If God determines that someone deserves salvation, who are we to question? At the final judgment, will we dare to say that He was mistaken? That no one there deserved it? God has already taken Enoch, Moses, and Elijah to heaven because He thought they deserved it, did He make a mistake? The doctrine of “unmerited favor” has no support in the Old Testament, and even less in the Gospels. Jesus never taught such a thing. What Jesus made clear is that the Father sends us to the Son, and the Father only sends those who follow the laws that He gave to the nation chosen with an everlasting covenant. God observes our obedience, and, seeing our faithfulness, He unites us to Israel and delivers us to the Son. | “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.” (Psalm 119:4)
The idea that Gentiles do not need to obey the laws that God transmitted through the prophets in the Old Testament does not come from the Lord, but from the serpent, whose goal since Eden has been to lead souls into disobedience to the Creator. God never taught two ways, nor two measures, nor one standard for Israel and another for Gentiles. The Father revealed His will clearly, and Jesus never contradicted what was given by the prophets. Whoever promotes disobedience is repeating the same old lie, even if using the name of Christ. The Father only sends to the Son those who honor Him through obedience. Salvation is individual. Obey while you are still alive. | The foreigner who joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, being thus His servant… and who holds fast to my covenant, I will also bring to my holy mountain. (Isaiah 56:6-7)
God made an eternal covenant with one man in the Bible and, from that man, created, protected, and set apart a nation for Himself, promising never to abandon it. It was from and for this nation that God sent His Son, as a sacrifice for their sins. It is important to make it clear: God did not set apart several nations, but only one, formed by the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham, and by the Gentiles of his household. No Gentile will be saved outside of Israel, for only one nation was chosen by God. The Gentile who wishes to be saved by Jesus needs to follow the same laws that the Father gave to the nation of which Jesus was a part. The Father sees our faith and courage, unites us to Israel, and leads us to the Son. This plan of salvation makes sense because it is the true one. | The foreigner who joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, being thus His servant… and who holds fast to my covenant, I will also bring to my holy mountain. (Isaiah 56:6-7)
The angels of the Lord encamp around the faithful Gentile. When he chooses to follow the same laws that God gave to the nation set apart for His honor and glory, the Father recognizes him, unites him to Israel, and blesses all the works of his hands. Everything he does prospers because he lives in obedience to the will of the Creator. This is the Gentile whom the Father sends to Jesus, not the disobedient, but the obedient, the one who keeps the commandments revealed in the Old Testament and confirmed by the words of the Messiah. This is the true plan of salvation, the same since the beginning: obey the Father, be united to Israel, and be sent to the Son for forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is individual. Do not follow the majority, obey while you are alive. | The foreigner who joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, being thus His servant… and who holds fast to my covenant, I will also bring to my holy mountain. (Isaiah 56:6-7)
God made us physical beings, and that is why many of His laws involve actions in the physical. None of these laws should be neglected, and we should never be so proud as to treat them as trivial or be ashamed of them. Jesus and the apostles followed all of God’s laws as they were given: they kept the Sabbath, were circumcised, wore the tzitzit, did not eat unclean foods, and kept their beards. If we truly wish to live as Jesus and His apostles did, we must follow these same commandments. At no time in the Gospels did Jesus say that Gentiles could live differently from His apostles. Do not follow the majority just because they are many. The end has already come! Obey while you are alive. | “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me; and they have obeyed your word [the Old Testament].” (John 17:6)
God does not accept substitutions. He is pleased with those who do exactly what He asks and rejects those who know His requirements but do something different. The first proof of this rule was with Abel and Cain. Cain did not offer something bad to God; in his mind, the fruits of the earth seemed like a good offering. However, God rejected it because it was not what He had asked for. God gave us His laws through the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus in the Gospels so that they would be obeyed exactly as they were given. Only those who are willing to follow what God has commanded us, just as it was said, please the Father and are sent to the Son for forgiveness and salvation. | “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.” (Psalm 119:4)
One reason why many leaders do not want their followers to obey the laws that God gave us through the prophets of the Old Testament is that they themselves do not obey and do not plan to do so. They prefer everyone to be like them, as this creates group security. Moreover, they need to please the public to keep their salary, knowing that if they instructed members to follow God’s Law, few would remain in their churches. The situation is sad for both leaders and members, but at the final judgment there will be despair, for whatever the reason, they preferred this world to eternal life. Salvation is individual. Do not follow the majority just because they are many. The end has already come! Obey while you are alive. | “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.” (Psalm 119:4)
The salvation of the Gentiles did not begin with the coming of Jesus, as many repeat without examining the Scriptures. From the beginning, any Gentile could be purified by the blood of the Lamb by joining the people of the covenant and obeying the same commandments they obeyed. The Father does not change: He welcomes the Gentile who honors the laws given to the nation set apart for His glory and then sends him to the Son. That is, no one, Jew or Gentile, is sent to Jesus while rejecting clear commandments: keeping the Sabbath, refusing unclean meats, honoring circumcision, not shaving the beard, wearing tzitzits, and other precepts that the apostles and disciples faithfully obeyed. Obey while you are alive. | The foreigner who joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, being thus His servant… and who holds fast to my covenant, I will also bring to my holy mountain. (Isaiah 56:6-7)
The devil is cunning and can deceive in many ways, through leaders, beautiful words, and even the mind itself, leading man to stray from the true path of the Lord, imagining he is on the right path. But whoever remains faithful to God’s holy Law, revealed in the Old Testament and by Jesus in the four Gospels, is protected. Obedience is the shield that the enemy cannot penetrate. Whoever keeps the commandments of the Most High, without changing anything at all, walks safely under the Father’s light. Salvation is individual. Do not follow the majority, obey while you are alive. | Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked… But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2
Dividing history into two dispensations to justify disobedience is an invention of men inspired by the serpent. These heretics teach that God required obedience to His powerful Law only from the Jews, but not from the Gentiles. Jesus never taught this and affirmed that He came only for the lost sheep of Israel. Christ did not create a new religion for Gentiles. The reality is that there is no prophecy promising men, inside or outside the Bible, with the mission to alter the plan of salvation that has always existed and offer eternal life without submission to the Law. The Blood of the Lamb is only applied to those who repent and prove it by seeking to obey the whole Law, whether Jew or Gentile. Obey while you are alive. | The foreigner who joins himself to the Lord, to serve Him, being thus His servant… and who holds fast to my covenant, I will also bring to my holy mountain. (Isaiah 56:6-7)
