenantly) for our Sins, the just (Sinless) for the umjust (Sinfull), that He might RETURN us back to GOD, being put to death in the flesh (for us, as our proxy, on the Cross)... (I Peter 3:18).

Now, isn't that GOOD NEWS?

Wow! No wonder some people get so excited about it!

Yes! And it is exciting! As the Christ, Jesus is our mediator to reconcile (or bring back together) God and Man, so that we can be in spiritual communion and fellowship, again, as God had orginally intended (See I Timothy 2:5). Thus, Christ's miraculous work on the Cross allows us to RETURN to God and begin transforming or CONVERTING into god-like or angelic beings, as He had orginally designed us to be. Jesus can help us RETURN to God, when nothing else will! Through Him, we can REGENERATE or be CONVERTED back into supernatural creatures!

TIME TO RESPOND

Now, what are you going to do with this Gospel (or GOOD NEWS)? Consider the directions of the Scriptures (for you have a a choice):

But as many as RECEIVED Him (Jesus), to them He gave power to become the Sons-of-God (angels), even to those who believe on His Name. (John 1:12).

Okay, but how do I receive Him? And what does that mean?

To receive Jesus means to accept His Salvation or forgivness of your Sins (which He obtained on the Cross). And the way of doing it is described in the Scriptures:

...if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be Saved (delivered from your Sins). For with the heart Man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation. (Romans 10:9-10).

Okay, but how do I do that? What does that mean I should do?

The easiest way is to simply repeat the following prayer. It forms a kind of Mediavel contract or covenant between you and God, concerning the work of His Son, so that the Cross will pay for your Sins. And, you need to say it out loud, so that God will know that you really do agree to it:

FIRST, Heavenly Father, I admit and confess to YOU that I have Sinned, and done evil in YOUR sight, so that I am worthy of death (and punishment in Hell).
SECOND, I humbly plead with you to be merciful to me, and to forgive me of my Sins, because of your Son (Jesus), who died on the cross, shedding His own precious Blood to pay for my Sins (as my death by proxy).
THIRD, I now renounce the Devil (the false gods) and all of their wicked ways; And in the name of Jesus I command all the forces of evil to be gone from my life, now and forever!
FOURTH, instead, Heavenly Father, I ask you to send YOUR Holy Ghost into my heart and life: leading me, teaching me, and protecting me (and Manifesting YOUR Power and Presence in my life).

CONGRATULATIONS!
If you have agreed with that prayer and have said it aloud, then you are now SAVED (Spiritually conceived as a new child of God, hence regenerating or undergoing CONVERSION on your own personal RETURN), for the Bible tells us:

...whosoever shall call upon the Name Lord Jesus shall be Saved (have their Sins paid for by the Cross) (Romans 10:13).

So your Sins (even Adam's Orginal Sin) are paid for by the Blood Jesus shed on the Cross as the LAMB OF GOD (or worthy sacrifice), if you have called on God (as we did in that prayer).

Now this is an important occassion! Getting Saved or giving your heart to Christ is no small decision. Not only is it very important to your own future (and After-life), but it is also very important to other Believers. It is not the sort of thing that you should hide or keep concealed. Rather, you need to tell someone else about it, especially other Believers. For they can help you grow even more, Spiritually (for we are to help one another). So, if you really did pray that prayer to become Saved, then let us know. Don't delay! Share this very exciting news with us!

Contact us and let us know

E-Mail us at: zdkf@gorge.net

Or, contact us by the usual methods, below:

SHADDOX REGENERATIONS

P.O. Box 44

Underwood, WA 98651 U.S.A.

Phone: (509) 493-1674

Moreover, if you do contact us (as you should), we have lots of other things that can help you in the Faith (just as this teaching was of great help to you, here). So be sure to get in touch with us!

However, whatever you do, don't stop here. There is more to learn, and to grow into in the Spirit World!

To get the next article in this series on the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are given to Believers to restore some of their spiritual powers, use the link, below:

To get HOLY GHOST ENGIFTMENT (Click Here):

TOO HARD! WANT SOMETHING EASIER?

Well, Our Revival Course is just for you! It gives you the plain and simple facts, in a brief, easy form. To get Our shorter, easier REBIRTH Page, use the link below:

To get Our REBIRTH!!! (Click Here):

SEEKING MORE INFO ON REGENERATION?

Our Web Site has a variety of Articles on Regeneration. Some are presented in a format for one group, others for different groups. If you have trouble grasping this one, then, perhaps a different one would be just right for you? Or, perhaps you have a theological bent and would like to know as many of the details of Regeneration that you can? In either case, the Revival Chapel Directories is what you need. You can look them up there, or use the handy link, below:

To get Our REGENERATION DIRECTORY (Click Here):

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Filed: Jan '97 . . . Updated 7-27-99